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I've now grown my hair out to where it is well past my shoulders and have just recently had a big problem with knots/tangles. Usually I could brush them out without too much trouble but now its a bit more difficult. Maybe a stupid question, but how does one detangle without breakage? Being a guy nobody ever taught about this crap. I break a couple hair now and then but I figure thats to be expected right? I've tried using a brush and widetooth comb but neither seems to work. So now I'm guessing more along the lines of some miracle detangling conditioner or solution. Any suggestions? Please help...Thanks in advance
Well this is something I can relate to. Here are some suggestions, some of which are my own and some that I've gleaned elsewhere:
Brush your hair before you wash it.
When you dry your hair, don't do it like you did with short hair. This tangles the hair. Some people recommend against twisting the hair in a towel, but I have no problem with it.
Don't brush your hair when wet. Allow it to dry first or at least just comb with a wide-tooth comb.
If you don't mind using silicones, try Pantene spray on detangler. This stuff makes your hair slippery. It's so effictive it actually has a warning on the bottle against spraying over hard surfaces because of the risk of slipping and falling. Also try Citre Shine hair polisher or similar serums
If you have a tangle in dry hair, use a brush with metal tines with balls on the end of the tines. Don't brush through the hair as you normally would. This will just tighten the tangles. What you do is to simply poke the tines through the tangle, and then pull the tines back out with a bit of twist to the wrist. It's rather hard to describe exactly what to do but an explanation of how it works may help to learn the technique. Consider the situation around a single tine. The tine gets poke through a tight tangle. As you pull the tine back out, the ball at the end acts as a sort of wedge, spreading the hairs apart thus loosening the tangle. If the tangle is not really bad, gentle pressure can be applied.
For serious, small tangles involving only a few hairs, damage is a serious possibility, so careful detangling is appropriate. A technique that works very well is to grasp the heart of the tangle between thumb and fingers with one hand. With the other hand, pull out small groups or even single hairs. Only pull out the ones that are easy to pull out. With those hairs gone, you will now have other hairs that will be easy to pull out. Continue until there is no more tangle.
Note that these are techniques that work with my hair. Other hair types may require different techniques, but I think they are a good starting point.
My daughter has fine hair and frequently gets the beginnings of what would turn into dreadlocks if left alone. These look like serious, unmanageable tangles, but they actually are very easy to take out if you approach them properly. Combing or brushing through is NOT the right approach, and just makes the tangle worse. What I do is:
1) Don't rush. Rushing ends up taking longer.
2) Spread the hair apart at the tangle and a bit below it. This loosens the dread.
3) With a porcupine brush (get one of these -- they're great) brush out the hair a piece at a time from the ends progressively closer to the tangle.
4) Repeat step #3 with more pieces.
5) Brush out entire hair from top to bottom.
And don't get the feeling that detangling will get harder as the
hair gets longer! That's true only up to a point; once the hair gets
more than a foot or so below the neck, you can bring most of the
tangles around to the front where you can see them to work on them.
So hang in there!
Try "finger combing." Use the fingers of your hands like a
a comb--it works, and they are always available. :-)
Wait until your hair is dry (after washing) before using
this technique. Good luck!
One thing I have found - I recently started using the Graham Webb Beer shampoo and conditioner and I can't seem to avoid really big tangles, too. And it seems to weight the hair down - but doesn't really feel dirty -
I'm going back to Biolage shampoos and detangler - seems to work great for me!