Children’s book about Natural Hair Care

We received our pre-ordered book “My hair is a garden” last from Amazon.  The beautifully illustrated kid’s book touches on a young girl’s struggle to manage her natural hair.  She describes the bullying she receives at school for it. Fortunately, the girl finds a hair mentor in her neighbor, Ms. Tillie.  We loved the vivid drawings in the book, the analogy of hair and the garden but what excited my daughters the most was the recipes, in the back of the book.

With Ms. Tillies helps MacKenzie to see that our hair reflects the health of our bodies.  Analogies were used to show that with the right nutrients, water and devoted time MacKenzie could grow healthy hair just as Ms. Tillie had grown a beautiful garden.  When we read the book, Giana and Misha immediately wanted to mix up our very own hair oil concoction.  I convinced them that we would wait until our next wash day and that is what we did.

 

YouTube Review of “My Hair is a Garden”

Here is our book review, and tutorial on how to make a DIY hair oil blend.  We modified the recipe in the back of the book to work with ingredients we already had.

 

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D.I.Y. Hair Oil Recipe

2-3 chunks of Shea Butter (about a cup).

1 cup Avocado Oil

1 teaspoon Olive Oil

6 drops of lavender 

 

 

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What we love about this natural hair book:

  • Beautiful illustrations.
  • Addressing bullying and how girls with ethnic hair are revered by their peers.
  • Definitions in the back of the book.
  • Recipes in the back of the book.
  • Patience and gentleness that Ms. Tillie took in caring for the matted hair
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I love the verse give a man a fish and you feed him for a day teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Rather than just do MacKenzie hair for her, Ms. Tillie takes the time to educate and show MacKenzie how to care for her own hair.

Natural Hair books build confidence for ethnic girls:

 

I am not quite ready to hand over the brush to my girls, but slowly I am introducing the concept of them grooming themselves.  I will instruct Giana to spritz her frizzy edges on day 3-5 of a protective style.  Demonstrating how to hold the brush and tame her baby hairs.  She can help me unbraid her own hair and we have begun practicing braids on their dolls.

 

Most importantly I am thrilled to see new books on the market specifically aimed to give our brown skinned curly hair girls a boost in confidence.  Identity will continue to be a topic of discussion for me and my mixed kids.  The reading material is a fantastic resource for starting the conversation.

For more hair treatments read our post on Protein Treatments.