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kriswill727
November 29th, 2013, 02:20 AM
Ok well I grew my hair out, this is the first time I have had long hair since childhood. I don't do alot with it. All day every day my hair seems to tangle like Velcro and I have no idea what to do. I desperately want silky hair and feel like I just have been missing a secret to long hair. I see women dailywith long hair that isn't a train wreck. I'm close to chopping it off. Pease help.
It's been colored and bleached in the past. Currently I have 2 henna treatments on it.

Rio040113
November 29th, 2013, 02:52 AM
Can you give us any more info on your daily/weekly/monthly routine? That will definitely help people give you more tailored advice :)

ETA - What I can take from your post is that you probably wear your hair down a lot... Daily updos will eliminate/greatly reduce your tangles. Also if your hair is damaged due to past bleaching/dyeing, then it may well be more prone to tangling. Oiling can help with that.

Scarlet_Heart
November 29th, 2013, 09:10 AM
Can you give us any more info on your daily/weekly/monthly routine? That will definitely help people give you more tailored advice :)

ETA - What I can take from your post is that you probably wear your hair down a lot... Daily updos will eliminate/greatly reduce your tangles. Also if your hair is damaged due to past bleaching/dyeing, then it may well be more prone to tangling. Oiling can help with that.

I agree with all of that, updos, oiling, and I would also suggest taking 1 minute to finger-comb when you get a chance throughout the day. A few times.

Madora
November 29th, 2013, 10:17 AM
Perhaps you have too much stuff on your hair?

Maybe clarifying would help (Neutrogena makes a great clarifying shampoo). After clarifying with it, be sure to do a conditioning treatment.

Good luck!

Anje
November 29th, 2013, 12:14 PM
There are a lot of things that can cause tangling, so knowing what your history with your hair is (dye, perms, bleach, heat styling, hair texture, length, products, etc) would help.

That said, my first recommendation is generally similar to Madora's, because it fixes the most common problems. Get a clarifying shampoo and shampoo your hair with it all the way to the ends, even concentrating on the ends. Maybe do it twice for good measure. That gets rid of buildup, which is a very common source for, especially when they seem to be getting rapidly worse. A good conditioning should follow, because clarifying is kinda drying. I personally prefer the SMT for this, and the recipe is linked in my signature.

kriswill727
November 29th, 2013, 01:36 PM
I replied but its not showing up. I shampoo daily to every other day(I have extremely oily hair and i look homeless after 18 hrs.) i condition from shoulders down. And around every week I condition with a treatment. Maybe less than weekly- just whenever I think about it. I rarely wear it down since it looks like a birds nest after 10 mins. Just a hot mess. I wear it up most of the time to avoid tangles. I see these women that have long silky hair and I'm immediately sad that mine looks more like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket. I have fine, thick hair thats close to my natural waist.

Rio040113
November 29th, 2013, 01:46 PM
Is your hair straight, wavy, curly, kinky or somewhere in between?

kriswill727
November 29th, 2013, 01:52 PM
Straight, fine yet I have a ton of hair. I forgot to mention I put smoothing serum on after showers. And I'm not sure if it makes a difference but I had a baby a year ago and I've gone through lots and lots of shedding plus hormonal changes. My hair was a hot mess before during and after the pregnancy though. Last time I went to a hair dresser she said that it tangles because its fine and that I shouldn't have long hair because of that. I was baffled and never went back there!!

evb
November 29th, 2013, 02:00 PM
I replied but its not showing up. I shampoo daily to every other day(I have extremely oily hair and i look homeless after 18 hrs.) i condition from shoulders down. And around every week I condition with a treatment. Maybe less than weekly- just whenever I think about it. I rarely wear it down since it looks like a birds nest after 10 mins. Just a hot mess. I wear it up most of the time to avoid tangles. I see these women that have long silky hair and I'm immediately sad that mine looks more like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket. I have fine, thick hair thats close to my natural waist.

your hair type might have something to do with it but considering you condition it every other day {post shampoo} and then use a treatment approx once a week I am going to go with Madora on this one. You might just have product build up. Even 'good stuff' like shea butter or oils can build up on some hair and make it sticky and or snarly. If you don't want to clarify it you might add an Apple Cider Vinegar rinse to your routine. My hair is pretty strait and it feels all snarly and rough during wash etc and then I pour some ACV into a half gallon jar {a healthy splash I don't measure} and fill it with warm water and dip my ends in then pour rest over scalp and work it in and just doing that my hair feels so silky even before getting out of shower. The ACV acts as a mini clarifier with every wash from what I understand {good if you have hard water esp} and I read once that adding it to your regular shampoo creates a clarifying shampoo. I don't know if that last bit is true but I know it makes a huge and noticeable difference on my hair. There is an immediate effect...like I said while in the shower I go from snarly and rough feeling to silky smooth. The only times I don't use ACV is when I do a conditioner only wash because my hair doesn't seem to need it.... tho it might benefit from both. The CO has my hair feeling heavier which I do not mind at all since I have relatively fine hair just blobs and blobs of it {according to stylists I don't peer at other people strands to figure out how thin my hair is compared to other peoples}


I suspect you could get away with any vinegar and not just apple cider but that is what is usually recommended. If I found myself without I would use plain white distilled vinegar that you can buy at a grocers for a $ or 2 per gallon. I have some of that for household cleaning purposes and ACV for cooking and hair purposes.

Madora
November 29th, 2013, 02:06 PM
I replied but its not showing up. I shampoo daily to every other day(I have extremely oily hair and i look homeless after 18 hrs.) i condition from shoulders down. And around every week I condition with a treatment. Maybe less than weekly- just whenever I think about it. I rarely wear it down since it looks like a birds nest after 10 mins. Just a hot mess. I wear it up most of the time to avoid tangles. I see these women that have long silky hair and I'm immediately sad that mine looks more like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket. I have fine, thick hair thats close to my natural waist.

Hmmm. I think part of your problem is too much conditioning. You put conditioner on when you shampoo ("daily to every other day") plus "around every week" you do a conditioning treatment! If you feel comfortable with the idea, why don't you just condition after shampooing and omit the conditioning treatment? Try it for a month and see how things develop.

biogirl87
November 29th, 2013, 02:39 PM
your hair type might have something to do with it but considering you condition it every other day {post shampoo} and then use a treatment approx once a week I am going to go with Madora on this one. You might just have product build up. Even 'good stuff' like shea butter or oils can build up on some hair and make it sticky and or snarly. If you don't want to clarify it you might add an Apple Cider Vinegar rinse to your routine. My hair is pretty strait and it feels all snarly and rough during wash etc and then I pour some ACV into a half gallon jar {a healthy splash I don't measure} and fill it with warm water and dip my ends in then pour rest over scalp and work it in and just doing that my hair feels so silky even before getting out of shower. The ACV acts as a mini clarifier with every wash from what I understand {good if you have hard water esp} and I read once that adding it to your regular shampoo creates a clarifying shampoo. I don't know if that last bit is true but I know it makes a huge and noticeable difference on my hair. There is an immediate effect...like I said while in the shower I go from snarly and rough feeling to silky smooth. The only times I don't use ACV is when I do a conditioner only wash because my hair doesn't seem to need it.... tho it might benefit from both. The CO has my hair feeling heavier which I do not mind at all since I have relatively fine hair just blobs and blobs of it {according to stylists I don't peer at other people strands to figure out how thin my hair is compared to other peoples}


I suspect you could get away with any vinegar and not just apple cider but that is what is usually recommended. If I found myself without I would use plain white distilled vinegar that you can buy at a grocers for a $ or 2 per gallon. I have some of that for household cleaning purposes and ACV for cooking and hair purposes.evb, I am not 100% sure about this, but from what I know, ACV does not clarify your hair when you have product or conditioner build-up (I think ACV only removes mineral build-up, which does not sound like the problem krisswill727 is having).


Hmmm. I think part of your problem is too much conditioning. You put conditioner on when you shampoo ("daily to every other day") plus "around every week" you do a conditioning treatment! If you feel comfortable with the idea, why don't you just condition after shampooing and omit the conditioning treatment? Try it for a month and see how things develop.Seconding this. It sounds like your hair might be over-conditioned. I do not think ACV or vinegar in general works as clarifying method when you have product or conditioner build-up, so your best bet would be to use any shampoo that has sulfates in it and does not have silicones in it. You can use ACV to clarify your hair when you have mineral build-up (if you have hard water where you live).

Anje
November 29th, 2013, 02:47 PM
The conditioning and serum definitely lead me to think it might be buildup. Not that you can't use those products, but you may need to make an extra effort to get them all off on occasion. Also, do you think it's possible that your hair might be wavy rather than straight but lightsocketty? Usually straight hair doesn't have the light socket issue, but wavy hair that's treated like it's straight (e.g. not allowed to form and stay in clumps) definitely does.

If you don't want to clarify it you might add an Apple Cider Vinegar rinse to your routine. My hair is pretty strait and it feels all snarly and rough during wash etc and then I pour some ACV into a half gallon jar {a healthy splash I don't measure} and fill it with warm water and dip my ends in then pour rest over scalp and work it in and just doing that my hair feels so silky even before getting out of shower. The ACV acts as a mini clarifier with every wash from what I understand {good if you have hard water esp} and I read once that adding it to your regular shampoo creates a clarifying shampoo. I don't know if that last bit is true but I know it makes a huge and noticeable difference on my hair.
It's a common idea that floats around a lot, but vinegar won't remove buildup from things like silicones, so it's generally not considered clarifying. Good for hard water and often for smoothing hair, though, so it's great if it makes your hair feel nice. Just not what I'd suggest for clarifying product buildup.

lapushka
November 29th, 2013, 03:29 PM
It's normal that it tangles if you don't do anything special, more special, than just shampooing and conditioning. Your hair obviously needs more nourishment, especially since it's a bleached, dyed "mess" (if I may say that). I second oiling, or even deep conditioning more (say *every* wash). You can even try conditioning twice after washing, and adding a leave-in and a serum (or a few drops of oil) on top of it all.

Try and slowly experiment with different things, and try one thing at a time, just so you'll know what works, and what doesn't.

kriswill727
November 29th, 2013, 08:10 PM
My hair has always been pin straight the last little bit I've been noticing 2 waves in the middle and I can't get them to go away- I thought they were just there because the way I was sitting, had my hair post shower or something to that effect but today after a good oiling I looked with a mirror and they were there so maybe its changing. It can happen- my moms went curly after menopause.

The reason I put serums and condition is because I wouldn't be able to get the tangles out otherwise. Tonight I tried something different- shampoo, conditioner, coconut oil then serum. no tangles. Looks a tad greasy on the ends but thats ok with me! First time I've worn it down pain free in a long while. I also trimmed about an inch off. Doubt that inch changes anything other than looks a smidge nicer.

I will be trying a clarifying shampoo and ACV for sure.

Thank you all for your input and advice! I really appreciate it. :)

Madora
November 29th, 2013, 08:56 PM
You might find this helpful:

http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.ca/2011/12/when-to-clarify-hair-and-with-what.html

FoxyGhost
November 29th, 2013, 09:32 PM
I have not read through all the responses yet but I had a similar hair situation and I wanted to share what I did to make it better. I have thick yet fine hair at about hip. I dye but other than that treat it great. It would matte up into a rats nest after being down for 30ish minutes. I started thinking abut how I could fix it and I figured it had to do with air drying tangled and having build up. I clarified with club soda once every 2-3 months. I poured some on my length and let it sit for a minute and rinsed than conditioned as usually. I condition with either suave naturals coconut or a generic biolage conditioning balm. I pull my hair to both sides of my head and part it naturally while it's wet and freshly shampooed. I then coat each side with conditioner (if u don't want to waste gobbs of it u could mix conditioner and water in a spray bottle and spray it liberally). I take a tangle teaser and gently detangle and spread the conditioner through my hair below ear level. After I detangle everything I rinse thoroughly and gently squeeze if out and put it in a turby towel. I use with a serum or oil when it's damp but only on the ends. I leave it to air dry and brush out when it is only slightly damp. Lastly I put it in a cinnabun to smooth it and create nice waves until if completely dries.

Edited to add that I can now leave my hair down for 3-4 hours with only mild tangling.

mariazelie
November 30th, 2013, 05:41 AM
This is what helped me, and I was feeling very frustrated: I found info somewhere here on the Forum about acid/alkalki shampoo being a factor in tangles. The idea was that I needed more acid. I tried the suggestion that I rinse my hair with a splash of lemon juice in water. No directives about how much, or whether to use conditioner, too. I opted the first time to just use the lemon in water, rinse it out and see what happened, prepared to have a hug mess, but omitted conditioner. I was so happy. Combed out easier than I had ever experienced. Once it got colder and drier and my hair started to get static-y I started to add a bit of conditioner. I have never been happier and my hair has more natural style. Thank you to whoever made the suggestions. I get lost on this LHCF! One other thing, on impulse I changed shampoo. I am using Apple Pectin and I love it. No idea if it is acid or alkaline, but it works for me. I think the more product I put on my hair, the worse the tangles got. I now can get through to the next wash, usually 4 days, without anyof the dry, horrid tangles.