Kidz Corner

My Little Prince's Regimen

My little Prince has been on planet earth for a little over a year now, and his hair has changed so much since birth. As his hair changes, so does his regimen, but the basics--cleansing and moisturizing--pretty much stay the same.

First, let's start off by reviewing his journey from the beginning until today:

My Prince was born with a full head of straight hair!

Straight hair at birth

From day one, I brushed his tresses with a soft bristle brush (included in most baby grooming kits), and massaged his head with Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO):

Brushing EVOO into his hair

The brushing helped stimulate blood flow to the scalp and removed dry, flaky skin. Some babies get patchy, flaky skin on their scalp, a condition known as cradle cap. I'm not certain if the dry flakes on my son's scalp qualified as such, or if it was simply baby dandruff. In any case, I noticed that the EVOO only relieved him of this issue for a little while, but as time moved on, it appeared to be less effective, so I eventually replaced the EVOO with pure coconut oil.

As time moved on, the straight hair that my son was born with slowly began to curl up...

His hair at two months

And by three months of age, he was officially a curly head!

His curls at three months of age

By 9 months, my son's hair had grown in much fuller on top, but seemed to become sparse around the back. This is actually very common in babies, as many tend to lose the baby fuzz, especially around the back where they experience the most friction from rubbing against the fabric on car seats, blankets and pillows:

Sparse patches visible on wet hair

By 12 months, the sparse areas began to fill in, and are still in the process of growing back. My son's texture is still very straight near the nape of his neck, so I'm anxious to see if/when that will change as well:

Back of head at 12 months

Problems/Issues

I can't recall what age my son was (I wanna say somewhere between 3 and 6 months of age), but he developed a cherry red bruise on the back of his head due to excessive dryness. The EVOO seemed to exascerbate the dryness, so my son took matters into his own hands, and unfortunately gouged out a section of his scalp with his fingernails.

My husband and I began treating the dry patch with good ol' Vaseline. I know some people are anti-petroleum, but petroleum has always proven to be great at sealing in moisture when used on the skin (To see more of what I think about petroleum, check out my Petroleum Gets A Bad Rap! post). As we began treating the bruise with Vaseline (in addition to the coconut oil we were distributing throughout his head), we also paid a visit to the pediatrician to get it checked out. The pediatrician said we had done right by using the Vaseline, because that's pretty much all he would have prescribed. Luckily, it did the trick, and the bruise healed, and the dryness subsided.

His Regimen Today

Although there have been a few changes with his regimen along the way, this is what seems to be working for his curls now:

1. We cleanse his hair once every few days (Usually every other day. We've found that his scalp starts itching if we wait longer than three days.). I prefer to use Head-to-Toe baby wash by Aveeno.
2. After cleansing, we apply pure coconut oil throughout his hair while it's saturated with water. The coconut oil is slightly heavier than the EVOO we once used, and therefore doesn't evaporate as quickly. It also does a much better job at sealing in moisture.
3. After applying the coconut oil, we distribute pure aloe vera gel throughout his hair. Aloe vera has many healing properties, particularly for the skin. It's also great at sealing in moisture, and the gel formula defines his curls without the flaky buildup of other hair gels and styling aids (We use the alcohol-free variety available at Walmart for approx. $3.00).
4. We only comb his hair on wash days when it is saturated with water and product. In between wash days, we start by spritzing his hair with water from a spray bottle (which he hates!), and then scrunch in coconut oil and aloe vera gel as needed.

Haircuts & Styling

As for haircuts and styling, we want to give my son's hair a chance to grow in fully before we start cutting it. We therefore won't be seeing a barber until he's at least 2 years old. His hair is naturally full on top and low on the sides, which is pretty much how I would like to have it cut. We may experiment with braids and twists, but for now, aside from the occassional "Samurai ponytail" you see pictured above, carefree curls are the way to go!

In Conclusion

Since my son's hair has changed so much in the past year, and I know hair changes, in general, once every 7 years due to hormonal changes, I'm anticipating more changes down the road. Although the above regimen works for his hair now, I'm sure adjustments will prove necessary. My husband and I prefer to use products that are as close to nature as possible, so I'll be doing research to find an organic line of baby hair care products. Right now, there doesn't seem to be many that offer tear-free cleansers, so I'll be sticking to the above mentioned products for now.