5 Ways To Survive A Hair Styling Session With A 5 Year Old..

Creativity and patience are the two words that come to mind when styling my 5 year olds hair.  My daughter is ansy during styling sessions.  It also takes some coaxing to get her to keep her head still while giggling when I'm washing her hair, and a few bribes to get through the entire session.  I've learned to try several different activities to maintain my daughters attention during a 1 1/2 hour co-wash and twist session.  Here are the top 5 tips that tend to work for me:

1.  Turn on some music and allow her to sing or make up some type of dance movement using arms and legs during styling.
2.  Read a book while styling  ( I actually recalled some facts that I hadn't thought about since childhood, like the fact that a baby horse is called a "foal".  LOL!)
3.  Ask her to count (She enjoys showing off by counting past 100 while I cheer her on).
4.  Ask her to repeat me while I count to 100 in Spanish ( I always find time to attend a Spanish class and it's my way of teaching her Spanish and reviewing what I've learned).
5.  When she says "Mom I'm tired", promise a special treat at the end of the session (Her request was for some strawberry yogurt since we didn't have any ice cream).

Those 5 activities work like a charm for me.  In essence I've maintained her attention while reading, building vocabulary, adding in some movement, reviewing foreign language, and sealing with a treat.  She even let me do a quick length check
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I think the 5 survival tips are working.  Her hair is still growing as she allows me to throw in some twists for air drying overnight.  Yep it takes some creativity to survive a hair styling session with a 5 year old but it can be done!

What special tricks do you use to get through styling sessions with your daughters?