Learning to Comb My Natural Hair

When I was a kid I had natural hair and it was usually washed, bloodied, combed, brushed and styled. I was natural during the era of the relaxer in the 90's. I can recall people saying I had thick hair, but I never remembered having difficult to manage hair. In those days my tools included hair grease,  a small tooth Goody comb and a boar bristle brush. When my hair was not in plaits it was sometimes groomed daily and I had length and thickness.

   Fast forward a few years and went the way of relaxers with braided extensions worn quite frequently.  By 2001 I was ready to go natural permanently.  When I chose to ho natural there were online forums and a few books and online albums offering advice on how to groom natural hair. For over 10 years I faithfully followed the tenets of grooming natural hair according to the internet.  I learned at first to use wide tooth combs and to detangle my hair while it was wet with lots of conditioner.  The longer my hair grew the more arduous and cumbersome these detangling sessions became.  After a few years I gave up combs all together and went with finger detangling. My detangling sessions were still the bane of my existence. I had tons and tons of single strand knots and was drained and exhausted by the prospect of grooming my hair.

    In my recent frustration with detangling I decided to try something different and low and behold I stumbled upon a method to detangle my hair without all the hassle.  I have been using a wide tooth comb with super long teeth. The keys I found to successfully using this trusty tool is all in the technique.

   1. Air-dry and braid the hair to stretch it over night before attempting to detangle the hair. I learned the hard way that it is much easier to work on elongated hair than shrunken hair.

2. The second step and key to success is controlling moisturize levels in the hair to aid with combing. Too much water and the hair shrinks, knots, tangles and curls. No water and their is too much friction.  A light misting of water so that the hair is just barely damp, closer to dry, then the application of a shea butter cream and some hair oil provide soft supple hair that is pliable and easier to work with.

3. When moisturizing and detangle only apply product to the section you are combing,  wetting all your hair will just cause it to shrink and tangle. In your small section moisturize,  comb and style the hair before moving to the next section.  I find a twist or braids works well.

If you are like me natural,  but having a hard time detangling your hair I would recommend trying out working with stretched hair that is slightly wet and moisturized and using a wide tooth comb.  For me I will be keeping my trusty comb handy from now on.

CLM