Comb: A love hate relationship!

My best friend and the devil

For the past few weeks I have drastically changed my natural hair care routine. The main thing I changed was putting down the wide tooth comb and trying dry finger detangling with olive oil. Putting down my wide tooth comb proved disastrous for me. My hair has a love hate relationship with the wide tooth comb. When I use it faithful to detangle my hair each week before washing, it works wonders. When I do not use it as I learned during my dry finger detangle debacle, I discover tons of single strand knots. Not using a comb contributes to the production of split ends on my fine and fragile hair. On the other hand, should I comb my hair daily, I might see tons of breakage, and if I comb my hair dry, I can kiss my hair goodbye!

I had been combing my hair with the wide tooth comb using some cheap conditioner. I found that I was struggling and I felt like my hair was being riped through my comb. I was becoming so frustrated. I was beginning to think my hair could not be combed at all. What I discovered was that I was applying the conditioner to my hair and instantly combing it. I was not allowing the conditioner time to penetrate my hair shaft and bring moisture to my strands. When my hair is supple, it is pliable, flexible and elastic, it is more durable and can be combed with the wide tooth comb. By sitting with the conditioner on my head for at-least 20 minutes I have hair that is much easier to comb.

What I observed through dry detangling with olive oil, is that my hair does not do well when it is stretched to within an inch of it’s life without moisture. My stretched hair was brittle and my brittle hair was prone to breakage, even from the gentle touch of my fingers. My hair produced tons of knots. When I was putting the oil’s onto my dry hair, that eats up oil’s, I was only making my hair more dry.

The major lesson I learned is that in order for my hair to be happy, I have to use a wide tooth comb on moisturized hair. By deep conditioning my hair prior to combing, I have hair that is easier to comb. When I comb my hair weekly I remove the shed hairs that pile up during the week and have an easier time to detangle the next week.

My routine is as follows:

1.      Remove style (usually two strand twist)

2.      Apply conditioner and twist hair in sections and sit for 20 min with plastic cap

3.      Use wide tooth comb to detangle and braid hair

4.      Wash hair using a sulfate-free shampoo ( I heart design essentials, and shea moisture)

5.      Apply a leave in to braided hair (I like design essentials daily hair lotion)

6.      Seal with a smidge of oil (Always add oil to moisturized hair for moi)

7.      Allow hair to air-dry for as long as I feel like it (over night or a few hours)

8.      Twist hair using a cream of butter (design essentials curl stretching cream is nice)

9.      Style hair in a bun of sorts or two large French braids

10.   Repeat process after 7 days

CLM

Nappy Hair Rescue 911!

I have been natural for over 10 years. Since I went natural in 2002 I have had my share of up's and downs. I remember when I was first getting started I would go to the library and hunt for any book at all that mentioned hair, African Hair, Braiding or Black Hair Care. I mostly found a few books on tribal hair styles, and a few books on relaxing hair. I recall coming across Nappturality and Motown girl websites, as well as few fotki albums. I tried my best to care for my hair. Along the way I tried several things that really were misses and wondered onto to some things that were hits. I am so happy today's African-American have wonderful blog's like CurlyNikki and plenty of youtube channels. They also have a plethora of products to choose from, unlike myself who had to hunt down ingredients at specialty health food stores.

So here are some of my misses.

1. Co-Washing. This did not really work for me. I have a very sensitive scalp and the conditioners would just irritate my scalp. I never felt like my hair was getting clean and it was not easier to comb after Co-Washing.

2. Wide Tooth Comb. Not until this year have I finally let go of the notion that my fine hair strands are meant to go through any comb at all. I use to slather conditioner onto my hair and comb in small sections to no avail. All I did was have my very kinky hair shrink up and snap back before snapping off.

3. Gels and Creams and the like. I discovered pretty quickly that my curl was tight enough to hold any two-strand twist without any products.

4. Rinse Out Conditioner. No matter what product I used to clean my hair with, adding conditioner and then rinsing it out did absolutely nothing for my hair. Protein conditioner's actually made my hair feel worse.

5.Mini-Twist on hair 4 inches or longer. This style just caused my hair to tangle like crazy.

6.Flat-twist/ Cornrows. All I did was rip my hair line out trying to get my fumble fingers to create tension to hold the style together.Some times the braid or twist would puff and frizz instantly, other times it would wait a respectable day or two.

7. Being a product junkie. I was always on the hunt for the next miracle product that would make my hair easier to comb or would help me grow (I mean retain length!) No such product existed!

8. Copying every thing from other people's routines. Just because the person I was studying had long natural hair, did not mean I could do exactly what they did to 1. produce the same style or 1. Get my hair to retain the same length.

Now here are some of my hits!

1. Sulfate-free shampoo ( I love the bubbles! I love having a shampoo that does not strip every thing off the hair. I heart Shea Moisture, Eden Body Works, Black Earth Products etc)

2. Leave-Conditioner- Works wonders after a shampoo, especially once I discovered how to seal in all that good moisture with good old oils like Olive Oil.

3. Dry Finger Detangling. I am new to this. I am learning that by not ripping my hair out every time I detangle I can keep the hair on my head. ( Do use Olive Oil for lubrication!)

4. Two-strand twist. Have been a fan since day 1 of my journey. I like my med-large. Easy to put in, easy to take down. (Just learned that after a week, I can re-twist the hair, remove the shed hair and get another week out of the style. I use to just rock the twist for several weeks without re-twisting and I was in for tangle city when it came time to take it down. This caused me to wash and twist weekly for a while, which took up way too much time, especially since I was still using the dreaded comb.

This natural hair think is not rocket science. It has been fun to learn, grow, make mistakes and get some things right on my journey. Everyone's hair is unique and everyone's journey is unique. Don't be afraid to learn.

One of the biggest things I have learned so far is that while I was staying away from relaxers and heat styling tools, I was coveting the one tool that was doing the most damage to my natural hair, the wide tooth comb! While other's hair may have been strong enough to survive the comb, mine was not. I hope you learn something wonderful about your own hair today! May you have fun along the way!

CLM