2. The Detangling Nightmare
As a transitioner and a natural, I can recall needing quite a few things to detangle my hair. Either a complex concoction or conditioner, water, an onslaught of tools, and a Law & Order: SVU marathon. I bought into the blog hype everywhere that detangling had to be some nightmarish event of epic proportions that couldn’t be done in under two hours. I detangled slowly with my fingers, in some of the smallest sections imaginable. At some points, I even went practically strand-by-strand. I ended up with pruny fingers, cramped hands, towels full of shed hair and conditioner muck, and a sense of resolve that had been beaten into submission. And I did this every week. Sometimes twice.
Solution: Try it once or twice, then move on.
Learning which detangling method works for you is a classic case of throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. There are tons of different methods – dry detangling, damp detangling, soaking wet hair detangling, detangling with oil, detangling with conditioner, detangling with a detangler, with your fingers, with a Denman, with a wide tooth comb, with a Tangle Teezer, with a Q-Redew…the possibilities and combinations are seemingly infinite.
If your current method has you taking forever and a day, and you’re still losing insane amounts of hair due to breakage, or you always have a bajillion knots that don’t want to come undone, it’s time to lay that method to rest and move on.
I’m a huge proponent of slathering the hair with conditioner, and detangling in the shower darting my hair under the shower head a few times for extra slippage. With this method, I’m able to make it through my head in 15 minutes or less. I would have never found this out, if it wasn’t for drama point #1 and making a conscious decision to try different methods until I had one that worked. And you better believe that if this one stops working, I’m on to the next!
