- Drying tangle-prone hair
Never towel dry your hair with a scrubbing motion, but you can wrap a towel gently around it to soak up some of the moisture from washing and help it dry faster.Let your hair air-dry whenever possible to avoid heat damage from styling tools and give it another brush through with the wide-toothed comb when it’s 50% dry. The reason you wait is that it’s more prone to damage from brushing when it’s fully wet, but then if you wait too long, any tangles will ‘set’ in the drying hair and be harder to get out later when it’s fully dry. For the same reason, don’t sleep on wet hair overnight.
- Deep conditioning
There’s definitely a connection between dry hair and tangles, so once a week, use a deep conditioner as a mask. You can use either a special conditioning mask, use your moisturizing conditioner as a mask by leaving it on for longer than usual, or if your hair is weak from coloring or other damage, try something like Olaplex.
I lighten my hair and Olaplex, both at the salon and at home, has been great in turning the condition around. - Use a tail comb for getting rid of bad knots
When tangles or knots happen, don’t aggressively try to brush them out as you’ll only break the hair and make it weaker.
Instead, a metal tail comb like this is best for getting them out.
To work tight knots out of your hair, push the end of the tail comb underneath a few strands of hair near the bottom of the knot and pull gently to see if they come away from the knot easily. If they don’t, remove the tail and try again under another few strands.
Keep going until you find some hair strands that start to come out of the knot and gently them work out until they come loose. Repeat all over the knot with the tail comb on more loose strands until the hair is completely worked out of the knot. When the knot is eliminated, brush through and use a conditioning mask to put moisture back and repair some of the damage.
- Sleep with a loose ponytail
After washing, another big cause of tangles is from your hair moving while you sleep. If your hair is long enough, tie it in a low ponytail so that it stays relatively in place during the night and doesn’t knot itself. The hair should be tied loosely enough so that it won’t be pulled or damaged by the tie, but also tight enough so that the band doesn’t fall off during the night. If you can still work your little finger inside, but the hair tie doesn’t fall down and off your hair, that should be good enough.I sleep on my side, so I tie the ponytail to the opposite side of where I lay but work out wherever it won’t get in your way and position the pony there. It might take a little bit of getting used to, but if your hair stays in place more while you sleep, you should wake up to far fewer tangles.
- Sleep on silk
If tying your hair isn’t for you, then maybe a silk pillowcase like this could help.I recommend and use this one
Not just for Disney princesses, silk pillowcases are said to help your hair retain more moisture and result in less frizz, which makes them ideal for keeping hair under control and tangle-free at nighttime. I know I’d never be without mine.
Having hair that tangles easily is can be super frustrating, not to mention downright painful, but with a few tactics and strategies, you can hopefully minimize the dreaded tangles for good!
Have you had to overcome hair dramas of your own? Do you have a secret trick to keeping your hair in it’s the best condition ever? Let me know in the comments!
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