Caring for my own strands has made me a bit of a know-it-all when it comes to new techniques and products for afro-textured hair. While I'm the first to admit that the natural hair experience varies from person to person, I have found a few things that seem to work across the board. That's why I'd like to recommend one of my new favorite tools: Ouidad's Double Detangler for kinky hair. When this wonder-comb and I first met, I was stubbornly sitting in a chair micro-managing my stylist. I'm always hesitant to try someone else's hair discovery, but the sight of this serious detangling tool left me speechless. After I saw the limited amount of hair loss after the stylist carefully combed through my wet tresses, I was fully sold.
Most of us have our preferred detangling methods based on the strength of our hair, the texture of our hair, and how our own hair responds to certain tools. I stopped using a comb to detangle my hair a couple of years ago, finding they often pulled too much hair out without doing much untangling at all. But now I recognize that there are benefits to using a comb, particularly this detangling comb, while conditioning, styling, and of course, detangling. With the help of this double detangler, I was able to re-introduce combing to my curls without introducing hair loss and frizziness. Here are five important lessons I learned during my trial run.
1. Combing Can Be Done On Wet Or Dry Hair
Previously, I would only use my fingers to detangle my natural hair because my hair is extremely fragile when wet — and you would never catch me combing unless my hair was completely drenched. However, I found that the Double Detangler worked on my hair just as well when it was soaked and as when it was lightly spritzed with water. The fun thing about this comb is that while you are conditioning, the inside of the comb will capture excess product. When it was slightly moist (as seen above), the comb still glided through my curls without tearing or pulling. The comb works great for when I've slept with my hair out and want to put it back in a protective style.
2. Using A Comb Doesn't Mean Forgetting Your Fingers
One of the reasons this comb has been a time and hair saver is due to the length of my hair. As my curls grow, finger detangling becomes more and more time-consuming. Still, I enjoy being able to feel the bigger knots with my fingers and gently remove them as opposed to tearing them with a comb. For each section of hair that I comb, I keep my fingers handy for when the comb gets stuck at a knot and then I carefully weed through said knot before proceeding with the comb.
3. The Double Rows Are Key
According to the Ouidad site, this comb's double rows of teeth eliminate difficult knots. More importantly, they prevent the curls from springing back and re-tangling. The re-tangling issue is something I constantly struggle with while my hair is wet, which is why I usually detangle a section of hair and then immediately put it in a two-strand twist. While I still enjoy my two-strand protective style, the comb prevented my hair from shrinking up immediately, giving me the ability to wear it out if I wanted to do a wash-n-go style. This should definitely will come in handy in the warmer months.
4. As Are The Long, Soft Teeth
The comb's lengthy teeth are to reach the dense part of our curls, something type 4 curls will especially benefit from. You can still comb from the bottom of a section upwards, but when you are conditioning or deep conditioning, you'll notice that you can glide through your section with more ease. Plus, the soft, rounded tip of each tooth feels amazing on your scalp.
5. Combs Can Save Time... And Hair
I still use a variety of detangling hair tools, but I have found my deep conditioning time and my detangling time is more effective with the Ouidad comb. Prior to this detangle, my last session had taken over two hours! Sure, I'll admit that my hair was seriously tangled during my last session, but the comb had my twisting time down to 45 minutes. I originally fell in love with the comb during deep conditioning, but now I know when I need to re-up my twist-out, the Ouidad comb definitely comes in handy. After combing my entire head of hair? This is how much hair I lost:
Not too shabby, eh? If you, too, are looking for a way to make detangling less time consuming, I have to say: This brush is the one.
Image: Kristin Collins Jackson (7)
