Baby's curls getting tighter..need advice on what product to try

We only 'conditioner' shampoo when we bathe. I use Herbal Essence Moisture Maniac. Love the smell and it's inexpensive. After a bath we use Hawaiian Silky before bed. It takes a whole night to 'soak in' I think. Every morning we use a spray bottle of water with Moisture Maniac Conditioner mixed in...this freshens up her hair enough for the day without it looking like a hot mess!

I don't know if this is comparable - my daughter has long hair and it's tightly curled and has a well defined curl pattern. Her hair is really dry and needs quite an incredible amount of moisturizers. Her scalp is fine and does not need any greasing. Here is our hair routine: I wash her hair once a week with Carols' daughter and then, after shampooing, I put Mixed Chicks' deep conditioner on for about ten minutes. Then, and only then, I comb out her hair. It's a breeze! I never comb her hair when it's dry - never. After her bath, I put some KinkyCurly curl custard to form her curls and I finalize with a hair oil, such as coconut oil (I buy this from Indian grocery stores) ir Argan oil (from Sally Beauty). Every morning, I spritz some water on her hair to make it damp and then put Mixed Chicks moisturizer and some more hair oil. At that point, her hair is nice and soft ready to be styled. I agree that CD products are pricey ... ouch. For us, Mixed Chicks has worked well and so has the KinkyCurly hairline from Wholefoods. They are also quite pricey, though. You guys made me curious about Hawiian Silky .. I'll try it out. I really, really recommend the Argan oil from Sally Beauty. It smells WONDERFUL and it makes my daughter's hair really soft!

I forgot to mention that I love the smell of both the Herbal Essence (Hello Hydration is the other one I use a lot) and Hawaiian Silky...neither have a bad smell...that is something I could not handle!

I would just add that everyone makes it sound as if its a crime to trim black kid's hair. I had DS's trimmed for the first time in about a year last weekend and I really wish I would have done it sooner. The hair looks just as long as before but its now way healthier and doesn't reequire nearly as much work to keep it from looking like a rats nest in the back! My DS's hair has a much loser curl and less coarse texture than your DS's but I just wanted to add that we sometimes use regular coconut oil. From the cooking oil aisle at Walmart. It has no smell at all. It really bugs me that black hair care products smell so strongly. They don't need to smell like that just because of the stuff in them. Someone purposely makes them smell like that!

I really think Carol's daughters products are great. For his hair I would say hair milk - even hair milk lite - would be enough. DDs hair is very tight and very very dry so we use tons of it. The good news is they are doing lots of deals before Christmas. I nabbed a lot of hair milk stuff when they had a 20% off sale on it a few weeks ago. The number of deals have really picked up but you have to watch for the right product. I'm waiting for a 40% off like they did last year or some good deal on loc butter right now - then I will stock up. That way I also get free shipping. I found it much more efficient to just buy here rather than try the Target and other products that did not work as well. I actually spent a small fortune trying to get cheaper - money that I would prefer to have invested in Carol's daughter.

I like to use Garnier Fructis leave in conditioner or their triple spray with olive oil and avocado. They work great on my 21mo son's hair. I really love the smell of them and they are affordable.

Your baby is just adorable! It makes me really miss my now 18 year old son, Joseph, as a baby. I don't think there could be a person on the continent of Africa with hair any more tightly curled than Joseph's! It is very thick coarse and stiff, too. We had to trim the long pieces when he was four months old, because they were winding together and pulling on his scalp. I only occasionally used shampoo on his hair, but had to be sure and scrub his scalp with a soft brush during his bath, to keep the cradle cap under control. It was much harder to see cradle cap on him, both because his hair was so thick and because his skin was so dark. The only way to keep his hair looking good, throughout his life, has been to keep it real short. As a young teen, he wanted an afro, but there was no way to comb through it if it was more than a half inch long, no matter how much conditioner you used. He wouldn't believe me that it was too tight for an Afro and we just kept struggling with it. Then, Joanna's Haitian birth father, who is a barber, came to visit. He told Joseph that an Afro doesn't work on his hair and also showed him some tricks to working with the kind of hair he has. He keeps it real short, now, and it looks great. That's more than you needed to know, I am sure!

Hi, here is a very visual grading of 'curly kinky" hair link. I will say in Africa and other afro type ethnicities, as well as Mediterranean, middle eastern etc; folks. there are many varied hair textures from loose curls to tight curl patterns. Its the same with US AAs. My Black family: My hair is a mixture, to include curly ringlets the diameter of a straw. My younger son whose picture was posted prior has hair that is mainly in the 3 category. Older son a mix of 4s. DD 4c. Dh is now bald, but he had close cropped waves, shiny, mixed textured hair,perhaps 4c and 3c.. not too sure as he kept his hair closely cut. Water is a great moisturizer, however hard water is not good. We recently had a whole house water softener system installed. It will be interesting to see how our individual hair curl patterns react to the softer water. I also purchased Wen a sulfate free shampoo. Here is the link, I have not used the products, or attended the salon..this is posted strictly for hair types visualization:[URL="http://unclefunkysdaughter.com/funky-university/curl-pattern-id"]Curl Pattern ID - Uncle Funky's Daughter[/URL]

Nick, the soft water on our last vacation made a huge difference in DS's hair. It was much softer and seemed moisturized with being weighed down. We have an RO system but I am seriously considering adding a soft water loop just for his shower!

Nickchris, thanks for that link! My AA son is definitely a 4C. My Haitian/Filipina daughter, Joanna, is a 2A (her hair is gorgeous) and my AA/CC son, Thomas, is a 2C, now that he is grown. As a baby, it would go into very large curls when long, but that was it. He is almost the spitting image of his AA birth father, except for the hair. From about ages 3-12, it was as straight as mine (completely straight), except for a little wave right in the corners of his forehead. When he went through puberty it started to curl a little bit, again. He was quite disappointed that it wasn't more curled. It is too straight for corn rows to stay in, but just curly enough that pieces stick up if it is more than a half inch long. He doesn't have to cut his as often as Joseph, but keeps it quite short, too.One more thing about people with hair like Joseph, do not use a razor on their heads! When Joseph was about four, he wanted his head shaved to look like his favorite Utah Jazz players. We had buzzed it with the clippers before, with no problem, but his dad decided to shave it with a razor. There was no razor burn, but 99% of the hair started growing under his scalp! It was very uncomfortable! I thought the best thing to do would be to keep the skin as soft as possible. Every hour or two, he would sit in front of me and I would massage his head with Steven's lotion. It felt good and the hair gradually made its way through. I don't think anyone but people with the absolute tightest hair would have that problem.

Yep have to watch it with those bald styles. Help to be bald or partially bald. The inflamed follicles is commonly known as hair bumbs, most curly hair types are more prone to such. Also short hair. My Dh does not have a tight curl pattern but had an issue with the way how his hair was cut at the nape of his neck. The second aspect is infection. [url=http://www.medicinenet.com/folliculitis/page4.htm]Folliculitis Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - What is razor burn folliculitis on MedicineNet[/url]Jen the soft water is great so far, and totally reduces the ashy skin. lol

Not trying to hijack the thread but just wondering...how old were your kids when you started using products on their hair? Our FS is almost a month old and has very curly, wavy hair...we are not putting any product on it at the moment. We are just doing baby lotion through it to keep his scalp moisterized. Thanks!

When Joseph was a baby, I found that the same thing I used on his skin was great on his hair, too. I used either Eucerin cream or Steven's lotion, both unscented and hypoallergenic. It would have made Thomas or Joanna's hair look greasy, especially the Eucerin, but Joseph's soaked it right up.

I think I am going to take a photo of just Evelyn's head and someone can tell me what type of hair she has...I wrote this as a joke but now maybe it's not such a bad idea:)

I tried CD Hair Milk on my son and was not that impressed. It worked okay, but not as well as I had hoped for the price. Plus, I couldn't stand the smell. It is really strong. If you are sensitive to strong smelling products, then you may want to steer clear of CD or try a sample before splurging!