Hi La Negra,

I have been reading your site for a minute now and want to know what type of relaxer you recommend for kids. My daughter is almost 5 with 4b hair she don’t like me to comb it.

Thank you,

(name removed)

Hola amiga,

I hope you don’t get angry or offended, but I don’t recommend any any relaxers for children. Mi prima, my cousin put a relaxer in her daughter’s hair when she was about 4 and even with good conditioning it started to break off. Kids are too young to take care of their hair and unless you have a little girl who is willing to sit under a hair dryer every week (highly doubtful) I don’t recommend it.

I also think that when a girl gets older and takes more interest in her hair, then she can assume some responsibility for it. I know that I didn’t want to spend every Saturday sitting in a salon when I was a kid. I didn’t even want to get my hair combed, but at least is the hair is natural, it’s in a better state.

Try using deep, moisturizing conditioners to make her hair more manageable. When she’s older, perhaps in her tweens, and starts to be more concerned with her appearance, as all of us girls are at that age, then you can revisit letting her get a perm, but I cannot recommend anything to you, because I think she’s too young.

Sorry mamit, have to keep it real.

LaNegra