We spend a lot of time stressing the importance of understanding your natural hair. In the past, we’ve focused on characteristics, understanding moisture vs. hydration, hair routines that really work, and even the best types of products you should be using. Today, we want to dig deeper into your actual hair routine and talk about what happens next.
A crucial step of your natural routine is detangling. Whether it’s from lack of patience or knowledge, detangling is frequently viewed as one of the most difficult steps of managing our natural hair. Because of this, it’s become something that so many of us dread or get wrong. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. If you’ve ever found yourself skipping wash days because you just can not go through the process of detangling (or don’t even know where to start) we’re here to help. Here’s everything you need to know about detangling.
How to Detangle Your Natural Hair
Detangling is the step in every natural woman’s routine where we focus on getting the characteristic knots and tangles that come with our kinks and curls. Detangling serves many purposes but essentially, it is necessary to prevent hair from becoming matted, split ends, and even breakage. When hair is properly detangled, styling your hair becomes much easier, it’s able to retain moisture easily, and absorb products more effectively. There are many different methods that can be used to detangle your natural hair, but the one thing that remains constant is: detangling is not a step you can afford to miss.
1 | Always use conditioner – When detangling natural hair, it is essential to do so while hair is saturated with condition. Natural hair MUST be lubricated when going through the detangling process. Especially those with kinkier textures. The thicker and kinkier your hair is, the harder it is to loosen the hair strand and smooth the cuticle. The kinkier your hair is the more important it is to take your time during the detangling process so you want to make sure your hair is thoroughly coated with conditioner before you get started.
Urbanbella Favorite: The Urbanbella Hydrating Conditioner
2 | Use a good tool – There are many different tools that you can use to detangle your hair and finding the best tool for you can help reduce the amount of time it takes for you to get through the detangling process and make it much easier to detangle your hair overall. There are many different opinions on the best way to detangle from those committed to only finger detangling (in an effort to reduce hair loss) to those who standby their trusty brush (to help define those curls). Whatever you decide to use, remember, you want something that helps you be as efficient as possible with risking the integrity of your hair.
Urbanbella Favorite: A detangling comb that allows us to get through thick, dense hair quickly, painlessly, and minimal hair loss.
2 | Section your hair – No matter how long (or short) your natural hair is, it is essential that you detangle in sections. Trying to detangle your natural hair all at once is a definitive way to become frustrated and risk detangling incorrectly. For shorter hair, a few sections is all you need to ensure that your conditioner is evenly distributed and easy to get through. For those with medium length, try sectioning your natural hair in at least six sections so that you can work through your natural curls. And if you have longer hair, you may even want to do a few more sections than that. Although sectioning might seem like a hassle, you’ll be thankful in the long run for hair that is properly detangled in less time.
Urbanbella Tip: For longer hair, try detangling in one inch sections.
3 | Detangle from tip to root – This is key when it comes to natural hair. For kinkier hair types, the ends of the hair is typically the most tangled part. By working through the ends first, you can tackle the tangles and knots there, working your way up to the root.
Quick Urbanbella Detangling Tips
Now that you’re ready to detangle those curls we just have a few quick tips to take along with you.
- If you’re having difficulty detangling your hair, try increasing your wash days to once a week.
- Make sure you are getting regular trims to make managing your hair easier.
- Use quality products if you want an easy detangling process.
- Don’t be afraid to make salon appointments a regular part of your process.
Make sure to stop by our Facebook Page to watch our video on detangling and see how we detangle here at Urbanbella.
