How to Detangle African Hair

Whether your hair is relaxed or natural, detangling takes patience and a gentle touch. Water, thick conditioner, and your own fingers will all help you separate knots and tangles without causing damage.

Steps

Detangling African Hair

1. Section your hair. Using your fingers, divide your hair into convenient sections. If you have long hair, twist it into four or more sections. If you have shorter hair, use hair clips instead. Either way, treat your hair as gently as possible.
   • Although working with sectioned hair takes longer, it greatly reduces the amount of tangling that can happen.
2. Wash your hair. Wash one section at a time, and clip or twist it again once done. Smooth your hair back over your scalp until it feels fully wet. Gently apply the shampoo or other washing treatment in a smoothing motion from scalp to tip. Massage the scalp with your fingertips, then wash thoroughly with water. Tilt your head back and wash in the direction your hair falls to reduce tangling.
   
   • Try a gentle washing method, such as co-washing, homemade cleansing mixtures, or shampoo that doesn't contain sulfates, paraben, or silicone. Sulfates, paraben and silicone are damaging to hair and cause frizz and hair damage such as split ends and dry hair.
   • Do not pile hair on top of your head while washing. This will only cause more tangles and breakage. If your hair is very tangled when wet, consider taking a wide tooth comb in the shower to help loosen knots carefully. Being too rough or using a brush may split ends shorter or cause damage.
3. Apply conditioner. Section by section, saturate your hair with a conditioner that has plenty of "slip." A conditioner with good slip makes it easy for your hair strands to slide past each other, practically undoing tangles by themselves. Detangler conditioners, hair mayonnaise, or other creamy conditioners generally work best. You may need to try several to find one that works on your hair type.
   • Whenever applying conditioner, focus on the ends of the hair, the oldest and most easily damaged area.
   • You can make your own detangler conditioner from Aloe vera. Cut the Aloe vera leaf in the middle, scoop out the gel, and blend it until it is foamy and slightly gel-like.
   • Olive oil or another medium or heavy natural oil can work as well.
4. Put on a plastic hair cap. Cover your conditioner-coated hair with a plastic cap. Leave on for 10–20 minutes to allow your hair to absorb the oils.
5. Detangle with your fingers. Let out one section of your hair. Detangle as much as possible with your fingers. Do not use force.
   • If your hair starts to dry out, add more water. The weight of the water pulls your hair downward, lengthening curls and making them less likely to tangle.
6. Finish with a wide comb or brush. If your fingers can't do the job, move on to a seamless wide-toothed comb or a widely spaced, rubber-bristled brush (such as a Denman brush). Start from the ends, gradually combing from higher points as the hair detangles.
   • After detangling each section, the hair should be braided, twisted, or hair-clipped in such a way that it won't tangle back up.
7. Rinse out the conditioner. Detangler conditioner is usually too thick to leave in comfortably. Rinse out and apply a lighter, leave-in conditioner instead. Style your hair as you do normally.
   • Most conditioner labels say to rinse out with warm water, but some stylists get better results with cold.

Preventing Tangles

1. Deep condition your hair. Regular deep conditioning restores natural oils, keeping your hair smooth. For best results, deep condition right after detangling.
   • Hot oil treatments are another good option.
2. Protect your hair while sleeping. Put up your hair at night and wear a satin or silk hair bonnet. At minimum, sleep on a satin or silk pillowcase instead of cotton, which can tear out your hair or tangle it.
3. Change your style before it mats. While braids, twists, and other protective styles reduce exposure to damage, they can't do so forever. Leaving them in for too long can cause matting, which is much harder to detangle.

Tips

• Black hair is easier to detangle when wet and saturated with conditioner.
• It is not recommended detangling black hair when it's dry. Only recommended for when you wash your hair.
• If you come across a really nasty tangle, it's best to try to work through it with your fingers to decrease breakage. never try to force a comb through a tangle. The more gentle you are with it, the better.
• If you must detangle your hair when it's dry...use a leave-in conditioner or a moisturizer, a wide tooth comb, and some patience.

Warnings

• Never detangle with a fine tooth comb. That's just asking for trouble.
• Never comb hair from root to tip! It will cause major breakage.
• Don't try to comb through a braid; this will just result in more tangles. Unravel the braid, then detangle.
• Your hair should not feel rough after applying any product. This may be a sign that the product is damaging your hair.

Things You'll Need

• Shampoo (optional)
• Conditioner
• Wide tooth comb and/or wide-spaced brush
• Clips/scrunchies to section off hair
• Water

Related wikiHows

• How to Get Nice Waves
• How to Relax (Perm) or Give Yourself a Texturizer
• How to Manage Thick, Coarse, Wavy Hair
• How to Have Wavy Hair Without Using Hair Products

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