I put what you said in red that made me curious.
You don't shampoo your daughter's hair? How do you get the oil/dirt out? Super curious here as if I don't shampoo our hair around here it looks like tar pits!!!
Yep. After she started going curly, I started seeking out advice on the internet (my hair is straight and thin and boring), and I got a lot of reccomendations for the book linked below, as well as a lot of women that either didn't shampoo, or rarely ever shampoo.
Yes, I thought they were absolutely nuts. When she was around 2.5, we were not doing anything for several day (this is in the summer time as well), so I just decided to try it out. It appeared just as clean as it would otherwise. I would sniff her hair occasionally, not really sure why, but I did that as well.
Anyway, there has only been one or two occasions during the past almost 5 years that her hair has been shampooed. My middle daughter I stopped using the baby wash in her hair when she was around 2ish as well. The baby still gets shampoo as she still likes to put food in her hair, but she has begun going curly as well, so at some point I will do the same and just use conditioner. Friends are shocked when I say I don't shampoo them, and always their first remark is that their hair looks clean.
As for any dirt and whatnot, in the Curly Girl book, it talks about how shampoo really dries out hair, especially curly hair, and that contributes to frizz. Then it talks about if you take proper care of your scalp, shampoo is not always necessary. When we put the conditioner in their hair, we let it sit for a while. And we use tons of it especially for my oldest as her hair is super thick. We massage/scrub their scalp with the conditioner and that helps to loosen up anything that might be in there.
The book also gives some different "recipes" for making your own hair products. It mentions that not shampooing isnt ideal for everyone, and at some point, my daughters might need to start using shampoo.
Anyway, if you want to try it for yourself, I would work it a day at a time. When you are in the shower, work your fingers into your scalp when you have the conditioner in and give yourself a good rinse. See how that does it for a day, and then two days and so on. Some find that not shampooing for several days makes their hair less frizzy.
http://www.amazon.com/Curly-Girl-Lorraine-Massey/dp/0761123008
These are my girls, not the best picture to display their hair, but it's what I have for now. The middle girls hair is slightly damp in this as well.
They actually wound up using another (brand new) fine tooth comb that we got to take home.
