2 year old has awful curly hair

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Okay I know I sound mean but I'm not honest. My dd has curly/wavy hair. Some of its beautiful tight curls, some of its wavy. It looks gorgeous when it's just been washed but after about an hour its frizzy and out of control.

Its always messy and she just looks like she's been dragged through a hedge backwards, and the more I brush it the more the curls go and its gets more frizzy and looks worse. Argh.

Any tips?

Don't brush it!!

Learn how to look after curls.

Awwww dandelion hair.

Not v helpful though.

Have you an experienced hairdresser who can advise?

Do not brush it. Ever.
Wash it with silicone/paraben free products if possible, put lots of conditioner on and rinse, then put leave in conditioner/serum in. Do not towel dry vigorously, do not over handle it. Leave it alone and it will look beautiful. If you must comb it only do it when wet and use a gentle wide tooth comb.

curly hair will always look different, it is probably not a good hair type for people who like control. Accept it for what it is!

No idea but just wanted to say mine have fine straight hair and it is always a mess, always. I am envious of these small people with perfect hair and clips and bands that actually stay in place!

Rules of curly hair.. never brush. Comb through with fingers when wet. Shampoo only once a week , rest of the time just wash with conditioner.

Please don't give your daughter a complex about having awful hair. Tell her her hair is beautiful !

Oh and let it dry naturally, don't use a hairdryer.

Loads and loads of info online about how to look after curly hair. A very simple tip - a spray bottle of water will help alleviate the frizziness. Conditioner is your friend.

Superdrug's own brand coconut conditioner is excellent for both washing and conditioning curly hair. Boot's curl cream only needs a little through the hair and yes, don't brush it.

Spray it with a children's leave in conditioner - my DD'S used to need that, but it's a bit thicker/ heavier now ( she's 9). She had fluffy, wavy baby fine hair til she was about 5, and a small amount of the spray on leave in conditioner tamed it when it started to matter to her that her hair be a bit more like her friends'.

Does it look anything like this? This is DD3's hair. I never brush it, douse it with conditioner, coconut oil it, wide tooth comb it in the bath, avoid silicones, use leave in conditioners... And yes, still resembles a bird nest. Sorry OP, if you find the answer, please let me know

Coconut oil is good too.

Aww I think little kids look adorable with unruly hair. And they'll grow into the look too as they get older, especially as the hair grows - think Merida from Brave! Okay so she's not real but there are kids out there that rock the wild look! Much cuter than the boring shiny, perfectly groomed beauty pageant look.

I've got Afro-Caribbean hair, I've always brush and combed mine, shampoo and conditioner. However I've been relaxing my hair since I was 9. I have to agree if you like control like i do, his hair is a PITA

However I find there's not much you can do bar plait it or stick it in one of them imo God-awful puffy balls.

Can you take her to the hair dressers for advice?

I had dandelion hair as a child. I hated my curls for years, but actually as my hair is fine, the curls are at least giving it some oomph. I agree with leaving it alone. All fine curly hair goes fluffy to some degree, but soft fluff is just lovely on little children. Spray it with a plant spray if you want to re-curl it a bit, but otherwise embrace the curls and do not touch.

www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/no-poo/the-curly-girl-method-for-coily-hair/ follow this!

I know exactly the type of hair you mean, if it were my DD I'd grow it as long as possible. I think it tends to look messier/unkempt the shorter it is

Try this: At night, dampen it a little with a water spray and then plait it, quite tightly, any way that is comfortable for your DD to sleep on. In the morning, undo the plait(s) and tease out the strands, working through a little leave in conditioner. You may need to comb it a little but I find that this will usualy leave the hair in looser curls that are much easier to manage, whether you are doing another style or leaving it loose.

With curly hair, it is often the sleeping on loose hair that makes it difficult to deal with, because the hair tangles in places and gets flat or matted in others.

Vitapoint is a good old-fashioned leave-in conditioner to try, and it's much cheaper than more trendy products.

Also if dd has long enough hair maybe put into two little plaited pigtails when out and about.

I also recommend leave in conditioner, no brushing and no sulphate shampoos. Also maybe look on the mixed race hair threads for more pointed shampoo recommendations.

Mine and daughter's hair is like this.

Never brush when dry. I have to brush when wet as it tangles and mats otherwise. Wide tooth comb or fingers can't get knots out.

Learn how to do French plaits. DD4 wears two French plaits to school which I do twice a week on Sunday and Thursday night.

Always use lots of conditioner before and de tangling spray during wet brushing.

My DD is 4.5 and has incredibly curly hair. This photo was taken last summer, her hair has grown considerably since then. Its easy to say don't brush it, but it can't not EVER be brushed so this means when you do come to brush it there will be tears - trust me!

Also, try factoring in getting ready to leave the house on time every morning and it really becomes a nightmare.

Anyway, what I do is wash it once a week and slather conditioner on it. I then take small sections and using the Tangle Teaser I brush it through. This takes quite a while so I let DD play Mariokart on the DS to distract her!! When its all done, I rub a little argan oil into it (just a teeny bit) and then leave to dry as much as possible. It is generally still damp at bedtime though (as I said her hair has got very long now) so I quickly blast it with hairdryer using my hands to sort of scrunch it (i.e. no brush) and then I tie it back loosely for bed. Each morning I spray a detangling spray into it and either go quickly over it with the tangle teezer and put it back in a hairband (as in the pic) or put into two plaits or two pigtails.

Its a real faff but my hairdresser told me when she was very little never to cut her hair because it would just lead to more problems so its never been cut. When its just washed its beautiful, but it is high maintenance unfortunately.

Macnab your daughter is super cute!! Gorgeous hair. What did your hairdresser mean by telling you it'd cause more problems to cut it?!

Also there is nothing wrong with curly hair. It is not wild or unkempt. It is just hair.

I appreciate you are struggling. But the notion that the hair that grows naturally out of your child's head and plenty of other people on the planet is awful is obnoxious.

It is perfectly manageable with the right tools and methods just like straight or wavy hair.

I didn't mean literally that her hair itself is awful it just looks messy and it looks like we don't take the time to brush it etc which is obviously not the case, so not being obnoxious.

Her curls are beautiful but with a brush they disappear into frizzy uncontrolled waves and that goes knotty and wild in five seconds. Her hair is always up I just wanted some tips on how to make them a bit tidier so she can show her curls off

Thank you everyone for your advice I will take it all on board and give the ideas a go.