mixed chicks

News flash- Mathilda is mixed. Swirl, biracial, whatever you want to call it. Before she was born, a topic of great amusement, concern, and attention among our friends and family was her hair! What would it look like? feel like? Would it be dark? light? curly? straight? soft? coarse? How would her white silky-straight haired mother ever learn to manage this child's hair? (ha ha ha ha, everyone loved making that very funny joke).

As expected given her parents' birth presentations, Tilly was born with a head full of soft, curly, black hair.

Her hair grew in funny patches over her first year, with random wild curls sticking out at odd angles, and rough knots forming when she rubbed her head on the carseat or crib.

For example...

ok this one is just static, but still representative of her crazy coif

Turns out, Mathilda's hair is very soft and very curly. Medium brown with big soft spirals. For about 30 minutes after it dries.  Then it turns into a frizzy, messy nightmare (see above photo spread).  It gets in her eyes, and as soon as she lays on it it tangles into a million little knots that are impossible to get out.  We give her a bath at night and by morning? disaster.

We tried Johnson's Baby No More Tangles.

Review? a joke. Maybe for my hair, but not actual curly, tangly hair.

Then I started using a leave-in conditioner after her shampoo.  I liked the chemical-free, plant-based Curls brand, it left her hair softer, but no easier to deal with in the morning.

I took a trip to Nebby Hair (yes, you read that correctly, a store in Pittsburgh selling primarily "black" hair products called Nebby Hair.  In case you live here and want to go- it is in Oakland across the street from the Natural Choice Salon and Barber Shop where Reg gets his mohawk.)

Reggie with a rifle and a subtle 'hawk.

Bernard, the proprietor at Nebby recommended two products to me for "mulatto" hair (Not kidding at all, the old man said mulatto). The first was a coconut oil spray that we learned quickly was not for our mulatto's hair:

It looks like we pulled her out of the Gulf after the BP spill. Her hair is not wet. It's just that oily.

The second product Bernie recommended was called "mixed chicks" for kids. 

He kindly gifted me a few free samples.  It was love at first wash! 

for real!!

photo shoot at the breakfast table in natural light

The haircare routine now consists of Johnson's shampoo, Mixed Chicks for Kids conditioner, then leave-in conditioner, then the spray detangler in the morning (about 4 more steps than are involved with my own haircare!).  I try to only shampoo her every 3-ish days unless she gives herself a yogurt/pasta sauce/baked beans hair mask that needs to be washed out.  It helps that the stuff smells amazing and not chemically.  I highly recommend for anyone with curly-haired kiddos ("mulatto" or otherwise).