Tender Headed

As a mother of 3 girls let me just say they all cry when you brush their hair and I am at the point where I beleive it has got to make me feel guilty! A couple of things I have done to try and minimize it is I hold her hair in my hand like a pony tail real close to the head while a brush the lower part to keep it from pulling and the other thing I have done is just cut the hair to the shoulder so there isn't as much to brush. I know it is frustrating when they cry and you don't want to hurt her but the hair has to get brushed!

We have the same issue. We put conditioner in her hair everytime we wash it and that helps a bit. My daughter also wears ponytails as much as possible so her hair doesn't get tangled. Try this if you are not doing it: Spray with detangler and start combing little sections from the bottom while holding the rest of the section with your hand, so when you pull it shouldn't pull on her scalp as much. Slowly work your way up the section until untangled, then start with the next section. Also try different detanglers - some are actually better than others!

Have you tried a regular conditioner as well as a detangler/leave-in conditioner? Also, try combing from the bottom first and work your way up while holding the hair so that the hand that is holding the hair takes the pulling rather than your daughter's head.

I have a daughter like that. Forget the brushing, get a large wide tooth sturdy comb and hand it to her! She's 7, let her do her own. My daughter (really curly hair) only does hers when it is wet. She does perfer the brush, but she had to work up to it. My daughter is old now, 14. she will even get her hair straighted now (that is pulling and tugging and torture)2 or 3 times a year. She loves that because all tangles are ironed out.
She may just not like to be touched, some kids (and husbands) are like that.