Detangling a child’s curly hair can be a difficult and painful part of their hair care regimen, BUT it’s an important step in making sure those beautiful kiddy curls stay strong and healthy! Here are some detangling DO’S and DON’T’S that will make life a little bit easier.
DO - Be gentle and reassuring. Soft gentle brushing takes time – plan for it. Get books, toys, or your child's favourite show ready so that you can focus and they can be distracted. Reassure your child that this step will make styling easier and encourage them to take the brush into their own hands so that can be a part of it! It will also give you an idea of their pain threshold.
DO – Start with wet hair. Always detangle curly hair while it’s wet, never dry. Spray hair with a gentle detangler such as Magic Mist and using The Kinder Brush, work in sections to gently loosen tangles.
DON’T – Over-pull or stretch hair too much, especially wet. This will lead to cuticle damage which causes breakage and knots…and it’s unnecessarily painful.
DO – Start from the ends. Detangle starting with ends, working your way up to the root. Starting at the ends is a gentle way of gradually detangling without getting the brush caught on too much hair.
DON’T – Comb from the root down. Combing from top to bottom is more painful because curly hair is often more dense at the root. The brush would catch a lot of hair at once causing even more tangles and breaking hair.
DO - Keep curls tangle-free. After the hard work of detangling each section, use a clip to secure hair in place so that it doesn’t fall back into unbrushed hair. Use the Roller Jaw Clamps to make it fun and easy! Use the black clips for hair that needs to be detangled and the white clips for hair that has already been detangled! – Let your child clip them on as a reward for their patience!
Detangling is rarely comfortable, but we want to help to make it as fun and as easy for you and your child.