View Full Version : MY hair is driving me nuts... help :(
Tuna
February 20th, 2012, 08:27 AM
I love my long hair... it looks really nice. And I want it a little longer...
But it's driving me crazy! It tangles very easily.
Last time I went shopping with my friend (her hair is same lenght as mine)... and we both decided to wear our hair down. I combed it... and after one hour we went to the bathroom and my hair was tangled really badly. It took me 5 minutes to detangle... hers was perfectly smooth.
Every morning it takes forever to detangle... I use wooden comb on my hair. Maybe I should switch to brush.
I don't know what to do :( Rihgt now I just want to cut it all off. I went swimming yesterday, my hair were in braid till today. And now I'm detangeling it... for 30 minutes already. CRAZY ****.
Why does it tangles soo easily? What can I do? Btw, my hair is thin... but there is lots of it.
Madora
February 20th, 2012, 08:43 AM
I love my long hair... it looks really nice. And I want it a little longer...
But it's driving me crazy! It tangles very easily.
Last time I went shopping with my friend (her hair is same lenght as mine)... and we both decided to wear our hair down. I combed it... and after one hour we went to the bathroom and my hair was tangled really badly. It took me 5 minutes to detangle... hers was perfectly smooth.
Every morning it takes forever to detangle... I use wooden comb on my hair. Maybe I should switch to brush.
I don't know what to do :( Rihgt now I just want to cut it all off. I went swimming yesterday, my hair were in braid till today. And now I'm detangeling it... for 30 minutes already. CRAZY ****.
Why does it tangles soo easily? What can I do? Btw, my hair is thin... but there is lots of it.
A brush is not a detangler!
As you have discovered, wearing your hair down can cause tangling, and it isn't much fun detangling!
Also, your hair might have buildup on it, which might contribute to the tangling problems.
Perhaps clarifying your hair, then using a gentle shampoo might help.
You might also want to consider an overnight EVOO treatment. I've found this to be a terrific way to provide my hair with tons of slip. It also leaves your hair very soft..and no smell of olive oil remains.
Tuna
February 20th, 2012, 08:48 AM
I will try that overnight treatment... and if it doesnt help and if i don't find any soultions... i will cut my hair. I have already decided.
I'm sick of this tangles... and i hate wearing my hair up. No point in my butt lenght hair anymore :/
Does anyone have experiences with detangling sprays?
IndigoOptimist
February 20th, 2012, 08:50 AM
I also have very tangley hair and although it's not as long as yours it does still tangle very easily when I'm out and about... or even just sitting in my room!
Don't use a brush! Try using oils and masks to make your hair slippery, this way it won't be able to grip to itself so easily and when it does it's easy to detangle ;)
Don't cut it off, when I was 14 I cut mine from BSL to about 1 inch (and some longer at the front), it was very sad :(
Amber_Maiden
February 20th, 2012, 09:06 AM
Try a tangle teeter and putting a little oil in your hair- that helps me. I think thicker hair types get mor entangles then thinner hair types.
Tota
February 20th, 2012, 09:19 AM
I would suggest buying a Tangle Teezer. My sister has TBL hair and she ALWAYS wears it down. She never goes anywhere without her Tangle Teezer. It detangles her thick straight hair very quickly. When you're out you can just go to the ladies room and be done in a minute. It would be such a shame to cut your hair without trying to tame it first ;)
lapushka
February 20th, 2012, 09:24 AM
Recommending the Tangle Teezer as well! Anyway, try a number of the solutions given to you already first, before doing anything as drastic to your hair as cutting a huge chunk off. It might not even be necessary.
Tuna
February 20th, 2012, 09:38 AM
Thanks! I will buy that tangle teezer. I have to find out where to buy it here where i live (not a big fan of internet buying).
spidermom
February 20th, 2012, 09:54 AM
Oil makes my tangle problem worse because it holds onto dust and lint.
CHI Silk Infusion coney serum helps. A little goes a long way.
fridgee
February 20th, 2012, 10:44 AM
Have you tried mineral (baby) oil? You only need a few drops and it leaves hair really soft and slippy. There are a few threads about it and an article in the article section. It would be a shame to cut all that lovely hair off without trying everything possible first. I second spidermom something coney might work too.
Jessfoz
February 20th, 2012, 10:47 AM
Definately something to be said for clarifying so please, try that! You can find some pretty cheap ones out there obviously just look for the word 'clarifying', Tresemme do an alright one. After you do that only do it once a month, leave it on your hair all lathered up for a few minutes.
Madora mentioned following with a a gentle shampoo, I'm interested Madora, in why you do that - better results?
Follow with a deep deep condition like an SMT left on for at least an hour and before you clarify, do the overnight olive oil treatment. Use a tiny bit of conditioner as a leave in.
Do post back and tell us what happens? :)
Jessfoz
February 20th, 2012, 10:49 AM
Oh, also, maybe you need a chelating shampoo if your area has hard water?
Anje
February 20th, 2012, 11:04 AM
Have you clarified recently? If you haven't, do it!
Is there any chance you're using a product (especially conditioner or leave-in) with a lot of protein? I get the world's worst tangles if I hit the point of protein overload, and not even trimming or clarifying fix it. What fixes that for me is cutting out all the protein-containing products and doing nightly SMTs.
Note: If you'd describe your hair as mushy or overly stretchy, disregard everything I just said about protein. That's a sign that you really need a protein treatment, which will probably help the tangles considerably if your hair is protein-deficient.
heidi w.
February 20th, 2012, 11:21 AM
WoW, it took 30 minutes for tangles to mount? It takes my hair 5 minutes, and I have tangles, particularly at the back of the neck. That's just the way it is with super long hair. Some people are lucky, as your friend seems to be. Some of us get the short straw -- as I did. This is the life of a long hair.
For bedtime, you could try braiding the hair so it's a lot easier to detangle in the morning. Be SURE to unravel the braid in precisely the reverse order you braided in. (Same with taking an updo down. Don't just take all the pins out and let the ball of hair fall, or you will have tangles.)
Some people sleep with a satin or smooth fabricked nightcap.
Many, such as myself, sleep on a satin, sateen or polyester pillowcase -- some kind of smooth, slippery fabric. Cotton is not smooth fabric, surprisingly. Do not sleep on flannel.
If I let my hair go a day or two with no-detangling, I am asured of a boatload of the tangles having lint as a part of the tangle. I have to work the hair in sections to detangle, and often resort to using my fingers to unravel a tangle to the point that I can continue detangling with my comb.
I do NOT recommend detangling with a brush. It will pull out more hairs.
I have to watch what my hair rubs against, the type of fabric. Such as knits and wools, hair is up. I actually wear my hair up all day every single day. Most people don't even know I have this much hair.
My hair gets caught in all kinds of stuff: car windows; car doors; office chair rollers; file cabinets. Long hair while I'm cooking is likewise really unsafe. Just turning around can inflame a gas stovetop flame. Mowing lawns, snowblowing with hair down is likewise really unsafe. My hair has caught in handles, around doorknobs, in other people's bakpak zippers and somehow on other people. When it's down, people like to touch it, and I kind of don't like that.
I recommend finding a detangling product, such as kids might use. You may need an extra wide, wide-toothed hair comb to get through the thickness of your hair. That might help you a lot. I finally found a conditioner that has detangling as part of its offerings, and it works really well. Prior to discovering this product, I couldn't even detangle my hair while it was damp. The width of a comb's teeth mattered as any more normal comb just wouldn't get through my hair.
I often have to detangle in sections or strips of hair. If it's really becoming a tighter and tighter knot, I have to work it with the hands -- pulling at the hairs. I have to draw the hair sideways and upwards, not down. If I continue to pull down, I am in fact creating a tighter knot, and more likely to also lose some hairs as well.
Detangling has to be done slowly, and patiently, especially when you get to longer and longer lengths.
Just moving the head can cause tangles. Hair as long as mine kind of moves in an "S" motion. All the hair does not move as one unit in one direction. This motion, in and of itself, causes tangles.
I use a satin king-sized pillowcase on a regular sized pillow, and the extra fabric I extend and pool my hair length on that for the night. I have braided at night, and that helped a lot. I have hung an old satin/silk dress from the bed over the edge for hair to slide against during the night.
But for me, tangles is all I get when I wear my hair down, so I reserve it for really special occasions. As in once a year, if that.
heidi w.
heidi w.
February 20th, 2012, 11:26 AM
Oh, also, maybe you need a chelating shampoo if your area has hard water?
Hard water mineral deposits typically only need Clarifying, not Chelating.
heidi w.
heidi w.
February 20th, 2012, 11:32 AM
Tangles can increase when we're in need of a tiny trim, have too much buildup on the cuticle of the hair and reasons such as that -- even too little conditioner. I find conditioner application lasts around a maximum of 2 weeks. Then it's time to definitely wash and re-apply conditioner. I would say that on average people generally need to wash the hair around once a week, at least. Often it's twice a week, whether one full hair washes or scalp washes only.
My guess is that you had lots of tangles because you wore it down. As simple as that. My hair, I have lots of it but each individual strand is quite fine. Downy soft kind of baby hair is the next level down from me. I am super fine, and yet, I have volumes of hair. When it's all bound up, it doesn't look like a big volume. Most have no idea that my hair is this long when I wear my hair in an updo, which I do every single day.
I take really good care of my hair, and when I have tangles, most of the time, it's because I wore my hair down. Nothing is necessarily wrong if one has a lot of tangles.
OH, and on a protein treatment: conduct a strand test first. Too much protein can cause problems too -- hair breaking off suddenly and in droves. Lots of it, suddenly, breaking off. Be careful about a protein treatment.
My money's on that nothing is wrong really. You just wore your hair down, and it tangled. That happens to a lot of people. It's fairly normal for wearing hair down.
heidi w.
ktani
February 20th, 2012, 11:52 AM
I love my long hair... it looks really nice. And I want it a little longer...
But it's driving me crazy! It tangles very easily.
Last time I went shopping with my friend (her hair is same lenght as mine)... and we both decided to wear our hair down. I combed it... and after one hour we went to the bathroom and my hair was tangled really badly. It took me 5 minutes to detangle... hers was perfectly smooth.
Every morning it takes forever to detangle... I use wooden comb on my hair. Maybe I should switch to brush.
I don't know what to do :( Rihgt now I just want to cut it all off. I went swimming yesterday, my hair were in braid till today. And now I'm detangeling it... for 30 minutes already. CRAZY ****.
Why does it tangles soo easily? What can I do? Btw, my hair is thin... but there is lots of it.
I agree that you may need to clarify your hair. Using too much conditioning product or one that contains more build-up containing ingredients, along with a shampoo that also does, plus any styling aids is a triple build-up threat.
Here is the current "main" mineral oil/baby oil thread, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=86298
And here is another current one, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=88347.
There are others as well.
8 people here so far that I know of, have been saved from having trims they did not want or need, simply by using mineral oil/baby oil drops as a grooming aid. One of the several benefits is that it can reduce/eliminate tangles.
More information is in my blog, in my signature, below.
ETA: My hair is fine/medium wavy and thin, and is below my waist pulled down (I still have not trimmed back because I have not found the time lol, and that is preference only, as I prefer it a few inches shorter).
gracenotes
February 20th, 2012, 11:53 AM
Clarifying would definitely be a good first step. I also recommend oil treatments, but would not recommend oil as a leave-in if you are wearing your hair down, as it tends to attract lint and dust, leading to more tangles. Although, many people have had success with baby oil, as ktani mentioned above. A coney serum like Spidermom suggested would most likely be very helpful for you, maybe also a heavily coney conditioner, depending on how you feel about cones. My hair gets impossibly tangly every winter, worse so this year because of hard water, and a routine of heavy cones, vinegar rinses, and regular clarifying has been the only thing that's helped. Normally I steer away from cones, but they do really help me minimize the tangles.
EDIT: If you go swimming, you might find it helpful to soak your hair in regular water and then slather on conditioner and bun or braid it before entering the pool. Chlorine can make for some nasty tangles and dry hair otherwise!
ktani
February 20th, 2012, 12:00 PM
I wear my hair down most of the time. With catnip use I have no tangles at all. On uncatnipped hair I have had no tangles at all with Johnson's Original Baby oil drops. It does not have to be that brand.
I do not get much if any lint in my hair that is ever noticeable, and never thought about it but because the baby oil is not sticky, like vegetable oils and butters, this makes perfect sense to me, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=2002157&postcount=108
bedazzlecat
February 20th, 2012, 12:33 PM
Note: If you have build up, detangler doesn't help, and can make the problem worse. Clarify first.
ktani
February 20th, 2012, 12:35 PM
Note: If you have build up, detangler doesn't help, and can make the problem worse. Clarify first.
Very true! And the baby oil does not work as well used over a lot of product or build-up either for the same reason - less access to hair.
Madora
February 20th, 2012, 12:56 PM
Definately something to be said for clarifying so please, try that! You can find some pretty cheap ones out there obviously just look for the word 'clarifying', Tresemme do an alright one. After you do that only do it once a month, leave it on your hair all lathered up for a few minutes.
Madora mentioned following with a a gentle shampoo, I'm interested Madora, in why you do that - better results?
Follow with a deep deep condition like an SMT left on for at least an hour and before you clarify, do the overnight olive oil treatment. Use a tiny bit of conditioner as a leave in.
Do post back and tell us what happens? :)
@Jessfoz...I mentioned a gentle shampoo because I'm a fan of keeping my scalp clean. You might want to dilute whatever shampoo you use while you're at it. I've never had to clarify but I always dilute my GM Pink Creme Shampoo (one tablespoon diluted in 8 oz of warm water).
jtsck
February 20th, 2012, 01:01 PM
If you are going to cut it since you are so frustrated (hopefully you have tried all the wonderful suggestions first) I would recommend you cut cut a little off and see if that helps. Maybe go from TBL to BCL or hip. You can always cut more off later if the first one isn't enough but you don't want to do a huge cut and then immediately regret it. Good luck!
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