Fellow tanglers, tell me about your shampoo

[Chiara]

Hi all,

I am trying to find a shampoo that does not immediately make my wet hair become matted and tangled. I have fine, straight hair but it loves to tangle. I do CO mostly, but I need to find a shampoo that I can use to clarify. It might seem that it doesn't matter if it causes tangles, since its not like you clarify every week BUT you should see these tangles! It takes 10 mins to comb them out, and they cause damage.

So, if you have found something that works, please let me know!

I think that I have managed to find shampoos that are pretty gentle (judging by the fact that they don't dry out my fingers and hands) but they still cause my hair to go feral...

Oh, and I have tried diluting, but still got tangling.

[irishlady]

Oh I sympathise!

I have tried organic cone-free, and cone shampoo, and even conditioner only, but my hair tangles nonetheless.

I am currently using John Frieda Frizz-Ease serum as a detangler and to smooth frizz, but I don't really like it, doesn't work that well for me. I plan on trying Giovanni's products next.

Wish I could be of more help though :(

[squiggyflop]

dilute the shampoo.. until its very very diluted.. only move your hands downward and squeeze/finger comb in the shampoo.. never rub.. never tip your head forward to rinse.. condition and then detangle under the running shower stream then use a vinegar rinse..
im saying this as someone whos hair has wanted to become dreadlocks for all her life.. i swear the matts are awful sometimes..
johnsons makes a cream detangler leave-in that works well (find it in the toddler section of any megamart).. and vo5 makes a detangle and shine spray that works like magic (but dont spray on hard flooring because it will become very slippery for like a week)

and try letting the conditioner sit on the hair for a while under a shower cap.. thats how i do it.. i dont know how long i leave it.. its on just long enough that everything that needs to be shaved gets done

[CrisDee]

Any tangling issues in my hair have been solved by CO. I don't use any product in my hair, and my hairspray is simply water and boiled lemons - so I don't need to clarify very often at all. When I do, I use the Suave Naturals coconut shampoo that goes with the conditioner I CO with.

[HintOfMint]

Maybe try to detangle before your shower as best as you can, and work the shampoo into your hair, section by section so it doesn't clump up into one big tangle. Also, after you clarify, don't you condition? I use a super-moisturizing treatment after every time I clarify.

[christine1989]

Hugo Naturals ylang ylang shampoo works well for me and my hair can be quite tempermental when wet. I usually lather the shampoo up in my hand first so I can just squeeze it in to my hair and that greatly reduces tangles.

[ravenreed]

I also have extremely tangly hair. I detangle before I shower and when I do shampoo, I don't aggressively move my hair enough that it can tangle much. I put a bit on my scalp and then gently stroke it down my hair, making sure it gets to all the strands.

[Chiara]

Thanks all. I am glad to know I am not the only one.


im saying this as someone whos hair has wanted to become dreadlocks for all her life..

That is so true! My hair has a split personality- it looks straight and well-mannered when dry. But once you add water, it just wants to form one big dread. A hairdresser told me that I had the tangliest hair he had ever come across. This was after he gave up combing it out and had to brush the tangles out when wet. He said as he did that 'you should never do this'. I had warned him. The guy was a guru in the field, he used to train others, so I figure he'd seen a lot of hair in his time.

OK, enough of my kvetching. I do always detangle before I wash, and I always lather shampoo in my hands first. I can do CO for a month, and then I have to use shampoo because my hair gets too lank. I will try further diluting. The problem is that, once it forms a matted mess, it is really hard to get the shampoo in under the outer layer, and also hard to rinse out. I will try the squeezing technique, too.

[mariika]

my hair tangles like hell while shampooing but I don't even bother with that (sometimes it's already tangled when I go to shower because it just tangles a lot - I don't detangle before washing, wait to see why) - I use conditioner afterwards and that clears all the tangles easily, I don't have to comb or brush or whatever, when I apply conditioner on my hair with my fingers my hair just detangles itself

[Fiferstone]

I'm another person with hair that tangles if you look at it wrong. I get lovely mini-dreadlocks at the base of my neck from the friction of my hair rubbing against my collar so I know exactly what you mean. My hair is stick-straight but very fine, I always detangle before getting in the shower. I use a solid shampoo (ONE, available at Target) and I rub the lather from the shampoo bar on my scalp, and then just squeeze it down the length with as little manipulation as possible (I pretty much do what Torrin Paige suggests in her "how to wash your hair" video, but with a shampoo bar). My shampoo does have SLS, and my conditioners are cone-free (LUSH Jungle, ONE hair boost). I put my conditioner on dry hair, and then bun it and go about my morning routine before hopping in the shower and washing it off. I have found that one of the benefits of an ACV rinse as the final rinse is that I have far fewer tangles, and the tangles are easier to comb out.

[Delila]

Have you tried putting conditioner on your length before you put shampoo at your scalp?

[torrilin]

Which shampoos have you tried? Are you washing the whole length or just the scalp?

I've pretty much never had a shampoo dry out the skin on my fingers and hands. Not even in a WI winter or a Los Angeles fire season. And my skin is DRY. So I definitely wouldn't use that as a benchmark for hair friendly.

Dr. Bonner's soap makes a good shampoo. It's very concentrated and a few drops of the liquid will produce a *lot* of lather even in hair down past your bra band. If you're looking for a shampoo that removes every drop of oil your skin makes... this is not the one for you. But it's very gentle and the only shampoo I've ever used where I didn't need conditioner after.

Trader Joe's house brand shampoos are often silicone free, and they're a bit more clarifying than the Dr. Bonner's. Ditto the conditioners, and they're cheap enough that I don't mind having to use a lot. The conditioners tend to be pretty good for CO washing, and it can take me a few months to need to clarify.

Kiss My Face and Neutrogena make silicone free shampoos and conditioners... not all of them are cone free, and they're not the cheapest, but they tend to work pretty well.

FWIW, the only thing that really stopped my hair from instant dreading was going cold turkey on damaging things. It hates blow driers, curling irons, pool chlorine, hair dye, vigorous towel drying, brushes that aren't boar bristle, most styling products, and the list goes on and on and on. I can have one, maybe two bad habits that it dislikes. No more.

[jeanniet]

You can try mixing a very small amount of shampoo with some conditioner and distilled water in a squeeze bottle--shake very well and apply over previously detangled hair, but don't rub through hair. I use 1/4 tsp. shampoo to 2 tbsp. conditioner (I also usually add a tbsp. of aloe vera), then add enough water to make 8 oz. This will completely saturate my hair. I may still get some minor tangling at the ends, but nothing that I can't comb out pretty easily. It's almost no shampoo, but it seems to clarify just fine.

[Speckla]

I cwc. Add conditioner to my hair and work any tangles loose, shampoo, and then follow up with a good conditioner for thirsty hair. Otherwise I have horrible tangles.

[fisher2]

i just shampoo using acv when i have to but i dont shampoo everytiime i wash haior i co and every 4 times i shampoo

[VanillaTresses]

For whatever reason, Lush's Seanik solid shampoo seems to give my hair some slip and make it feel fairly well detangled even right after washing. :twocents:

Otherwise, I have found that things with a little bit of oils, silicones or polyquaternium in the ingredients seem to help as well.

[lpsqt60]

I am a Tangela as well, my term for a tangly girl:), and I find that after I CO when I use the Focus21 Sea Spray all over moisturizer as a detangler and a lot of leave in conditioning products I can move my wide tooth comb through my hair without too much trouble, but then again when it is dry it will just tangle up again:confused:.
A tight braid has become my best friend.

[AstrayStar]

I can't help you about finding any shampoos, since I haven't used any in over 3 years, but I can share what has dramatically lessened my tangles for me. My hair absolutely loves a coconut milk soak, wrapped in plastic bag and covered in toque for a minimum of 3 hours. Then followed by an smt, also wrapped in plastic and covered in toque for at least 3 hours - up to overnight. I have tried these separately and I do not get the same benefit as when I do them back to back. I was simply amazed at my lack of tangles after discovering this!
hth!

ETA - have you tried baking soda instead of shampoo?

[Chiara]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions.

At the moment, I'm using Al'chemy (A'kin, in the US, I think) gentle shampoo for sensitive scalps and babies, and their unscented conditioner. The conditioner works really well. Both are sulfate and cone free.


I've pretty much never had a shampoo dry out the skin on my fingers and hands
See, I think this comes down to some weird problem with detergents. I always get dryness from soaps and detergents. If I use soap or detergent to wash my hands, and don't use hand cream immediately afterwards, I can get cracks down the side of my fingers, and I don't live in a very cold climate. I even get dry hands if I hang out clothes that haven't had all the detergent rinsed out properly! I also think this because my scalp was actually pretty happy when I went WO for 8 weeks (but my hair looked pretty bad after about 6 weeks!). I have tried CWC, and it sort of helps. The really bad tangling is then pretty much at ear level and above, where I apply the shampoo. Cones tend to turn my hair stringy quite quickly (then I end up having to use more shampoo which kind of defeats the purpose). But, I take on board the idea of something that provides more slip, maybe the shampoo I'm using is just TOO pure... hmmm, so the idea of adding conditioner to the shampoo and diluting could combine all these suggestions!


It hates blow driers, curling irons, pool chlorine, hair dye, vigorous towel drying, brushes that aren't boar bristle, most styling products, and the list goes on and on and on. I can have one, maybe two bad habits that it dislikes. No more.
Yes, yes and yes. Of this list, the only thing I do is highlighting (my hair would be better if I didn't, but I am too vain)


baking soda instead of shampoo?
Yes, I have tried that and it didn't seem to work, I got really bad static, which for me is a precursor to big tangles. I did play around with proportions. However, I do find SMTs fantastic, so will def try the coconut milk suggestion.


I am a Tangela
I like it... maybe it could be one of the LHC t-shirts?