Danielle Wicks with two of her children, as seen on the ‘Today’ show.

A Queensland mother-of-three, Danielle Wicks, has made headlines recently with her declaration that she has never shampooed her children’s hair. She even claims that many a compliment has been directed to her offspring’s  “beautiful, silk, soft” follicles, which she stresses are not grease-laden or nest-like.

Okay, let’s be real: as the mother of a boisterous, creative, almost-two-year-old daughter, I do not understand how you can never shampoo your child’s hair.

Related: 5 best vegan beauty products to treat yourself with.  

That’s right: Ms Wicks says that she has never shampooed the hair of her four-year-old daughter, Alicia, or her two-year-old son, Astin. Instead, she rinses their hair with water once a week, and then massages their scalps to stimulate the natural oils. Her eldest daughter, Isla-Jade, has only had her hair shampooed once, when she was 18 months old.

Wicks has all the best intentions with her poo-free project. She was deterred from using any chemically-laden products following her stomach cancer diagnosis.

“I decided to reduce the toxic load on the family, and let the natural oils protect their hair from the environment just to see what would happen,” explains Ms Wicks.

Related: Sorry, George, but denying your kids party food is just plain crazy.  

I admire her dedication to an organic, natural lifestyle, and the love that she clearly has for her children.

But would I ever go down the no-shampoo, no-soap route with my little Emmy’s hair?

The answer to that is no, never, forget it, ew, yuck, help-now-I-can’t-stop-imagining-her-hair-coated-in-Nutella-and-I-want-to-cry.

First of all, when a baby is born, it is covered in something called vernix caseosa. It’s a white, opaque oil which translates from Latin to “cheese”.

Yeah, it’s your body’s natural cheese. Added to this uterus-cheddar is blood. A newborn baby’s hair is riddled with this stuff, and if they have no hair, then it’s all over their cute, bald scalp.

Now, I know that all of that sounds gross (sorry if you’re eating right now), but when it’s your own bubba, you don’t really care or notice the white-and-red goop that’s coating it…for a few hours after birth, at least. (Post continues after gallery.)

When Emmy was born, she was given a quick wipe-down with a towel by the nurses, and that was it.

We cuddled her and loved her immediately, but after awhile, we noticed that her hair, the inner corners of her eyes and generally her whole being were caked in dried-up vernix and blood.

Related: 5 things every pregnant woman needs to know about exercise.  

Before her grandparents, aunts and uncles met her for the first time, we gave her a bath and hairwash.

It was really, really hard to get all of that stuff out her hair, even with the use of the hospital’s free baby shampoo. We didn’t manage to wash it all out until she was about a week old. It would take forever to get it out with water and a massage.

From birth, kids will always get stuff in their hair. Emmy used to get breast milk in her hair. She also had cradle cap, which is kind of like dandruff for babies, and we had to use olive oil and a comb to scrape out the flakes. Adding water and a massage to that mix would result in a salad-scented disaster.

Related: 14 tips for doing makeup when you have a toddler in the house.  

These days, a quick sniff of Emmy’s head will remind me of every single meal she’s eaten that day. Heck, she even gets little pieces of Chinese barbeque pork in her hair. She also loves to rub paint, dirt and just anything into her mane.

I have to wash her hair everyday, because she gets so much gunk in it. I’ve tried to teach Emmy not to put stuff in her hair, but she’s very wilful and creative. She’s seen her mum use all types of hair products, so why can’t she put stuff in her hair, too?

Related: “I’m an adult man and I found out I had worms.”  

I think that Ms Wicks’ children must have exceptional personal hygiene habits for their age, and she must have one hell of a scrub ahead of her each week. Or maybe she has magic water in her taps. I wish her the best of luck, and if she has any tips for getting paint out of my daughter’s hair, I’d love to know.

Would you ever say 'no' to shampoo? What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen stuck in a kid's hair?