Drying and styling hair

Occupational therapy

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are, too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going out to so many different children and families, so if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Hi, today, let's talk about drying and styling your hair after you have washed it, okay? Sometimes we can find it really tricky to dry our own hair and to style it, especially if you have really thick hair or really long hair. And some of the skills that you need to dry and style your hair are good shoulder strength and shoulder control because your arms are going to be up the whole time, so they need to be really strong; good fine motor skills, so that you can maybe put a hair grip in; good manual dexterity; and really good sense of touch, 'cause quite often you have to brush and you can't see what's happening at the back. You need to really focus and pay attention to what you're doing, and you need to be able to use a mirror as well. Pause the video now to get the items you will need. These are paper, pen or pencil. Restart once you're ready. Okay, so you've come out of the shower or your bath and your hair is wet. What you're going to do is you're going to take a towel, and I find it useful to have a smaller towel, and then you're going to rub your hair dry with that. If you struggle, if your hair's very long, or you just struggle a little bit with keeping your arms up high, then you can put on a towel cap, which is basically a little hat made of towelling fabric. Then once you've done that, you're going to put your head forward and rub the towel over the back of your hair. You're going to squeeze the ends of your hair with the towel so we get all the water out, and then you're going to get your hairbrush or your comb. Now what you want to do is you're going to separate your hair from behind into two sections. And then you're going to hold one section about halfway down. And what you're going to do is you're going to brush from the bottom of your hand. So if my hand is there, I'm going to brush from there, so imagine my hair is, like, super long, and you're going to brush downwards, and you're going to gradually move your hand higher, and then brush up from higher. And what this means is that you aren't pulling on your hair, and you're going to do this until there are no tangles left. And then you're going to repeat this with the other half of your head. Which of these easy hairstyles do you already do? Wear a hair band or Alice band? Put it in a low ponytail? Put your hair into two low ponytails? Do you brush it to the sides and just put hair clips in? Or do you use gel or mousse or hair wax to hold the style in place, for example, spiking your hair up? Pause the video now to have a think about that and complete your task. Resume once you're finished. Remember, take time to practise, and try and practise when you're not in a hurry. Practise, practise, practise, and ask an adult if you can practise on their hair, or a sibling. If you struggle to get the tangles out, then you can use a detangling brush and maybe a detangling spray. Ask an adult about this. You can practise tying up your hair by putting a hair band around the handle of the brush until you can do it really, really well. And you can also ask an adult to dry your hair with the hair dryer. If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share pictures of you styling your hair on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. Bye.

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Drying and styling hair

Drying and styling hair

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