By Jc of The Natural Haven
Getting rid of shed hair, knots and tangles is the main purpose of detangling. For natural hair, the detangling process can be difficult depending on the length of your hair, how dry it is and how it shrinks when wet. It is however possible to detangle hair wet or dry and for many, the detangling process that you use evolves with time and greater understanding of your hair’s behaviour.
Here is a guide on whether to choose wet or dry detangling
1. The Case for Wet Detangling
What it is: Hair is coated in conditioner and then combed (finger, comb and/or brush) or hair is soaking wet in the shower and combed while conditioner is being rinsed out
Advantages: The main reason why people choose wet detangling is because it is easier and hair does not tend to break when the comb is repeatedly run through it. Hair conditioner is known to reduce damage to hair during the combing process. This is thought to happen because conditioner softens hair, corrects the charge from shampoo /aligns the cuticle correctly and reduces friction between the hair and combing tool.
Disadvantages: Water uptake does swell the hair fibre and as a result combing can lead to minor chipping of the cuticle. The uptake of water in natural hair will lead to shrinking which will require control. Hair is also slightly weaker when wet and therefore will break at a lower force.
How to balance out the disadvantages: Although raking a comb through hair soaked in conditioner can be relatively easy, avoid using too much force to counter for the reduced strength of the hair fibre. With wet combing hair tends to break closer to the root leading to long segment breaks. Therefore, check the hair that comes out during the detangling process and see if it really is mostly shed hair (i.e with a bulb) and not broken hair. For those with longer hair, sectioning hair into 8 or more twists/braids will help control the volume of hair and help reduce shrinkage.
Who should consider this method: New naturals, naturals with short hair, anyone who would like to reduce detangling time (busy schedule or not particularly patient)
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Definitely a “dry” method. After I have deep conditioned, I allow my hair to dry to about 60% or more, and then mist with water and detangle with Kinky Curly Knot Today. Once I am done, I am ready to mist again, apply an oil along with a styling butter, and style. I’ve tried both methods, and this one (for my hair) leads to the least amount of breakage.
Wet (or damp) detangling works best for me. I either do it in the shower or I do it after wrapping my head in a Turbie Twist for about ten minutes, soaking with leave-in conditioner and an oil of my choice.
I use a combo of both. At first I will take my hair down with oil and run my fingers through each section of hair. Then I add my conditioner that is mixed with oil into each section and start to detangle with my fingers and comb. I may change this method in the future if I figure out what works best for me.
I have to say that I absolutely love your site because your posts are always informative and straight to the point. :) I usually detangle with my hair wet because doing it dry takes WAY too much time and patience that I just don’t have. lol I wish I did because I’m sure doing it dry is better but it’s just easier for me with wet hair. I have 4b type hair, so the curl is very tight and my hair gets VERY dry-very quickly…and this leads to so much breakage if I detangle dry. If I had a looser curl, I would do it dry.
Great post though because I wanted to know which is better and how much damage I may be doing when I do either one. So thank you for this post! :)
I only detangle on damp hair. I finger-detangle stretched, sectioned (8-10 parts), dampened (via spray bottle) and oiled hair before shampooing. After detangling each section, I twist it. Afterwards I shampoo in the same twists. These two methods have greatly minimized breakage in my highly textured and tightly coiled hair.
P.S. Lately I’ve experimented with detangling with conditioner applied to dry hair. This works similarly to my dampened and oiled detangling process.
Thats the exact method I use
Awesome! JC from the Natural Haven blog uses this method too. Great minds think alike.
I’m going to have to try this. My hair has gotten pretty long, but I think it could be eevn longer if I actually found a detangling method that worked for me. This is the only thing missing from my regimen. I’m just not that patient when I detangle, especially since my hia rhas grown. It tangles soooo badly. I guess I just need to set aside some time on my Sunday wash days & just DO IT! LOL. Thanks for the methodology.
Your welcome! I hope it works well for you.
When I used to comb my hair I would always do it on soaking wet hair with a little bit of conditioner in it. Now that I strictly finger detangle I start detangling on dry hair, and when (pre-wash) and when I wash my hair in the shower, as the water is running through my hair I used conditioner and gently finger detangle (in sections). This really works for me and I only have to detangle about tow-three times a month. (Which usually takes about three hours).
A combination of both. I pre-poo with coconut oil, parting my hair into 6 sections and doing some light finger detangling with oil-coated hands. I try to get all the major knots this way; this usually takes about half an hour to 45 minutes. Then I twist each section up and go to bed. In the morning, I shampoo and condition. I start by finger detangling hair that is fully loaded with conditioner, and I finish up with passing my Mason Pearson rake comb through it under the force of the water. Then I twist that section back up and keep it moving until each section has been conditioned and detangled.
This is EXACTLY what I do as well. It works for me;) My hair is mid-back length, 3c 4a 4b texture.
I used to only wet detangle, in the shower with conditioner. It took forever, but was effective for that time. As my super fine coils have grown longer, I’ve discovered my hair hates tension of any kind! …and so I am strictly a finger detangler.
I guess I do a modified dry/damp detangle lol – I pre-poo with oil and finger detangle in sections. I use a mix of 1:2 avocado & coconut oil – my hair loves it, it provides INCREDIBLE slip. If there are any remaining snags I tackle them during my shampoo or cowash. I read a very good tip on another site about letting the flow and weight of the water help you detangle. This really works well for me! I let a strong flow of water run through a section and the tangles pretty much melt right out.
Wet detangling is my salvation. During the last few days of a twistout, I’ll try to finger detangle a bit, but it doesn’t work well. I mainly finger comb my hair regardless, because I’ve learned that my natural hair doesn’t do well w/ combs & brushes. So, while in the shower, I load up on conditioner and work through the knots. I’ll take a shower comb through it while running under water- and I’m done. Once I’m out of shower- no more combing for me (fingers or otherwise)…I braid it or style it & keep going.
Definitely wet detangling for me! I experience too much breakage with dry detangling. When my hair is dry, it just increases in volume, which makes it hard on my arms to control it. Then Im left with broken hair, AND sore arms! LOL!
I’d seriously discourage wet detangling hair that hasn’t been tangled in a while. I learned the hard way when I took out my daughter’s weave and then tried to detangle her hair wet. It was a nightmare. Sections of the hair dreaded. I should have detangled it dry.
I detangle my own hair dry with Vatika oil but that’s only the prep detangling. When I wash it, I detangle it wet with conditioner because inevitably it does retangle just not as much.
After two years of wet detangling, I realised dry detangling with oil is much better, I rip out less hairs because I can feel the tangles with my hair. It has forced me to be more patient and it’s working well for me now.
as of now, i do both. If my hair has been in a protective style for a long period of time, i dry detangle with olive oil before i wash. this helps with the amount of hair shed in the shower and makes for a faster comb through in the shower. if I haven’t been wearing a protective style, then i wet detangle. since my hair has grown a bit from a twa and into the in between phase, i had to adopt the method of dry detangling on stretched hair.
I wet detangle after shampooing my hair. I use a janeke detangling brush to help get out all the shed hair. I section my hair into 10 sections and apply gobs of conditioner to each section, sometimes rewetting each section with a spray bottle as I detangle.
I shampoo and condition. then use the comb to detangle while the conditioner is still in my hair. I use a wide tooth comb as well. I’ve been combing at the ends and my way up lately. Finger stretching kinda works for me, but it doesnt..then later it just dries on up when I do leave it out..so I do a twist out..
why do we need to detangle anyway?? and how often should we detangle??
We detangle to release shed hairs and get rid of major tangles in our hair.
You should detangle as often as you see fit and according to style. You have to experiment with frequency (every wash, every other wash, etc), detangling techniques (finger-detangling, comb-detangling and.or brush-detangling) and timing (before shampoo/co-wash or after, before or after pre-poo/deep conditioning) to find what works for you.
I have locs, but with my daughter, who has natural, mid back length hair, wet is the only way to go. She combs it out in the shower with running water and conditioner. It is almost impossible to detangle dry. I think it really depends on the grade of hair. I have 4 daughters with 4 different types of hair. The baby is the only one I had the courage to keep natural.
I do both because my mom insists on combing my hair before she braids it up. I wear wigs for protective styling and convenience, also I’ve practiced low – no manipulation since I cut my hair in March. Most of the time I untangle in the shower with a head full of aussie moist conditioner, thank God its cheap lol. Then I part into about 5 sections and with some leave in, cant wait til my darcys arrives. Im using Giovanni DL now, but I’m not as impressed as I was when I first went natural I always have to add something to it. Then I twist let air dry and put qhemet aohc to soften it up (that leaves it like butta). So when my mom uses a big tooth comb to braid it, the comb just glides through. I dont have any trouble so far retaining length.
Thanks for the post, but really not detangling the hair prior to wetting hair can be worse and if it is done we suggest only using the Take Down Remover/Detangler Cream.
Dry detangling is so very essential in reducing the amount of hair lost, and more importantly so increasing the amount of length retained. The Take Down Cream really helps to prevent hair loss.
As professional hair detanglers we always get calls from women who shampoo their hair without combing it through and the hair just matts up horribly.
Very tangled matted hair can cause split ends, knots and breakag. However we suggest only using the Take Down Remover/Detangler Cream only.
Please let your viewers know that if they ever have any issues with very matted or tangled hair, we specialize in detangling, removing dreadlocks and saving hair.
THEY DO NOT HAVE TO CUT their hair-no matter what anyone says
I detangling my hair in the shower. I am notorious for letting my kinky hair go wild. This of course, results in knots, splitting and lack of length retention. I have long hair, but it should be longer. Anyway, long story short I find that detangling in water does take out excess strands. I find that I lose less strands when I detangle with a wide tooth comb and some kind of water based hair milk.