finger detangling

As you know from my post yesterday, I pre-pooed with a mix of Aubrey Honeysuckle Rose conditioner and Vatika Oil from Saturday into Sunday. On Sunday night, after finishing cleaning the house (with the exception of the dishes, because Wei always says he loves washing dishes, so I didn’t want to steal his joy;)), I hit the shower and shampooed. It had been a while since I clarified and I debated between Ion Curl Defining Shampoo, a sulfated, yet moisturizing shampoo, and the unopened bottle of Lavender Garden Terressentials Mud Wash under my sink. The Ion shampoo won and I diluted it in water before applying.

After shampooing, I used Herbal Essences Hello Hydration to finger detangle under the shower stream. Now, this is where the something new comes in.

I picked up this shampoo brush at Sally’s for $0.99 about a year and a half ago. I very rarely use it, but Wei gives it a work-out! *lol* Well, I’ve been getting a lot of tight, little knots caused by shed hairs. I’ve had to resort to the scissors at least once every wash day the last month or so. That got me to thinking that finger detangling hasn’t been sufficient lately. And, I’ve read of some who finger detangle first and then use a wide-tooth comb, Denman brush, Tangle Teezer, etc. to finish the job. So, I decided to use the shampoo brush to comb through my hair as a final step before rinsing my conditioner. Yup, I used the shampoo brush!

You see, when the Tangle Teezer (TT) was the craze early last year, someone wrote that this cheap little shampoo brush was just as good, if not better. If I remember correctly, they said that this was because the teeth on the shampoo brush aren’t as sharp as the TT and it they don’t have seams.

So, anywho, after doing a thorough finger detangling, I took the shampoo brush in the palm of my right hand and the ends of my hair in the left. Then, I slowly combed through my hair, working up from the ends to the roots. If I met any resistance as combing, I stopped to remove the “obstruction” with my fingers, then resumed combing. The brush really glided very easily through my hair when it was fully saturated with conditioner and I allowed the water stream to flow over it. It also made my curls clump nicely. But, I don’t know if I’ll use the shampoo brush every wash day. Maybe every other. And, I’ll be keeping an eye on my ends as I used the TT for a hot minute after a big “trim” and noticed an inordinate amount of splits almost immediately. So, if that happens, I’ll stop using it immediately.

Back to wash day. To finish, I applied Aubrey Green Tea Rinse directly over the HE HH and rinsed with cool water. Then, I set my hair in six braids for a braid out with Wonder Curl Get Slick Smoothie and Butter Than Love Pudding, using the shampoo brush again to evenly distribute the products through my hair.

As it was about 8 pm by this time, I knew that there was no way that my hair would dry overnight. So, I decided to finally take the Salon Dryer on Wheels, which I got over 2 months ago, on a test drive!!

I realized pretty quickly that I needed to do something with those hanging braids if I wanted more than my scalp to dry! So, I secured them across and against my head with large bobby pins.

So far so good! The dryer is pretty loud though and I used the timer, which sounds like a ticking time bomb. But, it seemed to be doing a decent job of getting my hair dry. I sat under it for about an hour. My hair didn’t dry entirely, but I’m hoping that it will finish drying overnight *fingers crossed*. I’m writing this post Sunday night, so I’ll have to comb back with the final results later! Sorry for the delayed gratification!! But, I’m sure you’ve been there before ;).

************************************************************************************

If you finger detangle, do you use a comb or brush as a final step? What hair tool works best for you (wide-tooth comb, Denman, Ouided Double Detangler, etc.)?

Tips and Tricks: Number Twenty

As many of you know, I’m a fan of finger detangling. I started employing this method of detangling almost exclusively in February 2011 when I joined the Curly Nikki presents Kim Coles’ Grow Out Challenge. Prior to that, I used a wide tooth comb in the shower with conditioner saturated hair. However, last year I started experimenting with finger detangling and just found it to be far more gentle on my fine strands. I definitely attribute part of my length retention over the last year to it.

Finger detangling allows me to “feel” tangles so that I can carefully separate the hair and ease them out. With a comb, unless I hit a major snare that would stop the comb or brush in its tracks, I realized that I had more than likely been tearing through tangles. As I finger detangle now, I wince to think of the damage I was doing in the past with a comb because I didn’t feel the knots and ties. For those with hair of hardier stock, this may not be a problem. But, at the very least, I believe that combing through significant tangles prior to finger detangling disrupts the cuticle and, on the more severe end of the spectrum, causes breakage.

I finger detangle at a variety of stages. During my weekly pre-poo session, I “dry” detangle with Vatika oil and de-shed (remove “captured” shed hair) as I demonstrated in How I Pre-Poo. Dry detangling was something I would have NEVER though that I would do!! But, because my hair is almost always stretched from TnCs, twist-outs or bunned WnG and was well detangled the prior wash session, I am able to gently detangle and de-shed my dry hair with oil. That first finger-detangling session tends to take care of most of the heavy-hitters. Then, I will finish detangling under the water stream while rinsing my deep conditioner and finally after I apply my leave-in. As my hair is pretty detangled once I get to the leave-in step, I will sometimes gently “chase” my finger detangling with a wide-tooth comb. However, I don’t do use the comb regularly. I have discovered that making certain that I do a final detangle after I apply my leave-in results in an easier detangling session the next wash day.

Anywho, here are a few tutorials that show how others finger detangle. As you’ll see, there is no one “right” way to do it. There are a variety of techniques, so you just have to figure out what works best for you!

via HeyFranHey