Developing a healthy kids’ wash day routine while your children are young is important. It helps protect your child’s hair, helping reduce breakage so their hair can retain length. It adds moisture, promotes shrinkage, and preserves definition, allowing your child’s natural curl patterns to shine through. The right wash day routine can also make the process as a whole easier for you and your little one, with fewer tears along the way.
But perhaps the best reason to establish a wash day routine with your child while they are young is that it's an opportunity to teach them the importance of caring for their hair properly.
Wash day can feel overwhelming at first, especially when you're learning what your child's curls or coils need. The good news is that once you build a routine that works, the process becomes faster, easier, and much less stressful.
Select the Right Products for Your Child’s Hair Type
The most important part of your wash day routine begins long before you add water.
No matter your age, when it comes to textured hair, you want to choose the right products. The wrong shampoo, conditioner, and treatments can leave curls less defined, increase frizz, and make textured hair feel dry.
Choosing the right products starts with understanding your child’s hair. Just like adults, each child’s hair has different needs. Every child’s hair has its own curl pattern, porosity, and moisture needs. Understanding how quickly your child’s hair absorbs and loses moisture, which products help define curls, and which products promote shrinkage for bouncy, tight coils and curls can help you choose products that support a healthier wash day.
Understanding your child’s hair will help you better select products to fit their needs. For instance, if you know your child has dry hair, you should choose moisturizing products. For tight coils, you’ll want products that define curls without leaving buildup.
Start By Detangling
Detangling is often the hardest part of wash day for kids. No matter how careful you are, the tug on sensitive scalps can be uncomfortable or even painful for kids.
Waiting to start the detangling process until you’ve finished your full wash day routine can lead to more tangles. You also may wind up combing away the products that your child’s hair needs to stay moisturized until the next wash day, or you’ll tug away their curl’s shrinkage and definition.
To avoid this, detangle early in the process. Start by wetting your child’s hair. When it comes to textured hair, including coils, curls, and waves, trying to comb hair while dry can lead to breakage. After wetting their hair, use a detangling spray. Thoroughly coat the hair. Then, use a wide-tooth comb or your fingers to gently work tangles out.
If your child has a lot of tangles, separate their hair into smaller sections and work section by section.
Use a Gentle Shampoo
Textured hair needs natural oils to stay healthy. But wash day is important for cleansing your child’s hair and setting the stage for another few days (or week!) of healthy, manageable hair and fresh, tight curls or coils.
To avoid over-stripping your child’s hair of its natural oils, opt for a shampoo that’s designed for their hair type. A gentle, kid-friendly shampoo designed for natural hair will cleanse strands and leave them soft and hydrated.
Follow With a Hydrating Conditioner
If your child’s hair is high porosity or otherwise gets dry quickly, conditioning is a must during wash day. But even if their hair isn’t overly dry, you should still follow up shampoo with a hydrating conditioner.
Deep conditioner is good for textured hair because it softens strands, makes hair easier to detangle, and boosts hydration to keep hair shiny, healthy, and strong in between washes.
Just like with shampoo, opt for a kid-friendly conditioner designed for textured hair. Your product should help loosen any tangles that remain, make hair instantly soft, and also add hydration to the scalp. This step will restore moisture to your child’s hair, which is essential to restoring curl pattern and keeping hair shiny.
In between wash days, refresh days can help rehydrate if your child’s hair has become dry. A spray treatment, such as leave-in or a multi-purpose wonder spray, can detangle and nourish coils, kinks, and curls, reduce frizz, and add back moisture and shine that may start to go away between washes. If you need to add back definition and shrinkage to your little one’s hair, a foaming mousse can help.
Rinse and Dry With Care
When you’re done washing and conditioning your child’s hair, it’s time to rinse and dry. Rinse thoroughly until the product is removed before moving to your leave-in products. This helps seal the hair’s cuticle, locking in moisture. It can also help leave your child’s hair shiny.
Gently pat your child’s hair with a soft towel. If you don’t have a soft towel, an old t-shirt is a great alternative. You want to avoid rubbing or pulling on the hair. This can cause damage and also loosen curls and coils.
Lock in Moisture
Washing may be done, but your kids’ wash day hair routine isn’t quite over. Curly, coily, or wavy natural hair loses moisture quickly in between washes. That’s why it's important to finish your routine with some additional products that can help keep moisture locked in until wash day comes around again.
For kids, a simplified version of the LOC or LCO method is a great choice. Both methods utilize a leave-in conditioner, cream, and oil to seal moisture into every cuticle. They differ only in the order in which products are applied.
Start with a gentle leave-in conditioner designed for kids’ hair. You want to opt for something lightweight that won’t weigh down natural texture. For the LCO method, you’ll follow that up with a cream or butter. A curl and coil cream is a great choice for defining curls, kinks, and coils without weighing down your child’s hair. A hair and scalp butter is also a great choice, particularly if your child’s scalp could use soothing post-wash and detangling.
After cream or butter, apply hair oil. This step is only necessary for kids who have extra dry hair. It can help seal in the ends and lock in the moisture you’ve just added. The LOC method also features oil, but it’s the second step in the process and is followed by a cream or butter.
Choose a Protective Hair Style
To protect your little one’s curl pattern, lessen tangling, and keep their hair healthy and moisturized until the next wash day, finish the process with a protective hairstyle. Leaving hair loose can increase tangling friction and moisture loss over time.
Some protective hairstyle options include:
- Braids or cornrows
- Buns or puffs
- Two-strand twists
- Pineapple (for protecting hair at bedtime)
You want your child’s hair to be secured in place to avoid tangles, but not too tight. Tight hairstyles can be uncomfortable for your child, particularly if they already struggle with a sensitive scalp. They can also cause tension and lead to breakage.
You can also use styling products that help build moisture and prevent tangles. A curl and coil cream, for instance, can define curls, coils, and kinks without weighing down hair.
How Often Should I Wash My Child’s Textured Hair?
How often you should do a hair wash routine with your child depends on their hair. Textured hair needs natural oils to stay healthy. But washing removes buildup and cleanses the scalp.
If your child has curly or wavy hair, you can plan to do a wash day every 7 to 10 days. If your child’s hair starts to get dry or tangled, or you need to style it, you can refresh hair with a leave-in treatment in between wash days.
Coily hair can go longer in between washes. You should only wash hair every 10 to 14 days, and use a leave-in treatment in between.
Tips for Making Your Kids' Wash Day Routine Easier
If your child has a sensitive scalp, has had a bad experience with wash day in the past, or has trouble sitting still for long, wash day can be a struggle. In addition to using the right products and routine to gently work out tangles, there are a few other tips you can follow to make the process go more smoothly.
Focus on the Scalp
When you’re working shampoo or conditioner into your child’s hair, focus on massaging the scalp. This can lessen pulling on their hair, which can be uncomfortable for kids, and especially those with a sensitive scalp.
Use Your Fingers Before a Comb
Even if you know that you’ll need a comb to work on stubborn tangles, start by using your fingers to work out larger tangles.
Make It Fun
If your child struggles with wash day, look for ways to make it more fun or relaxing for them. Have their favorite snacks or drinks ready for them to enjoy. Put on a favorite show or movie on your phone, tablet, or TV. Anything you can do to keep your child calm and distract them can help make the process easier for everyone.
Getting Ready for Wash Day
Your kids’ wash day routine is an important part of keeping their hair soft, healthy, and shiny. It’s a chance to cleanse the scalp and hair, and enhance your child’s natural curl definition. Finding the right products and creating a routine that works for your child’s hair can help make the process easier week after week.
Ready to start building the perfect routine for your child’s hair? Shop our selection of kid-friendly products designed for textured hair today!
