new thread
I know this has been discussed before but please...
how does one control KNOTS?
I have brittle, wavy/curly hair that knots overnight!
Every morning no matter how much conditioner I use (and leave in), running a wide-tooth comb in the shower through my hair is a nightmare.
If I go one day without rinsing my hair with conditioner it's "dreadlock city".
Don't get me wrong, if I could pull off the dreaded look, I'd go for it but... I can't. Lol.
Any tips or ideas?
My hair is getting pretty long but the knots are tough to deal with.
There MUST be something that can be done.
Should I sleep in a ponytail?
Is there a great product out there?
Thanks & peace.
WOW great hair! hmmmm my hair is alot longer but not as thick of yours so I sleep with mine free, but maybe trying to sleep with it in a ponytail? I only say this is that I wear my hair in a tail all day at work and when I get home I take it out and it combs or brushes right out with little trouble, where it takes a bit more work in the morning. It might be a bit uncomfortable but its worth a try. Hope your doing good.
My hair isn't quite as long as yours yet, but its a fairly similar type. I generally use my fingers to get rid of any and all snarls/knots that I encounter. Its really difficult to perform this task gently enough to not damage the hair, but the occasional sacrifice must be made.
Peace,
Ryan
I have the same exact problem you've just described. Mine is even worse, I get knots on single hairs! they feel like little tiny bulbs to the touch. They form some sort of a slipknot and untangling that single hair knot is impossible. With our hair type, knots and tangles are inevitable no matter what you try. I've tried it all and nothing works. Your best bet is to keep your hair in a segmented ponytail if possible. That will reduce the knotting plenty. Oh, and if you're wondering how I get rid of those impossible knots, Well, I've has to resort to carefully snipping them off. Yikes!
I've got a few of those single hair knots, but I don't cut them out as they don't seem to promote other tangles or cause problems for me.
My hair is almost as curled as yours, but I think as mine is a little thinner, this may be the reason why I get away with leaving them.
MB
Have you tried conditioners? If you don't want conditioner chemicals in your hair (I'm trying to go chemical free myself), then consider jojoba oil. I'm not sure how well it work on curly hair, and it's not a great detangler. It's more of a tangle preventer, and for general appearance.
Even without such natural curls, I get knots too. Some places will have a natural tendancy to knot. Last year, the back area that I called "the klump" that always wanted to dred, got so stressed from me combing out the knots, that a few marble sized clumpy knots came right on out. Since they were in back, the loss of them didn't detract from the appearance, and I felt better to have that gone. It was like survival of the fittest. I still get knots, but not as bad.
First, you have thick hair, a good thing. It looks thick in both ways, in number of follicles per sq. cm., and thick in terms of hair shaft diameter.
my experience:
Sleeping with it tied back helps. Give that a try.
Forget about combing it in the shower except with your fingers.
The most important thing as I've mentioned a few times before, is how you work shampoo and/or conditioner through your hair. Knots are caused by loose hairs tangling with hairs still attached to your scalp. You may shed 25 to 100 or more per day. When you have your kind of hair they often fall out but there's enough curliness so they stay entwined with good hairs and don't fall away. But when you rinse they loosen up and start to wash out but if there are a bunch of them they don't all make it and get tangled up.
You have to work them out before you rinse so that when you do rinse, the hair remaining is attached hair that is conditioned and easier to comb and set.
If you lather or work in the conditioner by piling your hair up then all that does is loosen falling out hairs and ensure they will be wrapped up in the mess when you rinse. Don't do that. Apply your product and bend over and let gravity be your friend by working the product through your hair down towards the floor and at the same time work all the loose hairs down and out (or as many as you can--you won't get all of them but most). Rinse out shampoo the same way working the hairs and shampoo down and out. With conditioner, you can rinse that out when you are ready by standing up and rinsing it out down your back if you have worked out the loose hairs per the method above.
In my case, I'm knot free now, even in hard water locations however my hair is thinner (in both ways regrettably) but I hope this still helps.
Thanks for the replies.
It's a "battle" for sure but a battle worth fighting.
Peace.
You might want to try NaturallyCurly.com
That sight is all about curly and wavy hair. They also have a forum where you can ask questions. Best place on the Net for curly hair!
One question: Are you combing your hair starting from the ends? If you're not, this will just add to the knots.
Hi,
My hair is nearly your length, but not as thick. This is what I do and it works well -- I almost never have un-detangle-able knots.
I wash it usually every few days but sometimes even on two consecutive days. And, you're right, a shower comb is a nightmare; put it away in safekeeping. So this is what I do:
1) Wash with two-in-one shampoo and conditioner first (Pert Plus). I wash with the grain; that is, apply the shampoo on to of the scalp and work it back to the ends as if I'm making a tail out of it. Rinse out that extremely well just letting the water run through your hair for a few minutes.
2) Follow that with either generic brand Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Conditioner or Suave Aloe or Ocean type conditioner. Let that sit a few minutes after applying and squeezing it into the length portion really well. Then I barely rinse out the conditioner.
3) Afterwards, I slightly blot the water out with a towel, but don't fluff it up with the towel. Then kind of separate sections with my fingers, and comb very, very slowly and gently with a wide-toothed comb. This takes a while, and it is at this point that whenever I come upon a knot or hairball of loose/shed hairs that have bunched up, I get them around where I can see them and extract the hairs and release the knot, all very carefully. This does take some patience and some good up-close eyesight too. But, this is the only time I attempt any combing or detangling of any sort until the next wash/condition.
4) I use a lot of leave in conditioner. All this washing usually happens at night. The next morning when I wake up with a fro, I don't do any detangling or combing, because although curly hair may seem tangled, I think this is an illusion. For is it not apparent how curly and locks intertwine themselves and wrap around each other? That's just what they do. So anyway, now I just take leave in conditioner on the palms of my hands with some water and run it over the top of my hair and down the ends as if to make it into a tail. Repeat this several times rewetting my hands, and I end up with hanging ringlets that can then be tied back or left to dry for a rather nice looking presentation. One extra step to keep things tame is to chase the leave in conditioner with a drop of gel applied in the same way.
I may repeat step four on consecutive mornings for up to two days. I just washed my hair last night for the first time since Wednesday. I had so many subsequent applications of conditioner that I didn't have any tangles when I finally combed it last night. You can even use regular conditioner of any type if you have no leave in handy.