Hairbrushing help: 12 ways to make brushing easier with children

Hair brushing can be one of the biggest battles with children, especially when kids have hair that is especially long, thick, curly or unmanageable.  Here are twelve ways to make it easier for everybody.

1. Give your child a doll to brush while your brush her hair.
2. Take turns.  Brush your child's hair for a set number of minutes and then let her brush yours.  Rotate back and forth. 
3. Try different brushes. Some types really pull on hair, while softer bristles are more gentle.  Take your child to a dollar store like Mankato's Dollar Tree and pick out a variety of brushes to try in different colors and styles.
4. Get creative with hair tools.  One mother reports good success using a pick on her son's long, thick hair.  Other families use electric detangling brushes.  One mother bought a new pet brush that slipped over her hand and reported wonderful results on her daughter's curly hair.
5. Try making your own conditioning spray. Mix one part conditioner (any) to 3 parts water and put it in a spray bottle. Spray her wet hair with it after the bath and don't rinse. It makes it softer and more manageable.
6. When brushing out tangles, start at the bottom and work on small sections.  Hold the rest of the hair with your hand to keep it from pulling, if it's long enough.  It's better to go slowly and softly, even if it takes a long time, than to go quickly and turn it into a painful battle.
7. To deal with really large, difficult tangles, slather conditioner on the tangled area while it's dry and brush through, starting at the bottom.  Work in more as needed.  Rinse afterwards.  This works surprisingly well even on very large knots.
8. Make it fun. In our family, we often watch TV and talk while brushing hair. Also, I bring a little mousse and let the kids play with small dollops and put them in their hair. They love the texture of it and will let me brush for much longer.
9. Use mousse or gel when it's wet and brush it into place so it falls into place naturally the rest of the time. If you wait for it to dry and let it be unruly, it'll gravitate towards that messiness throughout the day.
10. Remind kids to get in the habit of brushing regularly so the tangles don't build up.
11. Sweet tastes have been shown to help with pain.  If your child's scalp is very sensitive and hair brushing is painful, consider giving her a sweet treat to suck on during difficult hair brushing times.  We saved all natural treats like maple syrup lollipops and honey sticks for this.  In the Mankato area, try the St. Peter coop for all natural treats.
12. Get a cut that's easy to manage. A good haircut will make it look presentable most of the time without a lot of effort. Bangs work well for this, plus having the ends all one length. Even unbrushed, a good haircut will fall into place much more easily.  Shorter cuts can also look adorable and make life much easier for everybody.

Remember, in the grand scheme of things, having a child with unruly hair is not going to lead to anything dire.  And on really bad hair days there's always cute hats!