Natural hair comes in all shapes, sizes and textures, and every mom wants their babies to be as comfortable in their bodies as possible. Ideally, we want them to be comfortable physically and emotionally. 

Unfortunately, children aren’t always amazing at looking after their own hair, so we need to take care of them and teach them how to protect and style their hair in a way that makes them happy and keeps their hair healthy.

Here are four ways to help protect your child’s natural hair.

Know Their Hair Type

As mentioned before, natural hair isn’t just a uniform thing. Some people have looser curls, while others have tighter hair textures. They’re all beautiful, but they also require different levels of care.

It can be difficult when your child has a different curl pattern than you, as you might be used to your own hair routine. But if they have different hair needs, you should find a way to accommodate their needs, not just fit them into what works best for someone else.

Learn their hair type and do specific research. If you have friends or family members with similar hair, ask how they look after it. 

Conditioners

If your hair gets too dry, it can become more brittle and break off. This can cause a common issue where your baby or child has bald spots. It’s especially common for babies to develop bald spots where they’ve rubbed off the hair on the backs of their heads, and this can happen with all hair textures. 

It can also become more challenging to style hair if it’s dry. If you’re trying to grow your hair, you want it to be as healthy as possible, so this means plenty of moisture.

One way to help solve this problem is to condition your child’s hair. Again, it can take some experimentation to find a routine that works for them, but you want to at least condition it after washing and keep some leave-in conditioner on hand for more regular use.

Hair Wraps

Another way to stop hair from drying out is to help protect it while you and your child are sleeping. A hair wrap for sleeping will protect it from the friction of your pillowcase through the night. It can also help you to maintain certain hairstyles. 

Silk hair wraps are usually the best option, but you can experiment with different materials and see how they affect your hair.

Protective Styles

If your child is old enough, you could consider a protective style for their hair. Different protective styles look great and can look after their hair as well, although your child needs to be willing to sit still for them. 

Simple styles are best to start with, as they are more comfortable and won’t pull on the scalp. You also, yet again, need to consider your hair type. 

Even a simple top knot bun will protect your child’s hair while keeping it out of the way. It’ll also look adorable.