The Word on the Street is: Braids

A few months ago, we started getting our daughter’s hair braided on an every-two-weeks basis.

Since then, we’ve had a ton of questions asked, a lot of them the same, which leads me to think that that a lot of people are a) just curious, or b) wondering what to do with their own kid’s hair.

So here are the most commonly asked questions we get:

Do we braid Mihret’s hair?

No. No, no, no. I think if we were more crafty people, we might. But Kara doesn’t do all that much with her own hair, and while I’m good with words, I’ve never been much of an artist.

We have a wonderful woman, Miss Carla, who does her hair.

What does it cost?

$29. Plus tip.

How long does it take?

1 to 2 hours, depending on how squirmy the little one is, how elaborate the hairdo is, and how busy the hair place is.

Does it hurt?

Not me, no. And Miss Carla is well known in these parts for being an ouchless hairdresser. That said, Mihret will, every once in a while, give an, “Ow.” But much less than the average person combing their hair.

How do you get her to sit for so long?

First, she usually sits in my lap. She’s sat on the booster seat a couple of times, but I think the comfort of having daddy there makes it a little easier to take.

Second, movies. Miss Carla has a DVD player. So we put something in, it runs, and that helps to distract during the hair process.

Third: The smoothie. Our daughter is a fruit-smoothie junky, thanks to the College Avenue Farmer’s Market. So after she gets her hair done, she gets a smoothie. It works for her.

How does she sleep on her braids?

Very carefully. Actually, Miss Carla keeps the ponytails out of the way of the back of her head, and she can sleep on her hair just fine.

She does need a silk pillowcase, though, as she refuses to wear a silk hat to keep her braids looking nice.

How often does she get her hair done?

Every two weeks. We’ve gone for three, but she gets really, really fuzzy, and we can’t take her hair out because it’s gotten WAY to long to leave it free now.

How do you wash her hair?

Get her head wet, put some shampoo in my palm. Get the shampoo wet, then rub it into the spaces between her braids.

I’ll also rub a little shampoo into her braids as well, especially if things have been messy lately.

How often do you wash her hair?

Every 10-12 days.

Do you have to do anything with her hair between braidings?

For a while, I used to put extra conditioner in her hair every few days. Then I started doing it once or twice.

Now, I check her hair for dryness, and I’ll condition maybe once. The kid’s hair is REALLY soft now, and it doesn’t have a lot of weather damage, so this works out just fine.

Plus there’s conditioner in her shampoo. That also helps.

Feel free to put more questions in the comments, and we’ll answer them in another post. I know people hunt for this information all the time – at least, I know I did.

-Josh