The Why's And How's of Detangling.

Lol! Okay of course this meme is just an exaggeration of what naturals have to do when it comes to caring for their hair but truly detangling is such an integral part of our hair care routine.

Last weekend a customer came through and wanted wash her hair, get a treatment and get some crochet braids in. No problems I said. When it was her turn, I uncovered her hair and got my trusted detangling conditioner (African Naturalistas Moisturizing and detangling conditioner - if you haven't tried this, mehn, you are missing out on some good stuff!!) and put it through her hair, then proceeded to do what I assumed would be a basic detangling session. After about 3 minutes, I had to ask her why her hair was so tangled.

Apparently she had just taken off small braids and without combing or detangling or doing anything, she had shampooed her hair!!!! My brain just started going OMG because I knew this was not going to be a basic detangling anything.

My (near) set back!

I am so upset with myself!!!

I'd had my hair in twists using extensions for about a month now - I wasn't ready to take them out (surprisingly) but I had started to break out which is something that happens to me when my braids get old and start to rub against my cheeks. I took them out on Saturday and didn't bother combing out as it actually looked kind of pretty (like a 2 day old twist out) so I just let it run wild and free Saturday through to Sunday with the intention to prepoo Sunday night and do a proper wash day on Monday.

My twists styled into 2 buns

Now normally when I pre poo with my oils, I use that opportunity to detangle my hair but this Sunday I was sooooooo tired after the  long weekend (made even longer by the busy Thursday 'cause of the Public Holiday) and literally just applied oil to my hair and scalp covered with a cap (didn't even braid as i normally would) and went to bed.

Following morning, I still didn't detangle before I started washing and deep conditioning ( protein first for 20 mins and then moisture for about an hour) I then started the detangling process while rinsing out my deep conditioner and that's when I realized my big mistake.