Question about detangling....

[rai]

Does anyone braid their own hair, wash and condition it, and then detangle?

I am having such a difficult time detangling my hair (I feel as if I am loosing too much hair) and I am thinking of trying a new method and I would like to know if anyone has done this before.

Basically, I have my hair in medium sized twists (maybe 50-60 in my hair right now). I am thinking of washing and conditioning my hair while it is still twisted. Then I will take out each twist, detangle, and then retwist it. Does this sound okay? Do you think the hair will matt? I am natural and my hair type is 4b. I've had my twists in for a week. Has anyone done this?


(Sidenote: My current washing method is: Braid hair in 6 sections. Wash and condition each section. I apply my leave in and then I twist my hair. I detangle my hair while wet and before I do the twist. I've tried detangling each section in the shower, but I feel as if I loose more hair this way because it gets tangled up again when I rebraid it so then I have to detangle again)


Any advice is appreciated.....

 

[Victorian]

I've never tried to wash my hair with it braided or twisted, so I don't have any specific advice about that...

What exactly are you doing when you detangle? are you using a comb? If so, try just using your hands--it will be much gentler on your hair.

If I think my hair is going to be tangly in the shower, I detangle before I get in. I like to use an oil/water mix to lubricate the hair so it's easier to detangle, and I just use my fingers. I've also used watered down conditioner to do it. I don't currently wash my hair in sections, but if I eventually do, I'll probably make 2 or 4 sections depending on the length of my hair. I wouldn't braid or twist them, though, just maybe have a loose ponytail holder that will hold the section together.

I think manipulating your hair too much when it's wet will cause unnecessary hair loss. Also, using my fingers keeps my coils more intact--combing seems to stretch them out, which for me means more frizz.

 

[Porsche19]

I think that the conditioner won't get too the hair on the inside of the twists.

Why don't you do something like this?

Get a detangling conditioner and a wide toothed comb. Undo one of your twists, saturate it with conditioner, then detangle carefully, then either loosely twist or braid the detangled section, continue to do this until your whole head is done.

Then unravel the twists/braids and rinse your hair thouroghly, making sure that the hair is getting rinsed in the same direction (so that it won't tangle up while you're washing it) Then shampoo your hair, still making sure you're not causing any tangles.

Then apply your conditioner in your six sections. loosely briad each conditioned section. Go through it with your comb if you have to... although you should not really have any tangling problems that your fingers couldn't handle.

Keep your conditioner in for however long you keep it in, then unravel the braids and rinse.

After that, you shouldn't have many tangles at all.

That's what I would do

Always detangle BEFORE your last rinse. Your hair should be saturated with conditioner when you try to detangle. You want to have you hair tangle free when you add your leave in products. Water and leave-ins just don't cut it (for detangling) in thick, curly/kinky hair.

Um... hope I helped.

 

[Porsche19]

I've never tried to wash my hair with it braided or twisted, so I don't have any specific advice about that...

What exactly are you doing when you detangle? are you using a comb? If so, try just using your hands--it will be much gentler on your hair.

If I think my hair is going to be tangly in the shower, I detangle before I get in. I like to use an oil/water mix to lubricate the hair so it's easier to detangle, and I just use my fingers. I've also used watered down conditioner to do it. I don't currently wash my hair in sections, but if I eventually do, I'll probably make 2 or 4 sections depending on the length of my hair. I wouldn't braid or twist them, though, just maybe have a loose ponytail holder that will hold the section together.

I think manipulating your hair too much when it's wet will cause unnecessary hair loss. Also, using my fingers keeps my coils more intact--combing seems to stretch them out, which for me means more frizz.

You never use a comb? I once went on a personal fingercombing only challenge... at first it was great! Then afater about a month and a half I found that I had about 8 tangled balls of hair in my head that needed to be cut out. I'm lucky, because they were tiny. I fingercomb 5 times a week and use a wide tooothed comb 2x per week.

 

[natstar]

I don't braid but I do wash my hair in section and I make a bantu knot & use butterfly clamp for section after applying conditioner and after applying my leave in. Using a shower comb and combing the hair under water w/ a lil conditioner has helped me a lot w/detangling-it's like the water does the work for me a little. I also agree w/blackcardinal if u can use your hands for detangling do so along with the shower comb Also- if u can do a prepoo treatment like for 30 min before the wash, that helps too.

 

[Victorian]

I do a thorough comb-detangling every once in a while. I don't really have a schedule, per se, but I guess every 7-10 days. My shower combs were most helpful to me during my transition, but now not so much because my tangles tend to be at the ends of my hair, and whatever I can't get with my fingers is too small for the shower comb. So I use a small or medium comb to do any remaining knots after finger combing as much as possible. I know how much that scares people so I generally keep quiet about my small comb usage. But you asked...

Lately I've taken to doing the finger combing with oil and water as part of my nightly routine. Sometimes I do it in 4 sections and just secure the finished areas with a scrunchie (little mini ponytails with the ends tucked in). Sometimes I'm lazy and just "spot detangle." Doing this at night, I find that I don't really need to detangle my hair when I do my con wash the next day.

My hair is fine and fairly thin, so that might be why I get away with washing/doing my hair for the most part all at once instead of in sections. It may not work for someone with really thick hair or someone who gets larger knots or tangles.

 

[rai]

What exactly are you doing when you detangle? are you using a comb? If so, try just using your hands--it will be much gentler on your hair.

If I think my hair is going to be tangly in the shower, I detangle before I get in. I like to use an oil/water mix to lubricate the hair so it's easier to detangle, and I just use my fingers. I've also used watered down conditioner to do it. I don't currently wash my hair in sections, but if I eventually do, I'll probably make 2 or 4 sections depending on the length of my hair. I wouldn't braid or twist them, though, just maybe have a loose ponytail holder that will hold the section together.

I think manipulating your hair too much when it's wet will cause unnecessary hair loss. Also, using my fingers keeps my coils more intact--combing seems to stretch them out, which for me means more frizz.

Thanks for the advice. When I used to detangle in the shower I would load my hair up with the conditioner and let it stay for 30 min - 1 hour. Then I would use a comb. Of course, I would detangle each section with a comb (tried the Denman, but that didn't really like it. My hair is so thick that it pulls the comb from the base). Then I would rinse and retwist. I've tried to sectioning off by twisting and with ponytail holders. Either way, when its time for me to start styling my hair it tangles up again. Oh, I've used Aveda Sap Moss (didn't really like), Aubrey GPB (I like) and ORS Hair Mayonaise ( I like). I add virgin olive oil to ech one of them.

I've never tried to detangle only using my hands although I have used my fingers to separate my hair....

 

[rai]

I think that the conditioner won't get too the hair on the inside of the twists.

Why don't you do something like this?

Get a detangling conditioner and a wide toothed comb. Undo one of your twists, saturate it with conditioner, then detangle carefully, then either loosely twist or braid the detangled section, continue to do this until your whole head is done.

Then unravel the twists/braids and rinse your hair thouroghly, making sure that the hair is getting rinsed in the same direction (so that it won't tangle up while you're washing it) Then shampoo your hair, still making sure you're not causing any tangles.

Then apply your conditioner in your six sections. loosely briad each conditioned section. Go through it with your comb if you have to... although you should not really have any tangling problems that your fingers couldn't handle.

Keep your conditioner in for however long you keep it in, then unravel the braids and rinse.

After that, you shouldn't have many tangles at all.

That's what I would do

Always detangle BEFORE your last rinse. Your hair should be saturated with conditioner when you try to detangle. You want to have you hair tangle free when you add your leave in products. Water and leave-ins just don't cut it (for detangling) in thick, curly/kinky hair.

Um... hope I helped.

Thanks for the advice. Hmmn, I didn't think about the conditioner not getting to the inside twists. I was more worried that I would not be able to rinse the conditioner completely out. The way you suggested is similiar to how I used to detangle...except that I shampooed first and then conditioned and detangle. Do you think it will make a difference if I detangled first? My problem is that is seems as if my hair just loves to curl so if I detangle too early it's going to tangle up again...

 

[rai]

I don't braid but I do wash my hair in section and I make a bantu knot & use butterfly clamp for section after applying conditioner and after applying my leave in. Using a shower comb and combing the hair under water w/ a lil conditioner has helped me a lot w/detangling-it's like the water does the work for me a little. I also agree w/blackcardinal if u can use your hands for detangling do so along with the shower comb Also- if u can do a prepoo treatment like for 30 min before the wash, that helps too.

I do a hot oil treatment before detangling and it has helped...is there anything else I should try instead as a prepoo treatment?

 

[Victorian]

I've never tried to detangle only using my hands although I have used my fingers to separate my hair....

Basically, detangling with your fingers is exactly the same as separating your hair with your fingers--into smaller and smaller sections. If you come across a tangle or knot, you just work it loose with your fingers. I think it works better than using a comb, because with your fingers you can tell the difference between a real tangle, and just an area where the hair is sort of clumped together but not really tangled in any major way. A comb can't tell, and I think it tends to be rougher on those "not quite tangled" areas than you will be with your hands

 

[LiLi]

Does anyone braid their own hair, wash and condition it, and then detangle?

I am having such a difficult time detangling my hair (I feel as if I am loosing too much hair) and I am thinking of trying a new method and I would like to know if anyone has done this before.

Basically, I have my hair in medium sized twists (maybe 50-60 in my hair right now). I am thinking of washing and conditioning my hair while it is still twisted. Then I will take out each twist, detangle, and then retwist it. Does this sound okay? Do you think the hair will matt? I am natural and my hair type is 4b. I've had my twists in for a week. Has anyone done this?


(Sidenote: My current washing method is: Braid hair in 6 sections. Wash and condition each section. I apply my leave in and then I twist my hair. I detangle my hair while wet and before I do the twist. I've tried detangling each section in the shower, but I feel as if I loose more hair this way because it gets tangled up again when I rebraid it so then I have to detangle again)


Any advice is appreciated.....

I do this all the time. I cannot just wash my hair and then comb it without dealing with crazy tangles unless I have very little new growth. I wash and condition my hair (crown) in four braids and then detangle after rinsing it out. I don't take the braids out when I put the conditioner in either ... I just slather it on. I tried all kinds of ways and doing it and this way is the best way for me. Also, the rest of my hair is in individual braids and I wash and condition those and then every other week I wash/condition and then take each braid down, comb, and then re-braid them. I've been doing this for over a year and everytime I try to do something different I always end up with big knots. Also, wide tooth combs glide right through my hair. HOWEVER, I still have to use a small-toothed comb to get all the shedded hair otherwise I will have to deal with huge knots after a short time which, as you know, are a MAJOR setback.

 

[rai]

I do this all the time. I cannot just wash my hair and then comb it without dealing with crazy tangles unless I have very little new growth. I wash and condition my hair (crown) in four braids and then detangle after rinsing it out. I don't take the braids out when I put the conditioner in either ... I just slather it on. I tried all kinds of ways and doing it and this way is the best way for me. Also, the rest of my hair is in individual braids and I wash and condition those and then every other week I wash/condition and then take each braid down, comb, and then re-braid them. I've been doing this for over a year and everytime I try to do something different I always end up with big knots. Also, wide tooth combs glide right through my hair. HOWEVER, I still have to use a small-toothed comb to get all the shedded hair otherwise I will have to deal with huge knots after a short time which, as you know, are a MAJOR setback.

YEAHHHH!!! I finally found someone that has done this....Have you had any major problems with washing out the conditioner or getting the conditioner to penetrate the entire braid.

I'm going to try this on Saturday and see how it goes...

 

[LiLi]

YEAHHHH!!! I finally found someone that has done this....Have you had any major problems with washing out the conditioner or getting the conditioner to penetrate the entire braid.

I'm going to try this on Saturday and see how it goes...

I haven't had any problems with washing out the conditioner and I slather on a good amount of conditioner so I feel that it gets in the braid good. I don't worry about it too much because I use a strengthening spray on my braids daily. Also the day that I am re-doing the braids I use a protein treatment like Redken Extreme or Paul Mitchell Repair Treatment, rinse out well, then I slather on a moisturizing conditioner and rinse that out and let the braids air dry for a little while. Then I take down each braid, comb it, and then re-braid it.

Anytime I try to change this routine I always experience some kind of setback. So since it works consistently, I have been sticking to it.

I used to think I was an oddball because of the way I did my hair but then I found out that Robin from growafrohairlong.com does the same exact thing when washing her hair and braids. I feel that it's a must when your hair starts to get longer and/or you have a lot of new growth.