KOCHI: As your kid grows up, along with the heightened outdoor play and exploration comes sweaty, smelly, rough and tangled hair. And added to this is regular oiling, you have a problem sitting on their head. To get rid of it, and to make the hair silky smooth, many mothers –research data shows a third of moms--use an adult/family shampoo after diluting it. Now specialists warn against it, saying that kid’s hair is delicate up to the age of 10 and one must use the right product.
“The pH value of an ideal kids’ shampoo should be around 5.5-6 and a pH level of over 6 may increase the negative electrical charge of hair fibre surface, resulting in friction between the fibres, ultimately leading to cuticle damage and fibre breakage,” says Dr M. Narayanan, president, Indian Medical Association, Cochin branch, who is also a pediatrician. “A mild, easy lather and non-irritating formula that deeply cleanses hair and scalp is ideal for your kid’s hair and scalp.”
This is because the density of hair follicles on scalp progressively decreases after birth owing to the increase in scalp size, while its thickness increases rapidly for the initial four years and reaching maturity by 10 years, says Dr Sachidananda Kamath, former national president of Indian Academy of Pediatrics. The primary terminal hair grows two times thicker and longer in the initial year and matures to five times its thickness and length by 10. “During this stage, kid’s hair is still weak and more prone to damage as compared to adult hair and hence the importance of using the right shampoos,” says Dr Kamath.
