Need Help with Bi-racial Daughters Hair!!

J.- I have 2 biracial children as well (I'm Caucasian and my husband is Afro-American). My daughter is now 19 and my son is 16. Both of them have very different hair textures. But the one commonality is that it is dry hair. One thing I find very interesting is that I have more texture and thicker strands of hair than my daughter. She has very fine easily tangles and fragile hair. It's very, very slow growing.

I'm used to washing and styling my hair every day so that's how I started with my children. But curly hair is typically very dry. Several years ago a good friend who isn't biracial but has curly hair suggested that my daughter not wash her hair but maybe once a week. My daughter is now off to college and I don't think she every puts shampoo in her hair. She may wet it and add new conditioner but never (or rarely ever) uses shampoo. Because she now chemically straightens her hair once a year, it's even more fragile so she's very careful with it.

My son keeps his hair very short and he too rarely puts shampoo in it. He showers twice a day because of sports and he uses just conditioner.

One thing to note is that they both use products made by USANA Health Sciences. The shampoo and conditioner is very gentle and it doesn't contain any chemicals that can harm them or their hair. It contains no parabens which is a preservative and has been found in breast cancer samples. Unfortunately, many of the products made for black hair not only contain parabens but petroleum products.

Best of luck

D.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi J.,

I also have two children who are biracial so I can understand what you are going through. The best products I have found are Curly Qs. These products were designed by a biracial woman specifically for biracial hair. The website is www.curls.biz. I see they also have a new line of baby products as well as products for adults. (The Curly Qs are for kids). I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

K.

1 mom found this helpful

I have never dealt with that kind of hair, but your daughters crying reminded me of my young girl days.
My mom kept my hair pretty long and it tangled easily (I have fine hair and a lot of it and it's wavy). So I protested really hard when it came time to 'fix it'. In desperation she cut it... really short! She told me that until such time that I would be able to fix it myself, I would not have long hair.
The arrangement worked quite well for several years.
So, should the products that were suggested to you not help... maybe having a really short do help your girls?
Good luck to you and your girls!

It looks like you've gotten some good direction already, but if you want more resources, go to www.naturallycurly.com. They explain the different types of curl, rate products, refer stylists and there are articles on curly hair tips, etc. Good luck!

Hi J.,

I have a 10 year old bi-racial child, I am white, father is African American. For washing & conditioning, I use a product called "Motions". Comes in a kinda like yellowish-orangey kinda bottle. After I towel dry her hair, I use a product called "Olive Oil". It's not really oily, but more moisturizing. There are several different kinds of this product, all of which I use & have found great success with. I've been using it for well over a year now & even my daughters hair dresser has felt the softness in her hair. It's kinda pricey, but well worth the cost!! I only wish I had found it sooner! Good Luck! My e-mail address is: ____@____.com if you have any other questions.

I have two boys that are bi-racial as well. My oldest has my texture ("white" and very fine) but with curls, and my youngest has the drier, super-curly afro-type hair. I used to use the icky chemical-smelling pink lotion on my youngest's hair, but now I use "Super Skinny" and it makes it SO soft and manageable! No tears or cries of "OW" as I put a brush through it. I get it at Fantasic Sam's. I also use it on my hair as it is long, curly (permed), AND foiled. After putting it in while my hair is wet, I can run my fingers, a comb, etc, with hardly any pulling or tangles. It's the best thing I've found...for both of us! :)

Good luck!

curlz.biz is a good site that I see someone recommended. I have tried their products and they work well for my daughter's hair.

Also take a look at: http://www.blendedbeauty.com/

Here is another site you may be interested in: mulatto.org - There are tons of people you can talk to about this and they are very nice on there. It is noted for people of biracial decent and if you look around there are caucasion women with bi-racial children that find support and ask questions. It may or may not be for you but if I remember there are some that had the same questions. The website I mentioned above I got from mulatto.org -

Good Luck to you!

My best friend has a biracial son and she has the same problem with his hair, so I did some googling (I do a LOT of googling) and I found this website, http://www.biracialhair.org/Welcome.aspx The woman who so kindly developed this website is also biracial. I hope it helps a little. She even has pictures from when she was a kid of different hair styles until she figured out how to do it and keep it healthy. Have fun and good luck! (If this site doesn't satisfy you, do some googling. There were a couple sites I found interesting!)

I babysat full time for a biracial girl who had wild, beautiful curls but not "black" or "white" hair--we got it wet every morning and used No More Tangles to comb it out and then tried to get it out of her face so she wouldn't mess with it. I'm thinking you've probably tried this, so perhaps your daughter's hair is different from this girl's. But...she also had difficult hair and that's what worked for us!

get the book "curly girl". Great info on how to deal with all sorts of curly hair problems.

You could call Tonya Moore at NE Children's Home Society ###-###-####). She is African American but helps a lot of parents with resources in this area and she is great to talk to. She has written a book about transracial adoption so she really tries to help people with specific issues and those would include haircare and skin care. One thing that I had not seen mentioned that she always suggests is going to a salon with African American stylist so they can tell you what texture of hair someone has and what may be the best product. Good Luck!

Hi J.,
I use Carol's Daughter on my daughter's hair. I love it, it's on the expensive end of hair products though and I can only get it online. Most of their stores are in New York, although I did read some of the Macy's stores carry it. It works wonders on her hair. We have not tried pink lotion, but know others who have and my recollection is that it is drying. My other suggestion would be to take your daughter to a black hair salon or store. If you're in Appleton(I'm not sure how far reaching Mamasource is), Total Hair is on the corner of Richmond and College in Appleton. It's a wonderful little store. The people are very friendly and very willing to help us (me) white mothers who are trying to figure out our children's hair. I am also on a couple of yahoo groups for African hair - a forum for sharing information. Good luck. M.

I came across this site.
http://www.treasuredlocks.com/biracial-hair-care-guide.ht...

Hi,
My daughter is AA, Hispanic and Indian. She is now 21 months and her hair is little rings, thin, dry but also beautiful.
I adopted Addison and had no idea what to do with her hair. The tangle spray stuff has never worked for us and dries her hair out. I rarely wash her hair or less it is a yogurt or food disaster.
I have spent thousands on every product cheap and very expensive. The origional Paul Mitchell leave in scalp and hair conditioner. It is called "The Conditioner" and you can buy it at salons or some stores. I use every day after bathign when her hair is damp.
JcPenny makes a scalp and hair set of shampoo, conditioner and infusion. Right now I only use the infusion every three days. It is called Shea. It works really well and makes the hair easy to care for, healthy and beautiful. $24 a oz but you use very little.
I have read the other suggestions and am going to check out the Suzy Q products.

I too have a mixed daughter. I have the same isses with tangles in her hair and not wanting me to brush it. Braids and pony tails also work well for me but I love Hawaiian Silk moisturizing spray (white bottle). It is the best detangler and also gets it "wet" enough so it is kinda like she just came out of the bath. I also BioSilk conditioner on her hair, which is the only conditioner that I have ever found that actually works beyond the first day, just out of the tub. Hope this helps!

P.S. My aunt uses "A 10" on her grand-daughter's hair (also mixed). I have never used it but she swears by it. However, it is a bit pricey, from what I have heard.

My daughter finally figure something out for her hair-after years of trial & error. Everynight after her shower she puts in Tresemme' Bouncy curls Defining Gel & then sprays it with Frizz Eaze Curl Perfecting spray. Then in the morning she sprays it again with the Frizz Eaze. We found this combo helps with the tangles (even thougth neither of them are detanglers) & with the friz of her hair. We also found that a shower comb works great for combing. These can be found in with the spa'ish section of stores & they are pretty cheap. They are larger combs with large teeth & spaced far apart. Good luck!

I use coconut oil on my hair. You can get it at any beauty supply store. It is wonderful. I also use a silk pillow case, keeps the hair knots down. I use the coconutoil pre and post shampooing. Has been doing the trick for 20 yrs now...Good luck.

I would suggest keeping it braided and oiled. Only wash their hair once every week to week and a half. Carol's Daughter products work great and are available online or Sephora.