DD hair

[whoami24601]

My DD10 has very long blonde hair. It's extremely thick and quite coarse so it's really tricky to style. She absolutely will not get it cut. She loves having it but because it's so long (and because I'm shit at hair so can't teach her) she can't manage to brush it herself. This is generally not a problem but in a few weeks she's going on a 5 day residential and I'd like her to at least look presentable on the photos! Is there any style I can do that will stay in well for a few days or any treatment that might work? I was thinking of a conditioning mask and then straightening it to make it more manageable? Though as soon as she showers that will be irrelevant. Help!

Can you teach yourself how to do a French plait (YouTube?) or find someone who can do one? That should last for several days and remain fairly tidy.

Get a good hairdresser to wash and plait the hair

Teach her to tie it back and dodge the water in the shower, so it lasts a few days longer.

Take her to a hairdresser to wash and French plait it into two French braids. If a professional does it then it should last longer than if you DIY it.

Have a practice run with the hairdresser soon so you can see how long it lasts but I’d imagine 3-4 days (although it will be v frizzy by the end. If you wanted you could also teach her how to spray leave in conditioner or a child friendly spray over the plaits & smooth the frizz, for the latter days.)

On day 4 or 5 there may be a disco? You could teach her how to put it up in a regular pony/bun for that. A good tip for that for unruly hair is to wash and leave in condition it first and put it up wet.

Two french plaits is the best thing for staying neat enough and not knotting up.
I have ran a lot of residentials for primary aged children and lots of them are terrible at doing their own hair. It was very common to have a couple teachers and TAs doing plaits in the evenings, especially if the residential lasted long enough for them to need to shower. Lots of girls even with short fine hair struggle to do a tidy ponytail that stays in all day. If however you do her hair does come apart there will most likely be someone willing to help her out.

I was thinking of taking her to the hairdressers the day before but wasn't sure if they'd laugh at me! I can hope the teachers would help her out but she went on a 2 night residential last year and she looks like she's never seen a hairbrush on the photos 🤦‍♀️ so don't like to assume. I was thinking of telling her to just not wash it but then it'll probably stink after a week!