Why does my hair twist/clump together?

[TheHowlingWolf]

Idk if it's my hair developing a new texture or what. My hair seems to want to clump & twist together. It's really annoying and difficult to finger detangle. I also don't really find it visually appealing either. I always wear my hair up but when I go to finger comb it or put it up, it looks like this!
http://i59.tinypic.com/sm7wc1.jpg

[Annibelle]

My hair does this, too, but with bigger "chunks" of hair so the twists aren't as tight. I like it! I think it gives it a very natural look, but mine are loose enough that I can comb them out for waves-- they'll reform throughout the day, but fingercombing will loosen them again. :)

[NaClH2O]

It looks to me like your hair wants to form curls. Maybe you are curlier than you think? Try co-washing and scrunching your hair as it's drying, no finger combing, and see what the wave or curl pattern looks like then! :p

My hair also does this, as I am a 2b, but in bigger sections. I think it's pretty and natural looking.

[eadwine]

My hair does this too.. still working on finding a routine, but yours seems to have a tighter spiral twist pattern to it. I am using WCC as wash routine, that works fine for me, and trying aftercare now. Not combing after getting out of the shower and using a wee bit of leave-in helps me. For the rest I am still searching :)

[neko_kawaii]

Mine does that too if I don't use a comb. At about shoulder length most of my undercoat forms spiral curls, but by about waist they are pulled down by their own weight to form little twists. But combing breaks them up and if I don't break them up they tangle something dreadful.

[hennalonghair]

It looks to me like your hair wants to form curls. Maybe you are curlier than you think? Try co-washing and scrunching your hair as it's drying, no finger combing, and see what the wave or curl pattern looks like then! :p

My hair also does this, as I am a 2b, but in bigger sections. I think it's pretty and natural looking.

I have to agree with this. Perhaps you are taking such good care of your hair that its true natural pattern is presenting itself.
yes I'd just allow it to air dry naturally and lift and scrunch the ends. This allows those clumps to stay together. They might even spiral slightly.
I like it also :D

[hennalonghair]

Oh those definitely ARE spirals. They are lovely.l

[lapushka]

Idk if it's my hair developing a new texture or what. My hair seems to want to clump & twist together. It's really annoying and difficult to finger detangle. I also don't really find it visually appealing either. I always wear my hair up but when I go to finger comb it or put it up, it looks like this!
http://i59.tinypic.com/sm7wc1.jpg

That's natural for wavy (and especially curly) hair to do. You might even be more wavy than you realize. By the looks of it, that's a little more than just 2a texture.

[TheHowlingWolf]

Really? Wow. I'm actually a fan of super wavy/curly hair, so this is exciting! lol. I just thought maybe I was doing something wrong!
I've tried co washing before and found my scalp doesn't really like having conditioner on it. It takes FOREVER to dry, I take my showers at night and plop it until I'm ready for bed, then I braid it in a loose english braid.
Right now I pre poo with coconut oil, wash with a sulfate free shampoo, condition with a cone free conditioner, and use a cone free detangler/LIC. I don't like sulfates or cones at all!

[TheHowlingWolf]

So Is there a certain method you suggest I do? (besides co washing), like cwc or wcc? Should I also make my cream detangler into a spray? Because when I apply my detangler, I just naturally finger comb out my tangles.
Also, here is another picture. Sorry for the horrible lighting, my room is dark.
http://i60.tinypic.com/nmdg2e.jpg

ETA: Sorry, the lighting is worse than I thought.....but hopefully you can tell that the twists/clumping is more towards the top/middle of the length of my hair, rather than the bottom.

[Crystawni]

My hair does a similar thing (but it's fine, so sits a little looser than yours). :) I posted a thread about working out my hair type here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=123080).

Fun, hey. And my clumping takes hours to dry, so I usually ruffle it out a bit with my fingers when it's damp. As for washing, I often CWC or CO and use a little bit of coconut oil on the length and ends sometimes. But I'm a bit of a newbie to all this (was just W and C with the occasional CO before joining the forum), so take my experience with a grain of salt.

[Schnee]

About half my hair would do that, mostly nape and back of head/undercoat. And yeah maybe it is curls forming or just very wavy, but it's not nice to detangle or look at ;) For my part, I've learned to live with it and use time to detangle properly once a day using a brush or I've got dreadlocks within a week... I've tried making it look nice, but my hair isn't bouncy enough to form curls or nice waves. I just get those twisting ropes.:rolleyes:

[chen bao jun]

Yes, Howling Wolf you are a curly. More specifically, a curly with ringlets (or 'spiral curls'). Its very cool that your hair is still spirally at your extreme length, curlies often complain that the curls go away with length (which drags them out).
Not all curlies have spiral curls (there's a lot of very curly black people who don't) and some curlies have them but have to encourage them a lot so I personally think that if your hair naturally spirals when you wash it and leave it undisturbed without a lot of manipulation, you are lucky. Of course you need to do some things. My hair spirals naturally even when dried out and damaged (when my hair was bone dry and seriously damaged, people would tell me that it looked like medusa--snakes) but all curlies need a ton of moisture, much more than anybody else, so the first big thing is to be sure you are using enough leave in (always more than you think you need).
Flax seed gel also seriously encourages curls.

[lapushka]

So Is there a certain method you suggest I do? (besides co washing), like cwc or wcc? Should I also make my cream detangler into a spray? Because when I apply my detangler, I just naturally finger comb out my tangles.
Also, here is another picture. Sorry for the horrible lighting, my room is dark.

You could try several methods, just stick to one a while, so you can tell which one works best for you. If you can't CO, it's only natural to wash with shampoo, and then I think WCC might be great for you.

[alishaxmarie]

Are you doing buns that are twisted? If I do a cinnabun over and over too many times or leave my hair cinnabunned for too long, it forms those small twists. When I do it the right amount (whatever that is) then cinnabunning simply enhances my wave/curl pattern. It's pretty random how it decides to behave that day but I feel your pain: spirals are annoyingly difficult to detangle without ripping hairs!

[TheHowlingWolf]

I actually do twist my hair to put it in a bun quite often. I thought of that, and started braiding my hair more to put it in a bun, but it still does the twists :shrug:

[dulce]

I get those too but only on one side of my head! I finger comb them out a lot as they just reform.

[eadwine]

My buns are twisted too, but my hair always wanted to be weird. The hairs are in fact oval shaped, which made my hairdresser complain wayyyy back when I was a preteen and got a perm. They never held proper and looked like crap. :lol:

[TheHowlingWolf]

Ugh. I'm getting so tired of this! They are getting worse! I wish my hair was either straight/wavy like it was, or curly. This whole in between thing is so annoying! It got so frustrating to finger detangle that I had to use my tangle teezer, and seriously less than 5 seconds after brushing my hair, it was clumping together again! I just don't find it visually appealing on myself because it makes my hair look thinner and just looks weird on me.

[Arwenlily]

This happens to me too but only from day two of no washing when my curls have stretched out and I twist my hair for an updo.

[LadyCelestina]

Might sound strange,,but have you tried twisting them in the opposite direction than they want to twist? This helps for clumpy twisted strands from rope braids...

[Pseudoavatar]

So Is there a certain method you suggest I do? (besides co washing), like cwc or wcc? Should I also make my cream detangler into a spray? Because when I apply my detangler, I just naturally finger comb out my tangles.
Also, here is another picture. Sorry for the horrible lighting, my room is dark.
http://i60.tinypic.com/nmdg2e.jpg

ETA: Sorry, the lighting is worse than I thought.....but hopefully you can tell that the twists/clumping is more towards the top/middle of the length of my hair, rather than the bottom.


I read about the Ouidad's rake&shake method yesterday. I haven't tried it yet because I'll have to wait for a washing day, but maybe you could try it and see if your hair pattern would look even more defined? :) Btw I think your hair looks nice like that, although I bet it could get clumped easily