The biggest frustration during my transition from relaxed to natural hair has been detangling and the resulting breakage. I wash my hair twice a week (one of the sessions is with shampoo, the other is just a conditioner wash [co-wash]). Detangling each time makes my wash days a true battle, but my hair LOVES the water, so I don’t see myself washing fewer times a week. I was then inspired by Marsha to make every wash/co-wash a therapeutic session. She talks about how she loves wash/co-wash days, and a big reason is because she realized she can detangle once and only once during a given session. Genius! It made me realize that I may be over-doing this whole detangling thing. Now grant it, Marsha is fully natural, so I do have to take into account my two textures as I’m transitioning, but she did inspire me to at least reconsider my detangling sessions.
I already only detangle with a wide-toothed comb on every wash/co-wash day. Sometimes I do it before I wash and sometimes after, but it’s always with my Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner under running water. However, I usually then detangle again once I’m out of the shower, applying all of my leave-ins and styling. Lately I’ve noticed more knots and stubborn tangles, and I’m seeing more hair on the shower floor or in my comb. Not a fan of that.
Side note: My go-to style is a flat twist out that is pulled back to look like a crinkly/curly bun. I am struggling to find more protective styles, and I realize this style may contribute to a lot of my knots and tangles. Once things slow down for me, I plan to view more YouTube tutorials on protective styles for transitioners. But until then, I have to stick to what I know.
But tonight I tried something different. Well not really. I tried finger-detangling before. My conclusion was that it took forever, and I still had a lot of knots when I later went through with my wide-toothed comb. I’m not sure why I went through again with my wide-toothed comb if I was detangling with my fingers. This could be the over-do-it side of me. So tonight I tried it again. I said I was going to detangle with my fingers, and not touch it with my comb. Honestly, there have to be women out there that just finger-detangle right? I mean, why is this so scary to me? Am I afraid that I’ll finger-detangle for weeks and weeks only to wake up one morning with an impossible knot that needs to be cut out? Maybe. But that sounds ridiculous?
So back to my experience tonight…so far, so good. I think my fingers did a great job of smoothing and detangling (at least in the shower). I felt a few tangles and knots as I was twisting my hair after applying the leave-ins, but honestly, I can’t say it was any different from when I used my wide-toothed comb. So I think I’m happy with it…for the moment. I’ll let you know after a week or so if I’m still comfortable doing it.
~TS
What’s your go-to detangling method?
Related articles
- The Key to Every Journey…The Ability to Adjust (curlstories.wordpress.com)
- Hair wash therapy (24hourhair.wordpress.com)
- Knowing the Basics (thecaribbeancurly.wordpress.com)
- Top 5 Frustrations of a Transition (so far) & How I Get Through (curlstories.wordpress.com)
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Have you tried flexirods or roller sets? They are great, especially the flexirods, to blend two textures.
I haven’t tried flexirods just yet, but I’m excited to! I can’t seem to get a good roller set look with my new growth though
I know what you mean about the roller set…my roots always came out too puffy. There are girls who tried it with great success, however most of them flat ironed their roots. I don’t like the idea of flat ironing after a roller set. On the other hand, with the flexirod set all you have to remember to do is twist the root first then apply the flexi rods. This way, the root has a much sleeker look, while the ends have a more defined spirally curl.
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