I will list all of the products I currently use on MaKyra, with a brief explination of each. I will also include a link to where you can by them (I am not associated with any of these companies)
The first step to doing her hair, is getting it wet. She takes baths at night, so in the morning her hair is dry. I use the squirt bottle and get her whole head wet. I get it damp all over, but not dripping wet. I then apply a leave in conditioner. I use Beyond The Zone- Noodle Head Condition Your Curls. I bought this from Sally's. MaKyra's hair is about 6 inches long if I pull it straight, and I use about a quarter size amount of this. I apply it evenly throughout her hair while damp.
I then brush her hair out. Using the leave in conditioner makes it much easier, and less painful to brush through. It also helps moisturize her hair, which is one of the biggest things you need to do to prevent curly hair from going frizzy. I use a Wet Brush on her hair. I have used other paddle brushes as well, but this is my favorite. I brush her hair out by going in sections and with one hand I hold her hair at the base, right against her head. With the other hand I use the brush to brush out the ends of her hair. This makes it so I can brush out most of the tangles, and she doesn't feel anything. After I brush out all of the ends, I brush out the rest of her hair.
Next I style her hair. If I'm going to put any of it up, I use either ORS Coconut Oil Hairdress, or Dream Kids Smooth Edges. I use these to smooth down her hair, and keep it in place. When I don't use these, the part going into the pony tail gets very frizzy.
Out of the two, the Coconut Oil product is the one I use the most, I feel like for her hair, it works the best, but I do sometimes switch to the Smooth Edges. The Coconut Oil is kind of like a cream. The Smooth Edges is more of like a jelly, and when I use that, I can get it as smooth as I want it. However, I don't believe I'm using the Coconut Oil as it was intended. My boyfriend got it for me to re-twist his dreads with, and I didn't like the way it worked for him. So I tried it on my daughters hair and now I use it all the time.
I section off her hair, depending on what I'm doing and before I put it into the elastic, I get a small amount of either of these products on my finger tips, put it on the part of her hair that will be flat against her head, and then comb it smooth. I comb it until there are no bumps, and it looks as smooth as I can get it. I use Amped Up teasing brush to comb her hair smooth. I think the type of bristles on this brush make her hair super smooth, and Its small so I can smooth out small sections without it catching hair from a different section.
I then use small rubber elastics in her hair. Finding the right elastics for her hair have been such a pain. All of the elastics break if I wrap them around five times, but if I only wrap them around four times, they are too loose, and don't hold her hair in place the way I want. It's been a struggle. I have found that the best elastics to use are the Proclaim Super Stretch elastics from Sally's. I can wrap them as tight as I need, and they won't break, which is amazing. The only downside is they don't come in a ton of colors. There is a pack of clear, a pack of dark brown, and a multi color pack. The multi color includes purple, pink, green, yellow, and orange.
I always cut the elastics out of her hair, instead of just pulling them out. I found this awesome elastic cutting comb. One end has a little hook, and inside of the hook is a tiny razor blade. You put the hook under the elastic, and push it up and it cuts the elastic. I like using this better than having scissors so close to my daughters head, becasue she is way wiggly. The link I'm posting is for Amazon, I didn't actually buy mine there, I found mine at the Dollar Tree for $1.00, so I suggest to check there if you have one near you before buying it online.
To do the inside out pony tails (I'm positive that's not what they're really called, but I don't know what else to call them) I use this tool. I will do a post later explaining how to use it, and what an "inside out pony tail" even is. But I definitely recommend getting one of these. It is so much easier than just shoving the hair through.
After I have her hair styled the way I want, I use product on whatever of her hair is left out and curly. The first thing I use is R&B from Lush. I just started using it, and I absolutely love it! It keeps her hair so moisturized, and her curls look so much better all day long when I use it. It's a little pricey, but I use a very small amount. I just bought it for the first time about two weeks ago (I got the small size container), and I have barely made a dent in it, so it should last us quite a while.
After I apply R&B, I apply mousse to the same parts of her hair that I applied the R&B to. My favorite mousse that I've found is Suave Flexible Control Curl Mousse. It's a lot thicker than the other mousses we've tried, and seems to hold her curls better.
The last step is hairspray. I just recently starting using hairspray, and it is totally not necessary. Her car seat hair was just getting crazy, and the hairspray helps keep it a little bit tame. I use the same hairspray on her that I use on myself, just whatever's cheapest really, which is usually Rave.
So that's everything that we're currently using on her hair. If you have found any products that you love, let me know! I would love to try them. Everything with her hair has just been trial and error, so be open to trying new things. You may be surprised with what works for you!
