[OakShannon]

My kiddo's hair seemed to change overnight. No more flyaway baby hair! It's coming in thick and curly and it's starting to get some length. He looks so much older now!

I've found a leave-in conditioner that I like. It keeps his hair nice and soft and it has a pleasant smell. I use it every morning and after baths. But I notice that by afternoon, his curls will start to "clump" together a little. It just doesn't look as neat and I want to comb it again. I don't want to over-do the heavy leave-in conditioner, but I need to use something to spritz his hair and get it a little wet.

Any suggestions? I'm interested in what some of you make with olive oil and essential oils - Aclee, I know you make this for Ty, right? Do you have a recipe? And do you think this is an okay use for it?

[aclee]

Originally Posted by OakShannon

My kiddo's hair seemed to change overnight. No more flyaway baby hair! It's coming in thick and curly and it's starting to get some length. He looks so much older now!

I've found a leave-in conditioner that I like. It keeps his hair nice and soft and it has a pleasant smell. I use it every morning and after baths. But I notice that by afternoon, his curls will start to "clump" together a little. It just doesn't look as neat and I want to comb it again. I don't want to over-do the heavy leave-in conditioner, but I need to use something to spritz his hair and get it a little wet.

Any suggestions? I'm interested in what some of you make with olive oil and essential oils - Aclee, I know you make this for Ty, right? Do you have a recipe? And do you think this is an okay use for it?

I do a couple different routine for Tyler. After bathing him, I use cocoa butter all over, and then put the olive oil and water spary on over that on his hair (some gets on his body too, it's fine) For day to day use, I actually have found a product that I am "thinking" I like so far, which really surprises me. I found a huge ethnic hair care section at Stop and Shop of all places. Anyway, it's called Sta-Sof-Fro...no I'm not kidding. I'm sure there is stuff in it that isn't ideal, but it doesn't have mineral oil (it has caster oil?) so it isn't making him break out. So for the quick AM touch up, it's Sta-Sof-Fro all the way in our house. Unfortunatly it smells somethign like old spice and that's a little hard to get used to on a 7 month old. The olive oil and water spray take a while to dry and soak in, so I only do that at night after his bath.

So far, with the short curls, I like this new product.

No recipe for the olive oil in water, I have a little two ounce mister I use, and I can't even see inside it, so i fill it about 1/2 way with water, glug some olive oil in, add a couple drops of whatever essential oil smells good and put the cap on. I like to leave plenty of room so I can shake it up good.

That's it. I do make some of his stuff, but then I had a batch go rancid, which I was told could never happen. It was about $75 worth of stuff, and I was really ticked. I use Palmer Cocoa butter lotion, fragrance free on him (and me...I love it!) and it's working so far, no dry skin has popped up. When he does have a dry spot, if it's on his body I will treat it when he gets out of the bath and is still wet but rubbing cocoa butter on it, and then using Aquafor over it as a seal. Other than that, I stay away from the aquafor, but it works great to seal in water and lotion so it can't go anywhere but into the skin.

[OakShannon]

Sta-Sof-Fro. I love it!

I haven't seen that product - or maybe I just missed it. We have a large shop in our neighborhood that is all ethnic hair care products, so I get Daniel's hair stuff there. It's nice having a selection. I ended up using Motions because a friend recommended it and her daughters have beautiful hair. Smell is definitely an issue. I tried Kid Organics because someone recommended it, but it had a really odd, chemical smell.

So it sounds like the olive oil wouldn't work well during the day because it takes awhile to dry. Do you just comb Ty's hair out dry if it needs a touch-up later in the day? Or is it not an issue for him? Daniel still has some slightly larger, softer curls (relatively speaking) mixed in with the tights curls, which I think is what causes it to need a little combing out by afternoon.

[Casey677]

Let me recomend Mimosa Hair Honey. It's a Carol's Daughter product. I use it on my dd daily. It makes her hair feel great and it just smells wonderful. We love it!

[Casey677]

Let me recomend Mimosa Hair Honey. It's a Carol's Daughter product. I use it on my dd daily. It makes her hair feel great and it just smells wonderful. We love it!

[inhiswill]

Oak, what type of spray are you using on him now?

I LOVE burts bees apricot baby oil. I use it on body and hair after every bath. It just soaks right into the hair and smells so good. I also do the olive oil spritz every morning, and follow up with Carols Daughter Hair milk to hold the curls.

Here is my olive oil recipe:
1 part olive oil to 6 or 7 parts of water

[aclee]

Originally Posted by OakShannon

Sta-Sof-Fro. I love it!

I haven't seen that product - or maybe I just missed it. We have a large shop in our neighborhood that is all ethnic hair care products, so I get Daniel's hair stuff there. It's nice having a selection. I ended up using Motions because a friend recommended it and her daughters have beautiful hair. Smell is definitely an issue. I tried Kid Organics because someone recommended it, but it had a really odd, chemical smell.

So it sounds like the olive oil wouldn't work well during the day because it takes awhile to dry. Do you just comb Ty's hair out dry if it needs a touch-up later in the day? Or is it not an issue for him? Daniel still has some slightly larger, softer curls (relatively speaking) mixed in with the tights curls, which I think is what causes it to need a little combing out by afternoon.

I only comb Tyler hair when it is full of conditioner in the tub. Other than that I spray it and finger "tussle" it. It's so short though. I kno when it was longer I had to comb it more and for us, it was just such tight curls that trying to keep it well kept and unmatted was an all day ordeal. I would comb three times a day sometimes to try and keep it neat and he would hate it, and it would be matted and tangled everytime. No matter how much spray I put in, nothing works like the conditioner in the tub. I only use conditioner now (I found one called Organix at walmart..I use the coconut milk now, but want to try the shea butter too. It's SO thick it works great) and no shampoo unless he gets a lot of food or something in his hair. I would guess we shampoo once a month or less. So far...what i've described it working awesome. His hair is soft and adorable when it fluff out into his TWA (teeny weenie afro) and when I wet it and tussle it with the spray, it goes back into TTC (Tiny, tight curls) for us, it's meant 2 hair cuts so far on a just turned 7 month old, but we both enjoy hair time so much more, I'm willing to do the hair cuts once or twice a month. I think I'll let it get a little longer in the winter, but I'm not sure...with hats and what not, it might be best to keep it short.

I however, HATE how old he lookes with the short hair. he looks like he's about a year old in a little tiny body

[aclee]

Originally Posted by inhiswill

Here is my olive oil recipe:
1 part olive oil to 6 or 7 parts of water

See I would think my ratio was a lot higher than this, so that might be why it takes longer to dry, I would say I fill a 2 ounce bottle 1/2 full and then add another 1/4 of Olive oil, so I guess that makes me about 2 to 1? Maybe 3 to 1. Then two or three drops of essential oil, or sometimes I even squeeze the rind of an orange into the bottle so it releases the oils into it...

Maybe my ratio is too high and I could use it daily if i dropped the ratio back some. Well Sta-Sof-Fro is working great so far, so I'm going to stick with it I'll keep a ratio in mind though...

[OakShannon]

Inhiswill and Aclee - thanks for the ideas. I haven't been spraying it at all. Just conditioning it in the morning and after baths. (I keep shampooing to a minimum, too.) His hair was so baby soft with loose curls that until recently it wasn't necessary to do anything else. But he suddenly lost the baby hair and he has tight curls coming in. His hair seems to be growing fast, because he has a lot of hair and it's much thicker. My mom saw him this weekend after two weeks and she couldn't believe the change.

I think Shea Butter will be too heavy for his hair right now because it's still a varied texture - tight, kinky curls in the back and slightly larger, softer curls on top. Or maybe I can use Shea Butter just on the back of his head. I'm going to give the Olive Oil a try- thanks for the proportions - and get some Apricot Oil. Might as well try a couple of things to see what works. Now that it's getting long I really want to make sure he always looks good when we go out.

I haven't tried any Carol's Daughter products - sounds like I should check that out as well.

[mommmmy]

Olive oil 1 part to 2-3 parts water. A couple of drops of EO (depending on how big of a batch you are making)

No time in drying. You can use it more than once a day if you so choose.

BTW - his hair will probably change quite a bit more over time.

I use Redkin Butter Treat...probably need to find something else soon. But I've told quite a few other moms and those with "biracial" kids seem to like it even better than I have. I use it to wash and condition. I leave it in for about 10 mins and then rinse but leave a tiny bit in.

[sbaglio]

We've started using the Burt's Bees Apricot oil on DD's hair, and it works great. We had also tried California Baby leave-in conditioner, but it kept the baby hair on the top of her head moist, but not the coarser hair on the sides. Burt's Bees is great, and the scent is very faint, and not overpowering.

[OakShannon]

Thanks everyone.

[inhiswill]

Hey guys, if you have not done so yet, join the adoption skincare hair group on yahoo. It is for adoptive/foster parents of AA/BR/Carribean kids.

[aclee]

Originally Posted by inhiswill

Hey guys, if you have not done so yet, join the adoption skincare hair group on yahoo. It is for adoptive/foster parents of AA/BR/Carribean kids.

I'm part of that group!

[OakShannon]

I'm joining!