Hi I have a 21 month old daughter who is nigerian and ugandan her hair is VERY dry I have used all sorts of oils in her hair, and whithin two hours I swear her hair is dry again I find it hard to find information on how to care for an african childs hair. I used its a curl organic hair products but it did nothing. Any recommendations/??????? cause I am so lost

mayahs mummy - 21 June 2012 02:59 PM

Hi I have a 21 month old daughter who is nigerian and ugandan her hair is VERY dry I have used all sorts of oils in her hair, and whithin two hours I swear her hair is dry again I find it hard to find information on how to care for an african childs hair. I used its a curl organic hair products but it did nothing. Any recommendations/??????? cause I am so lost

Hi Mayahs mummy
Welcome to British Curlies! Your little girls hair needs a water based moisturiser as oils only help to seal in moisture and add shine they don’t give moisture to her hair. We recommend you try Komaza Care Shea Butter
This should help a lot. You can apply it to her freshly washed and conditioned hair.
http://www.britishcurlies.co.uk/store/products/Komaza-Care-Shea-Butter-Hair-Lotion-8oz.html
Apply to her hair while damp not wet. Then use a castor based oil such as Hairveda CoCasta Shikakai Oil to help seal in the moisture then braid or twist her hair.
http://www.britishcurlies.co.uk/store/products/Hairveda-CoCasta-Shikakai-Oil-9oz.html

Lots of other useful haircare advice is available on our website and this section of the forum
http://www.britishcurlies.co.uk/curl_forum/viewforum/11/
Hope this helps

I would recommend getting the science of black hair - excellent book on natural afro hair care for kids and adults which should tell you everything you need to know. I have a similar hair type and you can see what I use from my signature.

My dad’s Nigerian, I’m part Nigerian, part British. However, my cousin (from my dad’s side) is fully Nigerian. African hair gets really dry easily so here’s one thing I’ve learned.

1. Hair needs moisture. Especially through the LOC method:

L - Liquid
O - Oil
C - Cream/Butter (but that’ll be ‘LOB’).

You can swap the O and the C, though.

For liquids, water’s always best (esp. bottled or distilled water. If you don’t want to use those, invest in a water filter for your shower head).
Oil, find what oil works best for her hair and use that oil (or a mixture of oils) on her hair in small quantities. I advice to not use more than a 20p coin size of oil on anyone’s hair to avoid getting greasy hair or something like that
Butter, I use shea butter on my hair and it works great. However, it’s terrible on my mum’s hair so, you need to find out if it works for your daughter first. Once you’re sure, use not more than a 20p coin size of it on her hair to avoid it getting greasy or too coated or causing buildup.

Also, avoid using products with sodium lauryl sulate of sodium laureth sulfate in them (those ingredients are usually found in shampoos) they are harsh chemicals and very drying. Try opting for a sulfate free shampoo like the BeeMine botanical moisturising shampoo. Also, try avoiding products sodium chloride in them too.

Try that for about 4 weeks and if you get great results you should continue doing that.

OR

You could opt for the tightlycurly method. There’s more information on that on Terri LaFlesh’s website (tightlycurly.com).

Hope this could help.