eeeks ! I'm afraid to touch it!

[SweetNic_JA]

eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

I just finished taking out my braids last night after almost 3.5 months and boy what a hard time I had with my hair. First off, I started taking out individual braids in the center and twisted my natural hair to keep it tame but, the twists made my hair really tangled (dry ends)

. I took forever to take the tangles out.

Once I removed all the braids and twists I was sooo afraid of my hair. I had sooo much new growth - it's not even funny

. I was afraid to touch it or do anything with it. It was definitely a force to be reckonned with

. It took me about an hour to get rid of the first set of tangles. After that I sat down contemplating (really hard) on whether or not I would even attempt to wash it. I finally decided to wash it and did the following.
1: hot oil treatment with Olive oil
2: shampoo w/ cream of nature shampoo
3: conditioned with nexxus emergencee
4: conditioned with Mizani Moisturefuse
5: applied this pomade Beautiful blessings. one of the ladies gave it to me at our NY meeting last month
6. Applied coconut oil to my new growth

Once I was done I started to plait my hair. That's when I ran into the most difficulty. It ended up taking my 2 hours to put about 8 plaits in my hair. why??? Because my hair was a tangled mess. It could be partly because I didn't wash underneath the shower I just put my head underneath the pipe. I had to be extra careful not to break my hair and thanks to the Nexxuss Emergencee, my hair was very resilient.

when I finished putting the plaits in my hair it was exactly 3:49 am. I was beat. I threw my scarf on and called it a night. Luckily I do work on thursdays, I just don't know what I'm going to do with this hair tomorrow and all of next week. I was planning on doing twists out but my hair is NOT HAVING IT.

What do you suggest? I thought I learned everything to know about hair but this hair has me stumped!!

 

[Peachi]

Re: eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

I have natural 4B hair. Before I take out my braids, I wash the hair 1-2 days before to get the hair soft.
Then as I take out each individual braid, I work out the tangles. I don't pile them up and do them at the end because that would be one tangled mess. I battle them as I take them out.

Since I washed the hair prior, it's not that hard to remove the gunk.

 

[SweetNic_JA]

Re: eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

Peachi, I did ALL of that and then some. I usually do condition washes atleast twice per week. On top of that I washed my hair two days before I started taking the braids out and I wet it again the night before just to soften things up. I didn't have any kind of buildup in my hair - only God knows why it was so tangled.

 

[LadyDee]

Re: eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

The next time you do this, a day or so before spray your braids with Sta Sof Fro or S-Curl or any of the activator/moisturizer sprays. Spray the braid liberally, particularly to the point where your hair stops. As you untangle and comb out, spray on a little more and make large braids as you go. With lots of new growth, make sure it gets a good spray. This should soften your hair for the wash and conditioning process.

 

[AZJeepgurl]

Re: eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

Boy, do I remember those days of leaving my braids in too long. For me 3-4 months was too long but I just relished the new untouched growth so, that I couldnt resist waiting that long to take them out.

Ok, Sweet...this is what I used to do.

After the daunting task of taking out all those darn braids, i might rest and detangle the next day or:

1) comb out like 2 inch sections at a time with a wide-tooth comb first, then go back and from roots to end, use a smaller toothed comb (really, really gentle like), then I would braid that piece and move on.

2) When that was all done, wash with an awesome detangler like Creme of Nature Shampoo and my thick new growth would be somewhat tame.

I admit it took a really long time but the gentleness and care is more important than time. I definitely always saved it till a weekend unless I was just super sick of my braids and just had to remove them that day!

 

[NYCchild]

Re: eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

Oh dear, sorry SweetNic... I can so relate..
That happened to me once. But i learned. The next time what i did was the nite b4 i took ou the braids i sprayed the full lenght of my hair under the braids with water mixed with Mane&tail conditioner and slept with a plastic cap on. the in the morn i took out the braids - they kinda slipped off pretty easy. Then i sectioned hair in 8. path down tha middle and 4 on each side comb out with a wide tooth comb and comb out and twist each sect. and leave like that.

Now since i learnt from B4 so i shampooed in tha shower with creme of nature gently each section and used keracare to condition. only those two prod. could soften and not tangle.

 

[mly3e]

Re: eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

Washing your hair by holding your head downwards, then trying to comb out the tangles while your head is held upwards is what made the tangles worse. Next time wash it in the shower and comb it while the conditioner is still in. That might help.

 

[SweetNic_JA]

Re: eeeks ! I\'m afraid to touch it!

thanks Myle, nycchild, azjeep gurl and everyone else that responded. I will definitely remember your advice the next time that I need to remove braids