"Ahh no not dad hair…."

Calling all dads with daughters, can you do decent hair? Although I have two girls aged 4 & 8 I am still totally incapable of doing anything other than the most rudimentary ponytail. Plaits are out if the question.

Can you do ’em or anything more advanced?

4 & 8, give them a basin cut.

Generally leave it to Mrs. mogrim, but if duty calls I can just about manage a plait. Life’s too short to learn anything more complicated – and if it helps any they soon learn to do their own hair, and if they want to waste time doing some weird plait bun thing, that’s their problem 🙂

Yes, of course I can. I’ve seen my wife put hair clips in dozens of times, you just go like this and clip, and.. oh.. hmm.. that didn’t work..

Actually, I have been able to do plaits since I was a kid (I have a sister) but they aren’t neat or tidy when I do them. Plus on my eldest (who’s the only one with long hair) it’s only been about 2 years so the front isn’t long enough to be caught in a ponytail but much too long to be left. And she would always refuse anything in her hair, resorting to holding it back with her hand when doing anything requiring being able to see; thereby creating a classic pose that she made her own 🙂 However she now wears headbands because the teacher told her she needed to do something.

Nope, ponytail with the end tucked in to the bobbles, kind of like a lazy bun.

She’s cute anyway, who gives a monkey’s what her hair’s like

youngest of 3 girls now 12 and self sufficient hairwise 😀 i could manage plaits at a push wait until they start dance/ballet… bun at 35 degrees to jaw line or something strange. demand is now for ‘french’ plaits for playing rugby Mrs G can do those!(and on her own hair!!)

I’ve no idea how french plaits even work.

Nope. I take my 21 month old daughter to nursery twice a week and the way I do her hair has become a running joke. I do try and sometimes it even looks ok when we are leaving the house, but by the time we get there the clips will have slid down/fallen out and the hair band will have moved to one side giving her a sideways pony tail.
She’ll probably be able to do her own before I get proficient…

Oh, that kind of dad hair??? Wait a few years and the question might have a different meaning……

No.

I have whats known as the ‘one-passer’. Its a massive paddle brush that you swipe over your childs head as you rush them out of the door.

Whatever the result of that ‘one-pass’ is how their hair will look for the day. 🙂

Nope! It’s amazing how different the kids look when you compare how I get ’em ready to when the Mrs does. She also manages to do it in waaaaay less time!

Single Dad here
I just drag a ‘tangle teaser’ through it and whack it in a scrunchy thing, she grimaces with pain but I just tell her ” we can always cut it all off ” …so she just keeps quiet
I have learned to plait etc via youtube but we rarely get time
Don’t get me started on the nit comb, that takes ages ! …

Lil Grips #2 ends up with proto-dreadlocks every morning on the back of her head, so we use conditioner when washing. And not the baby one either, full strength grown-up stuff. Really helps the tangles.

I have had to cut tangles out of my daughters hair before !
Now we leave conditioner in hair for ages while I go off and do something else ?

Ours is a curly haired little monster. Don’t need to worry too much as it does its own thing and stays out of the way at the moment (its actually quite long but curls up tightly). She has had bunches and clips a few times, I can’t get them neat yet though.

I’m dreading nits, her hair is hard work to brush or comb even when wet and conditioned so this will not be fun!

No, not at all. However my girl is nearly 13 so does her own every day. For hours. Various styles.

(One of these styles led to an awkward incident a few weeks ago. I was just sitting on the sofa reading the paper when she walks in wearing amongst other clothes a shortish pair of shorts, as is the fashion. Kneeling on the sofa and turning her back to me she asks ‘Dad, does my bum look nice?’ – 😯 – now, there are a few awkward questions I’ve anticipated, but that wasn’t one of them. ‘Err, what?’, ‘Does my bum look nice?’, ‘Err, yes darling, it looks lovely’. ‘Thanks. Better than when it’s down?’…eh..down…what?….BUN. She said BUN. Her hair is in a BUN. Thank goodness for that).

Haha ‘Bun’

What makes it worse for me is that it’s me who gets them ready every day and always has been and I’m still shite at hair. The ponytails have got better over time though.

Two boys here, so I’m no help. But why not try shrink wrap?

Normal plait: gather all the hair into 3 strands and do a normal 3 pass plait
French plait: start at the crown with 3 strands plait them and as you go along gather more hair and plait that
Dutch plait: upside down French
Fishtail : with just 2 strands
Corn rows: smaller French plaits

Is that enough? 😀

I just googled how to fishtail plait as I thought I would impress my daughter tomorrow morning
No chance, I can’t get my head around that !

I can’t deal with my own hair, why would I be able to do theirs?

Nope! It’s amazing how different the kids look when you compare how I get ’em ready to when the Mrs does. She also manages to do it in waaaaay less time!

Mrs RBIT also manages to get #1 (aged 2y11m) spawn dressed without a screaming tantrum, which I appear to be unable to achieve.

Currently trying to feed #2 who has decided she needs her own spoon, despite not really knowing what to do with it.

Two Girls youngest is not really old enough to need much hair management but eldest is now 4-1/2…

Pony tails are a piece of piss, but then they start Ballet and it gets all complicated with “Buns” and lots of clips and stuff… I can do it if required, but prefer to defer to ‘er indoors…

Oh and that anti-tangle spray stuff (smells of tea tree oil, and apparently prevents knits) makes hair brushing a bit less of a nightmare…

Best advice try lurking on Mums-net…

Lil Grips #2 ends up with proto-dreadlocks

When I was a student I had dreadlocks. I was approached by a handsome young lady in a bar one evening coyly asking

“Hiya, I hope you don’t mind me asking…. your hair, is that a ‘french perm’?”

“errr, no”

“really? are you sure its not like a really tight french perm?”

“definitely not”

“Oh…….. you see I’m a trainee hair dresser and I gave someone a french perm today and it turned out like that”

“OK. Was she happy about that?”

“Not really, she was crying – I told her it would just wash out. It will just wash out won’t it?”

I use youTube to teach me.

2 girls 9 and 7, for years when i was in charge it was a straight forward ponytail (done badly), now they do each others, problem solved.

I think it’s worth noting that some kids are just scruffy and no matter what you or they do, their hair will fall out of whatever hair band or clip you have put it in and end up like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards – my eldest is fine, lots of hair, difficult to brush, but once up, stays up, lovely and neat. My middle one, complete opposite, thinner hair, shorter, easy to brush, never stays up, always looks a mess.

The boy has the same hair as me, I last brushed my hair in the 90’s, his is only brushed to make sure that if he gets nits we can get a comb through it for that.

I do a better ponytail than my ex now, this is a source of great pride for me.

Her auntie has horses though and can do crazy plaits, the little un won’t even sit still for me for that long though

I think I’d make an awful parent…

They both have curly blond hippy child hair, if pigtails are really needed MR L sorts it out as my hands are way too big to do fiddly hair adjustments.

I too think it is a bit mean to ridicule lack of knowledge. It’s all a bit lord of the flies..

But.. you manage just fine with fiddly fork internals.. just making excuses aren’t you? 🙂

Hair’s and different thing altogether