I won’t lie, everybody loves long hair, and I get lots of questions ranging from how long I’ve been growing out my hair for, if my hair is real and if I use extensions. With all of the questions I’ve been asked, to consolidate them all within one post would be too lengthy and overwhelming for anyone to read. So instead, I’ve decided to begin a new series, Hair Care Confessions, where each post will center around one component in regards to the aspect as to how I maintain my locks.
Let’s first consider one of the major pitfalls of long hair – tangles. With increased length comes the increased probability of tangles. As a child, I bought into the old wives tale that the the more strokes you use to brush your hair, the shinier and healthier it will appear. Would you be surprised if I told you that that isn’t the case? Being the naive child that I was, I tugged at my long hair trying to detangle it day-in and day-out. After awhile I began to notice baby hairs everywhere, almost as if I had given myself a buzzcut. Realizing that I had made the mistake of being recklessly rough with the brushing, I rejected all brushes and combs.
Ever since, I’ve finger combed my hair for years. Making sure to gently slide apart tangles without creating any breakage of strands. But although the process yielded healthy and strong hair, it in itself was tedious. It would take me at least 5-10 minutes to completely detangle my hair in the shower with conditioner, only to have to repeat the process once my hair has been towel dried. Although I was frustrated by the process I didn’t give up. I valued the health of my hair more than the time spent taking care of it. I’m sure that any of you who’re taking good care of your would completely understand the situation that I’m in.
But I digress. I was actually given the opportunity to test out the Tangle Teezer to see if it would in any way benefit my hair. I’m the kind of person who is immediately skeptical when it comes to extreme claims such as painlessly detangling hair without breakage, as well as improving shine. Seems to good to be true? It’s not.
The theory behind the Tangle Teezer is that its multi-level teeth is constructed out of a flexible-like material that easily maneouvers through your hair as you brush it. In doing so, it gently tugs at the tangles until they come loose on their own (the tangles, not the teeth). When I first tried it out, I didn’t think that it worked. I once again yanked at my hair with the same drive that I had as a kid. Each yank was a painful reminder of what I had done to wreck my hair in the past. But I failed to believe that a brush this successful to everyone else out there would fail to work for me.
During my thought process, I figured it out. Instead of roughly pulling at it through my hair, the trick was to gently run it down in light strokes. In doing so, I sucessfully detangled all of my hair without causing a single strand to snap. And no, the light brushing didn’t take as long as it would for me to finger comb. In fact, the gentle strokes facilitated a faster process as I would quickly and easily glide through my hair before repeating the process.
Nowadays, I no longer waste time dragging my fingers through my hair on mornings that I’m rushed. Because I only wash my hair once every 3 days, I do still finger comb through everything on the wash days to distribute hair care oils (killing to birds with one stone – why not?), but the other days in between are saved by my Tangle Teezer. However, because my long hair still gets fairly tangled throughout the day, I also now toss the brush into my purse as well for any necessary midday detangling sessions. Thanks to it, I now have tangled-free hair all day long.
