My hair is a matted mess!

[omnipadme]

I don't even know how it got to this. I co-wash regularly, deep condition on the weekends...It's like the longer my hair gets, the more tangled it becomes. My ends look great, people compliment me on my hair all the time. But all the hair close to my scalp matted is together, like it's locking on its own. I have to rip my strands apart to get them untangled- the only other alternative is to cut all my hair off. It does this regardless of if i've just conditioned or not. If i don't find a miracle detangler by this weekend, i'm fully texturizing...

 

[SouthernTease]

My hair used to do this when I used shampoo.
Do you use shampoo? or wash your hair in a sink?
Have you tried Silicon Mix...
you sit with that under a dryer
for 45 minutes and you'll be good as new...
and if you really want to...
do the 45 minutes on low heat or
a steam towel treatment...
sometimes I leave it in overnight
when you rinse it out do it under a shower
and detangle with a Jilbere shower comb.

 

[blazingthru]

I am natural the only time My hair gets tangled badly is when I wash it after its been in braids or twist for a while and didn't comb it out first or i go days without combing it and I wash with protein or any kind of protein that gets in my hair I will end up with matted damage hair. So I keep a brush and comb in the shower. if I wear twist or braids like under a wig or something I spray it with moisturizer and comb it out before I get in the shower. or wash my hair since I been doing that I have not had a problem with tangles or matted hair. Keratin does that and protien seems like the hair bonds to each other its horrible and I lost a lot of hair behind that so I am very careful about combing my hair now.

 

[stargazer613]

I don't even know how it got to this. I co-wash regularly, deep condition on the weekends...It's like the longer my hair gets, the more tangled it becomes. My ends look great, people compliment me on my hair all the time. But all the hair close to my scalp matted is together, like it's locking on its own. I have to rip my strands apart to get them untangled- the only other alternative is to cut all my hair off. It does this regardless of if i've just conditioned or not. If i don't find a miracle detangler by this weekend, i'm fully texturizing...

It sounds like co-washing might be the culprit, too much moisture is causing your hair/scalp to dry out, resulting in excessive matting.
My hair did this during the summer because I was on a daily rinsing kick assuming that my hair could handle it, but it cleary didn't....I had the worst tangles, almost dreads in the crown area and it took forever to comb out. I want to suggest maybe cutting down on the co-washing, maybe just lightly spritzing your hair and using leave-ins/moisturizers inbetween washing.

Another thing I found that really eases tangles is coconut milk or conditioner with coconut milk, such as Organix Coconut Conditioner (I'll sometimes use this as a pre-poo for about 5 min to help soften up my hair then follow up with a good moisturizing shampoo). Some members use Creme of Nature with great results. I use Elucence MB, Phytolactum or Activate Hydrate shampoo to help with detangling prior to deep conditioning and combing thru. HTH

 

[GoldenBreeze]

I don't even know how it got to this. I co-wash regularly, deep condition on the weekends...It's like the longer my hair gets, the more tangled it becomes. My ends look great, people compliment me on my hair all the time. But all the hair close to my scalp matted is together, like it's locking on its own. I have to rip my strands apart to get them untangled- the only other alternative is to cut all my hair off. It does this regardless of if i've just conditioned or not. If i don't find a miracle detangler by this weekend, i'm fully texturizing...

If you texturize/texlax you will need to detangle before doing that or you'll have to cut your hair off anyway. So.... take a deep breath and get your mind set for a long detangling session.

Even if you have to detangle this first time in 1 in. sections and it takes 8 hours, it will be worth it. Here is what I do, but remember you may need to alter this to meet YOUR hair's needs.

Before I get in the shower, I put conditioner and castor oil or evoo in my hair. I let it sit under a plastic cap for about 10 - 15 min, and then separate my hair into 4 - 6 sections of either braids, twists, or bantu knots. Then in the shower I COwash each section and finger comb. I put more conditioner on each section as I'm done, put my cap back on and complete my shower. After showering I rinse each section, put my deep cond on get out of the shower, and either leave the DC on while I do other things for an hour, or use my heating cap for 20 to 30 min. After this, back in the shower rinse and detangle each section with a wide toothed comb and keep the sections until I put in my leave-in moisture, and seal with oil.

As your hair gets longer, shampooing or COwashing in sections will save you a lot of grief. It seems like a lot, but on the days that you're not DC'ing it goes very quickly. HTH

ETA: I just took a look at your fotki, and you hair is very cute.

 

[glamazon386]

Are you detangling every time you cowash? It could be matting up from wetting it every day and not detangling in between.

 

[omnipadme]

I'm not big on detangling erplexed. I'm a straight up wash and go girl. I used to be able to just run my fingers through my hair with conditioner and that's all the detangling I needed. I felt like when i did detangle, it was pointless because my hair would be tangled as soon as i woke up the next day.

I think protein and shampoo may be the culprits now that ya'll mentioned it. I used to be a WEN user, but just never bought a new bottle. I don't recall having this problem back then. (but i did have a problem with shedding with WEN)

My leave-in conditioner is Aphogee ph balanced in the purple bottle, which I think may be a slight protein treatment too (not sure)