The Fandads know that "Real Men Can Braid"

(Disclaimer: The Fandads were invited to the "Real Men Can Braid" event and received some hair care products for our time.  All opinions and words are our own.)

Photo by Regina Olech

How many times do we see in television shows or in movies the bumbling dad trying to fix his daughter's hair and he either gets frustrated with it or makes a complete mess of things?

What we don't see in these situations are the dads that know how to take care of their daughter's hair. Oh, yeah. They are out there, but for the ones that want to learn there is a safe place where they can go and learn all about braiding hair.

Last week the Fandads were invited to a "Real Men Can Braid" event hosted by Cozy Friedman from So Cozy and held at Snippets Mini-Cuts. So what is a "Real Men Can Braid" event? Here is the official release about the event and Cozy:

"After kicking off in Manhattan last month, Cozy's class for dads provides the much-needed hair 101 for the hands on dad that wants to master the style and maintenance of his daughter’s hair.  After witnessing a growing number of manny’s, stay-at-home dads, primary care fathers, and a general increase in hands on male help with child raising, Cozy launched “Real Dads Can Braid,” so that dads can feel confident styling their daughter’s hair.

“So many of my clients, had no idea how to put an elastic in, position a head band, let alone braid or do a high pony for their daughters. It caused them a great deal of anxiety. I wanted to alleviate that and demonstrate that what comes naturally to a woman or moms because they have done it on themselves all their lives, can be easily learned by dads.”

Cozy will share her D-A-D-S (Distract, Arrange, Detangle) technique, then move on to demonstrate how to master braiding, ponytails and more with aplomb.

Cozy is the author of “Cozy’s Complete Guide to Girl’s Hair” and recently launched SoCozy Professional Hair Care for Children- the first-ever line of hair care products made with the finest and cleanest ingredients gentle enough for kids, available at Target."

Photo by Regina Olech

As a dad that has been braiding his daughter's hair for many years, I thought it would be a great idea to go and see what new tips I can learn. Also, I thought it would be fun just to spend some time with my daughter playing beauty salon at a real salon.

On the day before the event, I got a few messages telling me that the date and location for the event has changed and if we would still be able to attend.  I responded with yes and it was a good thing too because on the original day of the event, we had school, a doctor's appointment and an event to attend that night.  With the new day, we just had school so it worked out perfect.

The day of the event I was busy working on posts and other household duties that my mind was going through a hundred things a minute.  I picked up my daughter from school and drove off to the event.  I should have double checked the address before I left because we ended up going to the wrong location. 

Luckily the lady at the location I went to called ahead to let them know that I was on my way.  Way to look like a bumbling dad, right? Trust me, I hate being late to anything and arriving at the wrong location just made me want to slap myself on the forehead.  We rushed, safely, to the correct location and upon arrival I apologized to everyone and the class began.

Cozy was super cool in with the way she talked about what we were going to learn that day and made us all feel very comfortable for being there.  We were given an overview of what the class would entail and then we got down to work.

Photo by Regina Olech

Photo by Regina Olech

All the dads in attendance were given a tool bag with the supplies they would need for this workshop: A detangling brush, a detangling spray, styling cream and assorted clips, pony-tail holders and rubber bands to use. The tool bag is a great idea and I feel every dad should know the different accessories that they can use when doing their daughter's hair.

The D.A.D. technique (Distract-Arrange-Detangle) came in handy when my daughter started getting a little grumpy.  After having been in school all day, I knew she was getting tired and wanted to go home, so I gave her my phone to "distract" her while I worked on her hair.  Cozy suggests giving your child a book, tablet or even smartphone to make working on their hair a little easier.  Trust me, having my daughter hold my phone helped out a lot.  

Some of the techniques we learned were how to separate hair to create pony tails, how to make a braid and how to make a bun using the braid you just made.  I could not make the bun because my daughter's hair was a little short for that, but I was able to make a braid...a short braid, but still a braid. 

So Cozy brand of Children's hair products.

I think that any dad that wants to be "hands on" (no pun intended) with their daughter's hair should find out if Cozy is coming to your area for one of these workshops. I found it not only educational, but it was also a great way to just hang out with my daughter and do something fun together.