Ways To Keep Your Kids Hair Hydrated In The Winter

Winter weather is dry and cold, so you’ll need to mix up your kid’s weekly hair routine. With just a few small changes you can ensure their hair stays hydrated and healthy. As always, talk your child through the changes you make for each season, so they learn how to care for their natural hair. 

Never Leave The House With Wet Hair

The more extreme your local weather, the more important it is to leave the house with dry hair. Even if you need to wet their hair a bit to style, spray it instead of wetting it fully in the shower or bath. If it’s their wash day or they get their hair wet, ensure that they cover their hair when they leave the house. This will minimize exposure to the cold and dry air. 

Wet hair isn’t just more prone to damage, but it minimizes our body’s natural ability to keep ourselves warm. Since you don’t want your child catching a cold, you may consider using your hair dryer. Avoid the temptation to use a hair dryer on a regular basis, as the heat will damage their hair over time. Even if only on occasion, apply a protective curl cream before drying their hair. 

Wear Earmuffs Or Satin-Lined Hats

Curly haired kids should sleep year-round with a satin pillowcase, sleep bonnet, or silk scarf. These silky fibers slide against their curls, minimizing breakage. Even if your sheets are a high thread count cotton, bamboo, or natural fiber—breakage is inevitable. Non-silky materials will also absorb the moisture in their hair.

The same is true for the hat they wear in the winter, so invest in a satin-lined hat. Or add satin to their current hats. Fibers such as fleece and many scarf headwraps are less damaging than knit hats, but satin-lined is best. Or invest in earmuffs that will keep their ears warm without disrupting their hairstyle. Even with earmuffs, you may need to keep their head warm with a wrapped scarf.

Style Their Hair Accordingly

Winter is the ideal time to transition to a protective style as it eliminates the worry of super wet hair. Just spray with water or a leave-in conditioner spray and touch up daily. While your morning will be simplified, ensure that you leave enough time in your schedule to switch to a new style every 3 or 4 weeks. To minimize breakage caused by repetitive styles, alternate between different protective styles.

If not a protective style, updos protect their curls more than hair-down styles. Even if their ponytail is curly or you style their hair in afro puffs, much of their hair will stay warm and protected near their scalp. That being said, twists, braids, and buns will protect their hair even more.

If their hair is thick and their braid or bun is still damp at the end of the school day, take down their daily hairstyle at night. This allows their hair to dry all the way through, minimizing the breakage caused by constantly damp hair.

Seal Their Hair With The LOC Or LCO Method 

The LOC or LCO method may only be something you turn to in extreme weather to keep their hair hydrated. The oil layer in particular will seal the hair, providing a protective layer from both hot and cold weather.  

LOC—apply water or leave-in conditioner, followed by oil and curl cream.

LCO—apply water or leave-in conditioner followed by curl cream and oil.

Fro Babies has Leave-In Conditioner and Curl Cream, here’s how to select the perfect oil:

• Hair that has low porosity won’t easily absorb oil, so you’ll need to use a thinner hair oil such as sweet almond or jojoba.
• Hair that has high porosity easily absorbs oil, so you’ll need to use a thicker hair oil such as coconut or olive.
• Avocado oil is ideal for medium porosity hair, or hair that has both low and high porosity areas.

Pre-Poo Or Deep Condition On Wash Day

Using Curly Kids Shampoo and Conditioner will gently cleanse and restore moisture, but their hair may need added protection in the winter. Consider pre-pooing their hair before you shampoo or deep conditioning after.

Pre-pooing—warm your preferred hair oil, massage it into their scalp and hair, then comb it in from root to tip. Put a shower cap over their head and leave it on for 20 minutes before you shampoo and condition. The oil will make the tub slippery when you rinse it out, so be careful.

Deep conditioning—shampoo their hair as usual. Then, apply their conditioner and comb from root to tip. Put a shower cap on their head and leave it on for 20 minutes before you rinse it out.

If your little one isn’t yet patient enough for pre-pooing or deep conditioning you can apply leave-in conditioner daily to protect their hair.

Place A Humidifier In Their Room

It’s not just the air outside that is dry, but also the air in your home. This can dry out everyone’s hair, lips, and skin. Restore moisture by adding a humidifier to your bedrooms. You can find child-friendly designs as well as modern and stylish designs.

Make sure you follow the humidifier’s directions for cleaning and filter changes so that it doesn’t negatively impact the air quality in your home.

Stay Internally Hydrated

It’s not the first thing that comes to mind, but when we are internally dehydrated, it will show in our hair and skin. So, encourage your child to drink several glasses of water each day. Juice and milk count towards daily hydration but try to keep sugar-filled beverages to a minimum. This is easier to forget in the winter when it’s not hot out. Also, ensure they eat a few servings of skin and hair-healthy Omega-fatty acids each week. 

Omega fatty acids can be found in:

• Walnuts
• Flaxseeds
• Avocado
• Salmon
• Shrimp

As always, FroBabies Hair has the essentials you need to keep your kid’s hair healthy year-round!