tangles and frizz... out of control!

[catysue]

My hair is SO weird.

Ok. Here's the deal. My hair is very soft and relatively shiny, but it frizzes and tangles SO BAD! It's ridiculous. My hair will get tangled from doing nothing but sitting in class for 10 minutes. It's naturally wavy, and if I don't brush it I get beautiful pronounced waves and volume... but the tangles! Oh lord! And if I do brush it, I get a frizzy, poofy, STILL tangly mess! I have what looks like little flyaways all through my length - if I take a chunk of hair, there's little hairs of different lengths sticking out all over. A bit about my hair/hair regimen -

I have BSL length, 3-times-hennaed hair
I do CO (using VO5) and wash (sulfate free shampoo) about once or twice a week.
I do heavy oilings with either coconut oil or olive oil about once or twice a week.
I do either a henna gloss or a SMT about once a week.
For leave-in's I use Kimberlily's De-Frizz Spray and coconut oil lightly on the ends
I wear my hair down almost every day, up at night, and never use heat styling tools on it.

I've attached two pictures of my hair because I suck at explaining things. I'm not really sure what could be the cause of this crazy frizz & tangle fiasco, because I feel like I'm getting enough moisture, or how to fix it. Halp! D:

(my hair is brushed in both of these)

http://i37.tinypic.com/23hm6ud.jpg

(at least my color looks good in this one :))

http://i38.tinypic.com/9syvt1.jpg

Thank you so much for your help! I'm totally frustrated and about to lose it with my hair :(

[Amara]

My two cents is - don't leave your hair down every day. It's rubbing on you, your clothes, everything around you that your back touches, etc. Put it up, at least when you're in a place where your hair would be touching something or getting rubbed around.

[Bene]

How do you dry your hair? Fully airdry? Or does it spend some time in a towel? Do you damp oil? Damp oiling might help.

[Arctic]

Is your hair always been tangle-prone? I was wondering if you might have buildup in your hair, this can make the tangliness really horrible, like the hair would be velcro.

[catysue]

My two cents is - don't leave your hair down every day. It's rubbing on you, your clothes, everything around you that your back touches, etc. Put it up, at least when you're in a place where your hair would be touching something or getting rubbed around.

Yeah, I've been thinking that I should - plus when my hair is down I can't keep my hands off of it, I'm always fidgeting with it! that can't be good

[catysue]

How do you dry your hair? Fully airdry? Or does it spend some time in a towel? Do you damp oil? Damp oiling might help.

I wrap my hair in a t-shirt while I do my makeup and then take it out, so it's still damp when I apply my leave-ins and oil.

[catysue]

Is your hair always been tangle-prone? I was wondering if you might have buildup in your hair, this can make the tangliness really horrible, like the hair would be velcro.

Yes, it has - when I was a child I used to have very long hair and it was a nightmare to brush. However, it's gotten worse lately, so it might be buildup. I'll try a clarifying shampoo.

[Tinose]

My hair was terribly tangle-prone when I tried to grow it when I was younger without having a clue what I was doing. I'd say your first thing would be to do a thorough S&D on your hair. All those split ends catch on each other, and leaving it down will cause more. Second, I'd start oiling the length as well as the ends. I know you're doing a lot to keep it moisturized, but in the second picture your hair looks somewhat dry to me, and I know that, at least for me, tangliness decreases dramatically when there's a little oil all over my hair. Third, you might consider an ACV rinse. I noticed a dramatic difference in my hair the very first time I tried it. Fourth, I'm going to agree with the people who suggest updos would help protect your hair. Another advantage of updos is that you can use a lot more oil than you can with your hair down, which will help moisturize it.

Good luck! Tangly hair is a complete pain.

[Flynn]

My two cents is - don't leave your hair down every day. It's rubbing on you, your clothes, everything around you that your back touches, etc. Put it up, at least when you're in a place where your hair would be touching something or getting rubbed around.

.Seconded.

[MirandaWelch]

What kind of brush are you using? I have 2c hair as well and I never brush my hair. I used to comb with a wide tooth but I've stopped doing even that. Your "frizz" looks like flyaways from broken ends to me. I would stop brushing.

What I do is once I'm in the shower, I apply my conditioner and fingercomb all the tangles out. Then when rinsing I fingercomb again. I air dry only.

I also have to heavily moisturize my hair but from your OP it seems you're already doing so. I'd try to stop brushing (or at least switch to a wide tooth comb) and see if that helps.

[Flynn]

What kind of brush are you using? I have 2c hair as well and I never brush my hair. I used to comb with a wide tooth but I've stopped doing even that. Your "frizz" looks like flyaways from broken ends to me. I would stop brushing.

What I do is once I'm in the shower, I apply my conditioner and fingercomb all the tangles out. Then when rinsing I fingercomb again. I air dry only.

I also have to heavily moisturize my hair but from your OP it seems you're already doing so. I'd try to stop brushing (or at least switch to a wide tooth comb) and see if that helps.

Brushing breaks up the waves and creates frizz, increasing tangles, so I agree that it's definitely a good idea to avoid brushing while dry if you're wearing it down.

However, my experience with combing versus brushing has been that brushing is far less damaging to my hair than combing is, no matter how careful I am with that comb.

The common advice on here that brushing will eat your hair is simply not true for all people, though it's definitely something to experiment with!

Just felt the need to point that out.

[plainjanegirl]

I agree that the second pic looks a bit dry. So maybe you need some more heavy moisture treatments.
Also from experience my hair does not like proteiny hair stuff so that can cause problems for me. You may wanna look into what you are using and which ones have protein.

By the way your hair color looks really nice.

[Anje]

I'll second plainjanegirl's mentioning of protein as a possible culprit. If clarifying doesn't fix the problem, try eliminating any proteins from your routine and moisturize heavily for a few days. I'm still getting my ends to recover from a leave-in conditioner experiment which ended up giving more tangles rather than less because of the protein!

Definitely try wearing your hair in a more contained style, like buns or braids. My hair's permanently tangle-prone (though protein and buildup make it worse), and it would never survive if worn down most of the time.

[catysue]

Thank you all so much for the suggestions! Here's my game plan:

wear hair up every other day
clarify
S&D!
moisturize
detangle with fingers only in shower? trying this one out for a couple of days.

[jojo]

I get this too and also have wavy hair, try oils on the ends and dont brush, comb instead. I find brushing makes my hair frizz more, just comb once when wet (start at the ends and comb gently) and then don't comb again until dry. A little oil on wet hair also helps, just a little on the ends and canopy will help with the frizzies.