How to Untangle "Saved" Hair?!

[Peggy E.]

I'm still struggling with this stupid hair receiver - an interesting practice not meant to include my participation.

It's really easy to "collect" the hair and stick it in the receptacle. Why, in no time at all I'd have enough gathered hair for a nice-sized wig and can stick my tongue out at those Locks of Love hair grabbers.

Up to this point, all is well. But then the trouble begins. Because I actually want to do something with this stuff, you see. And what I want to do with it is to make braided/plaited pieces to add to my own on occasions.

Sounds like an easy enough sort of thing, doesn't it? Well, forget it! What a mess! I can't get the mess of a ball of hair combed out to be usable. I keep thinking about how it works with carding wool, for those who do weaving. But even matted wool combs out better than my saved hair!

For those of you here who are also saving hair to use for something other than the rat (may that poor thing rest in peace....!) have any suggestions to help me get this combed out in a manner that makes it serviceable as a braided add-in?

I did manage to get one made really early on, don't know how on earth I did it, though?, but nothing since has worked. I try combing out small strands (sorry to the person who did not like the term "strand," but nothing else quite fits....) and then putting them together, but they fall apart. :o(

Any advice will be appreciated. Right now I'm leaning towards using that hair receiver for hold hairsticks!

[CatstyleMBelleK]

My suggestion is just my thoughts rather than my experience doing this (what a cool idea, btw!) but have you thought about putting a substance on the hair, maybe water or oil or shampoo or conditioner, and then trying to work it into a straighter hunk of hair? I'd try it on a small wad, and not the whole of what you've saved, to see if it worked first...

[Peggy E.]

My suggestion is just my thoughts rather than my experience doing this (what a cool idea, btw!) but have you thought about putting a substance on the hair, maybe water or oil or shampoo or conditioner, and then trying to work it into a straighter hunk of hair? I'd try it on a small wad, and not the whole of what you've saved, to see if it worked first...

I'd tried the water idea, but it didn't make any difference.

However, I do the CO washing, plus leave-in conditioning, but your comment has made me thing that maybe a detangler of some sort might work? Now I'll have to get some! Thanks for the post, I think this may well be the answer.

[spidermom]

Strange. I saved my son's braid (about 8 inches long) when he got his hair cut for a job and treasure it. However, the idea of saving shed hairs gives me sort of a creeped-out feeling. I have no idea why. I think the key would be prevention rather than detangling, as in making sure you lay the hairs out straight, maybe even having a clip (like the kind they sell for holding bags closed) for one end. Anyway - good luck.

[Nightshade]

When I do henna test locks I do them one strand at a time :o

The method is towards the end of the henna article if you're interested in such sadism.

[soobie]

I think if you want to use the hair as anything other than a rat, you need to keep it organized into neat strands as you save it. My grandmother had a decorative cardboard hair receiver that she used to save shed hairs for a braided tail. It was just a square with a tab cut in the middle (three cuts- up, across, down) to make a flap that she tucked the hair behind. That kept it tidy and all the hairs parallel until she was ready to use the hair.

I do remember that the receiver didn't hold enough for a whole tail, so when it got full, she tied the bundle together in the middle and put it away until she collected enough little bundles to make the final braided tail.

[birdiefu]

I have a hair receiver also, and honestly it's better for collecting hair for rats. What I do with collecting hair that I will be using the length is adopted from I think Nightshade. Get a bit of sticky tape and the hairs that you lose, take them individually, find the root end, and stick the root end to the sticky tape. Then you can collect the length of hairs easier rather than a ball of tangled hairs. Takes more time initially, but you don't have to worry about detangling! Also, you can categorize the hairs by length with this method, too.

[trolleypup]

I think if you want to use the hair as anything other than a rat, you need to keep it organized into neat strands as you save it. My grandmother had a decorative cardboard hair receiver that she used to save shed hairs for a braided tail. It was just a square with a tab cut in the middle (three cuts- up, across, down) to make a flap that she tucked the hair behind. That kept it tidy and all the hairs parallel until she was ready to use the hair.

I do remember that the receiver didn't hold enough for a whole tail, so when it got full, she tied the bundle together in the middle and put it away until she collected enough little bundles to make the final braided tail.
Pretty much. While it is possible to detangle wadded up hair, it is quite laborious and hard on the eyes and fingers...often the detangling is one hair at a time, sometimes using needles to loosen tangles and knots.

What I do is save the daily sheds...during the day, they go into little plastic baggies, then, if I'm keeping up, they get pulled out and laid with other accumulated sheds...all pointing the same direction. If I get behind, at least the individual baggies with small numbers of hairs are much easier to detangle. (Like, now, with piles of baggies...I really ought to spend some good OCD time with that.