5 Detangling Tips You Should Incorporate Now

Just the thought of wash day can be exhausting because you know that the next few hours will be dedicated solely to caring for your hair; it’s almost a job in itself! One thing that can make wash day seem like it’s dragging on forever is the detangling process.

While detangling may seem to be the most stressful part of wash day, it’s crucial to detangle hair gently and correctly to prevent unnecessary damage or breakage to your hair. Depending on the style you rocked during the week, whether it’s an old wash n go or a 5-day-old twist out, there’s bound to be some tangles caught in the strands because we lose strands of hair everyday.

Detangling doesn’t have to be an all day chore. With a few tweaks to your detangling routine, the time can be cut in half and you’ll be able to proceed with wash day as planned not to mention you won’t lose more hair than necessary. Here are five tips you can incorporate now to make detangling a breeze:

Finger detangle

Finger detangling is kind of a hit and miss in the natural hair community. Some don’t like it, while others swear by it. Finger detangling simply means skipping the comb or brush, and using fingers to detangle hair.

With finger detangling, it’s easier to gently work through the knots that may appear, without ripping hair out with a comb. Finger detangling may seem slow at first, but it gets easier with practice, it also salvages more strands of hair than a comb would.

Detangle on dry hair

It isn’t a good idea to detangle wet hair that doesn’t have any product in it. Wetting hair that still has tangles in it can make detangling harder, because the hair clumps together even more, and a small knot will suddenly become a big one. Detangling wet hair also makes it more susceptible to breakage.

Detangling dry hair, or hair lightly misted with water is an easier solution, because you can sort through all of the knots, twist your hair up in sections, and breeze through the rest of wash day. Detangling with dry hair makes the overall process easier, and prevents you from losing extra strands.

Separate your hair into sections

Separating hair into sections is a curl saver! Trying to detangle all of your hair as a whole can be difficult, it can take longer, be frustrating, and can cause you to rip out more hair.

Detangling hair in sections can make the entire process more manageable and it’s also easier to make sure that all of the knots in hair are gone. Each section of hair can be finger detangled gently, and then twisted up or clipped away to prevent it from being tangled again with the other sections. Most people continue to wash their hair in sections after detangling because the smaller sections are easier to work with.

The amount of sections that you choose to separate your hair into is ultimately up to you; Some people do four, while others may do eight. Sectioning hair is an excellent tip for women with longer hair, however it’s a good practice to begin while hair is shorter, so that you can get used to the process.

Use an oil

Oils* are used during wash day for various reasons. They can be used as a pre-poo, during deep conditioning*, and afterwards as a sealant. Oil can be very beneficial for detangling as well. Rub oil such as coconut* or extra virgin olive oil* on your hands and hair to make detangling a breeze it allows your hands to glide through your hair easily.

The added product helps to loosen the knots in hair as you detangle. *Extra Tip: After detangling with oil, add more to the scalp and down the strand, concentrating on the ends. Put on a shower cap* and leave on for 30 minutes to overnight. Wash out with shampoo and continue washday as usual. You just did a pre-poo!*

Start at the bottom

No, I don’t mean like the Drake song. Another crucial and strand saving detangling tip is to start detangling at the ends and not at the root. It’s much easier to start from the bottom, because you can tackle the tangles as they appear.

By detangling from the root down, it’s possible to cause more tangles, or be more careless with hair, because you may be tempted to rip out a major knot. Gently working your way up to the root ensures that you can gently separate clumped curls without causing any breakage to your hair.

Detangling natural hair has to be done, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Just like every other aspect of a hair journey, learning what works and doesn’t work is part of the experience. As hair grows and gets longer, it’s important to your core techniques as your foundation so that length can be maintained, and so that wash day doesn’t become wash days.