Baby hair 101: How to care for your child’s hair
Fuzlan Gamieldien from Kids Hair Studio shares advice on how to ensure your baby’s hair grows healthy and strong.
A baby’s hair is fragile, so it is important to treat it with care to avoid damaging it.
Fuzlan Gamieldien, a hairdresser from Kids Hair Studio, says parents often make the mistake of getting hair advice when the hair is already damaged.
She says as soon as a baby starts growing hair, it is better to take them to a salon to get advice on how to best care for it.
She says the advice will be based on the age of the baby.
“It depends, from a newborn to a baby being a couple of months, the hair changes all the time. So, a newborn baby has very soft fluffy hair and so use something very, very mild when washing that baby’s hair the first couple of weeks” she says.
“The biggest mistake mommies make with babies is when they wash their hair and they do find that baby has cradle cap, they add more oil to the scalp," she says.
This is "wrong because they need to keep the scalp clean and more oil will block the pores,” warns Fuzlan.
With so many baby hair products on the market, parents can be confused about which products are best suitable to use.
Fuzlan says natural products are best.
“In today’s times, you can get natural shampoos without chemicals, with no sulphates, and preservatives and all sorts of chemicals. You can find those shampoos very easily now,” she says.
When it comes to conditioning the baby’s hair, the hair expert says: “You don’t always have to put conditioner on their hair.
“Depending on the age of the child and the condition of the hair, you will change the shampoo or add conditioner or if the child’s hair is very curly and coarse, maybe use a detangler conditioner or a leave-in conditioner. But do not apply every morning.”
She advises parents to regularly trim their baby’s hair to ensure the hair remains healthy.
“Every 8-10 weeks is good to give it a slight trim."
She says this prevents the hair from breaking and keeps it healthy.
If the baby’s hair is not trimmed, Fuzlan warns that “the ends will always become dry and brittle”.
Baby hair needs to be combed and brushed daily.
“A lot of people feel they don’t want to brush curly hair, but you do get special brushes today for curly hair and you do need to brush it every day or every evening and you will find that it will go back to its natural curls,” says Fuzlan.
There are so many fashionable plaiting styles that parents and children love. However, the hair expert says parents must be careful with the style they choose.
She warns against plaiting styles that pull the hair tight from the scalp.
“That’s a very big mistake a lot of mommies do. They mustn’t pull it tight. You can make it firm, but not tight where you see the scalp is pulled."
She says “this can lead to children losing their hairline, or their hair thinning or breaking out."