How We Handled... Sand in the Hair

In the beginning of June, I shared a style update of Hope's box braids.  I expected at that time for her box braids to last a few more weeks.  Well, it's been a while since I posted and I wanted to share that her braids did last a few more weeks!  In fact, we didn't start to remove them until the last weekend in June.  The decision to remove them at that time, though, was made for us by a certain...shall we say...hair disaster.

Look closely at the photo above, and hopefully what you will notice are the smiles on my children's faces.  Look at the backdrop of the photo, and you can, of course, see that we were at the beach when the photo was taken.  Beach setting + "hair disaster" = can you guess it?  Yes, we had an issue with sand.  As you will see, though, the word "issue" does not even come close to describing just how much sand we had to deal with in my daughter's hair on this day.

Anyone who understands the unique qualities of African and African American natural hair knows that sand and natural hair do not mix well together.  Just a little bit of sand can be a big problem.  On this day, we did not have just a little bit of sand.  Far from it.

Here's what happened...

Our local beach has a swingset which my kiddos were playing on.  Hope was swinging away happily when she took a fall.  Head first.  Into the sand.  My first concern was her safety!  (She was fine...crying for sure, but not hurt at all, thankfully!)  After holding her and determining that she was okay, I then took a moment to look more closely at her hair.  The photos below don't even come close to actually showing just how much sand was in the hair, but hopefully you can get a bit of an idea of what I was dealing with:

Keep in mind that Hope was wearing about 100 mini box braids, and you may be able to imagine the amount of panic I was feeling when I examined her hair.  Each braid was covered in sand, and Hope's scalp was also covered in sand.  I knew my reaction was very important, though, so I was careful to project calmness.  I knew that we needed to go home to begin addressing the sand, but I also knew that how I handled this disaster event would communicate something important to my daughter.  Hope's hair care is important, and I would certainly be addressing the sand in short order...but, we were at the beach and we needed to enjoy that time anyway before heading home for hair care!  Remember that photo of Geoffrey & Hope at the top of this post?  That picture was taken after Hope fell in the sand, and after we all spent about 15 more minutes playing on the swings.

Once we were home, it was time to start taking care of our "issue with sand."  How did I handle it?  I recalled a very helpful post I had read previously at Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care regarding sand, and I remembered that the go-to tool recommended in the post was a vacuum.  That's right...a vacuum.  Since mine has a hose attachment it was the ideal method for me to try.  One at a time, yes one at a time, I vacuumed the sand (as best as I could) from scalp to tip from each of Hope's braids.  That method removed a great deal of the sand from the braids, but not all.  Here you can see there is a lot less sand in the upper section of Hope's hair compared to the lower section, which I hadn't vacuumed yet.

After finishing the vacuuming, I washed and conditioned Hope's hair in the bath.  Normally, I just use a cup to pour water over Hope's hair, but this time I did use the hand held shower head for wetting and rinsing, which seemed to help.  I was very pleased with the results at the end of Hope's bath:

Virtually sand-free!  (Which is more than I can say for our bathtub, which had a huge amount of sand in it!)

And, so began the process of removing Hope's box braids.  Which was just in time, really, since we had plans for Hope to participate again this year in Fros on the Fourth.  (Even though July has nearly come to a close, I still intend to share the photos of Hope's Afro coming soon.)

As important as properly caring for Hope's hair was on this day, I knew it was equally (or even more) important for me to display a loving attitude throughout the process.  I made sure to stay patient and gentle as I worked.  Then, when it was all done for the night, I said to Hope:  "Do you know what is going to happen if you ever get that much sand in your hair again?"  (Assume a mock-stern tone.)  Her response was something to the effect of how much trouble she would be in.  I said, "No, if you get sand in your hair again, then I will take care of it again.  That's all!"  The best part was when Hope said, "When I grow up, I be a Mommy, when my daughter gets sand in her hair, then I take care of it!"

Blessings,
Nikki