Wet Brushing Curly Hair

[PhillyGirl1978@]

Ok, so I was reading biracialhair.org run by this woman with gorgeous waist length natural curls. She gives instruction on how to properly care for our hair. I am biracial and was very interested in this. One of the things she says is to use a Denman brush, she said she uses it to brush the conditioner through when you are in the shower. I kind of worry about wet brushing hair, not to mention brushing curly hair. But this woman's hair is great and if she does it...

Anyway, what do y'all think?

[Dvips]

When my (fine, thin) hair was curly (and BSL-waist length), I always used a comb to detangle my hair while it was full of conditioner... and that was the only time I detangled it. The Denman is fairly comb-like, isn't it? If you have concerns, start with a comb and you can always move on to a Denman-type brush if you want to.

For the record, I did start at the ends and work my up as I combed.

HTH!

ETA: Once my hair went straight, when it was long it still prefered to be detangled/combed only when quite damp. It didn't like a brush at all, wet or dry.

[PhillyGirl1978@]

I use a wide toothed comb or my fingers now. I don't think I would use the brush for detangling though I mean I would probably only use the brush once the tangles were out, I I would using it for smoothing, distributing moisture and maybe to encourage clumping.

[Riot Crrl]

I'm going to try this too (Denman is in the mail already) but my reason is a little different. My hair does great with just wide tooth comb, but my scalp has been kicking me since I took away its brushing. Have tried everything, including scalp brush, and they all work great for a week or two and then stop. I think the reason there is such a big difference between the scalp brush and the regular brush, is that it's just impossible to really brush it over the scalp in such a systematic and thorough way and with such long strokes, as with a hair brush.

I plan to try using the comb first and then very carefully the brush. And only in the shower with conditioner.

[lookingglass]

Is it the Denman D200? I really cannot imagine brushing my hair. :demon:I have only done it a handful of times and it wasn't pretty. My fingers work just fine. I scritch, though, before washing. I don't find that my oils travel down my hair at all...:shrug:

[Riot Crrl]

I used to brush mine every day, and dry. The breakage was horrific, but my scalp felt awesome. Not only was it dry but I also used an awful cheap brush. You can see the sharp little seams where they molded the bristles.

It's a D4 I am waiting on. I think I would rather try the D3 even more but I'm getting it in a swap.

[Curlsgirl]

I cannot imagine using a Denman on my hair, in fact I gave mine away not too long ago to a fine straight-haired person. I only use a wide tooth comb or finger comb and even then though I detangled well I am sure the Denman would end up breaking hair that did not get detangled well by the comb or finger combing. I wonder if they might be talking about shorter hair? :shrug: Or maybe some people could use it. I wouldn't risk it myself.

What about scritching your scalp with a comb that's good for that or only using the brush on your scalp?

[snowbird]

I use a comb (not a denman though I'm sure the results would be similar) on my wet hair (I don't use conditioner). After my hair is wet, I start just by lightly combing out the canopy layers and then working 'into' the hair. I do this roughly from ends to scalp.

[LaCitoyenne]

Ouch, ouch, OUCH :wail:

Tried it once, felt like torture! Of course, my hair is not in the absolute best condition, either.

[MusicLady]

I decided last summer I was going to use a BBB to try distributing the oils to my ends. I ended up losing a LOT of hair. I have this horrible chin-length halo now with all the hair that's grown out from that time. A BBB is probably not the same as Denman, but I won't touch my hair now with any kind of brush. I only use a seamless, wide-tooth comb or a pick, and only when necessary,.

[nappywomyn]

I love, love, love, love, love my Denman. I don't get it, because it's a BRUSH, and in my uber-curly hair, brushes were a very bad thing.
However. The Denman in my favorite detangling tool. I use it on wet, damp, dry hair (if it's dry, it still have leave-in of some sort in it) and it gets EVERY SINGLE shed hair out of my hair in a way that combs simply can't. Since most of my tangles are from shed hairs roaming free in the fro, using it has reduced my tangling over time - it's kinda amazing.

I know it seems REALLY scary - but I love it. It took me close to a year to work up the courage to actually buy it and try it - but it's only 8-9 bucks - and I figured if I hated it, not much was lost.

I'd really suggest trying it out - it might surprise you.

[PhillyGirl1978@]

Ok, so I do plan to get a real Denman at some point, I picked up this Conair knock-off from CVS it has nin rows of firm pins, no balls on the end, and a rubber backing. Of course it isn't as heavy duty but I figured I could try it. In the shower today after I had some conditioner on my hair while dry (I just learned that tip) anyway. I rinsed and detangled and then loaded up with conditioner again and I detangled some more and went at it with the brush starting at the bottom. It did seem to get all the tangles out and it smoothed it nicely I didn't get out too much hair but enough so I am assuming it was shed hair. I do usually only finger comb so I am guessing I had a lot of shed hair stuck in there. Usually when I apply conditioner dry I get some hair out, actually when I twirl my ends I also get hair out but I don't feel anything so I don't think I am pulling or breaking it, I think it is just shed hair. That just had me thinking about the amount of shed hair I leave in there by only finger combing. Anyway , so , it did feel pretty nice on my scalp and it smoothed my hair nicely. Now we'll just see how it dries.

[Riot Crrl]

I got the Denman, and tried it. These were my results of the first day, and how I used it.

I let the water run over my hair like I always do. This does a lot of the detangling job for me always.

Then I put conditioner on it and let it sit for a long time like I always do.

Then I used the wide tooth comb to detangle, like I always do. I got probably 3 shed hairs, which is normal for me.

Then I used the Denman. I was very careful that my hair was already wet, coated in conditioner, and detangled with the wide tooth comb. I was very particular about having the hair already running parallel, and not criss-crossing at all.

My scalp is in love I think. It hasn't felt so good since giving up my cheapo brushes, which for sure were breaking and pulling out hair. It's been like 2 hours and my scalp still feels clean and very stimulated. I can still feel more blood coursing through it than it did before since I gave up my useless brushes.

The Denman had like 5 hairs in it. As nappywomyn wisely pointed out, that could have been sheds that the wide tooth comb missed. Even if not, if I have to pay five hairs for a clean and happy and stimulated scalp, sign me up for that transaction!

[PhillyGirl1978@]

My hair takes forever to dry so I won't know till tomorrow whether or not it looks good but it sure did feel nice. I heard that the more you use it the less shed hair you will notice in the brush, so we'll see. I had found this biracial women named Terry on biracialhair.org, anyway she left in lots of conditioner and brushed it through, and then never rinsed. Pictures of her hair look great and she didn't mention using any other products for hold so I wonder if all the conditioner is what helped her with hold too. Anyway, her hair looks great but mine is a little looser than hers I think she is a 3c I have heard about the denman being for kinkier hair types, I'm guessing if it worked for you than it should be good for me too.

[Riot Crrl]

I'm not biracial (unless you count England and Ireland as different races LOL) but I seem to have curly hair nonetheless. I loved this brush, but I was extremely careful with using it, and only did in the shower full of water and conditioner, and only after detangling with wide tooth comb. I always leave in a bunch of conditioner anyway.

I don't think it would affect my curl pattern since I did rinse afterwards. I think I will continue to.

I have also heard of Denmans being for tighter curls than mine, but whatever, I have never been afraid of products that say that.

After using it one time, all I have to say is that I am extremely pleased. Even many hours later my scalp STILL feels better than it ever did since giving up my cheapo gross brushes.

[PhillyGirl1978@]

Great, I am a 3A too so of course I can't expect to get the results that woman had with the 3C hair, but it worked for you. Also I usually don't touch my hair much after the final rinse because I like the way the water clumps my curls. This time I brushed it while it was full of conditioner, rinsed the top thinner part a little then put more conditioner on my lengths and brushed again. No rinse or anything. This morning it's still not completely dry because I slept in a peacock twist, but I can at least see that it isn't frizzy. I also didn't spend a whole lot of time on it to separate it like Terry says but at the very least it is no worse and it did feel nice.