These tiny knots are driving me mad...

[celelu]

Now that I've learnt so much about my own hair, after three monts on LHC, I came to worry more and more about these small knots that form in my super fine hair. I'm blessed with very little breakage (aka split ends and white dots), but if I run my fingers through small parts of hair, I can find maybe five or more knots, mostly lower than BSL even if my lenght and ends are pretty well moisturized. I tried to undo them with a needle, but it's impossible since they're awfully tight. I started to S&D them, but I find it sooo sad every time I have to snip a shiny, healthy hair... :(
Is there anyway I could avoid or get rid of that?

[Ash]

If you are like me and prefer to wear your hair loose then there is not much you can do. Some fabrics are more prone to causing these knots. I have not found standard Tshirt material to be a problem and I'm sure slippery fabrics would be ok but I used to wear a fuzzy jacket and it caused a lot of these knots. The only alternative would probably be to wear your hair up more often. If you use oil as a leave in it is prone to collecting dust and lint and that can cause these knots too.

[tralalalara]

Whenever I get those, I don't pull down hard, just isolate them and pull them out gently from underneath, instead of above the way a hairbrush would.

[celelu]

Ash: my hair is always up, and I don't use leave ins... but thanks for the suggestions! :D
tralalalara: my hair is not tangled, the problem is that single strands knot around themselves, and there's no way to loosen them. Brushes never catch them, even needles can't... :rolleyes:
...maybe a coney detangler? Wouldn't it make it stickier?

[Natalia]

You read my mind celelu! I was just about to post the exact same thing. I think minemight be frommy flannel sheets. I really should be sleeping on a silk pillow but my case went missing along time ago :( ....i really loved that thing

[camirra555]

Ugh! I've been having the same problem lately! I was actually co nsidering posting a thread about this today after I found two. I don't know what is causing them since my hair is almost always in a bun or in two braids. I know that some people call them fairy knots but other than that I'm not sure how to get rid of them. :(

[kwaniesiam]

Yep, they're called faerie knots because it seems like tiny faeries have knotted up your hair when you aren't looking :lol: There isn't much you can do to get rid of them, maybe try some leave in or oil or something to give your hair more slip? I used to get them all the time, I'd just snip them off if it wasn't too far up the hair strand.

[coscass]

I get them near the nape of my neck. It drives me insane. I have to cut them out, there's nothing else I can do.

[WavyGirl]

I've been getting these recently too. A new thing for me. I've changed my conditioner and I think it might be because my hair is softer and silkier. Weird I know, but it never did this before. It used to just break or split instead. I would love to know how to stop these. Like you say, it's a real shame to trim out hairs that are otherwise healthy.

[Sammich]

Phew, at least I don't feel alien anymore. I've been getting these little knots EVERYWHERE, my hair is knotted constantly... one small move... POOF! :D
Perhaps it's winter's fault, because I don't remember getting these during the autumn and summer this year, at first I blamed it on my hair being thinner...
The only way for me is to keep my hair HEAVILY oiled and in a braid or down heavily oiled.. (Which I wouldn't brave.) So yeah, winter is horrid to hair.

[Elenna]

I was going to post a thread too!

For a long time, I blew-dried my hair, used regular shampoo and would get some split ends but had no faerie knots.

Now, I air-dry my hair, CO and don't have split ends but have a whole brunch of faerie knots. So it makes sense that softer and silkier hair would get these.

Most of the knots are near the bottom of my hair length.

[silentwanderer]

I have lots of them. Sometimes more ,sometimes less. I have a general rule about them though. As long as I'm able to detangle my hair without any problems (meaning my comb will not get stuck in knots) I ignore them. Once you start with one you'll always find more and more.
Whenever my comb gets stuck I immediately take some scissors and cut them. I don't play.:cool:

[camirra555]

It sounds like a lot of people have them but nobody really knows how to prevent them :(. Sammich you may be right that it's winter's fault. I don't recall getting these so much in the summer or fall

[Tess2319]

Another vote here for blaming winter! I think it's a combination of the dryness and the clothes though. I'm getting a lot of knotting at the nape of my neck which I think is from the higher-collared clothes, turtlenecks and coats I wear this time of year. My hair is a very different texture now than during the humid summers we have here in Houston.

I blithely cut out knots when I find them. I figure the hair is irreparably damaged at the knot anyway.

[MandyBeth]

I get those all the time now that my hair is starting to show some waves. It's not a snarl or tangle, it's that one or two hairs are actually tied in a knot.

Now, I've found at least mine are always in the bottom 1/2" of hair - and they are most common on the "worse" ends - I get them in my nape, behind my left ear and in the front the most.

So since they are only on the ends, always where the most damage is - I just snip them off. I figure it's a hint that the hair in question would like a trim please. Now that I have good scissors and actually have taken to carefully trimming the splits and knots - my hair actually is slowly knotting up less.

[pwrgoddess1]

The reason you are getting the knots is because the cuticle of your hair is microscopically rough there. Try an acid wash like lemon juice or vinegar. Stay away from protein conditioners as a matter of routine especially if your hair is over a year old. The formula for any acid rinse is 4 to one. four parts distilled water to one part acid (vinegar or lemon juice) do this last in your regimen as it will close the cuticle down. It may be that the ph of your tap water has changed and is causing your cuticle to blow out. If this is the case the acid rinse will help a lot. good luck. 26 years hairdresser, hair length 50 inches.

[MandyBeth]

Why stay away from protein? I'm getting my hair over it's SLS and coney addictions. I'm finding while my hair doesn't have the same slip it did with cones, I'm finding my hair is more agreeable over all.

My hair knotted up with cones also - then I have to strip the cones with SLS, so then my hair is not slipping, so I have to use the cones.......

[frodolaughs]

I've also developed this problem recently and have no solutions to contribute. I'll give a vinegar rinse a try.

[Anje]

I get some fairy knots, though I think silicones actually make it worse for me. I certainly noticed more of them while giving silicones a try. Leaving hair loose so that it can loop around itself and hairs can make these knots will also contribute, of course, but I don't think it's the sole culprit.

I snip them out. Even when I can untie them, they leave a nasty little kink in the hair which catches on other hairs and creates bigger knots.

[pinchbeck]

If you use oil as a leave in it is prone to collecting dust and lint and that can cause these knots too.This is a good point for those who oil and it never occurred to me. What to do....what to do! Snarls are my enemy. If I don't oil my hair tangles and when I do oil it still tangles, but a bit less.

[girlcat36]

I used to get these all the time. I had to cut most of them out, I couldn't untangle them. When I stopped using cones the knots virtually ended.
Something about cones was making my hairs want to knot together. :confused:

[Ash]

This is a good point for those who oil and it never occurred to me. What to do....what to do! Snarls are my enemy. If I don't oil my hair tangles and when I do oil it still tangles, but a bit less.

I have been squeezing the water out of my hair after my shower and then applying a quarter size amount of my regular conditioner (Giovanni) mostly to the ends of my hair but also through the length. I comb it through and put in a towel as usual. I have found that I don't need to use as much oil as a leave in when doing this, maybe this might help. I could probably omit the oiling entirely since I don't think 1 drop covers much hair anyway. The conditioner doesn't seem to attract as much lint.