Guide to Styling Your Bi-Racial Child's Hair

Before attempting to style any child's hair you need an understanding of hair texture and how it relates to styling.
If you are a parent, grandparent or adoptive parent of a child of a race other than your own it's important to realize that your child's hair texture shouldn't be styled in "traditional" styles that do not cater to the hair texture of the child for a number of reasons. For example pulling kinky textured hair back into a tight ponytail can pull at the child's hair roots and can lead to hair loss. Having a child with multiple ethnicities leads to an unpredictable texture of hair that can change over time. Even children from the same parents may have a totally different hair texture from one another as a result of their genetic make up. The child may also have any number of hair colors due to recessive genes, this can be a combination of one or more colors, and this too may change over time!

First let's establish the main three hair textures of a bi-racial child that most children can be categorized under the following three categories:
kinky or excessively curly, wavy, and curly.A child's hair type may be a combination of the above textures or an extreme of one type. Texture will come in different lengths, thickness, and levels of manageability this will determine how you will care for the child's hair.

In the following we will explore each type of hair texture and methods of styling.
Curly hair has a waviness to it's texture but when you run your fingers through curly hair you can feel the curl and curves on the strand. This is what is traditionally considered "good hair". Curly hair can be styled into waves or tight springy curls, and can even be "slicked back" to give the illusion of straight hair when pulled into ponytails. Curly hair can change over time and through styling from tight to loose or vice versa. Curly hair can be dry or oily depending on the natural tendency of the hair, and the frequency of shampooing. It's very important to choose the right product and tools for curly hair as the hair can be damaged or weighed down easily.

Kinky or excessively curly has a tight curl but when you run your fingers through kinky hair you can pull the tight curl out and the hair will lengthen and "puff" out. This hair texture may be very dry as a result of the curl pattern. This hair type lends to many versatile styles including braids, parts, afro, and deep waves. This hair type can be "tamed" by using products such as relaxers to texturize the hair and make it more manageable. This can be traditionally considered "bad hair" but no hair is bad, the important part of handling this texture of hair is to take proper care of the hair.

Wavy hair has a slick and silky look and feel to it. When you run your fingers through the hair it feels smooth and is a very loose curl that eases into a wave pattern. This hair type is very soft and "feathery". The hair may be so smooth that it has a tendency to look oily because the texture of the hair is so smooth and manageable. Caring for wavy hair in the early years shouldn't be difficult, but the hair texture can change with time to become more curly or straight.

Many techniques of styling the hair will not be dependent of the sex of the child, rather by the hair growth, length, thickness, and texture of the hair. The guides that follow will be categorized by age and texture of hair and will include styling, product, and care for the hair.
This concludes part 1 of Guide to Styling Your Bi-Racial Child's Hair- Understanding texture. The most important part of starting to style your child's hair is now taken care of by identifying the child's hair texture.