How to Detangle Curly or Coily Hair

I love my natural curly coils and have had no chemicals in my hair for over two decades or twenty years. Now I’m giving away my age! ;) The diversity that having curly hair gives is unmatched. You can go from curly to straight and back again with ten million styles in between. Curly or coily hair is the most delicate of all hair textures and must be treated very gently to avoid breakage. Detangling your hair after washing is something you should do carefully. Now that you’ve gone through Curly/Coily Hair 101 let’s start the detangling process:

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Natural hair product
• Large hair clips
• Wide tooth comb
• Towel
• Delicate Touch

1. 
    
   Beautiful Coils and Curls

   As far as detangling products, I recommend natural ones. Don’t spend a lot of money on fancy name brands, simply use products that contain natural oils: jojoba, olive and coconut. Our hair craves moisture because it grows out in an S pattern and therefore oils don’t flow as easily from the scalp. It’s great on one end, you won’t have extremely oily hair, as is the case with other textures that require the hair to be washed very frequently. However you must keep your curls moisturized. You can find such products rather inexpensively at most Beauty Supply stores. Again I believe natural products are the best. Remember what you put on your hair will be absorbed in your scalp. The skin on your scalp is just like the skin on the rest of your body. It will absorb what you put on it. Make sure it’s natural.

2. 
    
   Wide tooth comb

   After washing towel dry your hair, but definitely do not dry it all the way, just enough to keep from dripping all over you and put towel on your shoulders. Take your wide tooth comb and gently divide your hair into four sections. Take your natural product of choice and rub product between your palms and then on your very damp hair. You won’t need a lot as your hair will still be wet. Use your fingers to finger comb through three of the divided sections of hair and clip them with a large hair clip.

3. 
    
   Me Me Me and my hair after air drying

   Now take your wide tooth comb and start at the end of the fourth section. Never comb from the roots, as this is sure to cause unnecessary breakage even on wet hair. Work your way up from the ends and lightly pick the tangles out with your comb. Gently continue up the hair shaft with aforementioned motion until you reach the roots, being careful not to pull. You can them comb through the entire section of hair. You’ve detangled your curls! Then proceed to do the same for the other three sections of hair. When done, you can let you hair air dry for wash and go curls or curly fro or you can twist or braid the hair and let it air dry. When you take it down you may have a look like mine in the last picture. I simply twisted my hair to let it air dry after detangling it. You have a style that some have to use a crimping iron to get, but you’ll have it naturally. Just take your time and handle your delicate hair with care.

Tips & Warnings

• If the other three sections dry out while you're detangling the first simply re-wet hair with water before starting the detangling process.

[MariM]

on 3/3/2009 Very good tips. I hate tangles.5*recmd

[msmabry]

on 1/28/2009 This helps a lot. I have curly hair that I like wear straight. Thanks. 5*

[VirtualWorker]

on 1/28/2009 OH MY, thanks Dee for that heads up. I definitely did not mean to repeat step. That's one of my earlier articles and I was a newbie. Thanks I'm editing it now.

VirtualWorker

[deestew]

on 1/28/2009 Sweetie this is good, but did you mean to repeat step 2? Thanks for the information.

[Virtuous1]

on 1/28/2009 5 star. This article should be 10 stars...I love being natural and apparently God loves me natural since this is the hair He has been so gracious to adorn me with...love it! Great article with great tips!!