a little and a lot

Monday, November 11, 2013

Girly Game-Changer

Hair gets a big piece of the pie chart in regards to how we spend our time at the Faris house.  I adore being the mom of a little girl so much that I occasionally tease Nick about having a big ole house full of them...and then I fear I would do nothing BUT hair all day every day.

This post could be an entire novel if I started at the beginning of our "hair journey."  Here would be my chapter headings:

Chapter 1: Overspending on Professional Haircare Products out of Fear of the Unknown and Overzealousness

Chapter 2: Practicing on a 17-Month-Old with One Inch of Hair

Chapter 3: 1,001 Comments Made to Me in Public Regarding My Daughter's Hair  (or Hair Knows No Strangers)

Chapter 4: How to Wash a Child's Hair with Non-Tear-Free Products Without Losing Your Religion

Chapter 5: Styling Hair or Leaving it Free with an Added Hair Accessory: A Lesson in How You Can't Make Everyone Happy All of the Time

(And so on...)

Haircare seems like such a personal subject to me, and at the same time, it is THE subject friends & strangers alike discuss with me everyday.  (This is not a complaint--she has great hair, and people either feel impressed or concerned or curious or all of the above, and they feel the need to share that with me!  It is just a normal part of our everyday life.)  I say haircare seems personal because everyone's hair is different and has a life all of it's own--this is true no matter what type of hair you have.  

When Rhet first came home and people would offer me unsolicited advice in public, I always went right out and bought the recommended product or practiced the recommended technique because I felt intimidated, unknowledgable, and experimental.  This was not necessarily wrong of me, but I definitely feel much more confident 2+ years and several inches later...I have been a student of Rhet's hair, and while I still have a lot to learn, I feel good about what I already know and about what works for us.

At one point in my chasing after each and every single piece of hair advice, I realized that I would not be blindly following strangers' advice on other subjects, such as discipline.  When strangers or friends offer advice on how to discipline my child and it is not in line with what I practice or believe, I don't even bat an eyelash!  So why was I thinking that every single piece of hair advice would fit Rhet's hair type or our lifestyle?

That having been said, I need to share our recent breakthrough discovery with you.  Detangling & shingling Rhet's hair had recently reached an all-time high in hours (THREE POINT FIVE!) for us recently, and no one was feeling very happy about that.  In my curiosity and growing desperation, I found a YouTube video that described a "magic potion" for which I had ingredients but had never tried.  Voila!  It cut our hair time in half or even by 2/3rds, and it has allowed me to moisturize Rhet's hair more often (and therefore more efficiently).  

Here is what we use for our new magic elixir: 

Your favorite oil (we use coconut oil):
You can buy this big tub of coconut oil at Costco for around $10!
Your favorite leave-in conditioner:
We use Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner
Ok, you take a spray bottle and put a little oil in it.  (In our case, I had a couple small scoops of coconut oil.  It's okay if it's solidified--just get it in your spray bottle and the warm water will melt it.)  Then you add a little leave-in conditioner--I use 4-5 pumps of our Shea Moisture bottle.  Then you add a small to moderate amount of warm or hot water and shake it all up.  (You can experiment with the ratios of your oil/product/water.  I'm finding that I don't want the oil and product to be too watered down, so I add about 4-6 oz of water or so.)

Spray this magic potion on hair by sections and gently start running it through hair with your fingers.  It detangles and moisturizes, and you will praise the good Lord for all of the time you have saved.  If I am shingling Rhet's hair, I still like to use Miss Jesse's Baby Buttercream over the section I have just detangled.  Otherwise, I use this spray to help quickly refresh & redefine hair every other morning or so.  

0 comments:


Adopting Rhet: Click on the timeline above to read more