In the beginning of my journey keeping my hair manageable and pliable was two of my biggest problems. Part of it had to do with some of the products I was using that weren’t really moisturizing my hair as it should but it mostly were my techniques and my being lazy that was contributing to my hair being so matted, tangled and full of knots.
Hard to manage hair can cause you to spend a lot of unnecessary time detangling and styling your hair and can cause you a lot of frustration in your journey. Around month 5 into my journey I started getting a little lazy with my hair I was wearing a puff basically every day, I wasn’t deep conditioning, or using a leave-in conditioner. After wearing a puff for like 2 weeks straight and not thoroughly detangling my hair my hair had formed some serious knots, at this point in my journey I started to make a few changes and as the months passed a started adding a few more changes and later I started to notice a difference in my hair’s manageability.
Here are some tips I want to share with you that helped me get my hair’s manageability under control.
• Detangle- Detangling is a critical part of your regimen whether you like to detangle before a wash or after, you should thoroughly detangle your hair. Detangling helps remove shed hairs, knots, and tangles. Going to long without detangling your hair becomes matted, the shed hairs gets all caught with the tangles and cause knots resulting in hard to comb/detangle hair and breakage.
• Moisturizing- Moisturizing is very important when it comes to your hair’s manageability keeping your hair well conditioned and moisturized will help combat tangles and knots. When your hair is dry and has curled/coiled up on itself it can become tangled, matted and impossible to manipulate, so make sure to keep your hair moisturized to help keep your hair pliable and easy to manage.
• Make sure to focus on moisturizing and sealing your ends, doing so will keep your kinks, coils, and curls from knotting and tangling when they clump together at the ends.
• Wash your hair in sections and in a downward motion opposed to the loose state and rough back and forth (scratching) motion you’re used to which can cause your strands to tangle and knot. Washing your hair in a downward motion, working the cleanser down to your ends also so helps so release shed hairs which can get tangled in your curls/coils or single strands knots that you may have.
• Deep Condition with heat- this has help aid in reducing my tangles. Deep conditioning with heat opens (lefts) the cuticles allowing the moisture to penetrate the scalp and hair shaft resulting in softer, more manageable hair.
• Keep your hair stretched- when you allow your hair to curl/coil up on its self causing your hair to tangle and knot.
• Trim your ends- sometimes you experience knots and tangles because your ends may have single strand knots (SSKs) and when your strands wrap around each other or you’re detangling and removing shed hairs the strands become tangled and knotted along with the knots on the ends of your hair. Trim your ends to get rid of single strand knot and to maintain healthy ends.
• Rinse your conditioners out with cold or cool water- Rinsing your conditioners out with cold or cool water closes and seals the cuticles on the strands, locking in moisture and leaving the hair smooth and less prone to frizz and tangles.
• Try doing an ACV rinse, like the cold/cool water technique, doing an ACV rinse can also help close and smooth the cuticles resulting in smoother hair.
• Be gentle when manipulating your hair, rushing while handle your hair can cause your create tangle and knots. Instead of ripping at your kinks, coils, and curls or yanking at them with a comb when they become tangled and knotted, smooth and rub the tangles and knots out.
• If your hair is dry and you want to manipulate it dampen it with water with or without aloe vera juice to make help more pliable.
*Tip* Aloe vera juice moisturizes and softens the hair.
• The last tip I am going to leave you with is to reduce the amount of heat you’re currently using on your hair. An excessive amount of heat (blow drying, flat ironing etc) can dry your hair our especially your ends; being that they are the oldest parts of your hair you should be taking extra care of them to keep them healthy and tangle free. Constant heat styling will cause you to have to trim more than you probably would prefer. So opt for other options to stretch your hair like flexi rod sets or roller sets (perfect for transitioners).
I hope these tips help some of you natural out there, they have made a world of difference in my regimen and hair’s health.
Until next time
Thanx for stopping by
Peace & Blessings Have a happy HHJ
Ambee
ambeescurls 