Help! Hair hopelessly twisted!

[Sunshineliz]

I don't know if anyone can help enough right now, but my DD10 (the one with tailbone-length hair) has a 1-inch square section of her front hair horribly twisted. DD2 had got a hold of a hand-held fan and turned it on and got it entangled in DD10's hair. She got the fan turned off and out but from her chin down it is the most horribly twisted mess I've ever seen! Almost like twisting wool into thread.

My question is do I try to slowly pick it out while dry? Would putting conditioner or oil in it help to detangle it? Is it hopeless and I should cut it out? (It isn't actually RIGHT in the front, there's about an inch in front of that that is perfectly fine.)

[RubyEmpress]

Super coney conditioner/oil and a tangle teezer might work.

[JadeTigress]

This sort of thing happened to me all the time when I was little. My mom would douse it in oil and, armed with her hands and a comb, sloooooowly work out the tangle. It took forever and ever, and my child self got very impatient. I never escaped completely damage-free, but she never had to cut any length off, so it was pretty successful.

And when I say 'douse it in oil', I mean it. It was a lot of oil. :p

[Sunshineliz]

I don't have a tangle teezer. I'm thinking of using a fine tooth comb at the very end and slowly picking it out. I'm wondering if the conditioner would make it more slippery or if it would somehow make it wetter and harder to get out?

[JadeTigress]

I don't have a tangle teezer. I'm thinking of using a fine tooth comb at the very end and slowly picking it out. I'm wondering if the conditioner would make it more slippery or if it would somehow make it wetter and harder to get out?

You want slippery. Slippery is good. Atleast it was when my mom did it on my hair.

The way she did it was starting at the end, and working as much as she could with her hands, and using a fine tooth comb as more of an aid, and to comb it out as she got bits of it free from the tangle.

ETA: That's why she used oil instead of conditioner, because it stayed slippery longer on my hair than conditioner did.

[Madora]

Separate the tangled mess from the rest of the hair and slather it with conditioner and see if that frees up some of the tangles (do this while the snarls are still full of the conditioner). Use your fingers with the snarl (I find that gently coaxing the left side of the snarl, then the right side, seems to work in freeing the stubborn hairs).

If the tangles are as horrible as they sound, then you might try taking a sewing needle and see if you can pierce the snarl and gradually unscramble the snarl by attacking it with the needle.

I would NOT recommend hitting that mess with a tangle teezer..or anything else!

Be sure to take care of it..one way or another. Snarls have the horrible habit of making untangled hair gravitate tothem..and becoming ensnarled with it! Ugh! Not fun!

[Sunshineliz]

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7617&pictureid=104760

This is a pic of what it looks like---really twisted like spinning thread. Just in case that helps anyone with the visualization.

[JadeTigress]

That is exactly the sort of tangles I would get when I was little. I still stand by my mom's method: douse in oil, work the tangle with hands starting with the ends, and combing out the parts that you get free so they don't re-tangle.

It will take a long time, so don't let that discourage you. I had some tangles that were bad enough that my mom literally spent hours at a time working on them. But she always got them out.

[Rapunzal2Be]

My DD4 has TB length hair that tangles like this on occasion, really snarly.

My advice is to oil it up - coconut works well for me - and use a coney serum or conditioner to get it as slippery as you can. Then I use a Wet Brush or Tangle Teezer, but use what you've got on hand. Take it slow, work from the bottom up, and realize that you do the best you can to save what you can, rather than just cut it all out from the get-go.

I've had seemingly hopeless snarls come out with some damage, but it was better than cutting a chunk if hair out without even trying.

Patience and persistence is the key.

[spidermom]

I think I'd start with one of those little picks that you use to dig nuts out of the shell. That looks gnarley!

[Sunshineliz]

Wow thanks guys! I wouldn't have believed it, but it took only about five minutes to detangle after oiling it with olive oil and slathering a coney conditioner on it, then working slowly with my fingers and occasionally the sewing needle on it.:joy:

It actually looked worse in real life than it did in that picture. I was going to try to detangle first regardless, but I was worried it would all be in vain and I'd have to cut it in the end. Thanks for the tips and I'm so glad it came out. I'd never had a tangle like that before where it literally looked like spun thread.

[christine1989]

Glad to hear the tangle came out so well! She has a lovely haircolor by the way :)

[Sunshineliz]

Thanks christine! She was crying her eyes out over it as she was so scared I was going to cut her hair! (She did have to endure a small trim earlier today:D) She saw arc691's hair yesterday and decided to she wanted hers THAT long. I don't know that she'll make it to ankle, but she sure wants to try!:)

[Tressie]

Oh, I'm glad it wasn't as bad a you had feared! Yay!! :blossom: