Naturals: do you detangle dry or wet?

[RubyWoo]

Do you detangle your hair wet or dry?

As my hair gets longer, detangling has become alot more challenging. For the last month and a half I've been detangling with a shower comb on wet hair(with conditioner) after deep conditioning. Detangling on wet hair is not working for me. My shed hair gets tangled on my ends and I'm finding more knots on my ends. I'm very gentle in that when I hit a snag (which happens oftenerplexed) I stop and then finger detangle to remove knot and remove the shed hair. This takes too long. I've read that naturals should only detangle on wet hair but I find that doing this tends to cause massive tangling with my shed hair. I used to detangle on dry hair with oil and conditioner and has worked well for me since it helped get all the shed hair out before washing. However, I thought detangling on wet hair would make removing shed hair even easier (more slip). Evidently that was not the case for me.

So I'm going back to what works; detangling before washing. I'm curious to see what others are doing.

So naturals a few questions:

Do you detangle on dry hair or wet hair?

Do you detangle before or after you wash?

 

[Charz]

I detangle my hair before I wash it dry. However, I add massive amounts of conditioner to my hair before detangling so essentially it is wet but not with water. I use about 8 ounces of conditioner to detangle.

I use a wide tooth comb and braid my hair and then wash it in sections. I do not use shampoo on my hair, only on my scalp.

 

[Geminigirl]

I detangle wet. And after washing or letting conditioner sit on it. I may get in the shower rinse well, apply my conditioner and then let it sit while I shower then detangle right before I get out.

 

[LoveCraze]

I detangle after my DC while it is still in my hair and after I come from under the steamer.

 

[4bforreal!!!]

WET always if i try it dry so much hair comes out.... i don't recommend anyone does it unless you want to lose some hair, and top of that, that mess HURTSreally bad when dry

 

[JayAnn0513]

Either wet, in the shower, under running water or in conditioner with my denman.

 

[Fhrizzball]

I finger detangle before I wash and then fully detangle out of the shower when it's practically dry using leave ins and what not. I find doing to damp to dry works best for me.

 

[MyAngelEyez~C~U]

I detangle with conditioner and oil in my hair, using a detangling comb.

 

[CarefreeinChicago]

I don't even look at my hair when its dry.

 

[greight]

I think it depends on the length. I have to detangle dry or somewhat damp (enough to make it softer, but not enough for it to shrink). My hair is 12 - 14inches, 4b. I'll be asking for tangles and SSK if I went straight wet.

I finger detangle since I have my hair in twists that I combed. I'm hoping that I can rock these twists for a year to retain (retwisting when fuzzy) and save length.

 

[Sweet_Ambrosia]

I detangle my hair in braided sections while it's wet and loaded with conditioner+oil.

 

[LovingLady]

I detangle on damp hair using Knot Today after I washed out the conditioner. Detangling hair under running water is a waste to me.

 

[kmn1980]

Dry. But very, very, very slowly. I've been fortunate in that I have mainly type 4 hair and have managed to avoid SSK but the reason I do it dry is because I'd rather detangle dry and put in plaits for washing than to have all that wet hair and then detangle. I just recently started doing it this way and it's working well so far.

 

[4bforreal!!!]

I don't even look at my hair when its dry.

Lol!!!

 

[Nonie]

Usually, I never need to detangle coz I don't let my hair get tangled in the first place. The one time I had to detangle was when I went to bed with loose hair after wearing a twist-out in the front where I wear bangs over a year ago.

Do you detangle on dry hair or wet hair?

No I did not. I had learned from Happily Me, my WL'd finger-combing idol, about detangling on dry using conditioner and fingers. So I gave it a shot. Worked like a charm.

This was my tangled up hair (remember, I don't use leave-in products when not combing my hair so imagine 4B hair all tangled up with no lube!!! ...and you get the idea what a nightmare this was.)

This was my hair with conditioner (Organix Vanilla Silk) in it while I used my fingers to stretch the strands and take advantage of the slip from conditioner to slide them apart:

My fully detangled hair after it rinsing out the conditioner:

Do you detangle before or after you wash?

I washed afterward--well, kinda, coz I had to rinse out the conditioner. I would never wet my hair when it was tangled.

BTW, I have never detangled with a brush. I think if I had to use a tool, it'd be a comb that had teeth pointed enough for the end one alone to be able to get inside a knot to gently loosen it up. I'd also need a couple of mirrors to be able to see what I was doing so I'd not dig into the knot deeper than I ought to and rip my hair. I love using my fingers because I can FEEL what I'm doing and do it right without needing to see what I'm doing.

 

[omachine]

Do you detangle on dry hair or wet hair?

No I did not. I had learned from Happily Me, my WL'd finger-combing idol, about detangling on dry using conditioner and fingers. So I gave it a shot. Worked like a charm.

This was my tangled up hair (remember, I don't use leave-in products when not combing my hair so imagine 4B hair all tangled up with no lube!!! ...and you get the idea what a nightmare this was.)

This was my hair with conditioner (Organix Vanilla Silk) in it while I used my fingers to stretch the strands and take advantage of the slip from conditioner to slide them apart:

My fully detangled hair after it rinsing out the conditioner:

I normally detangle in the shower with a minimum of a half a container of conditioner....my hair sheds a bit using this process but I think I will try to detangle on dry hair with conditioner...i normally just rinse the conditioner afterwards....i occasionally add shampoo to my scalp only if i do wash it...

 

[Avaya]

My hair is loaded with conditioner and oil and I detangle with my K-cutter. I'm going to start doing my finger detangling (but only when my hair is loaded with conditioner - dry detangling gives me knots).

 

[Iluvsmuhgrass]

Wet, in sections (like the Wanakee method), after my DC.

 

[ycj1]

Actually, I detangle as soon as the yarn braids are all taken out! Since my hair has been in braids for such a long period of time I have to use a detangler just to unmatt all the hair. Once I detangle then I wash and then dc!

I am so dog gone tenderheaded I hate taking my braids out knowing what I am going to be faced with.

 

[tHENATuRALhAiRpRoJEcT]

I finger detangle before I wash and then fully detangle out of the shower when it's practically dry using leave ins and what not. I find doing to damp to dry works best for me.

exactly what i do

exactly what works for me

anything else leads to shed....shed....and more shed hair!

it seems that my hair strengths when 89% dry (ya'll like that number huh?)
it may have much to do with my fine texture

 

[SimplyBlessed]

I DETANGLE ON DRY HAIR!!!!!


Let me tell u....I was loosing soooooo much hair in the shower to where I thought something was seriously wrong...and it looked like me hair had a fight with scissors....

As I started detangling on dry hair I noticed a lot less breakage....most of the time there is oil on my hair as well....

AFTER DETANGLING I wash with my hair in 6-8 twists....

I always thought my hair wasnt getting "clean" by washing in sections...but I was wrong...the shampoo slides down into the twists and they are pretty lose....

 

[BlackMasterPiece]

I ALWAYS detangle while wet unless my hair is pressed straight, then obviously detangling while dry is not an issue at all but when my hair is at the tail end of a kinky style, then I will braid it while tangled and do the following:

Wash my hair in about 10 braided sections, saturate one section with slippy conditioner detangle, rebraid and repeat.

I now detangle /wash in the sink, to conserve water, I just don't think it makes sense to be standing around in the shower washing/detangling for 15 minutes while gallons of water is POURING down the drain needlessly......I'll then proceed to take my usual luxurious 30 min shower...nobody's perfect

.....

 

[Uber]

I mostly detangle section by secion with moisturiser wet after washing. This way I can be sure that I am not trying to get out tangles that are in my hair because of product. I use a lot of product namely gel. I figure that these tangles would just come out during washing.

If I leave my hair out on the odd occasion I can't help but try to detangle dry. My fingers can't stop playing with those coils.

 

[loshed]

After I deep condition I put more cheapo conditioner in and detangle on wet hair. But you made me think about Sera on yt. She also detangles on dry hair. Here's a video of her detangling.

 

[Bublin]

It depends on if u have fine or thick strands.

As i have fine hair combing whilst soaking wet is a no no. I finger comb on dry hair then follow gently with my Ouidad comb then put it in four plaits to wash and condition. I then add leave in's and only comb again when hair is 80% dry.

Soaking wet in the shower is snap city for me.

Edt - Oops, i'm not fully natural so maybe i should not have answered.

 

[CarefreeinChicago]

I guess I am kinda shocked that people detangle on dry hair. Do you use a comb? Or just fingers ? Trying to get a comb or denman through dry hair would leave mounds of hair in the brush. I section load up on conditioner and oil then under running water use my jibre and denman.

 

[Nonie]

I guess I am kinda shocked that people detangle on dry hair. Do you use a comb? Or just fingers ? Trying to get a comb or denman through dry hair would leave mounds of hair in the brush. I section load up on conditioner and oil then under running water use my jibre and denman.

I use fingers. A comb or brush wouldn't be able to let me know how tangled my hair is in order to tweak the process. I think I would also get impatient and just rip out knots. Fingers are able to assess the situation and coz hair isn't wet, shrinkage isn't further complicating matters as much as it would on my 4B hair had it been soaking wet.

 

[FlowerHair]

I think it depends on your hair type and length, but here are my answers:

Do you detangle on dry hair or wet hair?
Always on wet hair with my fingers (or if I'm in a hurry with a wide tooth comb.)

Do you detangle before or after you wash?
After I've washed with tons of conditioner in my hair. That's the only way I can do it without ripping my hair out!

ETA: I section my hair in 4 sections. My hair isn't as thick as it looks, so 1 of those sections is pretty thin.

 

[Nali1987]

Detangled dry yesterday .. So yeah won't be doing that again. EVER. I just pour some conditioner in my hair and detangle it under the shower.

 

[Jetblackhair]

I detangle before I wash. I spray my detangler on just enough to get my hair damp. My hair does not like to be manipulated when its soaking wet. I lose way too much hair.

After detangling, I braid into 4 to 6 sections and then wash. After undoing the braids I run the comb through my hair before I add my leave in.