*This article was originally published on September 11, 2011. It was re-posted as part of our ‘Best of 2011′ Series
By Jc of The Natural Haven
If you are yearning to have a larger than life afro or hair that hangs down to your waist, then you must pay attention to both your comb and combing technique. Length retention starts with eliminating hair breakage and combing is the primary reason why curly and kinky hair breaks.
Do you have the right skills, tools and techniques?
1. Section hair
Natural hair, curly or coily tends to have a lot of volume. Make your life easy by creating manageable sections- 4 to 8 usually works but with thicker or longer hair even more sections may be better. Very short hair (under 4 inches) generally does not require sections. Use hair bands or clips to keep the hair under control and if you have tight curls or major shrinkage consider loosely braiding or twisting the sections and washing them in this way.
2. Comb wet or comb dry?
Breakage is likely to happen whether hair is combed wet or dry and the method you choose is really a question of preference and ease. Breakage during wet combing is because although hair is very flexible, its strength and ability to resist the force applied from combing is at its lowest. Conversely, when hair is dry, it is at its strongest but it lacks flexibility and therefore is likely to snap. The ideal condition for combing would therefore be when hair is mostly dry (about 80%) so that it is strong and pliable. However, no matter what your preference, consider using some hair conditioner to increase slip and help reduce damage.
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I’ve been finger combing for for a while now. I find it helps maintain my natural texture and keeps the curls together. If given the choice I’d use my hands before a comb.
I haven’t given up the use of combs all together, though. I always comb in the shower while I’m conditioning my hair. After I wash, condition and finger comb, I use a very big-toothed comb to go through it to make sure I’ve gotten all the kinks out….I guess old habits are hard to break :\
File: mia18.bmp
You can really wash hair with the twists still in? Cannot believe I never thought of that. This article has been a blessing! I was seriously about to place relaxer in my daughters hair, which I really do not want to do but it gets tempting sometimes. Her and I have totally different hair textures so I needed those ideas since what works for my hair usually doesn’t work for hers. Also, do I need to be getting her hair trimmed professionally like I do with my hair every few months? It seems the ends of her hair get very dry, tangled and full of knots at times which makes it difficult to not only comb out by to style.
thanks!
Sorry, somehow it uploaded two of each photo
@ Laura: Beautiful daughter, beautiful hair!
Now that my hair is longer, I detangle in stages- 1. Finger detangle with a light spray of water, making sure my hair has light coating of an oil. 2. Wide tooth comb. 3. My trusty Tangle Teezer [only used maybe 1x/month] to aid in prepping hair for styling. Since I’ve gone to oil rinses, the amount of tangles and SSK’s is substantially diminished.
@ Minimah Billings: Could you resize your pictures? They’re stretching out the screen…thanks.
@ OHR. My apologies. I do not not know how to resize them. I am not tech savvy.
Mia
How is it possible to minimize the little wisps of hair? I mean there are always going to be SOME right? You can’t ever possibly comb your hair and end up with none of those little hairs on the floor when you’re done. It’s kind of impossible no matter how careful you are.
For some hair (mine included), it is not possible to eliminate the wisps totally. However in order to retain length, you have to actively try to reduce the number that you see because those wisps represent hair you are not retaining.
Being very gentle with your hair is the real key. The way to measure your success is that your hair should retain length.
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I only comb my hair while wet & with a LOT of conditioner. For about a month,
I tried just finger combing, but noticed my hair tangled more!
yall know what? i actually comb my hair dry! i wash with conditioner ONLY, usually i use aohsr or giovanni and some aussie moist maybe a liitle oils etc. right after i wash it i put my darcys leave-in and seal with a little jojoba oil. then i twist it and pin up til the next day. the next day, i use my qhemet a&ohc and put on my “new growth” and rub a little on the ends. by then my hair is streched and soft so i gently start with the ends (with a big comb)and work my way up. then my ma braids it up in cornrows again. but i have more hair coming out when i comb on wet hair than dry…go figure, everyones hair is NOT the same lol
Man came before the comb. The comb is a man-made invention and the jury is out on whether that is a good or a bad thing for women of color. Personally, I was using a Denman brush on sopping wet hair full of conditioner per the tightly curly method but so much hair is on the brush when I’m finished! So recently after reading about Cipriana from Urban Bush Babes and watching Sera2544 on Youtube detangle, I have been finger de-tangling with grapeseed or jojoba oil. You know what? I see a lot less hair combing out! The shed hair combs out naturally and there are no more clumps the size of a small animal in my palm. Just to make sure I had done a thorough job of finger combing, sometimes I go back over the sections with a comb. Only one or two hairs will be on the comb, so I must be doing something right. I don’t even need the comb. The key is to keep the hair stretched prior to dry detangling so that it’s not such an big job and do it in sections.
A tip that is very important that could have been included is combing your hair from the bottom up. Don’t start at the roots and try to work your way down, start at the ends and comb down, gradually going up as the bottom is detangled. trying to comb your hair from the roots down will cause breakage if hair is tangled at all. hope that makes sense!
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