Curly hair - wet or dry detangle? Boar bristle brushing? Breakage management?

[Shepherdess]

1.) Dry detangling -- she recommends dry finger detangling hair rather than detangling under running water with conditioner, which is the most often recommended way to detangle curly hair. In her thinking, the hair is weaker when it is wet, it probably IS breaking, we just can't tell because we can't feel it due to how soft and weak the hair is when it's wet, and all the broken pieces are getting washed away before we can see them. She recommends dry finger detangling with oil instead. We will feel every snap crackle and pop of the hair if we break it, but the breakage will ultimately be less. This feels so counter to everything I've ever learned, but she stands by it as something that helped her achieve massive length, when before she was stuck at shoulder length when doing more curly-girl-method type detangling. It's hard for me to psychologically get past the sensation of snapping a hair when I'm dry detangling, and I do see little broken pieces (even just running my hands over my hair with a little oil I end up seeing a few little broken pieces fall down into the sink, which I hate) but at the same time, if wet detangling is going to ultimately slow my progress toward super long hair I want to know now.

I also have 3a hair with some 3b curls, but mostly 3a, but starting to see more 2b postpartum, my texture might be slowly changing, or perhaps it is the length. I know that normally for very curly types it is recommended to detangle in the shower. I think in theory, curly hair is more brittle when dry due to lack of moister and the curl points, when it is wet and the curls stretched it doesn't catch as hard I think. For myself I rarely detangle when wet, even though I know it might be better to do so. My reason mostly is due to the fact that I stretch my washes a long time, and I get matting around my braid sometimes with my finer strands. It is almost impossible (for me) to get matts out of hair when wet, so I have to do it dry. I also think this really relates to if you let your hair curl to its natural texture. I think it is definitely easier and safer to detangle curls when wet, because they lump together. Detangling dry curls can result in a frizzy nightmare for me with all my hair, static, and tangling around everything, perhaps not so much with finger detangling but that can take forever for me!! So I don't often let it curl and mostly keep it in braids and I detangle it dry from the braid waves with my tangle teezer. My ends reach my upper calves, so I guess I have what would be considered long curly hair, I have no idea if it relates to how I detangle or not though. I definitely have some damage, but I am trying to get back into babying my hair again.

2.) Boar Bristle Brushing -- This is something she stands by for hair health, for being able to prolong washes, for cleansing the hair and moving sebum down the hair shaft and conditioning ends. Does anyone with curly hair do this? Does it help anyone? Do you experience breakage? I feel like I saw an increase in little broken pieces the few times I've tried it, but I'm drawn to it as a concept. I once saw someone with 4C hair on youtube using a very soft goat hair brush (made for babies) on her hair because she felt that boar bristles did mechanical damage. Wondering if anyone here has tried that as an option, or if brushing for hair health is just something we do not do.

For what it's worth, I don't really care about having defined curls. What I'm interested in is length retention, hair health, and what makes the most sense as a way to grow VERY long hair.

I tried using a boar bristle brush when I first joined the long hair community and I do think it caused some damage for me at the time. I tried one again recently out of curiosity and it doesn't seem to work as well as a fine tooth wood comb for me in spreading oils; the main reason is that even with braid waves my hair is very volumous so it doesn't really reach in the depth that I need. In the past I also owned a goat hair bristle brush and it definitely is far softer! I really loved it at the time, but it didn't do as well with spreading the oils because it was so soft. So I continue going back to my fine tooth wood comb for spreading the natural oils and cleaning out all the lint that accumulates. However, I only use the fine tooth comb once my braid waves have already been detangled, but a wide tooth comb would also work for spreading oils. If hair is already in curls fingers might be better for spreading the oils.

And that is also my reasoning, I would rather have length than defined curls, so my focus has been preserving the length as best possible. I find that braids have helped me immensely with this. I mostly keep my braids up in a bun. I find more success with detangling if I do more than one braid. If I braid 3 braids and braid those braids together it doesn't matt up as much around the nape of my neck as one braid might do. I also lather aloe vera gel and leave in cream on my braids so they don't shred too much. Braid shred = tanges and tangles cause matts for me. If your hair isn't long enough for braids, I think soft silky scarves and hats with silky linings on the inside can definitely help with protecting it. I oftentimes wear hats as an extra protective measure.

[Rainbouu]

This is a great video! I've watched a few of her videos before, they all seem well-researched. But I didn't want to listen to her when she said DIY hair products and homemade deep conditioners don't work because the molecules aren't small enough to benefit your hair haha. My wallet didn't want to hear that! I'm such a DIYer with hair products, I just chose to ignore that piece of advice.

Oh my gosh, I can't help but be incredibly interested in this particular conversation. But I will say that the hair follicle is big enough, and certainly flexible enough, to fit small objects inside of it. I know because I do it every day, I'm an Electrologist and the method of hair removal I perform necessitates this. Also, there are experiments where hair follicles are soaked in various solutions and compounds in petri dishes to test their effects.

So rest assured at the very least, any masks, rinses, oils, etc applied to the scalp (ie on the hair follicles and surrounding skin) WILL likely be small enough to effect the hair follicle. How beneficial and drastic the effect of course will vary, but the hair follicle is relatively speaking a much bigger opening on the skin than people realize. Things bigger than molecules will fit inside. So be careful what you put in your body! There's a pretty direct path inside.

As for all the ways that it affects the length of the hair, and what "size" molecules can penetrate the hair shaft, I'm not familiar.

[Abacus]

Oh my gosh, I can't help but be incredibly interested in this particular conversation. But I will say that the hair follicle is big enough, and certainly flexible enough, to fit small objects inside of it. I know because I do it every day, I'm an Electrologist and the method of hair removal I perform necessitates this. Also, there are experiments where hair follicles are soaked in various solutions and compounds in petri dishes to test their effects.

So rest assured at the very least, any masks, rinses, oils, etc applied to the scalp (ie on the hair follicles and surrounding skin) WILL likely be small enough to effect the hair follicle. How beneficial and drastic the effect of course will vary, but the hair follicle is relatively speaking a much bigger opening on the skin than people realize. Things bigger than molecules will fit inside. So be careful what you put in your body! There's a pretty direct path inside.

As for all the ways that it affects the length of the hair, and what "size" molecules can penetrate the hair shaft, I'm not familiar.

This is so fascinating! I feel like probably the assertion that DIY products don't have small enough molecules was referring to their efficacy on the hair shaft itself. But I'm happy to know that all my hair growth oils and my DIY rinses possibly have a way in through the follicle where I'd like them to be going anyway!

[Rainbouu]

This is so fascinating! I feel like probably the assertion that DIY products don't have small enough molecules was referring to their efficacy on the hair shaft itself. But I'm happy to know that all my hair growth oils and my DIY rinses possibly have a way in through the follicle where I'd like them to be going anyway!

Yeah, heard! I'm interested in getting my hands on some of the more expensive books about hair science when they can possibly be a deductible business expense for me, but that's a ways off. Hopefully then I'll have more to say on the topic of applying it on hair strands, and I can share any new findings in a well annotated thread here. But I'm fairly sure from what I do know that the effect isn't zero. Rejoice and keep using diy masks, I say!

[WavyWannabe]

Yeah, heard! I'm interested in getting my hands on some of the more expensive books about hair science when they can possibly be a deductible business expense for me, but that's a ways off. Hopefully then I'll have more to say on the topic of applying it on hair strands, and I can share any new findings in a well annotated thread here. But I'm fairly sure from what I do know that the effect isn't zero. Rejoice and keep using diy masks, I say!

The science-y hair blog has a lot of in-depth posts, I recommend it!
There are at least some oils (e.g. coconut oil) which have been found to penetrate the hair shaft, this post gives a good summary:
https://science-yhairblog.blogspot.c...coat-hair.html

[Hairy-Fairy]

The science-y hair blog has a lot of in-depth posts, I recommend it!
There are at least some oils (e.g. coconut oil) which have been found to penetrate the hair shaft, this post gives a good summary:
https://science-yhairblog.blogspot.c...coat-hair.html

And just because a given treatment doesn't penetrate the hair strands, it doesn't mean it doesn't have an effect on your hair. I remember watching a YouTube video a long time ago (unfortunately, I don't remember the creator) where someone said that the protein molecules in an egg treatment were too large to penetrate the hair cuticles. They did that the effect people were getting was actually more of a conditioning treatment because the fatty acids in the eggs yolks were coating the outside of the hair strand.

[Abacus]

I also have 3a hair with some 3b curls, but mostly 3a, but starting to see more 2b postpartum, my texture might be slowly changing, or perhaps it is the length. I know that normally for very curly types it is recommended to detangle in the shower. I think in theory, curly hair is more brittle when dry due to lack of moister and the curl points, when it is wet and the curls stretched it doesn't catch as hard I think. For myself I rarely detangle when wet, even though I know it might be better to do so. My reason mostly is due to the fact that I stretch my washes a long time, and I get matting around my braid sometimes with my finer strands. It is almost impossible (for me) to get matts out of hair when wet, so I have to do it dry. I also think this really relates to if you let your hair curl to its natural texture. I think it is definitely easier and safer to detangle curls when wet, because they lump together. Detangling dry curls can result in a frizzy nightmare for me with all my hair, static, and tangling around everything, perhaps not so much with finger detangling but that can take forever for me!! So I don't often let it curl and mostly keep it in braids and I detangle it dry from the braid waves with my tangle teezer. My ends reach my upper calves, so I guess I have what would be considered long curly hair, I have no idea if it relates to how I detangle or not though. I definitely have some damage, but I am trying to get back into babying my hair again.


I tried using a boar bristle brush when I first joined the long hair community and I do think it caused some damage for me at the time. I tried one again recently out of curiosity and it doesn't seem to work as well as a fine tooth wood comb for me in spreading oils; the main reason is that even with braid waves my hair is very volumous so it doesn't really reach in the depth that I need. In the past I also owned a goat hair bristle brush and it definitely is far softer! I really loved it at the time, but it didn't do as well with spreading the oils because it was so soft. So I continue going back to my fine tooth wood comb for spreading the natural oils and cleaning out all the lint that accumulates. However, I only use the fine tooth comb once my braid waves have already been detangled, but a wide tooth comb would also work for spreading oils. If hair is already in curls fingers might be better for spreading the oils.

And that is also my reasoning, I would rather have length than defined curls, so my focus has been preserving the length as best possible. I find that braids have helped me immensely with this. I mostly keep my braids up in a bun. I find more success with detangling if I do more than one braid. If I braid 3 braids and braid those braids together it doesn't matt up as much around the nape of my neck as one braid might do. I also lather aloe vera gel and leave in cream on my braids so they don't shred too much. Braid shred = tanges and tangles cause matts for me. If your hair isn't long enough for braids, I think soft silky scarves and hats with silky linings on the inside can definitely help with protecting it. I oftentimes wear hats as an extra protective measure.

Your hair is honestly my goal Shepherdess, so thanks for chiming in! We have different curl patterns, but it's close enough for me to try and imagine what mine would be like at your length When mine is long enough, I plan on wearing a lot of braids.

I also want to stretch my washes longer, mostly because my hair takes absolutely forever to dry and to style, even at this short length. That's why boar bristle brushing was so attractive to me. Even now tonight, I'm over a week since my last wash, and my scalp was really starting to itch. I got this narrow little boar bristle brush and just gently brushed my scalp with it, going in small sections, not even really brushing down all that much, just getting what was on my scalp slightly further down the hair shaft. It felt sooooo good. And my hair is now so soft. But as gentle as I was, I still saw some broken pieces in the sink afterwards. So I feel like I have choices to make and things to weigh! I really don't want mechanical damage, but I'm trying to find a good way to stretch my washes and take care of my scalp. Maybe a fine tooth wooden comb is what I should try next!

[Shepherdess]

Your hair is honestly my goal Shepherdess, so thanks for chiming in! We have different curl patterns, but it's close enough for me to try and imagine what mine would be like at your length When mine is long enough, I plan on wearing a lot of braids.

I also want to stretch my washes longer, mostly because my hair takes absolutely forever to dry and to style, even at this short length. That's why boar bristle brushing was so attractive to me. Even now tonight, I'm over a week since my last wash, and my scalp was really starting to itch. I got this narrow little boar bristle brush and just gently brushed my scalp with it, going in small sections, not even really brushing down all that much, just getting what was on my scalp slightly further down the hair shaft. It felt sooooo good. And my hair is now so soft. But as gentle as I was, I still saw some broken pieces in the sink afterwards. So I feel like I have choices to make and things to weigh! I really don't want mechanical damage, but I'm trying to find a good way to stretch my washes and take care of my scalp. Maybe a fine tooth wooden comb is what I should try next!

I'm sorry I didn't proof read my post very well! I meant to say that I also have curly hair and then my curl pattern. But honestly, lately I'm not even completely sure what my curl pattern is anymore postpartum, it has been a while since I let it curl naturally besides the braid waves but I feel like it isn't quite as curly as it used to be, but I hope my experiences can still be helpful!

I can completely understand how it feels with hair taking forever to dry!!! It definitely helps relieve the extra work with stretching washes!! Boar bristle brushes definitely help to spread those oils and makes it so nice and soft, I still consider using it at times, but yeah I definitely feel I experience that breakage as well. It might take trying out a few different types of fine tooth wood combs until you find one that you like! I found some combs tines to be a little too sharp and some a little too rounded so it took trying out a few different types before I found what I like. So far my favorite is an unbranded one I found at a natural foods store, I have been trying to find one like it ever since with no luck! They can feel so good on the scalp and really help with scritching and cleaning the scalp!!

Sometimes I get that itchy scalp too from oil buildup and such and I have found for me that sometimes it helps to do a little scalp rub with a mix of water and a dab of aloe vera gel, (sometimes I add a few drops of essential oil like rosemary or such), and it helps to freshen up my scalp a little between washes!

I used to use a spray bottle to do this, but I found this applicator comb bottle recently and I absolutely love it for cleaning my scalp up!!!! But spray bottles work good too. Then I just gently scritch with my wood comb.

[ETJ CURLS]

I mostly wet detangle, but once I figured out how to dry detangle (for me I go in lots of small, manageable sections, with a spray leave-in (something with jojoba oil or silicones works best I've found) and a good serum (no straight oils, they make my hair too gritty)), I've incorporated that as well. I've found dry detangling helpful when it's too cold to be wet detangling, or I'm tired or unwell, as I can sit and do it. It does take twice the time, so it's not a staple but I find it useful and incorporate as needed. It makes a great pre-poo as well! I have not noticed any less hairfall with dry detangling vs wet. (Also, IIRC according to afrikanhairgod on youtube, the curlier your hair is, the more salt bonds it has, so it's stronger wet than less curly textures are when wet.)

As for BBB, I find that it works best if my hair is straight (blowdried or flatironed) and only right at the roots to manually cleanse my scalp. It's too abrasive IMO to use on my whole length on a regular basis.

At this point in my hair journey, I think the best way to care for curly hair as it grows out is to keep it moisturised, and primarily in a stretched state, whatever that means for you. Not to say you should never wear your curls, but I like to save them for occasional or special styles, otherwise I deal with a lot of knots and tangling that could have been prevented.

[Abacus]

Wow thank you everyone for all the thoughts and feedback. It has been really helpful for getting my head straight around these questions.

For myself, I've discovered a couple things over the past week or so. 1 is that detangling is much, much, MUCH easier when my hair has been in twists and is properly moisturized (I mean, it seems obvious, but I hadn't actually experienced it before). I think wearing my hair in its curly state very easily lets my hair dry out, even if I mist and oil it or add leave in conditioner. So I was used to detangling after many days of wearing it out curly, and my hair would be dry, brittle, and tangled. So in THAT state, it definitely makes more sense to detangle wet in the shower with product in my hair.

But this past week, I had my hair in twists and it was properly moisturized and tucked away in a claw clip. When I decided it was time to retwist, it had been so well-protected that I didn't even need to detangle at all. It just wasn't tangled, even after 6 days. It was so soft and easy to run my fingers through it. I tried gentle boar bristle brushing each section, focusing on the scalp. It helped refresh my scalp and get rid of lint and dandruff. I didn't see all those little broken pieces in the sink this time.

So I think I am going to do an experiment for the next couple months, informed by this new experience. I want to have a wash day once a month, where I'll wash and condition and twist my hair. And then weekly between wash days I will just moisturize and retwist my hair and do scalp care like this. I feel like this could be a good way to protect my hair, keep it tangle free, and stretch my washes (which is a major convenience goal for me).