Can I get some advice about managing my natural hair?

[zzirvingj]

Thank you for the advice, CandyCane! As for the scarf trick, that picture I posted is after having done it with gel and a silk scarf. It will help with the fuzz for a little while, but it can't make the roots non-puffy.

I guess I didn't mention all the methods I've tried since the post was getting kind of long. I did try the method of detangling while in the shower with conditioner. But there were two problems with this. Well, one problem which then lead to another problem. It takes me a long time to detangle my hair. To do a proper job, it takes at least 1 hour and can take up to 2 hours. At the end of this my hair still will not be as detangled as others, because I still can not get a comb through it and it still has knots, but I usually give up after all this time. This means that I can't really detangle in the shower because my showers would be longer than an hour. Therefore when I detangle in the shower I do a half@$$ job and leave tons of tangles and knots in. This is okay for a week or two, but after that the number of tangles and knots gets really out of control.

I don't mean to dismiss your advice; I do really appreciate the suggestion. Just saying that I tried those things and they don't work well for me.

I did get a PM that suggested, after washing, to put the hair in several small ponytails made with scrunchies tight at the root and lying in the direction I want the hair to go for a puff or bun. I will definitely try that for next time.

I also agree that I should not be combing my hair dry. And believe me, I don't want to. I am very tender-headed. But it's so hard to avoid and still have it look good unless it's tied down in twists or something. Because even though I detangle with stuff on my hair, as soon as I wet my hair again to rinse the stuff out, my hair naps back up so it always looks uncombed and scraggly.

When you detangled your hair in the shower, were you starting from the END of the hair and working your way up? (In other words, sometimes people starting immediately at the root and try to comb down. Other people start at the bottom, comb once or twice....the bottom is now "untangled"...then they run the comb through the same section from the "middle" down....section is now detangled from the middle down...then one last quick swipe from the root all the way down...whole section of hair is now detangled.) Hope this makes sense what I am asking you!


Also, when you were detangling in the shower, how often were you doing it (once a week/once a month, etc.)? What kind of products and tools were you using?

 

[anon123]

When you detangled your hair in the shower, were you starting from the END of the hair and working your way up? (In other words, sometimes people starting immediately at the root and try to comb down. Other people start at the bottom, comb once or twice....the bottom is now "untangled"...then they run the comb through the same section from the "middle" down....section is now detangled from the middle down...then one last quick swipe from the root all the way down...whole section of hair is now detangled.) Hope this makes sense what I am asking you!


Also, when you were detangling in the shower, how often were you doing it (once a week/once a month, etc.)? What kind of products and tools were you using?

First off, y'all need to stop posting pictures of delicious looking food in your siggies cuz I am about to die of hunger over here! Now I want some flautas and I can't make them myself and the 2 Mexican places in my neighborhood, well, I don't like their styles and their flautas have to be purchased with a dinner for $9-$10! So thanks a lot, ZZ, thanks a lot.

Okay, about the detangling. I work from the bottom up in almost all of my detangling, though every now and then I give it a go from the roots. But I find starting at the ends and working my way up is a little easier. What I'm still amazed at is that you said they were running a comb through one section one or two times, then the next session a couple of times, then a quick swipe from root to tip! What?! I wish. I watched myself on a video of me detangling and even I was amazed at how many times I have to move the comb through my hair. And I don't even get all the tangles or shed hair out. Without exaggerating, I bet I move the comb through at least 20 times for each section of hair. And even for a small section, like say the bottom 1/3, I can never get the comb to go through in one swipe. It goes a half inch, I start again from the top of that section, goes another 1/4 inch, start again from the top of that section, and so forth. Okay, I'm still at the office, but when I get home I'm going to look for that video and upload it because I want you guys to see what I mean.

Oh, I detangle once a week, only when I wash.

 

[Mook's hair]

I'm also searching for answers about detangling and airdrying but one thing that I like and I haven't seen you mention is Coconut milk.

It softens and makes pretty good slip.
I also like Silicon Mix. But I'm still transitioning.

 

[zzirvingj]

First off, y'all need to stop posting pictures of delicious looking food in your siggies cuz I am about to die of hunger over here! Now I want some flautas and I can't make them myself and the 2 Mexican places in my neighborhood, well, I don't like their styles and their flautas have to be purchased with a dinner for $9-$10! So thanks a lot, ZZ, thanks a lot.

Okay, about the detangling. I work from the bottom up in almost all of my detangling, though every now and then I give it a go from the roots. But I find starting at the ends and working my way up is a little easier. What I'm still amazed at is that you said they were running a comb through one section one or two times, then the next session a couple of times, then a quick swipe from root to tip! What?! I wish. I watched myself on a video of me detangling and even I was amazed at how many times I have to move the comb through my hair. And I don't even get all the tangles or shed hair out. Without exaggerating, I bet I move the comb through at least 20 times for each section of hair. And even for a small section, like say the bottom 1/3, I can never get the comb to go through in one swipe. It goes a half inch, I start again from the top of that section, goes another 1/4 inch, start again from the top of that section, and so forth. Okay, I'm still at the office, but when I get home I'm going to look for that video and upload it because I want you guys to see what I mean.

Oh, I detangle once a week, only when I wash.

Uh...sorry about that. How about I'm looking at my OWN siggy makin myself hungry right about now?! LOL

And I'm sorry for I need to clarify...in my post I was trying to say that some people take a section of hair and start from the bottom and work their way up...period. (Not move on to other sections and then come back to that same section.)

Ok...so you are starting from the bottom up. That is good. A couple of other quick question:

When you were detangling in the shower...

What products were on your hair? Egg? Anything else?

Were you doing small sections or large sections at a time?

I read you weren't using the denman....so what are you using?

Also, were you detangling in the shower UNDER the running water WITH product on it AS you were detangling?

Sorry for all the questions!

 

[Poohbear]

I feel your pain mwedzi. My hair acts the same way as yours if I airdry in plaits or twists and if I detangle in sections. I quit doing all of that several months ago. This is what I do now:

Shampoo my scalp and hair altogether (no sections, no detangling yet), then rinse out.
Condition my hair for 20-30 minutes (no sections, no detangling yet).
Rinse out the conditioner and detangle my hair in one section under the water flow from the showerhead.
When I get out the shower, I apply leave-in and blowdry my hair in sections.
I wear my hair in a fluffy fro most of the time. I sometimes plait it up for a braidout.
This whole routine takes approximately 2 hours. And it has work wonders for me. Hope that helps.

 

[LynnieB]

mwedzi? are you sure you have hard water? cause you know there are shampoo's you can use to get rid of minerals from your hair.

 

[cmesweet]

I don't want to write a lengthy post so I will make mine short and simple.

I go in the shower with loose hair or 3 afro puffs. Then, I rinse, shampoo and condition/ detangle each section. After I do one section, I braid it up. I never do this before washing.

Also, I can not use alot of natural products. Shampoo bars and greg juice give me the hair that you mentioned= horrible braid outs and such.

My hair loves conditioners with cones, as soon as the conditioner is put on, it feels totally different and it is easier to detangle the hair.

However, I am with you and the hair options of being natural. Your BUN TUTORIAL gave me another option, I was getting bored.

 

[Sunshine0801]

Do you know why you have so much lint in your hair? Do you use a scarf or bonnet when you go to sleep? I used to have the lint problem until I started putting my hair away every night. Now I can't even remember the last time I had it in my hair.

Have you tried detangling twice? Sometimes I have to gently detangle my hair with my fingers before I wash it and then detangle it again when it is loaded with conditioner.

Also, I have to airdry in braids. If I airdry in twists, my hair will mat.

HTH!

 

[anon123]

Honeycomb, do you mean shingling as in the hair style for curls? Or do you mean just applying products in small sections? Actually I haven't done either. I tried the shingling for the styling purpose, but I'm a cnapp so it doesn't work on me. For product application, I apply in about 4-6 sections.

Kiya, okay, I see. I do have some citric powder as a free sample I got from FNWL. I used it on my face once and once on my hair. I will put a note on it to let me know that this is supposed to make my hair less grabby.

Mook, is coconut milk different from coconut oil? Hold on, let me see what I have . . . it says "virgin coconut cream oil". Is that it?

ZZ, I got you. What I was saying is I would take one section of my hair. Then within that section I'd work on the lower 1/3. Then on the middle part of that section, then on the top part. I'm afraid I never go all the way to the root. Ouch. As for what's on my hair when I've tried detangling in the shower, usually conditioner. But how do you guys detangle under the force of the shower water while product is on your hair? As soon as I put my hair under the shower water, it rinses the product out! As for section size, it's usually about 1/8 to 1/10 of my head at a time. I always use an afro pick but I have tried a shower comb.

Pooh, I was wondering what changed in your routine that made your hair go from difficult to manage to easy. The blowdryer. This is something I definitely want to explore. It has the advantage of not having to sleep with a wet head or wait around all day for your hair to dry. And it can dry in one big section instead of a million parts that won't go away. I think this will be easiest.

Lynnie, I'm not sure I have hard water, but the chart of hard water in the U.S. says my area has very hard water. So probably. Okay, another shampoo. I'm going to be broke by the time this is all over. Hmm, which do I want least, broke or bald, broke or bald . . .

Cmesweet, hmm, more and more of you like cone-filled stuff. I do have some products with cones. Like the NTM, I kinda like that. That's on my hair right now.

Sunshine, I think I have lint because my apt. is dusty and small and I live with a bunny. I do tie my hair up at night. I haven't really tried detangling twice. Maybe I'll give that a go, though I was hoping to simplify my routine and make it less time-consuming. are you able to save time this way?

Okay, about that video. It's darker than I thought. Really dark, you can't see much of anything. So this weekend when I detangle I'll record a bit of it and post it in a separate post so you guys can see.

Thanks again, guys.

 

[Sunshine0801]

Sunshine, I think I have lint because my apt. is dusty and small and I live with a bunny. I do tie my hair up at night. I haven't really tried detangling twice. Maybe I'll give that a go, though I was hoping to simplify my routine and make it less time-consuming. are you able to save time this way?

In the long run, yes. I'm able to save hair too. It doesn't take me very long to detangle my hair before I wash. I usually just do it while I'm watching tv (or reading LHCF lol). Most of the time I spend detangling is when my hair is loaded with my DC.

Also make sure to detangle thoroughly. I have learned that when I do a lazy job detangling, it catches up to me the next time I try to detangle because my hair will be matted in some spots if I'm not careful.

 

[pattycake0701]

Medwzi...we are definitely hair twins I totally understand your pain.

 

[LongHairDreams]

bumping..... for useful info.