Tuesday, February 17, 2009

How to remove Aquaphor/Vaseline from your child's Hair


Well that's an interesting thought? Yes, it is and let me tell you, go Google that title and see that there are over 5,000 links that pull up. Apparently it is a quite common thing among the 3-4 year olds these days.

The other night after coming home from a wedding shower, Hayden greets me with what appears to be soaking wet hair. I thought it was odd because I left her with soaking wet hair straight out of the bath, yet here it was still wet. I was puzzled and BJ tells me, it’s not water, its AQUAPHOR.

Maybe you are not familiar with this product, so let me just tell you. It is magical for clearing up diaper rashes and preventing them. We have used it since Hayden was born and now with Ella, who has the most sensitive bum ever. It is thick like Vaseline.

Anyway, so, Hayden, being the 10 year old, oh I mean 3 year old, that she is decided to pitch in and help Daddy while I was away. So after she woke up from her nap, she went in to play with her sisters like she does every day, before we get them out of their cribs. Well, apparently Ella had a wet diaper, so Hayden, climbs up the changing table gets the Aquaphor down, which is up on a shelf, high out of reach of any curious hands, climbs down, gets the changing pad and wipes, puts all of the above into the crib with Ella, climbs into the crib (mind you this is my child who never attempted to climb in or out of her crib, not once) removes Ella's diaper, wipes her then begins applying Aquaphor to Ella. THEN! She gets the idea that this kind of looks like the stuff mommy puts in her hair to make it stick up.......so Hayden gels her entire head and Ella's. Luckily Ella has the equivalent of two hairs. This is how BJ found them. This all occurred in the course of a few minutes with monitors on, so BJ had no clue it was happening. Oh, and she even put a new diaper back on Ella. Luckily it wasn't a poopy diaper or I think BJ may have completely lost his mind.

He tried to wash her hair and it would not come out. Hayden's hair was like a greasy mop. It looked like she never had a bath in her entire life. It was disgusting. The next morning I Googled my aforementioned title and was astounded by the results. People all over the world had gone through the same scenarios and basically said, bummer for you, it doesn't come out. And then listed a bunch of home remedies they had tried that may have worked and some ended up cutting their kids hair or just waiting for a week or so for it to finally wash out.

I'm thinking, "You've got to be kidding me." I finally found a site that listed things like baby oil, peanut butter, baking powder and cornstarch. So I decided we would start trying each one. First, I tried baby oil. I figured that would be gentle on her hair and not be too messy, so back to the bath we went. People...DO NOT USE BABY OIL. That only intensified our problem by like 1000. Then her hair looked like it was dripping wet and her face was shiny from the oiliness. I dried her hair and it still appeared soaked and greasy. She went over to her Grammy's house and she tried hand sanitizer. That didn't work. So today I decided to go with Baking Powder first and then rinse out with Dawn dish soap (it’s a degreaser) and then regular shampoo. So we applied the baking powder all over. She looked like a person from the colonial times with a white wig. I massaged it in to make sure all of the hair had been covered, then rinsed with Dawn and immediately I could feel the hair felt normal, and then washed out with her regular shampoo and SHE WAS CURED!!!!

So, if you stumble upon this blog in the same situation, do not give up hope, I have found a cure for you!!!






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17 comments:

  1. Peggy6:10 PM

    LOL. I know this is a very old post, but I was googling today how to get aquaphor out of hair. My 3 year old decided to smear the entire jar into his hair. I'm glad I'm not the only one this has happened to!!

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  2. Anonymous11:19 AM

    Same here....my almost 3 yr old little boy announced he had a new hairdo. I turned around and he had put an entire jar of Eucerin in his hair. Of course I have no baking soda on hand!

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  3. My 2 1/2 year old just did this.. I am awaiting the arrival of the baking powder and Dawn Dish Soap as I sit here and type! :) Thank you so much for doing the dirty work and finding what really works! Fingers crossed!

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  4. Anonymous8:57 AM

    My 20 month old girl did that last night, her hair is the worst, but also she had it on her legs, feet, arms...and she did that in the only minute and 1/2 that I was not looking at her! I wash her hair 4 times last night and 2 this morning. and took her to school like that...the teacher was laughing...
    I'll try your cure tonight...see what happens! thanks!
    Yani

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  5. Why is this such a pertinent problem! How funny! I'm in that boat right now!!!!! I'll do the baking powder and dish soap right away!

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  6. Anonymous6:19 AM

    Thanks for the suggestion-- it worked! I also tried a bunch of other "remedies" before I saw your blog and nothing else worked.

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  7. So get this. I'm not a 21 month old or a 3 year old or a 10 year old. I work in a dermatology office. I got so sunburnt on my scalp this past weekend and two of my coworkers insisted that I put aquaphor in on my scalp to cure my itchy, flaky, RAW scalp. :/ So i did. (rookie move) I found myself this morning after three dawn washes with the greasiest hair ever and i have plans tomorrow and saturday. You have no idea how much I love you for this blog right now. haha. THANK YOU!

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  8. THANK YOU! I put my 3 year old to bed last night...surprisingly (sarcasm) he did not got to bed. I kept hearing him prance across the floor but didnt think much of it. Until I went up and saw him greasing his hair down!!! I FREAKED out. He had used up the entire container. He not only gave lubed himself up but left little "crumbs" of lotion along the floor. I have washed his hair a handful of times...now I am going to try this! Thanks again.

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  9. Anonymous12:56 AM

    Thank you so much for this post- fortunately I found your site first when I googled it and it worked like a charm :)

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  10. Anonymous9:22 PM

    Ahh! My 3-year-old just used Aquaphor hair gel. I tired your trick, but did not have "Dawn" just the Walmart brand. It failed. Tomorrow, I will buy Dawn and try again. :( Darn snow days and trying to work from home with two little ones. :)

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  11. Anonymous1:11 PM

    Thank you for this post! My 2 year old did the same thing only she cover our 2 labs with an entire jar!!! Aye.

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  12. Anonymous11:31 PM

    Thank goodness you had the cure! I washed my 2 1/2 yr olds hair so many times and this worked like magic! Thank you!!!!

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  13. Anonymous4:14 PM

    Will be trying your remedy momentarily. Thank you.

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  14. Anonymous1:23 AM

    Thank you! My 2 year old decided to smear it in her hair and all over her hands and face instead of going to bed. So into the tub we went and I was armed with Dawn dish liquid. After her hair should have been dry, it still looked wet and it feels gross! I will try the baking soda tomorrow.

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  15. Anonymous7:14 AM

    Thank you so much for this, I have 3 kids, and after reading all the comments am shocked that it has not happened to me yet...(with the kiddos that is). I have had bouts of skin cancer and just opted to have laser surgery to remove all the precancerous from my face. I have to apply aquaphor every 3 hours. I have washed my hair 5 times with dawn and it has just evenly distributed the aquaphor throughout! Can you clarify if you are using baking powder or baking soda?? Cause I have both. Going to hide my tub of aquaphor from the kids immediately!!! Thanks for the helpful post!

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  16. Anonymous4:16 PM

    Ok...So my teenager came home with lice!! I thought Aquaphor would be a holistic cure. However, I have learned that you can't smother the suckers and I need to use a lice treatment. Her hair is so greasy with Aquaphor (tried dawn alone 3 times, lathers nicely, but doesn't touch the grease! What about those birds in crude oil?) So I hope the baking powder trick works because now the lice treatment won't adhere to the hair! Fingers crossed! :)

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  17. Anonymous5:29 PM

    Yep, my 3 year old (seems to be the age, eh?) smeared half a tube into her hair. 4 washes with dish soap helped quite a bit, but it's going to take a few more. She's got eczema, so I didn't to do anymore at once in fear of drying out her skin. Sigh.

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