Excellent Hair Advice

No, it's not my advice that's excellent. It's yours! Last week, many Happy Girl Hair mommies shared their experiences and thoughts on some challenging issues. Not everyone reads comments, so I decided to do a little roundup of the tips moms have generously offered. If you are among those who don't usually read comments, I suggest checking out those in last week's posts. These are just a few of the amazing suggestions offered, and you might find a gem in the full comments that makes a world of difference for you.

Here it is, a collection of wonderful advice on...

sleep caps:

• Anonymous 2/4 @ 8:36 says,"I put a wig cap on top of my daughter's sleep cap and it keeps it nice and snug all night. They are only .99 cent at any beauty supply store."

• Honeysmoke says, "I also wear a sleep cap at night, and I have a ponytail holder wrapped on the back so that i can adjust it whenever I need to. I have had it for years. The elastic is long gone, but the elastic band in the back does the trick -- at least for me." (I did this last night for Little R and it worked perfectly- JM)

skin and hair butter:

• Tami shared her recipe, "another good option is to mix unrefined shea butter with the following oils: jojoba, coconut, olive and castor oil. we use this for our skin and hair as well. it might be a bit greasy, but it definitely works well in coarse, thick hair."

• Denise agreed with Tami and added,"Yes, yes, yes to the shea butter mixes. I didn't have any castor oil in mine---just jojoba, coconut, and shea gently melted and mixed until the cooled result was barely solid(took a few tries, since I didn't measure). It's the consistency of cream, melts easily and goes on smoothly over the hair, doesn't drip or flake, has a light pleasant scent, and works beautifully as a pomade on braids, as a detangler, and all over body moisturizer."

working with fitted satin crib sheets when your child is too young for a sleep cap:

• Anonymous 2/3@12:11 wrote, "To make satin sheets safer, you could stitch elastic on the edges or more fabric so the sheet could velcro or zip on/off."

finding fitted satin crib sheets:

• Denise points us to this Ebay seller and I just found this and this

doing hair when kids resist:

• Jill said, "I plunk her down between my legs - it's so much more personal (plus, when she gets wiggly, I just squeeze my knees tighter as a quick reminder to sit still). She used to fall asleep against me when I was braiding (I'm faster now, so she doesn't do that anymore). Just sit her down and and play with her head and praise her."

• Anonymous 2/3@1:24 shared, "Make her feel pretty and special afterward. I withheld the "treat" until after I was done and she begin to look forward to having the treat afterward."

• Cul-ture-queen suggest, "Try sectioning her hair off at least and if all else fails start combing it before bed or around nap time, she'll already be tired and won't put up much of a fight."

• Honeysmoke added, "you can invent a phrase that you share with her so that she knows you're done. that way, she doesn't have to wonder if you are done and when she gets older she can say the phrase back to you as a thank you of sorts."

• Curls of Luv wrote, "We would sit on the bed and I would know how I was going to style it before I started. I also had a old baby wipes container full of hair accessories and she played with that. In the beginning she just liked all the colors and shapes, as she got older I would give her a comb/brush and she would do her dolls hair. This usually worked better than anything."

Thank you to all the moms who contributed their knowledge and shared their experiences. It does take a village to raise a child, and we are building ourselves a unique and wonderful village here.