Detangling, Washing & Conditioning Black Girl Hair: This Is How We Do It

So the first place I want to refer you is CurlyNikki.com. It’s one of THE BEST haircare sites for natural hair and it is on this site that I learned how to really take care of my daughters’ hair, as well as my own. One weekend on that site, and I figured out how to detangle Lila’s hair without tears (hers and mine) just by following some really simple rules. Click here to see Nikki’s posts about how to detangle natural hair: 

The first thing you must know: African American hair is SUPER curly and gets REALLY dry. If it is not properly moisturized, the strands of hair that shed can attach to the healthy hair, creating knots in the most fragile parts of the healthy hair strands—the bends. This is what causes the “tangles.” The shed hair creates almost a web with the healthy hair, and when those tangles/webs/knots are not properly removed, they can cause the hair to break in those fragile parts of the strands.

The most important thing for you to do when washing and styling her hair is to make sure, first, that you get all the shed hair and those knots out—that her hair is properly detangled. The only way you can do that is to make sure that there is enough “slip” for the hair so that the knots can “slip” out without damaging the healthy strands. To do this, you must have the proper tools:

A good detangling comb (Sally’s carries some great ones; do not get inexpensive ones, they can make the process worse.)
A good conditioner (I use Herbal Essences Hello Hydration or Long Term Relationship; it’s at any grocery store)
A spray bottle
Water
Olive oil or coconut oil
hair clips
Your fingers
Patience

You MUST NOT WASH HER HAIR UNTIL IT IS DETANGLED. Washing undetangled curly hair makes the good strands of hair tighten around the knots, making the detangling process darn near impossible and extremely painful. Detangle, wash, condition, then style. Here’s how I get Lila’s hair done:

DETANGLING, WASHING, CONDITIONING BLACK GIRL HAIR

First I fill the spray bottle with water and olive oil (you can use coconut oil, too)—one part oil to three parts water. I section Lila’s hair into about 8-10 sections and then work the sections one-by-one.

Take the one section into your hand and spray it down with the water and oil mixture. Then apply a generous amount of the conditioner directly onto her hair, from root to tip. Go nuts with it. The idea is to get the hair as moist as you can with the product, so that it creates that slip I was telling you about. Once the hair is saturated, use your fingers to feel for the knots and GENTLY separate the hair from the knots, working them out with your fingers. Once you can pull your fingers through her hair without feeling any knots, then you can use the detangling come to make sure you can comb through it. Put that section into a loose two strand twist, or just clip it back up, and then move on to the next section until her whole head of hair is detangled.

Once that’s done, you are safe to wash her hair. Now, I don’t wash my hair or Lila’s hair with shampoo. I use only conditioner. This is called co-wash. I do this because shampoo completely strips out all the moisture in curly hair—moisture that our hair desperately needs. You’ll notice that if you wash our hair with shampoo, it gets VERY brittle and helps knot our hair even more. Conditioner, which is designed to put moisture back into your hair, cleans your hair just fine AND adds in more moisture directly into the hair shaft, making our hair softer and easier to comb. If I feel like our hair needs to be washed thoroughly to reduce the build-up of product, then I’ll use a gentle shampoo MAYBE once every six weeks. But I went for an entire year without using shampoo. My hair grew like weeds when I used just the conditioner, because the moisture made my hair much more manageable, which means much less breakage. So, just like you would wash her hair with shampoo, wash it with conditioner. You won’t get suds like you do with shampoo, but really, you don’t need them. You just need her hair to get clean, which happens with water, massaging and conditioner.

Once you’ve washed her hair, wrap it with a cotton t-shirt—NO TERRY CLOTH TOWELS; they rip out our hair. Doing this will help keep the moisture from running into her face, but keep her hair from getting dry. Then follow the next steps, which are EXTREMELY important:

1. Put a leave-in conditioner in her hair while it’s soaking wet. I use Giovanni Direct Leave-in Conditioner. This helps to add moisture to the hair shaft.

2. Generously spray her hair with the water and olive oil mixture. The oil will seal in the moisture you added into the hair shaft with the leave-in conditioner. This helps to retain the moisture while you’re styling and later after it’s all done.

3. Use a hair butter for styling. I use QP Elasta Mango Olive Oil, making sure to add generous amounts to the ends of Lila’s hair. The hair butter adds yet more moisture and is great for braiding or twist styles.

In addition to CurlyNikki.com, you should alsotake some time and really dig into Afrobella.com and BlackGirlLongHair.com, both of which do an amazing job of letting you know which products, tools and techniques would be most helpful for our hair type/textures. For some great styles, you should check out Beads, Braids and Beyond, a great haircare site for little girls with curly hair.

Happy natural hair care!

RELATED POSTS:

1. The Joys (And Pains!) Of Kinky Black Girl Hair
2. The Attack Against Black Girl Beauty
3. A Beautiful Black Girl Finally Says, “I Love My Hair!” 
4. Learning How To Care For Black Baby Hair
5. Little Black Girls With Natural Hair: Lessons On Touching, Rocking and Loving Kinks & Curls