No more tears? (Clippasafe Shampoo Shield)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	Clippasafe Shampoo Shield
Date:	21/02/09 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively inexpensive, stops suds going into children's eyes, one size

Disadvantages: Only works if your child co-operates!

Bathtimes have always been a source of great fun for our kids but hair washing is a completely different matter! Our eldest used to scream blue murder throughout the whole process and I'm sure any passers-by would think he was being tortured. Our youngest doesn't produce quite such blood-curdling screams but he certainly voices his displeasure - making the whole hair washing experience stressful for everybody.

When we spotted a Shampoo Shield in Mothercare we thought (and hoped) that we'd found the perfect solution. It cost £3.99 and is suitable for children over the ages of six months. The shield is basically a stretchy cap with a hole in the centre which fits onto your child's head, leaving the hair exposed, obviously. The description tells you that it's made from neoprene rubber which stretches to fit, so one size fits all, and it just needs rinsing after use with a damp cloth and patting dry. The cap bit is supposed to stop the shampoo suds and water from running into your child's face and eyes - which is the part that causes most of the problems.

At bathtime that evening, our oldest was desperate to have his hair washed and try out the new contraption (even though it had been bought with his youngest brother in mind, really!) There was much excitement and our oldest was keen to show his baby brother that no water was going into his eyes. And yes - it does work. The water and suds go straight over the lip of the cap and miss the face out completely. Success!

Onto our eighteen month old next.... We soon encountered one key flaw with the concept. Whilst a six year old is going to co-operate with the process because he understands exactly what the shield is supposed to do, a baby is not quite so co-operative. This resulted in a battle of wits as, no sooner did we place the shield on our baby's head, he whipped it off as quick as lightening! The end result was a wrestling match trying to put the shield on and and rinse his hair off in the split second whilst the cap was in place. Every time, our littlest would remove the shield just at the critical point and end up with a faceful of water and suds which was just what we were trying to avoid! The alternative was to literally hold his hands together whilst we washed his hair to stop him taking the shield off. As you'd imagine, this just led to as many tears as the typical hair washing session anyway!

So, mixed results for us then. We will perservere though, as the key thing is letting our baby learn the connection between wearing his shield and not having water in his face. His brother continues to wear the shield at hair washing time, although it is quite stretched as I don't expect the manufacturers envisaged children of his age still using this product! Our youngest usually likes to copy everything his big brother does so, with time and a bit of patience, he might start wearing his shield and make hair washing much less stressful all round.

This product does work, so I'd recommend it to people experiencing the problems that we have with hair washing. The only difficulty will be persuading toddlers and young children to keep this on their heads for long enough. If you crack that part, washing their hair should be a breeze! Fingers crossed!

Edit August 09: Our youngest has finally cracked and now agrees to wear this for hair-washing time! Success!

Summary: No more tears? Almost!