Detangling Natural Hair- A Warning, and a Tip

Hola Chicas!

I hope you had an excellent Labor Day weekend…I did…very relaxing 🙂
So relaxing, that I let my hair go for 11 days! I’ve gone 5 days…even 7 days without conditioner washing and re-styling, but 11 is EXTREME. Yesterday morning, I looked ominously at the dry, frizzy bun that sat atop my head and dreaded stepping into the shower. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

The Bad News: It took 45 minutes, lol
The Good News: I didn’t lose as much hair as I anticipated, and I never had to yank, or rip through my curls.

This post serves three purposes–to warn you about letting your hair go for too long (dry hair leads to tangles, splits, and breakage!), how to fix it when you’ve let it go for too long, and to reiterate the importance of a solid detangling regimen.

What I Did:

I tested out a new conditioner yesterday (Back to Basics Pom). It was okay…nothing to write home about. I’ll save that story for another day.

1. After wetting down my hair, I applied an incredibly generous amount of B2B to the right side of my head, and Herbal Essence Totally Twisted conditioner to the left side. I’m talking A LOT of conditioner.
2. I ran my head back under the shower stream for a few seconds to get it slipperier (lol, is that a word?!), and then applied even more conditioner. I probably did that step once or twice more. My hair felt heavy, and was literally detangling before my eyes.
3. I let it marinate while I showered
4. I started with the left side, in the back. I clipped the rest of my hair up, and out of the way. I angled myself under the shower stream so that the water hit that section directly on, while I gently finger detangled. Whenever I hit a snag, I’d step out from under the stream and gently work it out. When the whole section felt tangle free, I added more conditioner to it, and moved on to the next section.
5. My ‘next’ section is usually the chunk of hair above my ear. When my hair is this tangled, I have to detangle in many sections–usually 3 per side (the back, above the ear, and the front). Repeated step 4 for the ear section, and the front.
6. Moved to the right side, and repeated steps 4-5 with all three smaller sections (back, ear, front).
7. Now, all my hair was detangled and loaded with conditioner. I grabbed my Jilbere, and combed out the entire right side under the shower stream. No knots, no tangles…just a few shed hairs. I repeated the same with the left, and immediately loaded up with my styling conditioners.

Forty-five minutes later, I had a moisturized, tangle-free head of hair, ready for styling. To re-cap, finger detangle with the help of the shower stream first, then comb…viola! It’s time consuming, but you don’t lose as much hair as you would if you combed first.

One more thing…

Styling Tip:

Now that I only do 10 twists for my Twist-n-Curl and use perm rods for a tighter, shorter look, my ends are usually soaking wet after 12 hours of air drying time. I like to twist on soaking wet, not damp hair, and these three things (rods, sopping wet hair, chunky twists), result in a wet head in the morn. And as you know, taking down any wet set prior to it being completely dry is an absolute waste of your time and effort. I’ve had to resort to my diffuser, and even the dreaded bonnet dryer a few times.
I got smart yesterday, and after twisting, I dabbed the ends with a paper towel to rid them of excess moisture. I then slicked on some Set it Free, and rolled them up. This morning, my ends are bone dry, shiny, and frizz free 🙂

Just a thought…

Later Gators,
Nik