African hair in general is delicate. Adopted children who have periods of poor nutrition and less than optimal hair care will often come home with damaged hair. But whether a child comes home with a little hair or a lot of hair, it can sometimes be hard for parents to decide to cut their child's hair.

Little girls My daughter who came home at the age of 20 months has extremely delicate, very damaged hair. The damage was the worst in the middle of the back of her head-- you know, the typical place where baby hair gets broken off, leaving a bald spot.

At first when she came... more

I've got cramps in my hands tonight. You see, I spent five hours braiding hair today. ALL the girls were in need of new styles. I started in the morning with the two year old. I did 20 or so simple hanging braids all over her head.

In the afternoon my 12 year old and I did the 5 and 9 year olds, and then in the evening I braided the 12 year old's hair. The three older girls all decided they wanted the same half-up, half-down style.

I started by making a part across the back of the head, from the top... more

Our second day in Ethiopia, my 11 year old daughter let me braid her hair. I made about 8 simple cornrows, going from her hairline in front back to the nape of her neck. Since her hair is much thicker and curlier than my other Ethio girls, I was pleased with this my first attempt. She-- not so much. She very sweetly said nothing at the time. But after that one hairdo, and one other simple cornrow hairdo at home, she declared, “Mom no do hair.”

Great, I thought with a sigh. I tried not to take it too personally, but after seeing pictures of the hairstyles she liked from her time in Ethiopia, I realized that... more

I haven't talked much lately about boys' haircare, so I thought I'd share my friend Connie's method for cutting her AA boys' hair. A bald fade is a good looking hair cut that is done by barbers a lot these days. For this haircut it is easiest to have two pairs of clippers.

Either you can buy a set of balding clippers or simply unscrew the standard clippers and reset the blades until the tips of the two cutting edges meet. Standard clippers also come with guard attachments. For the hair on the top of the head you may be able to use the #1 or #2 attachment, especially if the hair has a looser curl.

If the hair is kinky and tight, don’t worry about using the attachments at... more

Friday morning found me fussing over hair. Our agency had arranged for us to meet with our girls' uncle who had traveled all the way from Harar to meet us, and I wanted them to look nice. But the meeting time -- 9:30 AM -- had me in a bit of a time crunch. Now with four Ethiopian girls, hair dominates my life in a whole new way.

A couple evenings earlier, three of my girls ALL decided they wanted their hair done and proceeded to unbraid--at 8 PM, no less. I had a moment of pure panic at the sight of three heads of hair all loose at once, and so close to bedtime. The younger of our new girls has soft, loosely curled hair like my little girls -- a familiar challenge. My older daughter... more

I haven't written much about hair in awhile, so I thought I'd share a recent hairdo that turned out especially good on my 5 year old daughter. I did a bunch of cornrows that began at a center part, and then went diagonally backwards to two low ponytails, one behind each ear.

I still struggle with keeping the front edge of the hair in the braids, because she has a lot of short hair at that front edge. But one nice thing about this particular do was that it was easy to freshen up the look of the hairdo by redoing just the two braids at the front hairline when they got fuzzy in 3-4... more

The other hair products that I have tried in the last few weeks are from Blended Beauty. These products are petroleum-free and mineral-oil-free. The two products that I was able to try on my girls were the Satin Styles Detangler and the Light Down and Out Styles from the Blended Cutie child's line.

Both items have a nice mellow almond fragrance that is very pleasant. The Satin Style detangler seemed kind of watery to me, and it took a LOT to have any affect on my girls' thick hair. This might work well with a child with little less hair. But for detangling... more

I wanted to give you more feedback about the Carol's Daughter products now that I've had the chance to use them for awhile. The two products that I've used a fair bit are the Tui Hair Oil and the Tui Jojoba and Shea Butter Hair Sheen in a spray bottle.

I've reluctantly concluded that the two fragrances I've tried are just a little... more

A gal born in Kenya whose blog I read (Twenty-Eight Celsius) shared this post which features a slide show of the braided hair styles she has created. If you're needing inspiration for different parts or ways to do corn rows, you'll love it. It took me forever to download via dial-up, but I consoled myself that the slowness of it gave me more time to study the various photos. Beautiful braids!!

When you're working with curly hair, it is helpful to be able to identify just what kind of hair you're dealing with. Categories have been developed to give people general guidelines for dealing with the various types of hair. An even more detailed description of hair types can be found in the book Andre Talks Hair Type 1 is plain-jane straight hair, the kind people like me find deathly boring, and the kind many Black women would love to have. (Who knows why we can't just decide to like what we have?) Type one hair can be fine or coarse.

Type... more