How do you help make hair washing and detangling a more enjoyable experience for your child? Share your tips and tricks - £200 voucher to be won

[MaddyMumsnet]

We all know that hair washing and detangling can sometimes be a challenging experience for both parents and children. Whether it's using the perfect detangling brush to make the process smoother, turning hair washing into a fun game, or using special conditioners that make hair more manageable - Tangle Teezer wants to hear your family’s best tips and ideas!

Post your stories/items/challenges/tips in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw

• One lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice.
• Don’t forget to vote in our poll below.

Here’s what Tangle Teezer has to say: “We all know that detangling your child’s hair more often than not results in tears and tantrums, but it doesn't have to. Share your best tips & tricks for how you make your child's hair routine a more enjoyable experience for them (and you), because together we can untangle the fear around hair washing!”

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

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Absolutely plait at night that really helps. Conditioner and leave for a few mins if possible too

From family experience

1. If possible let child do it themselves with you on hand to help. I insisted on getting privacy early and my shampoo given to me from 6 years on in the shower. Never burned myself or slipped. Think Mum wanted 2 kids bathed in one go but I wanted the bath to myself.
2. Pre 6 years when I was 3-5 and my brother 2-4 we were still getting bubble baths with toys with our mum holding the towels making sure we didn't turn the hot tap on. We hated the soap in our eyes and the combing so we insisted that once she had done our hair we did hers (the proper way). Only fair we thought so she would lean over the bath and I would rinse with warm water and my brother would rub in the shampoo. Great fun.
3. Also we would have a photo session in our Pj's with our freshly washed hair to show our Dad who was in the police (so worked shifts at night) how good we looked and also how cooperative we had been.

Tangle Teezer might want to have a bit of an add campaign based on this. Let the kids use it themselves, let them use it on you, take photos of your great results.

Brushing hair with conditioner is the way that works best for my daughter. Her hair is curly. Trimming it regularly also helps

Condition - then wash with a gentle shampoo, and tangletease whilst damp - french plaits for bed.

I told my daughter that if you say 'ow' it hurts more so now she stays still and I do it as quickly and gently as I can and she tells me it doesn't hurt as much as she doesn't say 'ow'!

Well when the hairs been washed I bought my daughter a kind of hair drying towel.She loves wearing it and it helps keep her warm/and helps her hair dry quickly. So now she seems to enjoy washing her hair more.!

My solution after washing and conditioning is to spray with an anti tangle spray - I use the johnsons one - but others are good, I just buy whats on offer, and brush whilst wet. Works for us - long hair was a very different problem for us - a leave in conditioner seemed to work better.

Child's farm detangling spray and a tangle teezer is our winning combination to tame our toddlers curly bed head in the morning! He used to fight it so much (pre these products) and now loves it, sits there very relaxed like he's at the spa 😂. It means we're able to send him to nursery looking his best!

Leave in conditioner spray. I like the Aussie one

Keep a tangle teaser in the shower. Wash, condition which is then left in for a few minutes and then brushed through before rinsing.

Detangling spray and I let my daughter brush it first. Tends to help.

My tips would be to run fingers through hair with conditioner, then use a wide comb, rinse the conditioner off, pat dry with a towel, then use a detangling spray and brush and leave to dry.

I have THE most tangle-prone hair in the world!! Thin hair, but lots of it & it's wavy - I pity the poor hairdresser whenever I go & often offer to comb it myself to save them the headache! My child has short hair, so this hasn't been an issue - but if it were - I'd go for the same method which works for me! Smoothing a bit of conditioner through the ends after washing & conditioning & leaving that conditioner in, scrunching it dry with towel (rather than rubbing it!) & the softly combing through the conditioner with a wide tooth comb or tangle teezer. Works a treat!

I plaited my daughter's hair at bedtime to stop it getting tangled at night. We do have a tangleteezer and it really helped with brushing her hair. I use detangling spray after washing to make it easier to comb and lots of conditioner after shampooing. A flannel over the eyes whilst rinsing helped too.

We always used a tangle teezer and a spray in hair conditioner.
I think regular swimming from a very young age helps hugely with avoiding a situation where a child is upset by water in their face or eyes. Even just paddling pools and having games of pouring water from a mini watering can help.

Decent shampoo and conditioner.
Rinse thoroughly.
Brush through with a detangle comb.
Now DD is older, she can do this herself which results in less tears (& I don't get the blame!)

My eldest DC has really curly hair and the only thing which worked - to keep any length in her hair was a hair mask of which deeply moisturised, and a wide toothed comb with some leave in conditioner. we found running fingers through with conditioner in really helped with the tangles.

Bedtime plait and detangling spray worked for DD's long wavy hair. As a teen, she now pops it into dutch plaits a lot of the time.

My daughter and I have hair past our bottoms and often wear it out in the day.. At night hair is plaited to reduce knots.. Come bath time hair is thoroughly brushed while dry this makes a huge difference after washing.. shampoo twice being careful not to create knots then conditioner in ends only.. Sometimes we will brush the hair with the conditioner. After the bath towel dry hair (it will still be slightly damp) take a tiny amount of conditioner and rub it between hands then apply to the ends (a few inches up) (never on the scalp) brush once more then let hair continue to air dry. Style as you like or plait it for bed..

Always brush from the bottom of the hair working your way up to the scalp..

I like to hold a handful of hair at a time while brushing if it’s too knotty this helps with the child not being hurt and protects the hair from being stretched and from breakage.

Getting the hair trimmed every 3 months to get rid of dead ends also helps.

Packing a mini brush and encouraging hair brushing throughout the day aids in hair health and the distribution of natural oils.

Avoid products where you can. Most cause damage to the hair.

My sons hair is really long and I find it best to shampoo his hair as soon as he's in the bath and then condition leaving it in until he's about to get out to rinse it. We brush through it before and after rinsing too. If he let's me we plait it at night.

Never comb when dry. Ever! My ds has long curly hair and a condition of him keeping it long is that he lets me comb it without complaining. On hairwash days I use loads of conditioner in the bath. Then a leave in conditioner spray and the Tangle Teezer. On non hairwash days just the spray and the Tangle Teezer. He occupies himself by counting how many times I comb through.

An anti tangle spray, wide comb, and work towards a brush for no knots.

With my two, the rule is that we wash their hair first, BEFORE they get to play with the bubbles/bath toys/ splash about. It makes them much more likely to let me do it quickly and with the minimum of fuss!

My eldest lad went through a period of wanting really long hair. Unfortunately he has very fine wavy hair -like mine, sigh- and is apparently incurable scruffy so one of those wide toothed shower combs and conditioner was essential. It was easier to get him on board with me combing it if he got to come to the shop with me and pick out the 'flavour' of conditioner he wanted (we're talking basic range but nice fruity smells).
He's now consented to having slightly shorter hair, which looks a lot less ratty and has brought out some lovely curls (I'm slightly miffed coz I can never get my hair to do ANYTHING!) He's also announced his wish to grow "a really massive beard and moustache, like a viking" so no doubt that'll be something else that'll need detangling in about a decade or so 😄

Detangling spray works miracles!

I always used a wide toothed comb and we’d listen to music whilst washing and detangling daughter’s hair. Luckily it’s naturally straight so wasn’t too difficult,