Tangle Tango

I got a request on CurlTalk to do a post about tangling (or rather, detangling). That got me thinking, why does hair even tangle? What triggers tangling? Are certain hair types more prone to tangling than others? Can it be prevented? What's the best way to detangle gently?

I began researching with google, some university databases, and CurlTalk to answer my new questions. I'm going to do my best to detangle the confusion on tangles (I love cheesy puns!)

So let's start at the beginning of tangling. What is a tangle, exactly? Dictionary.com doesn't have a definition relating to hair, but it does remind us that tangle can just mean a confusing, jumbled situation. Anyone who has ever looked closely at a knot in their hair agrees that's a good definition of it. Sometimes it's hard to tell how many hairs are even stuck in that thing!

A more difficult question is how does hair get tangled? One image came to my mind when I first thought of this. Pocahontas. Standing on the cliff in the Disney movie. Wind blowing in her hair. No knots. Just smoothness. Even at a young age, I knew this was completely infeasible.

One of the biggest culprits in getting out hair into knots is wind. That's right curlies...just one more reason to hate wind. Other environmental factors like rain can also do us in for a 20 minute shower combing. These causes may not be surprising. But my searching revealed some causes which I hadn't considered before.

1) Sudden illness/health problems. Illness wreaks havoc on your body in all sorts of ways. The chemical changes that your body undergoes during immune response can actually make your hair more prone to tangling by changing the moisture levels in your hair. Your body has a higher demand for nutrients during illness, including water. It will take water wherever it can get it. This makes another reason to hydrate during sickness.

2) Clothing. It's winter and I love my sweaters. Hair rubbing against rough or bumpy fabric will cause knotting over time. This is why lots of CG ladies recommend satin pillowcases and another reason to never let terrycloth near your tresses. It seems to me that this could be a big factor in those people who say that that underlayer at the nape of the neck always gets especially tangled.

3) Damage. Damaged hair looks even worse when it's knotty. Funny enough, damage from coloring, straightening, and chemical treatments actually make hair more prone to tangling. This is because damage is essentially a wearing away of the hair shaft. According to one of my medicine textbooks, the hair shaft has certain compounds which are attracted to each other. Attraction to each other = tangled mess. So stop straightening!

So you might be glaring at the screen by now because I've told you how your hair gets knotted but haven't mentioned detangling yet. Calm down, let's jump into that.

Lucky for us CG girls, one of the only recommendations that seems to be consistent from site to site and article to article is moisture and lots of conditioning. Odds are if you're reading this, you're already doing that. So I searched curltalk and made a thread asking for some conditioners that other have found to be very detangling. I can't validate these personally as I haven't used them all, but if you're looking for some experiment fodder, here you go.

-L'oreal vive pro nutri gloss for medium to long hair that's wavy/curly
-Suave Naturals (special recognition to coconut, ocean breeze, green apple and strawberry)
-Kinky Curly Knot Today
-Giovanni Direct Leave In
-Shea Butter
-Karen's Body Beautiful: Hair Milk, Super Silky, Hair Nectar (3 different products)
-VO5 conditioners (special recognition: vanilla mint)
-Cure Care (from Sally's)
-Curl Junkie Curl Creme (styler)
-Robert Craig line
-DevaCare One Condition
-Biolage Conditioning Balm
-Regis Olive Oil Conditioner
-Abba Pure and Gentle
-Jessicurl Too Shea
-John Masters Citrus/Neroli
-Curl Junkie Hibiscus & Banana deep fix
-Karen's Body Beautiful Luscious Locks Hair Mask
-Coconut Oil


Now that you've got some product ideas for detangling, on to techniques.

Lorraine Massey recommends finger combing only because it's very gentle. Lots of us have discovered that we need a little bit more help. Wide toothed combs are very gentle, and the Denman line of brushes (D3 and D4) have also helped lots of curlies. Only comb your hair when wet. Dry combing can actually make your hair more tangled because when you separate dry strands, you're increasing the potential eergy of the molecules in the hair shaft that like to stick together; and so they like to come back together. This means you're basically separating one tangle to create a new one. Water and conditioner can serve as great buffers in this process, so it makes more sense to comb your hair out only when wet and well conditioned.

Another thing I've read in several places is to use jaboba oil (either on wet or dry hair) to give good slip.

Working in sections helps me greatly. I never ever try to run the entire comb through my hair from root to tip on the first go. I start maybe 1 inch from the end of the length and detangle down there all around my hair. Then I move up another inch, and work in sections like that until I'm up to the root and can run the comb through without resistance.

Some people have reported on curltalk that combing in a direction that's not the direction that the hair grows in (ie combing upside down) increases tangles.

I hope that those of you suffering from tangles have found at least one new bit of information in this post that may help you combat the knots. The holidays are a great time to do some experimenting ;)