Detangling hair theory

[LauraLongLocks]

I have made friends with a long-hair at school. She just trimmed back from classic to tailbone. She wears her 1a hair down all the time, and it never looks tangled, and never seems to fall forward when she leans over. So, I asked her about it. I don't like to wear my hair down because it tangles. When I do wear my hair down, I detangle it frequently. She said that my frequent detangling is likely causing damage and that once my hair gets a little bit longer, I will be able to lean forward without it falling over my shoulders and becoming wound around itself. She said I shouldn't detangle so much. I told her I didn't think it was causing damage, because I stop for each tangle and pick it out carefully with my fingers. What do you think about the detangling? And what do you think about the length staying put on my back when it gets longer?

Edit: She stated that when you detangle, you pull on the hair (even if only for a moment) and it weakens it, causing a place where it will later break off or split.

[darklyndsea]

I think the length staying put thing has a lot to do with the shape of your shoulders, because mine always falls forward and has always fallen forward, and falls off my shoulders if I drape it there, but I know that a lot of other people can wear their hair as a scarf and it'll stay put. And I detangle once a day if I'm feeling especially diligent (and have damage-resistant hair), so that's obviously not the only reason.

[gthlvrmx]

Do you wear your hair down often? I doubt you would get much damage from detangling your hair if you are gentle.

[endlessly]

I definitely don't think that detangling causes damage unless it's being done extremely roughly without any sort of care. When wet or worn straight, my hair is a tangled nightmare, so the only thing that works for me and keeps my hair in one piece is when I wear it in braid waves. As for her hair not falling forward, I have to agree with darklyndsea that it might have to do with the shape of her shoulders, but I'll add to it by saying that it might have to do with her hair texture and thickness. My shoulders are average and my hair is thick and fluffy - my hair still falls forward. I move, my hair moves, it's just a fact of life for me. As much as I wish it would stay in one place, I kind of like being surrounded by my hair - I always have my own personal shawl, so that's a bonus!

[lunalocks]

Everyone has different hair. It may be due to texture or thickness or length. And maybe the products one uses. My DD has 1a hair and tangles frequently. She wears it down 95% of the time. My hair is 2a to b and I have it up all of the time. My hair is now classic and never tangles. Never has, not even at waist when i wore it down most of the time. It is a mystery. And I use no detangling products. Luck of the draw.

[yahirwaO.o]

Yeah, everyones hair is different. My hair is similar to yours in texture and never ever tangles when worn down but its much more shorter too. When hair was longer it did tangle badly and basically lived in braids to avoid that.... I couldnt even run a brush in the past without being nightmare... of couse routine has changed a lot since then (oling and conditioning before shampoing)

My aunt has beautiful hip lenght, thick wavy hair, and she hardly combs or brushes her hair, just finger comb and a puts it in a classic twisted bun like everyday. She also oils her hair quite often.

Stick what works for you and if u get the urge to wear it down, do it in a day or situation you feel its not going to cause massive problems (windy days, children etc) :cool:

[Madora]

She stated that when you detangle, you pull on the hair (even if only for a moment) and it weakens it, causing a place where it will later break off or split.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts she doesn't know how to detangle properly! You should never apply so much pressure that your hair pulls when you detangle it.

As for the hair falling forward, I would imagine it would depend on hair type and length..and the type of activity involved. I'd like to see her search for files that are located at the bottom of a 5 tier file cabinet..and keep her hair from falling in front of her!

LauraLongLocks, you keep protecting your hair by keeping it tangle free every so often when you wear it down. You're way ahead of the game by being proactive and dealing with tangles every so often, than waiting until later in the day to detangle. As long as you detangle slowly, and in small sections, you're doing the best you can for the health of your hair.

[Caraid♫]

If her hair never looks tangled it sounds like she's been blessed with a hair type that doesn't tangle much! (lucky!!) I'm pretty sure that if your hair gets tangled, you're doing yourself a favour by detangling daily before the problem compounds itself into a knotted matted mess! (I say that with regards to straighter hair types, I know detangling and brushing is a different matter for curlier hair etc ) I know if I don't brush my hair for more than 2 days, it gets matted and detangling that is painful and likely causes damage. So for me, detangling regularly definitely prevents damage.

As for it never falling forward... I don't know, it must be a length and/or thickness thing? Maybe heavier and longer hair stays in place better. My hair definitely stays more easily behind my shoulders now that it's a bit longer

[lapushka]

My hair only gets detangled once, and that is on Sunday, right before its weekly wash - that's all, and it works for me. Oh yes, and right after it comes out of the towel as well (only with a wide tooth comb then). During the week it's just put up as is, grabbed and put in its updo. I love it!

[StellaKatherine]

I was forced to go back to daily detangling this winter. I managed to comb less at summer, but noticed that scarfs, hats, coats, sweaters and static made my hair tangle at the base of my neck like crazy and if I didn't daily detangle it would go in to knots... I even needed to cut off couple of strands :( I definitely think , that tangling thing a lot depence on 1. hair texture 2. clothing you are wearing 3. weather.

[meteor]

Excellent thread, LauraLongLocks! :thumbsup:

I must say, until relatively recently, I wouldn't understand your friend's comments about not detangling hair so much being a good thing. I thought, the more I go between detangling sessions, the knottier the hair will get... But I experimented with skipping a day or even two between detangling sessions, and I don't see much difference in tangles! I think avoiding over-detangling when you hair feels just fine is probably good, because you are avoiding extra manipulation/stress/pulling on hair. Some people are OCD about each hair strand lying exactly parallel to another, about hair looking picture-perfect, but over-combing and over-styling is not good in the long run, IMHO. As for textured wavy/curly hair, it usually has a bit of clumping together anyway, and you don't want to break that up with constant manipulation.

Another thing I noticed is that with greater length, my hair doesn't fall over my shoulders so much when I lean forward: I think the weight of my unlayered hair is responsible for this, so gravity is finally helping me not have hair flowing to my face all the time. Also, if there is a bit of wind, only my ends move, but the remaining "curtain" just hangs there. I bet if I cut my hair shorter, it would be always falling to the front, always in my face again.

[ravenheather]

My dd7 has tangly 2c hair. I have found that brushing once a day rather than twice doesn't seem to result in more tangles. So I figure its half the damage. Her hair is always down and all over the place though.

[3 Cat Night]

My hair tangled badly when it was long. It's curly and course. The only way for me to de-tangle it was to do it while it was wet after I put conditioner on it. Then I didn't de-tangle it again until I washed it again. Otherwise, it would have been a frizzy mess.

[Nimia]

This thread reminds me of an article in Scientific American, about some research into what type of hair tangles most (the vote goes to straight hair): http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/straight-hair-is-knottier-than-curly-hair/

"Masson explains that the optimal tangle angle is one that is large enough to hook the microscopic, fishlike "scales" that coat hair cuticles. If this angle is too narrow—meaning the two hairs are nearly parallel—they won't lock."

and

"Back at Garren, Fernandes has the last point, "You know what the real issue is? The real issue is fine versus coarse. Curly or straight, fine hair is what tangles. The cuticle is open and puffy, like Velcro—it'll stick to anything.""

Fun article, and they admit that "...unlike other systems such as fluids and solids, hair mechanics remains unsolved, with no widely accepted model to explain it."

[meteor]

This thread reminds me of an article in Scientific American, about some research into what type of hair tangles most (the vote goes to straight hair): http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/straight-hair-is-knottier-than-curly-hair/

"Masson explains that the optimal tangle angle is one that is large enough to hook the microscopic, fishlike "scales" that coat hair cuticles. If this angle is too narrow—meaning the two hairs are nearly parallel—they won't lock."

and

"Back at Garren, Fernandes has the last point, "You know what the real issue is? The real issue is fine versus coarse. Curly or straight, fine hair is what tangles. The cuticle is open and puffy, like Velcro—it'll stick to anything.""

Fun article, and they admit that "...unlike other systems such as fluids and solids, hair mechanics remains unsolved, with no widely accepted model to explain it."

WOW! What an awesome post, Nimia! :thumbsup: Thanks a lot for sharing!

A fascinating read and may I add, it was great to find out that there are "experts in hair behavior" at The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control! :happydance:

And from my small experience, I would agree with their statement that it's the fine, dry and chemically treated hair that tangles the most. My canopy hair is fine and has the most highlights and that's where I consistently have daily tangling issues :rolleyes:

[jacqueline101]

I don't detangle daily. I don't even style mine daily. I style three times a week and detangle on wash day. I braid my hair but this summer I did the same thing with loose hair and no major tangles and it stayed in back. My hair is sort of thick maybe it's a weight deal with my hair again no one is the same.

[memeow]

I generally detangle my hair as needed, rather on a daily schedule, and I've definitely noticed many factors that effect tanglyness, including what leave-ins I use, how humid it is, how I style it, and what I'm wearing. I do think that frequent detangling may cause minor damage, as I would think any handling causes, but if the choice is frequent gentle detangling or picking out knots and mats, I'm sure gentle and frequent wins. If you had told me a year ago that my hair does fine with light finger detangling every couple days I would have been completely shocked.

[darklyndsea]

This thread reminds me of an article in Scientific American, about some research into what type of hair tangles most (the vote goes to straight hair): http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/straight-hair-is-knottier-than-curly-hair/

"Masson explains that the optimal tangle angle is one that is large enough to hook the microscopic, fishlike "scales" that coat hair cuticles. If this angle is too narrow—meaning the two hairs are nearly parallel—they won't lock."

and

"Back at Garren, Fernandes has the last point, "You know what the real issue is? The real issue is fine versus coarse. Curly or straight, fine hair is what tangles. The cuticle is open and puffy, like Velcro—it'll stick to anything.""

Fun article, and they admit that "...unlike other systems such as fluids and solids, hair mechanics remains unsolved, with no widely accepted model to explain it."

Meanwhile, my hair tangles terribly but it's wurly and coarse.

[gwenalyn]

Meanwhile, my hair tangles terribly but it's wurly and coarse.

And mine is fine and straight, but barely needs a fingercomb every once in a while. Just goes to show, averages don't always apply to the individual :shrug:

[Upside Down]

I am somewhere in the middle. Moderated detangling. When I wore my hair curly it would get massive tangles by the end of the week, cause brushing curls = horror, and I would wear it down for a day or two and then switch to updos (unbrushed). These tangles were not easy to get out and did cause some damage.

Now that I wear it streight (as much as possible without heat), I experimented with daily detangling only to realize it causes damage and gets my hair greasy sooner and is not necessary.
I will detangle omce in 3 days or so.

Also I found out that using an acidic rinse makes for less tangles, I guess it locks the cuticle.

[LauraLongLocks]

Thank you all for the great responses. I find it interesting how much variation there is among us. When I say I detangle frequently, I mean that in between classes at school, I detangle it, so it is several times a day. I dislike tangled hair so much it is a good thing I mostly wear it up so it won't be tangled. On the occasions that I wear it down, I don't like it to be a tangled mass. After wearing it down for 1-2 hours, it develops a host of tangles, even while sitting in a classroom away from wind and small children.

[truepeacenik]

Laura, what does her hair look like on a windy day?
Tangled, I'll bet.

She's got her theory, and she thinks it works. Yay.
You know what works for you.

Go with your gut and experience.
Don't let your brain tangle your hair.

[yahirwaO.o]

And mine is fine and straight, but barely needs a fingercomb every once in a while. Just goes to show, averages don't always apply to the individual :shrug:

Count me in (same texture like yours)..... my hair gets more like stick together rathen than tangled, still I brush it because it prevents that stickness which result in stringiness when worn dowm, Still I could get away with just firger combing it and looks ok!!!!

[dancingrain91]

Definitely doesn't work for me! I've worn my hair down without brushing or coming more than once a day and it tangles like mad. I use Johnson's no more tangles and that helps, but I detangle multiple times per day every day my hair is down.