Washing&Conditioning in Braids to Decrease Tangling/Breakage??

[Queen_Earth]

Hey yall!! After my six month failure to retain my growth I am trying to ATTACK what I think the problem was...I am 100% positive that my hair grew at a normal rate; however, by looking at my ends I think it was a breakage issue and I think this happened during the washing/detangling process...

I have seen people on here including my hairspirations say they wash and condition their hair in 6-8 plaits/braids. I was just wondering how that process works...if someone that does this can explain that process I would GREATLY appreciate it!! I am trying to stop losing three handfuls of hair everytime I wash and dry
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[purplepeace79]

I do this
Basically, before I wash or condition, I section my hair into about 6 or 7 sections and I braid each section. Sometimes I twist if I'm feeling lazy.

Then, in the shower, I lather up with shampoo (if I'm shampooing) and rinse, leaving the braids/twists in tact. Then I coat each section with conditioner, one by one. First I coat the braid/twist so it has slip, then I unravel it, finger comb through (sometimes I use a comb, maybe once a month), make sure the hair is totally saturated, then I retwist or rebraid. Other times, I dont bother to unravel and just slap the conditioner on the braid/twist. Again, when I'm being lazy.

I have found since I started doing thing, I have almost no SSKs, my ends are less ratty, and the moisturizing/combing/styling process after are far easier because the hair is sectioned off. I also believe keeping it like that, as I'm styling, helps keep the hair moist so that there is no real breakage while styling.

 

[Queen_Earth]

Thank you!! Do you comb as you section or just section and braid with fingers? also do you DC in braids?

 

[sharifeh]

Try this method by kisses03,
from this thread
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?p=9593756#post9593756

Originally Posted by KiSseS03
I swear by this method, I am 12 months post, and washing in sections has allowed me to hang onto my relaxed ends, avoid splits, and my "detangling" time is around 5-10 minutes for my entire head.

I usually wear my hair straight so pre-wash it is already detangled. I part my hair down the middle of my head (hairline to nape), and then further divided those halves into 3 sections each. This leaves me with 6 sections. I have experimented with smaller sections, but 6 seems to be the magic number to allow me to adequately get to my scalp, smaller braids tend to be too tight for this.

I leave my braids in for the entire washing process, prepoo, shampoo and deep condition. This is key! My hair never ever gets a chance to tangle through the entire process, so combing at the end is so easy! I was skeptical at first about DC'ing in braids, I wasn't convinced that the product would thoroughly coat my strands, but it works! I use an applicator bottle with a nozzle to get down near the roots, and I always DC with a hooded dryer so this may help the product to adequately reach the inner strands.

In the end because my hair never had a chance to tangle, "detangling" is as simple as running the comb through each section to get rid of any minor tangling, and then I run my knock-off denman through to remove any shed hair. It takes 5-8 minutes, at the most 10 if I had been wearing a textured style the previous week.

 

[Queen_Earth]

THANK YOU!!!! and thank you for the link---I wasn't sure what words to use to search!!I really appreciate it!

 

[sharifeh]

Your welcome!

 

[southerncitygirl]

last night I washed and condtioned in four plaits and saw a difference even though I don't tangle alot,so from here on out I'll make 6 plaits and wash and condtion like this forever