5 Tips For Detangling Your Natural Hair

1. Wet and condition your hair

• Wetting your hair with water alone will only hydrate it. To moisturize properly, spritz your hair with a little water (use a spray bottle) and then follow with a water-based conditioner or hair cream.

2. Detangle in sections

• Detangling takes a lot of patience, and working in sections helps you detangle one step at a time. You can always stop a detangling process and get back to it later if you work in sections. To part your hair, you need a rat-tail comb and hair clips or scrunchies. You can also part your hair with your fingers if you’re feeling very handy.

3. a) Finger detangling

• Unlike combs and brushes, your fingers can feel knots and tangles, undoing them easily. With your fingers, you feel the direct tension and stop pulling. It gives you an indication to stop, and then you work through each knot gently.

• It also prevents sores and stress on your scalp that can come from excessive tool tension. Finger detangling often reduces breakage to the bare minimum.

b) Wide-tooth comb or brush

• Make sure you use a wide-tooth comb because the spaces between allow for easy combing that doesn’t pull on the strands. The wider the spaces between the teeth of a comb, the less damage it can cause.

• Do not force the knots out while combing to prevent breakage. It is better to go through with the comb only after finger detangling, especially if your hair is a tangled mess.

4. Detangle from Tip to Root

• You should start your detangling process by taking a section in your hand and working through all the tangles at the tip before moving to the root. This provides an easier glide from root to tip and prevents excessive breakage.

• Detangling from root to tip also causes pain and tension to your scalp. If you feel that your hair is getting dry, add more conditioner and detangler to moisturize and provide slip.

• This allows for easy separation of strands, leaving you with more strands of hair at the end of the detangling process.

5. Be Gentle

• Sometimes, the reason why your hair is thinning is because you’re losing strands from a rough detangling method.

• Treat your hair with love and care, and it will show you growth (or length retention). You must start to see your hair as a baby that you handle gently to see maximum results.