I normally use TV to get the girls to sit still while doing their hair. When I first got into braiding hair, my first daughter was maybe  18 months old, she never watched tv, so it was a treat and worked really well.

Nowadays, the girls watch much more tv, but they are very used to me braiding their hair at the same time, we’ve got a braiding-stool in front of the telly, and the girls always sit still when they are on it. However, there is a direct link between what they are watching and how much the brushing and braiding hurts: for the oldest two girls, I can do any braid if ”the Littlest Petshop” is on, but as soon as ”Chuggington” comes on, they start going ”Ouch, OUCH”… So I record their favorite tv programmes, so I can use them when we do their hair.

My youngest daughter just always copies the others, so as soon as she was able to say ”my turn”, she insisted in sitting on the braiding chair in front of the telly. So I was able to do french braids on her when she was 20 months old:

Whatever you use to try to get your child to sit still, I think routine and habit are the key words. When we’ve been somewhere where there is no telly, it’s always been more difficult, but I’ve been able to improvise a bit with the phone, books, stickers on mirrors etc.

If you have older children to use as examples, the younger ones will just follow. I’ve managed to braid my kids’ friends’ hair, even those, who would never normally let anyone touch their hair, but when they see me do my girls’ hair, they insist in having a turn!