Curlies who wash only 1 to 2 times a week

[Curlsgirl]

How do you detangle to get the shed hairs out? I admit I have been wearing my hair down much more but I have shed hair that gets caught in my other hair and causes tangles and breakage if I try to get them out before I wash with conditioner again. It is worse as it gets longer for sure. I have tried finger combing but it really doesn't work that well. I can detangle but then would have to wear it up because it would be a big poofball. I hate rewetting because it takes so long to dry and WO just doesn't do that well for me anyway.

Any suggestions? What do you do?

[tinabcurly]

I CO once a week & WO a couple of times a week so my shed hairs & tangles get taken care of then. In between, I spritz with Kimberlily's Defrizz Spray and/or put it up. It does more harm than good trying to detangle my hair without wetting & using gobs of conditioner. Ouch.

I've come to grips with the fact that curls=tangles. Luckily, no one but me knows I have tangles since they blend in with the rest of the curls. Well, ok, DH knows too. But he keeps it secret for me.

[Heidi_234]

I know what you mean, I shower 1-2 times a week as well and wear my hair down and get terrible tangles.
I do a sort of CWC right now, so I apply conditioner at the beginning, and gently finger comb. I don't try to detangle it all, just to make sure the conditioner gets everywhere, soften the hair for the showering and ease my job when shampooing.
I wash it off, and I apply shampoo on my scalp only. while it's there (it's medical type, supposed to rest couple of minutes before rinsing out), I apply a hair mask to the lengths. By then my hair is soft enough and I detangle most of it fairly easily by finger-combing. I leave the mask and go about the rest of my shower routine, then I rinse everything out of my hair.
And last, when my hair is damp and I apply oil, I finger comb the locks, and I by then I got most if not all of my tangles out.
I'm not sure if my method of dealing with them tangles is good, because I have quite a shedding. But I can't be sure that it is not caused by other factors.

[Curlsgirl]

I think what bugs me the most is that I ALWAYS have these shed long hairs that have ALMOST made it all the way out but have caught somewhere in the middle of my hair and and just hang there on my shirt or sweater. So I take it to remove it and it is caught and then it tangles the rest of that lock of hair. Makes me FURIOUS. Very hard to free it without breaking it. KWIM by this? Otherwise I think I could probably leave the tangles until I do wash. I do more harm trying to detangle when dry too I have found after trying both. I think it's worse right now too because of my fall shed. The defrizz spray does not do well on my hair and have tried other mister concoctions and never found one really that my hair likes.

[nappywomyn]

I rarely wear my hair down, so when I do wash it, I just do my three step detangle (wide tooth MP comb, small tooth MP comb, Denman Brush), and it's good to go. If I wore my hair down more often, I think I would have to do that daily/every other day, to avoid dreadlocks....

[AutumnLeaves]

I mostly finger comb and do get lots of hairs that way. Of course, I may well be pulling them out myself as I go along. After a few days I take the brush to my head and that flattens it all out a bit. Also pulls out any decent curl and leaves that frizz instead. But it is what I do. Sometimes I also use a bit of coconut oil which does help calm the frizz a bit. I will also rewet, but only with water on my hands - not putting my head under the faucet. Hope that helps!

[Fillette]

In between washes, I mist my hair with a mixture of conditioner and water. I only get the hair slightly wet and that seems to be enough. Then I detangle gently with a wide tooth comb. I do it about once a day to keep the shed hairs under control. Also, adding a little bit of coconut oil to the bottom 2 inches helps with the detangling. In my experience, the misting and the coconut oil keep the hair from getting big and pouffy. And it does not take long for the hair to dry after misting.

[Gumball]

I usually wear my hair up, but I detangle twice daily. I also only wash 1-2 times a week as well. I start by finger combing first just because it's really easy to feel where I might hit a snag. That gives ample opportunity to gently work through any pieces that cause trouble. Then I detangle from the ends up with my horn comb. If that doesn't get all the shed hair then once I'm happy enough with what I've done I grip my hair (like holding for a ponytail), not tight at all mind you, and slowly bring my hand toward the ends. My grip is just light enough where I might get out some shed hairs hanging around and not hard enough to pull out or snap any hairs. Then I do whatever I feel like doing style-wise.

[Curlsgirl]

I grip my hair (like holding for a ponytail), not tight at all mind you, and slowly bring my hand toward the ends. My grip is just light enough where I might get out some shed hairs hanging around and not hard enough to pull out or snap any hairs. Then I do whatever I feel like doing style-wise.

Funny you should mention this because I have developed a habit of doing this but it's a bad habit in my case I think because sometimes a hair will catch and I get impatient or mindlessly pull it out and break another hair or two. I ALWAYS get some hairs this way though which I think has made it a habit. I think I am going to just have to start wearing my hair up again at least at work. That will help a lot.