TAMING THE TANGLES

Michael Kohn
Sep 7, 2018 · 8 min read

Among the myriad of challenges that many women face in dealing with their hair is the issue of tangling. For a lot of the world’s female population this is less of an issue. For example, most women of South Asian ancestry and almost all those of East Asian ancestry often have very straight hair that is less prone to developing tangles. For those women of European, Middle Eastern and Latin American ancestry who want to grow their hair long, hair tangles are a far more common problem to deal with, and I’d like to share with you my personal tips on how to cope with this daily challenge.

Certain types of hair and conditions will be more apt to lead to tangling than others. Among these are the following:

  1. The texture and thickness of a woman’s hair, specifically the density of her hair as measured by the number of hair follicles on her scalp;
  2. The length of a woman’s hair; and
  3. The state of a woman’s hair, particularly whether the hair is dry or damaged.

YOUR HAIR TYPE

As previously mentioned, the texture and thickness of a woman’s hair are among the key deciding factors in determining how much of a tangling problem a woman is going to have. As a general proposition, the wavier/curlier and thicker a woman’s hair is, the more prone to tangling will her locks be. Straight, fine haired women often gaze in envy at their thick, wavy haired friends struggling to fit their ponytails within 2 loops of a standard hair elastic. But with all the styling advantages of thick, full bodied, wavy hair comes a key disadvantage, which is that improperly, cared for thick and wavy hair will lead to tangling in no time, leading in turn to a high degree of breakage when attempts are made to improperly detangle.

LENGTH

Obviously this goes without saying that the longer a woman’s hair is the more opportunity there is for tangles to develop at some point down the strand towards the ends of the hairs. Life would be so much simpler (and arguably less interesting) if we all just wore our hair short!

STATE OF HAIR

Aside from the texture and length of a woman’s hair, another important reason for hair tangles relates to whether the external layer of a woman’s hair is healthy or whether it’s dry and damaged. In its healthy state, the cuticles of a woman’s hair lay flat. When hair is damaged, whether by chemicals or by exposure to harmful elements such as heat or sun, the cuticles stand on end, leading to their suffering further damage which can lead to cuticles breaking off. When this happens, the friction between strands of hair will increase, leading to frizziness and tangling. At the end of the day, the state of a woman’s hair will largely be dependant on two things. First is her daily hair care routine, and second is the extent to which she avoids or engages in activities that damage her hair.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHOICES?

Aside from keratin treatments or damaging chemical straightening, there’s really very little that a girl can do about the texture of her wavy to curly hair, and nobody is going to thin their hair out to reduce tangling! Same goes for cutting their hair short. So that leaves us with hair care routines and reducing our hair’s exposure to harmless chemicals or elements.

PROPER PH LEVELS

The natural ph balance of human hair is between 4.5–5.5, with anything under 6.9 being characterized as acidic. In this ideal ph balance the cuticles will be more apt to lie flat, which helps to minimize the friction between hair shafts that will lead to tangling. Chemical treatments in the form of hair relaxants or many solutions used to “lift” the color from your own hair in preparation for the depositing of color dyes, are very alkaline in nature and can negatively affect the ph balance of your hair. In addition to regular conditioning, try experimenting with homemade hair masks containing acidic liquids such as aloe vera juice or apple cider vinegar as a way of restoring proper ph levels in your hair.

PROPER WASHING AND CONDITIONING

Along with alkaline ph levels, hair that is dry and damaged is more likely to tangle. Make sure to not over wash your hair and to only use shampoos that are alcohol, paraben and sulphate free as each of those elements tend to dry hair out. Always brush the tangles out of your hair before you wash it, as washing a tangled mess may not only lead to more tangles, but will impede the proper application of conditioner to your hair strands with the tangles acting as a sort of matted keratin barrier. When you wash your hair, focus only on washing the scalp area and make sure to condition your hair each time you wash it and apply a high quality hair mask at least once per week. Remember that quality matters when it comes to hair care products, particularly conditioning products, and that drugstore brands almost never contain the same quality of elements, nor are such elements in the same concentrations, as salon exclusive products. After washing your locks, avoid using a cotton terry cloth towel to dry your hair as cotton is extremely (on a microscopic level) abrasive and can produce undesired friction on your hair shafts, leading to the cuticles getting irritated and raised. Get yourself a mico-fibre towel instead to use exclusively for drying your hair.

OILS, SERUMS AND LEAVE IN CONDITIONERS

In its healthy state, not only do the cuticles of your hair lie straight, but they are coated by the oil from your scalp that travels its way down the hair shaft. This oil acts as a natural lubricant between the hair shafts as they rub up against one another. One of the reasons that wavy and curly hair tends to tangle more than straight hair is that the twists and turns of wavy to curly hair operate as an impediment to the oil traveling down the shaft of the hair. This is why women with wavy to curly hair almost always have drier hair than women with bone straight hair. This reduced lubrication leads in turn to added friction and therefore more tangles as well. Women with wavy to curly hair can avoid this through regular application of certain oils, which if used properly (too much can weigh your hair down) can go a long way towards maintaining the lubrication that comes with healthy hair coated by a normal layer of oil. Coconut oil and argan oil are in fashion these days as each have been found to be among the most effective in penetrating the hair shaft and in so doing helping to maintain healthy cuticles. Aside from the oils there are also a host of “oil treatments” and serums, all of which also contain silicones. Silicones are increasingly becoming a dirty word in some corners of the hair care universe, however the reality is that in many respects silicones have a similar effect to oils when it comes to lubricating the hair shafts. Just remember that not all silicones are of equal quality however, and too much of anything can be bad as excess silicone (just like oil) will tend to weigh down your hair and eventually form a barrier that will impede its proper conditioning.

REGULAR (AND PROPER) BRUSHING

Try not brushing your hair for a few weeks and see what happens. On second thought, don’t do that unless you want to grow dreadlocks. The reality is that, left to itself, almost everyone’s hair will eventually tangle, and that the ultimate case of tangled hair are dreadlocks. So brushing is important. Just remember that wet hair is extremely delicate, so you should typically avoid brushing out your wet hair. If you have no choice, be sure to first apply a detangling spray to it, and use something like the Wet Brush, or a very wide toothed detangling comb. Whether your hair is wet or dry, always be sure to hold your hair together when starting off the brushing process and start from the bottom of your hair and workly slowly towards the top. Take your time and do this methodically, because any attempt to rush the process will almost always lead to breaking knots and tangles rather than unthreading them. You should brush your hair at least twice a day. Once in the morning and once before you go to bed.

CHLORINATED POOLS

Try to avoid spending too much time in chlorinated water, as chlorine contains the same types of damaging chemicals as are found in hair bleaching products, all of which are tremendously rough on your hair over time. If you go swimming regularly make sure to brush your hair before going swimming, to tie it properly and to wash out and condition it immediately after leaving the pool.

CAREFUL WITH THE HEAT

Apart from chemicals, the most damaging thing that we can do to our hair is apply heat to it. So always be careful while using heat styling tools while either straightening or curling your hair. Always use a heat style protectant, and try not to heat the iron or styling wand up to its maximum setting. You can still get a great style in at lower heats. It may just take a few second longer or a few extra passes.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Sleeping can also leads to tangling as the cotton sheets and pillow cases on which we typically sleep produce a lot of friction on our hair shafts, which can in turn raise the cuticles and produce tangling. Make sure to brush your hair before going to bed and avoid tying your hair in a tight ponytail. The best approach is to loosely braid your hair before going to bed as this will be your best defense against nighttime tangling, not to mention give you gorgeous heatless waves for the next day. If you don’t have time to braid your hair then the next best option is to wear it up in a bun using a scrunchy rather than a typical elastic hair tie.

So there you have my tricks and advice for reducing hair tangles. Sometimes nothing will prevent a tangle or two from developing, but if you follow these steps you will definitely minimize the incidences of tangling and hair breakage that often goes along with it. Be sure to check out my hair blog at www.kylisstof.com and feel free to reach out to me at sarah@kylisstof.com should you have any questions relating to hair care, hair extensions or hair generally.

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