MabelW

My 13 year old granddaughter recently came to live with me and I need advice about her hair. My own hair has always been very easy to manage but hers is another story.

I am not sure where hers fits in your classification system. When long (which it is) it naturally hangs in very large corkscrews. It is straight on top and on the sides down to about ear level, before it starts to curl (may be the weight?). It is also very thick and very coarse and the cork screwish curls want to clump together. I suspect the coarseness and thickness might be an Greek/Italian thing since she is that on her father's side? Anyway, on her it always looks heavy, clumped, unkempt, tangled and dull with lots of split ends.

However, while it is dull, lusterless and dry on the ends, she is very prone to oiliness at the roots. So, we'll read something that says not to wash it as often, but believe me, this does not work. She looks greasy at the roots and dry on the bottom.)

Basically, it looks heavy and unkempt and it overpowers her rather small face besides. Getting a carefree look seems impossible due to its heaviness.

Does anyone have any advice? I have been making her use a good shampoo and conditioner and a weekly deep conditioner. It has 1!1
1


helped the dryness some, but not much. I should add that we live in the desert and that our low humidity and strong sun tend to dry hair out even more.

We need to find a style that is easy to maintain and attractive. She absolutely does not want short hair. But she is not good about wanting to spend any time on it. And again, my hair has always been so very easy that I really don't know what to do.

She comes from a very neglected and abusive background and has limited social skills -- we are trying to work on those but she needs to LOOK like the kids her age, too.

Thanks for any help.

adthomas

The first thing I would do is get a hair cut to remove the split ends. I personallu don't believe in holding on to damaged hair. Then I would clarify her hair and start with a modified CG where you low poo once or twice a week. Then cowash in between. Invest is a wide tooth comb and teach her to detangle starting at the bottom in the shower with her hair wet with a conditioner that has good slip. At night I rec doing one or two braids and sleeping in a satin bonnet or on a satin pillowcase.
I also think you should add some li and oil sealent to her reggie but As far as products, it make take you learning the properties of her hair before I can say but sounds like the dc's are helping.

__________________
Transition your mind before you transition your hair.

Ericachristina

If you live in a hot climate she can try protecting her hair from the sun with a heat protectant. I use mine not only when I use heat styling tools but also when I am out in the sun.

I would suggest when shampooing only apply shampoo to her head and allow the lather to flow down to the bottom portions of her hair when rinsing.

You could also try just focusing the deep conditioning treatments at the ends of her hair and leaving it in for a while longer. I find that I get best results when I use my dryer attachment or hair steamer for the treatments; it seems to lock in the moisture a lot better.

Have you tried using any kinds of natural oils just on her ends where it tends to get dry? After styling applying some oil to the ends can really help combat the dryness. There are so many on the market: coconut oil, olive oil, argan oil, grape seed, hemp oil, almond oil, castor oil, tea tree oil ect. Just find one that works best with her hair but make sure it is natural and organic. Applying oil at the ends also help seal the ends which can help prevent split ends.

You should make sure she gets regular trims as well to help with the split ends but the more moisturised her ends become the less prone to split ends it will be.

It sounds like her scalp is producing oils but they are not travelling all the way down to the ends, if you get a boar bristle brush you can try brushing from the roots to the ends to help spread some of the natural oils downwards these brushes are great for that.

You could also try styles that pull her hair away from her face and don’t weigh her down such as buns, ponytails, French braids ect, these styles tend to look neater.