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Every morning when I wake up, I have go through the daunting task of detangling and removing the snags in my hair. It's not long enough yet to braid put in a updo.
Even if my hair is drenched wet with water, the comb snags way too easy. I use wide toothed comb. I might as well run a garden rake through my hair. I've been using conditioner with every wash, oiling the night before a wash doesn't help, no conditioner turns my hair into an overgrown garden. I'm at wits end with this issue.
I despise combs for that very reason. My brush is much more comfortable and gets more loose hairs out than that torture device called a comb. I suppose if I didn't use beneficial oil after every wash when the mane is damp then the brush would make my hair frizzy, but I do, so it doesn't, and that makes me happy. :-)
Of course there will always be snags, but I've found that brushing hurts a great deal less than combing. You might want to give that a try and see if it helps.
I've found that my hair only likes to be "brushed" when it's wet believe it or not. My brush right now is just a cheap no name with plastic sticks and rounded off ends. Oiling my hair after a wash when it's still wet can be tricky. I have to be careful how much I use so my hair isn't greasy or lifeless. I'll try this tommorow morning and how it goes.
My best suggestion is to rinse your hair in cold water before applying conditioner, and then rinse the conditioner out with cold water. The cold closes the little scales on your hair and might make it less Velcro-like.
Most people recommend starting your comb job at the bottom. Personally, I comb from the scalp down, but I do it in small sections and move slowly. If there's a prime directive for hair care it's that speed kills.
Hi Mike,
After I wash my hair before I go to bed and its still damp I'll use a wide tooth comb and sprinkle some liquid leave in conditioner on the teeth then start combing out my hair.Having the leave in conditioner on the comb itself helps lubricate it through my hair so it glides through better.Try it.Also the next morning,after sleeping on my hair,I again use the wide tooth comb for the tangles but this time I wet and re wet the comb with water which helps it glide through better.Once there are no more tangles I use the famous boars bristle brush which does a fantastic job.Just for the record my hair is dead straight which makes this process easy for me.Anyway hope this helps as it does for me.
Mark
Hi Mike,
Do you toss and turn, roll around a lot while sleeping?
That can "do a number" on hair.
Sounds like you are doing all of the right things hair-care wise.
I have found using a smooth satin-like pillow cover helpful in reducing friction on my hair.
Lacking actual "satin" pillow cases, I use nylon (or other smooth material) sports jerseys (which I find in thrift stores that I frequent regularly) as pillow cases. These work well.
- Oren
Oren,
I do toss and turn alot. When I wake up, my hair proves that it doesn't like it. Being it the colder season, I'm using flannels right now.
First, you need to tell us what kind of hair you have. That matters. Is it curly? Frizzy, straight, wavy....?
You need to have a good comb. They aren't cheap but a good comb is in another ballpark compared to a cheap plastic job. There's something about the structure of wood in a wide tooth comb. There's no comparison with plastic and your hair will love it. So will you. Here's a guy who makes excellent combs--link below:
Forget detangling and combing at any time other than when you are fixing your hair after you condition it and within an hour after. Beyond that, just let it go. The reason is that by mid-day your hair has developed enough scales from cuticle cracks (this is normal) and static cling that it's just going to tangle and you'll do more harm than good trying to fix it, unless you are willing to spend at least half an hour gently working through it, then slowly combing starting with the ends (you have to have a good comb). I usually just tie mine back around noon and forget about it.
As someone else said, rinse out with cold water, work in conditioner (you should probably only wash it out once a week) and leave it while you wash the rest of yourself and rinse it out with cold water. It really helps to have a hand held nozzle so you can bend over and control the cold water flow and confine it to your scalp holding it with one hand while you gently work out the conditioner with the other hand. When you get out of the shower work through it with your fingers gently then comb it through once with the comb. Then you can let it air dry or dry it with a blow dryer provided you have one that allows the heat to be shut off.
Not all conditioners and shampoos are equal. Some are really lousy. I've had good results with Pantene Daily Moisture Renewal. Bed Head Control Freak is a good shampoo. don't be turned off by the manufacturer hype on the labels--they often are very inaccurate in what a product can really do. For example Control Freak has nothing to do with control. It's just a good shampoo.
It's a good idea to do all this in the morning so you benefit from detangling through the day. If you want to wear it loose, you can tie it loosely with a hair tie that's stretched out then pull it off when you get to where you're going.
Tangles (i.e. Knots) are almost always caused by loose shed hairs that don't manage to fully exit your current growth. They twist and curl up and entwine themselves with desirable hair and form knots when you are pushing through your hair with your fingers or a comb. You'll get rid of a lot of them by following the conditioning advice above and by mostly leaving your hair alone except when you fix it at rinsing time. That's because then they'll be slick and slide right out. There's one time when this doesn't happen and that's when you have to eventually wash with a shampoo after say, a long weekend when your scalp got real sweaty, grimy or you did a job and wound up with a head full of sawdust or something despite your best efforts. Once you have lathered up the shampoo, the cuticle is bare and you can wind up working a lot of hairs loose if you have gone for a few days without doing any maintenance. the key to avoiding knots is to gently work out all the loose hairs before you rinse out the lather. Do this while you have some slickness due to the soapyness of the shampoo base. Bend over and let your hair fall and work your fingers through your hair moving the loose hairs down and out, rinsing them off your hands each time (leave some water running for this). When you do rinse out the lather, most of the shed hairs will be out already and you'll dramatically reduce the chances of knotting.
It's been awhile since I went through this here so thanks for asking.
Don't forget to check out the combs below or find another vendor you prefer.
Rob
Rob,
Excellent posting! I have thick wavy hair. It can be very frizzy even if I do use conditioner but I have to rinse with cool water to tame it. I washed my hair this morning and rinsed out the conditioner with cool water. My hair thanked me for this and will continue to do this.
Lately I've been using Tresemme Moisture Shampoo & Conditioner. These 2 products work well for me but I do have to watch how much conditioner I use. I use about the size of a dime. It's enough to adequetly condition my hair but not enough to look greasy by the end of the day. I wash my hair every other day, sometimes I'll stretch it depends what I do during the week. Once a month I'll throw in Suave Daily Clarifying to keep any buildup at bay.
Right now I use a wide tooth comb, just your generic wide tooth comb, nothing fancy. My brush however, I should replace before my hair gets any longer.
Sounds good Mike, sounds like you have an oily scalp. Suave Daily Clarifying is a good shampoo that leaves no residue and is inexpensive. It is an example of how you can find some great products that don't cost a lot of money. Not all the good shampoos are so-called "salon" products.
Rob
I've been using a brush for detangling pretty much since Day One. I've tried using a wide-toothed comb and it actually seems to cause more snags and tangles - even running it through hair I've just detangled with the brush!
My brush has fairly soft fine nylon bristles which are pretty flexible. I start brushing my hair in sections, working with the last six inches or so and then working up the length of the hair. If I come across a tangle, the bristles are soft enough that they don't snag and pull it. At that point I put the brush down and use my fingers to do the detangling. However, I don't tend to have too many problems with tangles as my hair spends most of its time in a plait, which makes life a lot easier.
I've also got an Afro comb which I use occasionally. It's less effective than the brush, but much more effective than the wide-toothed comb for some reason and causes much less tangling.
I don't know if this will help you or not, but when I was in the awkward stage, I used to tie as much of my hair as possible on top of my head overnight. I'm quite a restless sleeper and used to wake up with some major tangles. It's not the most dignified style, but who's going to see it? Just remember to let it down before you answer the door first thing in the morning!