Natural Hair Brush Battles | Denamn vs Knock Offs

Why Can't You Just Comb Your Hair Faster?

So, I just thought I would share a funny conversation that happened between me and my mom a few days ago. I had just got out of the shower and water was leaking into our kitchen from the bathroom and my mother was slightly irritated.  She wasn't mad exactly, but she wasn't pleased either.  After I got dressed, I started cleaning the water up off of the floor and my mother said I needed to start taking shorter showers.  I told her all I did was detangle my hair and I moved as quickly as I could.  Her response was, "Well you'll just have to move faster."

Normally when my mother makes comments about how long it takes me to do my hair, I just shrug them off and keep it moving.  But I'll admit, I was slightly annoyed too.  There was no anger, but I was tired of always being told how I should handle my hair by people who's hair is nothing like mine.  No, my mother isn't relaxed, but she only wears her hair flat ironed, so she never deals with her true texture.  Neither does she have a length goal for her hair.  So rough handling and quick detangling sessions don't phase her because she's happy with her hair's current length.  I (somewhat) jokingly responded to her, "Well, why don't you start wearing your hair in it's natural texture and tell me how fast you can get through combing your hair."

But of course, moms know everything and they can't be told anything different.  She responded, "I have worn my hair natural.  I used to wear it short and curly.  I didn't take forever to comb my hair."

I retorted, "But my hair is longer than yours was when you wore it natural.  The more length there is, the longer detangling is going to take."

"Not necessarily."

Hearing that, I stopped focusing on the water I was cleaning and just stopped and looked at her for a second.  What was she talking about?  Her come back didn't make any sense.  And I tried to make that clear when I said, "Mommy. That doesn't make any sense.  Even if a person's hair is stick straight, if it comes down to their waist, it's going to take them a longer time to detangle their hair than someone with four inches of curly hair."

Unmoved, my mother again said, "No, not necessarily.  It just depends on how fast you go."

At that point I just decided to let the debate go and just said, "Okay, Mommy."

But that little exchange made me realize that my mother will probably never understand why I handle my hair the way I do.  I don't know if it's just that she doesn't understand that speedy detangling sessions result in broken hair, which retards hair growth, which is something I need if I'm going to grow my hair to my waist, or if she just doesn't care.  Honestly, it's probably some combination of the two.  Even though she tries to be as supportive of my natural hair journey as she can, I think my mother is skeptical about me reaching my goal length.  And if she doesn't believe it's possible, all the steps I take to make sure I'm not breaking my hair off just as fast as I'm growing it probably don't make much sense to her.

If she had it her way, I would just comb my hair as fast as she does, with no regard for the tangles I'm ripping through, and therefor, the strands I'm breaking.  But, luckily for me, she's not in charge of my hair care.  I am.  And as long as I'm in full  possession of my faculties, I'll treat my hair the way it deserves to be treated.  Not as a difficult burden that needs brute force and speed to be tamed, but as a delicate and beautiful creation of nature that must be handled with TLC.

So, in answer to her unstated question, no. I can't just comb my hair faster.  Why can't you comb your hair slower?

A Surprisingly GREAT Detangler!!

So, I was on YT browsing through some old videos of people I'm subscribed to.  I had already seen this video before, but after watching Naptural85's twist out tutorial, I decided to try her method.  All I used in my hair was my whipped shea butter and water.  I detangled my hair before getting in the shower using Tresemme Naturals' Vibrantly Smooth conditioner and my (modified) denman brush.  I know I said I couldn't stand it, but it's not that bad when used correctly.  I'll go into further detail later.

But anyway, after each section was detangled I put it into a simple two strand twist and then got in the shower to rinse/co-wash my hair.  When I got out and started on my hair, I applied my whipped shea to each section and then went through with my denman one more time.  I was really surprised at how well the shea butter detangled my hair!!  I can't really describe it as having "slip" per se but, my denman was going through my hair with even less difficulty than when I use conditioner on wet hair.  I already loved shea butter as a hair and body product but now I'm liking it even more.  I had no idea it could be so useful.

I'm sorry I can't think of a better way to describe how it felt while I was detangling my hair, but just take my word for it that it felt really good.  Now, I know I had already detangled my hair before getting into the shower and it was still in the twists before I took them apart to re-twist using Naptural85's method, but my hair is never so detangled that I can just run my fingers or a tool through it without any problems.  That's just not the nature of my hair.  And I could tell the shea butter was making it much easier for my brush to get through my hair than anything else I might have put on it.

So basically, I'm just saying I think you should try using shipped shea as a detangler.  If it works for you, great! If not, now you know one more thing that doesn't work, lol.  Let me know how it goes.  Here's Naptural85's twist out tutorial.  Enjoy!!

How I Did My Hair Today

So this isn't exactly how I did my hair today, more so how I did it yesterday, lol. I meant to put this post up yesterday but some ugly internet drama had me wanting to stay away from the keyboard for a while, so I'll just share it now.

I wore (and am still wearing) my hair in a fro hawk done on Wash n Go hair. I did my hair in the shower, first detangling with my paddle brush while my hair was loaded with Yes To Cucumbers conditioner and Giovanni 50:50 balance conditioner. I didn't section or anything because I was in a rush to finish my hair, but I should have gone ahead and detangled in sections. :(

But anywho, after my hair was detangled, I just let the conditioners sit in it for a few minutes while I completed the rest of my shower routine. Once I was finished with that, I split my hair in half, one section on top, one on the bottom, and rinsed out most but not all of the conditioner. Then I added a nice fingertip full of Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie to my hair via smoothing and raking, then followed with Olive Oil Eco Styler gel. I then split the top section in two and followed the same process on each of those sections.

To finish off, I put some extra virgin olive oil in my palms and spread it throughout my hair to seal in all the moisture and soften up the gel's hold. I put my head back under the shower stream for just a second to give it one last rinsing of water, then shook my hair out vigorously, while covering my face with my hands. This allowed all of the curls to separate and clump into their own preferred units. The last thing I did before stepping out of the shower was to scrunch my hands all throughout my hair to get rid of the excess water and product.

After that, all I did was pin back the sides, put the front up into a little quiff, and diffuse for a few minutes before stepping out of the house. I had a GREAT hair day, despite people on the internet trying to bring me down and convince me I was a "tumbleweed head, nappy headed hoe" who needs to get a perm. Excuse my french but f**k the haters! My hair is fabulous, and I'm beautiful so if you don't think so, you can go somewhere else. Bye loves! :-*

Detangling Tools! :)

I Think I've Decided To Shampoo

Even though I've been faithfully following the curly girl method by avoiding silicones, not using shampoo with any kind of SLS, and using conditioner to cleanse and style my hair, I think my hair needs a little lather in it's life. Lol.

I like co-washing and using just conditioner, but yesterday, I was examining my hair and I noticed some curls were looking a little limp on the ends. I've been meaning to do a good deep treatment for a few weeks now, but I never got around to actually doing it.

But now I'm thinking the DT might not be as effective as it normally would be if I don't really cleanse my hair and get all of the buildup out. Despite what some people might have you believe, anything can and will build up on your hair if it's not being properly and regularly removed. I poured out my last bottle of shampoo a few weeks ago and have been exclusively co-washing since. But I think I should be able to find some shampoo around the house since I'm the only one who doesn't use it. With three other females in the house, there should be something I can use.

I'm just going to dilute about a nickel size amount into a cup of water and see how that feels. I don't want to strip my hair, but I want it to feel really clean so my DT doesn't have to fight through layers and layers of other products just to do what it's supposed to. Wish me luck, and I'll give an update later. :)

I Just Remembered Why I Don't Like Wide Tooth Combs

.....For detangling. More specifically, I don't like them for removing shed hairs. I just finished doing my hair in the shower (I know it's 8 at night, but I had things to do. :)) and my denman brush wasn't in the shower where it was supposed to be so I just used my wide tooth to do my detangling.

And I instantly remembered why I stopped using it to detangle in the first place. For one thing, I don't think wide tooth combs are adequately equipped to remove smaller sized tangles. There's just too much space between the teeth. But whatever. If I go through my hair with the comb enough times, I think I can get it detangled enough that there won't be any problems.

But removing shed hairs is a totally different matter. After I finished detangling with the comb, I ran my hands over my head one last time for good measure, and came away with lots of shed strands that the comb just didn't remove. So I ran my hands over my head again. Lo and behold, more hair. I pretty much had to detangle my hair all over again, this time using just my fingers, to remove all the shed hair. Now, to some this may not seem like a big deal because I could always remove them the next time I do my hair; which, since I do my hair every day, would be tomorrow. But I don't like the idea of just leaving shed hairs on my head to sit and get caught on growing hairs and possibly cause extra tangles and knots that I wouldn't have had to deal with had the loose hairs not been there.

I was just really annoyed by this. I'll be using my denamn tomorrow, like I usually do. What do you all think? Is daily detangling too much or is my frustration well founded? Let me know in the comments.