Hair... Sleep Caps

So African (any very curly) hair is very fragile, prone to breakage, growing slower and being dry. The dryer the hair the easier it breaks. And sleeping on regular pillowcases can damage hair.

Enter the sleep cap.

Don't' you just love that little pink unsocked foot? I do!

Now. I figured Thea is WAY too little to use a sleep cap, but she has inches of nice growth. I found out that the need for a cap is less about the age/size of a child and more about the length of hair they have. Thea has about 4 inches of hair (when pulled straight). Her hair is long (for her age), it has never been cut, it is thin (as in strand thickness) and she has ringlets that are as big as a coffee stirrer straw and it maintains the ringlets for the most part, even when her hair is dry.

I also learned that she needs to start getting in the habit of wearing a cap (before she gets all testy and opinionated about it).

I also figured that it would be hard to find a small enough sleep cap... it sort of was. Until a friend noticed I was looking for one and she so kindly sent me 10 of her daughter's too small caps... honestly they were BRAND NEW! How amazingly sweet is that? :-)

They are a swim cap style, made out of swimsuit material (Lycra) and they fit her perfectly!

The Lycra is smooth and doesn't rub Thea's thin hair. It keeps it in place and from getting tangled or matted.

So far I love them!

They stay on (most of the time).

They aren't too tight or smoosh her hair too much.

They are light enough to be safe if they did get over her face (but I don't think that could even be possible, it would just fall off).

There are tons of different types of caps out there... but from looking around these seem like a perfect first cap mainly because they really are baby sized. I think this could easily fit an 6 or 8 month old up to a 2 year old. I haven't found any others that small.