18MO hates having hair washed

[Endofmytetherfinally]

No idea why this has cropped up a few months ago. She's so used to baths and never minded it before but now she screams blue murder and I honestly feel awful. Anything I can do to make it more pleasant for her?

We’re 9 months ahead of you and DD still loathes it. Hoping someone else has magic answers.

My DD went through a phase of this too. We just carried on washing her hair and she got over it when she was ready. She's had a similar phase of kicking and screaming resistance to brushing her teeth and then to brushing her hair, so I've concluded that it's at much about trying to exert control as it is distress at the thing she's pushing back against.

Stroke her hair with handfuls of water or use a bath toy to squeeze it on and make it a game. Have a towel on hand so they can wipe their face. Babies don't normally need a full soapy hair wash so that does the trick.

Try the toilet?

Sorry I'm joking, as a small child the boy who lived next door hated having his hair washed, it took both parents, one to hold him down and the other to wash it.

We were playing one day and both our mother ran up the stairs when they heard the toilet flush and heard giggling.

We'd decided he needed a hair wash but we couldn't reach the sink.

What is it that bothers them - DD HATED water on her face - she was like this since she was a newborn. Things that helped:

Swimming and waterplay -- encouraging water splashing so she got used to water on her face
We also used to play with a water spray bottle on her hands then a but on her face - as a game and following her lead if she thought it was funny to get sprayed obviously...!
Not always washing the hair from the scalp - we normally just wash the bottom half of DDs hair during the week and then wash her scalp on a sunday night but still exposure to washing
Sitting in the bath with her helped for ages
Atm whats working is DH blowing bubbles high up so she has to look up while i rinse!

Thanks for the tips. So we've always bathed with her. She's not scared of splashing water. She does it herself willingly and plays with toys. It's a control thing I think. She hates any form of restraint (pram, car seat), nappy changes, teeth brushing etc. Will just persevere and hope she gets over it. Will try the look up at the bubbles but we're talking pitch 100 screaming so wont hold my breath.