Why won't my hair stay detangled?

**Whirly Girly** · September 25th, 2022, 12:30 AM

Great thread…and awesome tips, everyone. Thank you for your time and suggestions.

I get lots of tangles myself. I agree with lapushka…you definitely gotta detangle before washing or the tangles will be ten times worse.

Annapox, is your hair on the dry side? A hairdresser once told me that dryness is one of the main (but not the only) reasons for tangles. My hair is definitely prone to dryness so I tend to use a lot of deep conditioning masks. My favorite is masks with shea butter.

I find the more moisturized my hair is, the less it tangles. Now I know you have issues with oils and lotions but maybe someone could apply them for you so you wouldn’t have to physically interact with them yourself? Sometimes just a tiny bit is all you need.

As I mentioned in your welcome thread, I often section and clip back my brushed sections of hair because the slightest bit of friction can re-tangle my hair.

Another thing I do, especially in winter when my hair can be even more dry (let alone my skin ) is I mix the tiniest bit of conditioner into a spray bottle with water and spray my hair, to add a little bit of much needed moisture from time to time. Really helps me.

In any case, I hope from all the wonderful tips and suggestions here, you can find something useful that works for you. 🙂 Let us know.

**Annapox** · September 25th, 2022, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by EdG

You may want to read my article on lint. https://forums.longhaircommunity.com...d.php?t=151460

The hair needs to be combed in multiple directions. If this is a lint problem, you should see lint on the comb.
Ed

Very informative article, Ed! (How do you tag people on here?)

I don't really find lint on my comb or in my brush. So it's not a lint problem?

**Annapox** · September 25th, 2022, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by foreveryours

Dawn has a pH near 10 which is quite alkaline. It's great against grease, real grease like parts grease, but it's pretty harsh. From its MSDS, I found orange Palmolive Antibacterial dish washing liquid (pH 4-5) works much better for hair "grease". Remember Madge? A woman decades ahead of her time hehe. There are probably others, I just haven't done the research but I know of at least one more I read of in GrowingGlory's blog. This Palmolive also functions very well with hard water I have, I think due to its acid content.

Even though I use a shampoo designed for "hard water" (ION), the water I use to rinse off the suds still contains the ions (magnesium and calcium) which react with fatty acids (carboxyl groups) to create insoluble "soap scum." So after rinsing off the lather, I have to rinse away all those ions as they would be deposited on my hair when it dried away. I use distilled water. If I didn't "post rinse", these ions would react with SEBUM which ALSO contains carboxyl groups producsing "soap scum" in situ. And, as you probably know, soap scum GREATLY facilitates "tangling".

HTH

Thank you for the information! I'm always happy to learn the scientific reasons for things.

**Annapox** · September 25th, 2022, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by Whirly Girly

Great thread…and awesome tips, everyone. Thank you for your time and suggestions.

I get lots of tangles myself. I agree with lapushka…you definitely gotta detangle before washing or the tangles will be ten times worse.

Annapox, is your hair on the dry side? A hairdresser once told me that dryness is one of the main (but not the only) reasons for tangles. My hair is definitely prone to dryness so I tend to use a lot of deep conditioning masks. My favorite is masks with shea butter.

I find the more moisturized my hair is, the less it tangles. Now I know you have issues with oils and lotions but maybe someone could apply them for you so you wouldn’t have to physically interact with them yourself? Sometimes just a tiny bit is all you need.

As I mentioned in your welcome thread, I often section and clip back my brushed sections of hair because the slightest bit of friction can re-tangle my hair.

Another thing I do, especially in winter when my hair can be even more dry (let alone my skin ) is I mix the tiniest bit of conditioner into a spray bottle with water and spray my hair, to add a little bit of much needed moisture from time to time. Really helps me.

In any case, I hope from all the wonderful tips and suggestions here, you can find something useful that works for you. �� Let us know.

Yeah, detangling before washing and while my conditioner is in is really helping already. I feel like I should have thought of those things on my own, but I'm glad I know now!

When left to its own devices (read: neglected due to disability-related exhaustion), my hair tends toward oiliness rather than dryness. When I'm able to wash it every other day, it feels neither oily nor dry. I used to try to wash it every day, and then it felt very dry, which is why I switched to every other day. I guess it probably gets a little dry early in the winter before we bring out the humidifier, because I'll sometimes get a little static when I brush my hair during that time.

**EdG** · September 25th, 2022, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by Annapox

Very informative article, Ed! (How do you tag people on here?)

I don't really find lint on my comb or in my brush. So it's not a lint problem?

Thanks! LHC does not have a "like" button (and that is a good thing).

Since you don't find lint on your comb or brush, this is probably not a lint problem.
Ed

**Annapox** · September 25th, 2022, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by EdG

Since you don't find lint on your comb or brush, this is probably not a lint problem.
Ed

Thanks, that's good to know!

**Kat** · September 25th, 2022, 08:15 PM

Some hair is also just prone to tangles. Mine is. When I first started growing it, I thought "Well, probably things like blow-drying and stuff damaged it, but eventually that 'old' hair will grow out and be gone after enough trims." Except I realized after a few years that it never did and in fact the hair that grew after I started trying to be nice to my hair was the same way. Then my mom reminded me that the reason she convinced me to cut my hair short when I was a kid was because it was always so tangly. Oh, it's not my fault! So I just find ways to deal with it and accept that I'm never going to have that perfectly-smooth and easy-to-style hair that some people have.

**foreveryours** · September 25th, 2022, 08:38 PM

Maybe you have Uncombable Hair Syndrome?

**Annapox** · September 26th, 2022, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by Kat

Some hair is also just prone to tangles. Mine is. When I first started growing it, I thought "Well, probably things like blow-drying and stuff damaged it, but eventually that 'old' hair will grow out and be gone after enough trims." Except I realized after a few years that it never did and in fact the hair that grew after I started trying to be nice to my hair was the same way. Then my mom reminded me that the reason she convinced me to cut my hair short when I was a kid was because it was always so tangly. Oh, it's not my fault! So I just find ways to deal with it and accept that I'm never going to have that perfectly-smooth and easy-to-style hair that some people have.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure my hair will always be tangle-prone, at least when it's long. But it's already less tangly than before I started this thread, which is great!

**Annapox** · September 26th, 2022, 08:34 AM

Originally Posted by foreveryours

Maybe you have Uncombable Hair Syndrome?

I did not know this existed! It would be very on-brand for me to have this (I have many diagnoses and joke that I collect them the way some people collect postage stamps), but my hair is probably too dark (people disagree on whether it's blond or brown), and it's pretty okay at lying flat. So probably not, but thank you for sharing this fascinating information!