Young hair has a tendency to be quite fine and flyaway, which can make plaiting or braiding hair tricky and frustrating at times, as it never quite looks neat enough. You can try dampening the hair with a water spray first, which does work quite well, but it doesn’t last all day as obviously the hair dries out after a few minutes.

I’ve been looking for a solution to this for a while. Whilst for ballet shows and special occasions I’ve used hairspray, I’m not a huge fan really and certainly wouldn’t want to be using this everyday for school.

I went to school with someone who used half a can of hairspray on her hair everyday…I kid you not…by the time we were fourteen she was taking it to school in her bag and spraying more on at each break time.

Madness.

I’ve found what I think is a much better option anyway and it just involves using a tiny bit of hair wax. The brand I’ve been using is DAX, and it’s really made a huge difference.

I just apply a tiny bit to my fingertips and smooth it over the flyaway hairs on top and also at the front and side of the head.

It not only gives the plait a much smoother overall look, but it helps it to stay neat and tiny all day and through after school activities. It still has that just plaited look at the end of a busy day which is a revelation. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of doing this before!

My discovery came about at a friends house recently when I was plaiting the girls hair for a birthday party and we didn’t have any spray. My friend produced a wax that she uses and it was so effective I thought it was perfect for an everyday solution.

By only using a tiny, bit the hair can still be brushed through at the end of the day. My big girl swims a lot so her hair gets washed several times in a week, but if you aren’t a fan of over washing I think this seems to brush out fairly easily too.