We have recently adopted an newborn African American baby. He has a large amount of hair and it is curly when wet then goes straight and messy when dry. Just wondering if it will change and approximately at what age.
Who knows when African American Infants Hair changes?
I believe if it is going to change, it will begin to do so when he is about 12 months old.
I have a friend who has two little girls who are African American. They got both of them just days after they were born. Both of the little ones had full heads of hair, but it was the really fine, long stuff that babies are often born with. At around 3-4 months, both of them started gradually losing that birth hair, and it was replaced with straight black hair which was curly when wet, but which was a lot more coarse than that with which they were born. At about a year, each of them started gradually losing the super straight hair, and growing hair which is a lot curlier. They are now 5 and 4, and one of them has very loose, relaxed curls, while the other has very kinky, tight curls. One of the challenges for my friend was finding out how to care for their hair correctly. We live in an area where there are not a tremendous amount of African American people, but she was lucky enough to find a hair salon run by an woman from the Carribean who specializes in the care of African American hair, and this woman and all her clients were happy to show my friend the ins and outs of dealing with her little girls' hair.
One of the things they taught her was to be very careful about overwashing. They told her to do a thing called a conditioning wash, which is basically using a good, deep moisturizing conditioner instead of shampoo. It cleans the scalp and hair just like shampoo does, but it does it much more gently. They also told her to never ever wash the babies' hair with super warm water, and to teach them to use cool water when they get older, as hot water strips natural oils. While the girls have a bath every night before bed, she only washes their hair with actual shampoo about once a week. The rest of the time she either just rinses their heads with cool water or does the conditioner cleaning. She also uses a leave in conditioner every day to help protect their hair, and she is very careful when she brushes it to keep it from being damaged by overzealous brushing.
I know my friend was really glad to find the hair salon. They taught her all sorts of things she didn't know about how to care for African American hair and skin. They also taught her how to do cute little braids! If you don't know someone who can help you out with questions, you might consider finding a similar salon in your area. The important thing is to find someone who can teach you about how to care for your son's hair in the best way.
And congratulations on the new baby! All babies are wonderful, but adopted ones are super special gifts, in my opinion :)
Who knows when African American Infants Hair changes?
change to what?
Who knows when African American Infants Hair changes?
when it is dry please put some oil into his hair, afri-amer people need oil in their hair, plus do not wash his hair everyday, just once a week, or when ever absolutely necessary. his hair will change around the age of 11 months, then you wait until he is almost two years old and get him a hair cut.
Who knows when African American Infants Hair changes?
my fiance is african american and he says you should start to tell if it's going to stay curly or just be straight and kinky (knappy) around 2 or 3. his niece is mullato (half black half white) and her hair had soft curles when she was a baby and a young girl but now she is 13 and her hair is super kinky/course but it is straight so it could be even later than toddler age (baby/genetic dependent). Afro-Am hair needs a lot of oil/grease because it is so dry (he says dirt makes their hair grow so the longer you go without washing it the faster it will grow) so i would wash his hair every couple of days since their hair doesn't get greasy and dirty like ours. also, one of his cousins used baby lotion on her baby's hair and it made her hair so soft and kept the curls in like when it was wet (plus the baby smelled so good!). i've tried it on black babies in the nursery and it works so give that a shot. other than that i think you are just going to be surprised like everyone else with their kids hair (you know some start out with platinum blonde hair then go brunette). good luck though and congrats on the new baby!
Who knows when African American Infants Hair changes?
If it changes at all it will be around a year or so... when the "real" hair comes in baby hair usually falls out from them rubbing their head in their crib and that but the "real" stuff should come in around a year or after that if it doesnt change by then its probably not going to.
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