I watched a video on YouTube by a Naturalista who was advising people with curly hair to "imagine a flower when we detangle our hair". She was against using any tools for detangling and would instead, take sections of her hair and finger-detangle them. It would take her days to get through the process, but she was rewarded by long gorgeous curls. The results of a poll I took on Instagram showed that 75% of people with curly hair think detangling is their biggest challenge on Washday. We all want to get through a quick, painless washday without having all our precious hair on the floor.
Seeing as patience and motivation to “get through it” were the second category with the most votes, I don’t think a lot of us would be consistent with the slow, finger-detangling process.
Here are some of the things you can do to make washday easier so that you can maintain a hair care routine and see your hair grow.
1. Detangle wet and moisturized hair:
While rinsing your hair in the shower, gently run your fingers through your hair and remove shed hair. The water pressure helps loosen up the curls and this will make it easier to detangle afterwards. It is also important to use a good leave in detangler or conditioner which will strengthen the strands and add moisture, reducing the possibility of breakage. For days when I want to style my afro into a quick ponytail, I use my continuous mist spray bottle to quickly hydrate my ends, apply my leave-in detangling lotion and gently brush through my hair. Generally, I prefer to leave full detangle for washday.
2. Get a Detangling Brush that was designed specifically for curly hair:
The reason detangling is such a headache for people with curly hair is because many of us are doing it wrong. We are stuck using combs and brushes that were designed to navigate quickly through silky straight hair and remove only minor tangles. These tools are too rigid to bend to the whims of our spiral patterns. They cannot remove tight knots without ripping the hair and damaging ends. For a brush to detangle curly hair effectively, it needs to have flexible bristles which will glide through the hair and ease out knots without pulling out hair or damaging ends. The best brush for all curly hair types is the Ultimate Detangling brush. It has 8 flexible moving arms and a patented teeth formation which allows it to bend and flex to meet the contours of your hair. This brush has made washday fun for me. Detangling is so quick and painless that I now wash and moisturize my hair weekly which has led to major growth.
3. Detangle the ends first and work your way up:
Try this method and thank me later. Hold a section of hair firmly and use the Ultimate Detangling brush to comb through knots on the ends, then move higher and higher until you are through with the section. Splitting my hair into 4 sections, this entire process takes me 5 minutes without breakage (Normal shedding is not the same as breaking your ends with a comb).
4. Patience: Although we are using a detangling brush, the Naturalista in the Youtube video was right. Treat your hair like a plant and you will see it flourish. Even when we braid hair, we have the tendency to pull and snap minor tangles while trying to get through it too quickly. You don’t have to spend the whole day on your hair, but you can treat it gently and you will be rewarded with long, healthy hair.
I know first hand how crucial moisture and detangling without breakage is to see your hair grow, and that is why I have created the Ultimate Detangling set which has everything you need to fully detangle and moisturize your hair in minutes. It contains an amazing continuous-mist spray bottle which continues to spray after you have released the nozzle, a 100% vegan Marshmallow root & Slippery elm leave-in detangling lotion which has so much slip and contains other amazing ingredients like aloe vera and Shea butter to condition and deeply moisturize hair, the ultimate detangling brush, a wide tooth rat-tail comb for splitting hair in sections and a pack of pretty, very strong hair ties for holding sections and regular styling.
This set is the perfect gift for anyone with curly hair.