HOW TO FINGER DETANGLE: FINGER DETANGLING 101 FOR AFRO COILY KINKY HAIR

I've been finger-detangling my hair almost exclusively for almost 2 years now. Matted roots? No. Time-consuming, I think not.  I do it regularly and love it.

How I finger detangle:

1.) I part my hair into 4/6 sections.

2.) Dampen or wet my hair with water and soak it in conditioner/oil/both. (Recently I've also taken to adding a tblspn of ACV to approximately 250ml of conditioner to calm down frayed cuticles)

3.) Then I position my head under the shower stream. The shower does a wonderful job of helping me push/flush most of the shed hair out. I don’t have a problem with matting, because I work my way upwards from ends to roots. Below is a pictorial of what I simply do. 

                                                      FINGER DETANGLING 101.

The Clap: Self-explanatory. This is a great smoothing method and also a quick means of gently pulling out shed hairs freely hanging within the other strands. I gently pull on the ends between my palms and work my way up. During lazy mid-week co-rinses I simply use this method, working with the gravitational push of the shower stream

The Separate: I believe is more popular and common. Better on dry/damp hair hair than wet hair. Here you piece apart the hair strands until you come across knots in between. When a knot is spotted you focus on the gently untangling that knot with some extra oil/detangler/slippy conditioner. Personally I don't do this too often as it really does take the longest time for me.

Here is another Type 4 Coily head finger-detangling with a virtually identical method and very similar hair texture to mine. - Earthy Delight.
                             


The Half-Rake: termed half by myself because I don't rake entirely through a section. I use my other hand to provide some tensile strength to my fragile strands and use the other to gently rake through starting from the bottom and working my way up, then switch to work on the other unraked side (Does that make sense). Obviously the other hand proves to be redundant as soon as I get closer to my scalp.

The Claw: I use this to gently pull out shed hair from the ends. Holding onto a section with my other hand for additional tensile strength and less strain on my fragile hair strands. I also use a similar method to fluff out my hair, with the exception of the other gripping hand when re-shaping 2nd day hair.

                     

After all that. Below is the end-result. 

.

'Minging' looking shed hair.

The benefits for me and finger-detangling have been:

• A reduction in frayed ends, my ends looked thicker.
• A reduction in the number of  broken shorter strands I would see after each detangling session. 
• A much  better realization and understanding of her fragility and reactions to products. (
I can easily 'feel' how Dafro reacts to certain products as I use them). 
• General ease and simplicity in this method. It’s tremendously much easier to handle my hair, I don’t dread washing it - infact I look forward to it. It's another major reason why I am able to rock the wng style with ease.

So I guess finger-detangling/finger-combing works for me ; /

If you finger-detangle what technique works for you?

Review: Garnier Fructis Style Ultimate Survivor Gel with Cactus Extract

This Garnier survivor gel is not for the faint-hearted it really does have an extreme hold
This gel is serious stuff. If you can't stand hard hold gels, I suggest you stop here.

Garnier Fructis Style Survivor Gel ensures 24-hour hold even in the most extreme conditions. Contains extracts from the cactus plant and a citrus fragrance combined with the non-drying formula keeps hair styled, strong and residue free

Smell: Light citrusy scent. I find it pleasant.


Price: 200ml for £2.50-£3.50 from ASDA/Boots/Tesco/Superdrug. Usually on offer 2 for 1 at Superdrug/ASDA

Texture: pearlescent opaque with a slight grey tone. Not sticky, mucousy or gummy. Almost seems to disappear between my wet palms as I rub them together


Ingredients: Aqua, Polyester-5, Glycerin, Niacinamide, Phenoxyethanol, PEG-40 Hydrogenated castor oil, PEG-70 Mango Glycerides, Triethanolamine, Limonene, Benzyl alcohol, Linalool, Propylene Glycol, Caprylyl Glycol, Acylates/Steareth-20 Methacrylate copolymer, Pyrus Malus Extract/Apple Fruit Extract, Sorbitol, Disodium EDTA, Citral, Citrus medica, Limonum extract/Lemon Fruit Extract, Opuntia Coccinellifera Extract/Opuntia Ficus-Indica Flower Extract,Amyl Cinnamal, Parfum/Fragrance (FIL C47405/1)
(Actual ingredients on my tubes. I have noticed varying ingredients online.)

Application on my hair: it went on quite tame-like, giving me no indication of its powers apart from showing me some serious coiling/clumping upon application.

This gel did not seem to have a lot of reviews online for women's hair not to talk of afro kinky coily natural hair. I reckon that it may not be considered by most ladies, as going by the video ads alone this gel appears to be  marketed and targeted to mainly men, or people wanting to create 'spiked styles'

 
Garnier Fructis Survivor gel is most likely one of the hardest gels I have tried to date. It claims to resist humidity and frizz and holds that promise.  Even after I went to the gym and had a rigorous sweat-fest my hair was still defined. Most gels would render my hair a straight up fro after a session at the gym. To put this into a better perspective for some ladies- this leaves Ecostyler gel -Krystal (hold 10) behind in the dust.

When it dries, the CRUNCH is CRAZY!! My hair gets very HARD! 
So hard that when I lay my head on my pillow at night I would hear my hair rustling ! In the mornings I would spray a glycerin/oil/water mix to re-shape my hair and it always suprisingly moulded back into place easily. I easily got 5day hair with this and could have easily kept going. The only thing is that my hair just didn't feel nice to touch initially. It felt hard to touch and would not scrunch out easily with just any oil. (After a few days it gradually relented it's hold).

Another surprising property of this gel was how it rinsed out extremely easily with just water from hair. My hair did not feel sapped of moisture or parched as I rinsed.If using this alone I'll be recommending that one uses a much heavier leave-in. (Do the combo test on hand for potential white residue)
The Survivor gel has indeed survived and gradually snuck itself into my styling routine as a 'top-upper'/finisher. Basically after I use most gels to style a wash & go. I apply a wee bit of this on the top of my crown to address the harder to define and easy to frizz areas.

I would really recommend this if you are serious about making your wng style last for ages.This gel would guarantee that longevity  If you want your coils/curls/kinks to stay controlled with military obedience then this gel will do exactly that for you..Plus a little will go a long way. Otherwise, If you can't stand the crunch then run!...... Far away as fast as you can. 

My hair with Garnier Fructis Survivor Gel.

The Drying Series 1: How To Diffuse Afro Coily Kinky Hair.

Or rather, How I diffuse my hair.
One of the most common complaints of ladies trying to wash, style and go is how long the hair takes to dry. With popular products such as KCCC, Ecostyler gel drying times can take a day and a half to dry.
That need not be the case, unless you prefer to stay away from heat entirely.
I tend to diffuse if I need to be somewhere ASAP or sometimes if I just don't want to be stuck with a damp/wet heat for the most part of the day. In this pic tutorial I was using Queen Helen Curl Shaping Creme, a product heavily composed with humectants. For this reason, I decided to diffuse because I just didn't want to be stuck with a wet-head for most of the day, as experienced with humectant heavy stylers in the past.
I use a simple blow-dryer. The particular brand is Kokou. I picked this up from the local hair shop priced around £20 or so.

It's a hair-dryer, it's supposed to have grease marks!

The diffuser attachment I got from a local Sally's. Priced around £10.
I got a large cup, because I liked the idea of covering a larger surface area, as I felt that would take less time.

Attachment orifice

Separate components

Combined components

There really isn't an exact science but more of a strategy in how I choose to dry.
I dry on the warm setting in each section for about 20 seconds. I start with the crown area and work my way round in a spiral fashion around my head leaving my extremities last.

Warm setting control. Black = Cool, Red = Hot

I start and focus mainly at the crown because that usually takes the longest to dry. I don't linger so much around the extremities/edges, because they usually air-dry the quickest.

Diffuser cup further away on warm

Head bent upside down to show starting area.

Direction I diffuse around my head

Why tip your head upside-down? To create more volume on the top and prevent the flat-head-helmet head look. (No offense if that is what you go for.)
Then I use the cool setting to help close the cuticles and encourage better definition. I bring the cup much closer to my hair mimicking a scrunching method.

Diffuser much closer to 'scrunch' on cool.

               

                                                       Results...

Before diffusing (flash)

        Immediately after diffusing (flash)

  In sunlight afterwards (no flash)

                                              

Review: Andrew Barton SOS Help Me! Twice a Week Conditioner

Price: £4 for a 300ml tub or 2 for £6 during ASDA sales.

Availability: Mainly at ASDA! I can pick it up with some soya milk anytime.

Ingredients: Aqua (Water) , Cetearyl Alcohol , Behentrimonium Chloride , Cetyl Esters , Glycerin , Boswellia Serrata (Olibanum) Extract , Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) , Panthenol , Parfum (Fragrance) , Glycereth-26 , Tetrasodium EDTA , Cetrimonium Chloride , Dipropylene Glycol , Isopropyl Alcohol , Citric Acid , Magnesium Nitrate , Magnesium Chloride , Benzyl Alcohol , Methylchloroisothiazolinone , Methylisothiazolinone .

Packaging: Simple black and red jar. With the product name written in bold capital white letters. I actually love the simplicity of the packaging. Plus with red being one of my favourite colours, I can’t help but feel this way.

Smell: Is the only thing I’m a little bit unsure about. I only like it in small doses. For short periods. Any longer and it’s sickening. Notes of gingerbread, vanilla, cookies come to mind when I sniff this from the jar. Though according to the site, it’s supposed to smell like Brazil nuts. (I eat brazil nuts everyday, it’s nothing close to this! lol)

Texture:  Creamy light texture.You see this stuff is so light that I feel they could easily have re-packaged this in a bottle. But I suppose they wanted to go with the ‘mask in jar’ theme so jar it was. Though don’t let the texture deceive you. This stuff is very effective.

On my hair: If your hair tends to get dry, knotty and tangled easily.Then I recommend this conditioner to you  My kinky hair is prone to dryness so I always go for the heavy-duty conditioners. I'm so glad I didn't pass this one up. As a deep-conditioner, this product delivers. It leaves my hair very supple and soft. I couldn’t resist trying this as a leave-in conditioner as well. I knew this stuff was going to be my staple after it delivered over a day’s moisture on my wash & go fro. Even after Dafro dried, she was still so soft, right up till the next morning! (This is no easy feat. Many products have failed at this step.)

I fell in love with SOS conditioner for so many reasons

- It’s so easy to acquire.

-  Really smoothes down the hair cuticles.

-  Has crazy slip which helps me finger-detangle with no hassle at all. When Dafro is tripping I just layer the SOS conditioner on her and she immediately conforms. Like seriously. She just calms down. Immediately.

- It delivers lasting moisture as a leave-in conditioner when layered with castor oil. Unlike my recently upstaged EO conditioners it does not irritate my scalp as a leave-in. Yes!

- Serves different purposes effectively for me. Leave-in, co-rinse, deep-conditioner.

HG/Staple worthy. The end.

Staple Hair Products For My Coily, Kinky Type 4 Hair Easily Bought On The Ground (UK)

I was thinking of following up my initial post March favourites, but thought that maybe redundant because most of the products in my March favourites are also in my April Favourites and will most likely be around for the following months. I have a few new additions, so let me know if you would like a more in-depth review if  there isn’t one already on my blog.

 It’s fun to try new products, but it’s important to have those staples you can fall back on when you can’t be bothered to experiment/just don’t have the time, suffered adverse reactions from past product experiments, are just done with product experimenting (a phase I go through from time to time) or simply broke! Lol.

For new naturals, I understand how expensive it can be to find moderately priced products that are easy to get and effective, I've been there. So for that reason, I would like to share my staples that have been chosen for being: 

1. Effective on my hair. (You know the saying, “What works for me and so on”)
2. Possessing moderate - cheap prices.
3. Easy to pick up on the ground. (Yup no shipping, online transactions. Attainable same day!)

So from L-R; 

Schwarzkopf Gliss Oil Nutritive Shampoo Cleans effectively without stripping. Costs £1 and can be found at Poundshop/99p stores.

Tresseme Naturals Silicone Free Conditioner: Crazy Slip, conditions wonderfully leaves my hair soft during and after rinsing. Between £2.50-£5.00. Lowest during BOGOF sales at Superdrug, Boots, ASDA, Sainburys, Tescos.

Andrew Barton SOS Help Me Twice a Week Conditioning Mask: crazy slip. Effective for Dafro as a co-rinse, leave-in (combined with castor oil) and deep-conditioner. Smells like cookies/gingerbread. Found only at ASDA to my current knowledge and some smaller pharmacies with a much smaller range. Buy mine priced 2 for £6/£8 during ASDA offers

Vatika Egg Protein Hair Mask: Does a good job of strengthening my hair, without giving me hard hair. Ok slip. Suds easily so I use as a co-wash and rinse out. Buy from black hair care shops and even spotted at Superdrug. Costs between £3.50 - £4.99.

Ecostyler Pink Gel: Cheap effective styling gel. Clumps, defines, weighs down & holds my coils in place keeping tangles away during WNG styling. Smells like tea-tree oil. Gives me multiple day hair. Gives firm hold, not too hard hold like Olive/Krystal/Argan versions. Can pull back a decent bun with this unlike the Blue Ecostyler. 946ml massive tub costs £2.99 from my local black hair care shop.

Aloe vera Gel: smooths down my cuticles like no other, especially when they are quite bushy. Gives very light soft hold for WNG. Great base staple leave-in when mixed with castor oil. £4.99 from Holland & Barratt. I bag these and stock up during the BOGOF/ Penny sales.

Hawaiian Silky Curl Activator “Dry Look”: always layered with castor oil, makes my coils clump like crazy and keeps my hair moisturised for at least 2 days. Smells like candy. Costs between £3-4 for a 454g tub. Also available at my local black beauty hair shop.

Castor Oil: All round staple for it's Conditioning/Detangling/Sealing properties. I can buy this stuff from the local shop, but since the dude and myself use this from head to toe, I buy it in litres. Can be found at my local hair product shop in 250ml bottles priced at £2.99. Even spotted at some branches of Tescos in Asian food aisle. (I buy my litres off Ebay/Amazon)

Umberto Giannini Scrunching Jelly:  Lovely styling gel for my WNG. Great effective coil clumper. Gives me multiple day hair. Available from boots just under £5 for 200ml tub. A bit pricey so I stock up during 2for1 offers.

Recent additions not in pic: 1/05/2012
*Sally's Salon Services Herbal Complex Conditioner.
*Taliah Waajid's Mist Bodifier Spray as a refresher.

Wash & Go Trials On Coily Hair 6: Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly & HS Curl activator

The HS curl activator was mixed with some castor oil & Aloe veral gel. This is second day hair. On my way back from Easter Sunday Service.

   

Wash & Go Trials On Coily Hair 5:Curl Junkie Curl Assurance Smoothing Lotion & Blue Ecostyler Gel.

I wore this wash and go for 3 days. I applied the smoothing lotion immediately after a co-wash in the shower on soaking wet hair which was sectioned into 4 quadrants. The CJ smoothing lotion is a great coil clumper for me and has great slip. I came out of the shower,sectioned the 4 quadrants into a smaller sections then globbed on the gel.  I started from the roots and then smoothed the gel down to the ends. Lightly raked/separated (not pulling down to ends) My coils were popping everywhere and any visible whiteness left by the smoothing lotion dissipated quickly within an hour on the tips! The crown as usual needed a little bit longer. This is a great combo.

For nightly maintenance, I put some butter/oil on the ends and tied up in 3 scrunchies aligned vertically like a mo-hawk. Then put on my shower-bonnet combo. In the morning I removed scrunchies, shook and fluffed.


                                                               Pictures show second day hair.

How To Wash & Go (Shingle) On Kinky Coily Type 4 Hair - A Simple Guide

Picture is my hair in a 1st day wash & go styled with Ecostyler Argan oil & Original Source Pear  & Avacado conditioner

Tools needed

1. A pair of hands with filed nails. (Chipped, rough nails are as good as a pair of scissors.)

2. Moisturising conditioner

3. Moisturising leave - in conditioner. (Whether or not you choose to use the same conditioner in (2) is up to you.)

4. Holding agent: Hair Gel/Custard/Pudding

5. Sectioning clips.

6. Spray bottle filled with water.


Optional tools

Shampoo and Deep conditioner if this current session includes clarifying.

Diffuser.

Shampoo brush.



Directions for Wash & Go on Type 4 Coily Hair

1. Section hair into four or more sections (depending on the length of your hair).





2. Apply moisturising conditioner generously to all sections, then allow this to sit. (It is at this point that I finger detangle using the shower spray)





3. Rinse conditioner from each section and immediately apply leave in (and oil included) on soaking wet hair. Ensure each section is entirely saturated from root to tip.





4. Step out of shower (or stay in if you prefer) with dripping wet hair and proceed to apply your holding agent to each section.





5. Install your part where you would prefer for your completed style now.





6. Starting with each section at a time. Select one section that you wish to start working on and part a smaller section about half an inch thick from the rest.





7. Take that 0.5inch section and spray it with more water.





8. Starting at the roots smooth on the gel and work your way up to the tips by keeping that section between your palms (for longer hair) or between two adjoining fingers (for shorter hair).





9. Keep doing this smoothing motion, until you start to see natural demarcations between the coils as they clump. Or as you start to notice the hair fall/relax (pun intended!) by itself.





10. For ultra* defined curls - On seeing the demarcations, piece apart each clump of coils from the rest of the smoothed section. (as if you were pulling a string on a guitar), smoothing that smaller section between your thumb and index finger as you do so.  
For just defined coils - Just smooth a section till it relaxes, drop it and move onto the next section.






11. Repeat (10) until all the clumps have been separated. Then proceed to the other sections.





12. When completed, do not touch so as not to disturb the coils and allow to air- dry or diffuse. Another optional step for more volume especially on the crown area would be to shake your head from side to side, and then back and front.

Examples of my wash and go's can be found here here, here and here.





With these directions I use the smoothing method, and not so much the raking method. With the smoothing method, I'm able to work with most heavier gels that stiffen up as I apply. (An additional tip, liquid styling gels applied on top of the heavier gel can add slip and even more definition if you have to rake.) I find that I am not able to rake once the gel starts to stiffen as attempting to rake through my hair leads to snaps & pops i.e. breakage.




I tend to favour heavier/ stronger gels for setting my hair. As they guarantee more longevity with the style and less tangles because they hold my coils in place in a co-ordinated fashion. If the coils are held in place then there is less likely to be tangles as the coils are not able to haphazardly mix up with other coils. It's all about keeping some kind of order. Twists or twist-out styles follows a similar logic, because the coils are kept in an organised clump.


I recommend a very good hydrating leave-in conditioner for wash & go's. Ideally it should be one that is able to coil up the ends of the hair or group the coils into clumps together immediately after applying to soaking wet hair and even better if it’s able to do this on dry hair! So test your leave-in on a small section of hair before proceeding to do the entire head. An additional layer of oil over that leave-in conditioner offers further insurance towards retaining the moisture in the hair, reducing tangles and even single strand knots.

If doing a clarifying wash. Coils may not clump as readily afterwards. I would suggest doing a deep-condition to return the moisture back to the coils and promote clumping once again. I love wash and go's and still do them currently to date.I hope to continue to do them in the foreseeable future.

Wash & Go Trials on Coily Hair 4: Keracare Defining Custard & HSCurlActivator

1ST PART OF REVIEW
Update 2: HAWAIIAN SILKY CURL ACTIVATOR & KERACARE DEFINING CUSTARD

With a heavier leave-in like the curl activator. My hair swelled up by the end of the day, but still had good definition, it was not overly frizzy. The *shine* was AMAZING and the scent of the custard still marginally present by the end of the day. When it came to bed-time my hair was still damp around the roots as I put my hair in my nightly 3 scrunchies.

The next morning my hair still felt quite damp, so I just rubbed a pea-sized amount of castor oil between my palms and used that to fluff my hair back into shape. My hair still had alot of body,definition and control. By control, I mean that my hair stayed where I wanted it to when I fluffed it back into shape by pulling under the roots.

First day hair was very defined, had hold and great shine. The smell lasted with me most of the day, and my partner kept complimenting me on the way my hair smelt.

To conclude: The custard and curl activator combination was successful on my coily hair and I would definitely purchase this again. I wouldn't recommend this with a light leave-in conditioner on Coily type 4ab hair, but with a much heavier moisturising leave-in conditioner, as the custard can be quite drying.

DAMP 1ST DAY

DRY

FIN

Reasons Why I Do Not Like The Conditioner Only Method On My Coily Hair

I tried the conditioner only method with Kenzia smoothing conditioner & castor oil layered on top.
I expected to get alot of shrinking with this method and I got just that, but mayne I wasn't prepared for what was to follow because I had not allowed my hair to get sooo tangled up like this in so long. "Another reason why it's good to always stick to what works for you".
Now with the conditioner -only method and my choice of conditioner (yes I take full responsibility for this) My coils had no enlongation but were very soft and fuzzy, despite how much condish I piled on and squished in.  Now fuzzy from this point onwards will be a RED FLAG for me, because that indicates NO CONTROL.

Yes, my coils had no control and felt free to have an orgy amongst themselves. My hair got so tangled up. Ok, ok, fine, alright! That may partially have been my fault because I couldn't keep my hands out of it -  *squeaks *" but it was soooo soft!". Seriously! By the 3rd day when I tried to finger-detangle  Dafro,  she went PSYCHO on me! It was a crazy mess!!  I mean I'm not one to go all dramatic about my hair.  But Jeez!
I slathered on Tresemme (Took one handful, Oh great now I'm out) and then some Cholesterol.My coils were in such disarray, I couldn't believe how tangled up it got!  I mean I had put this fro in scrunchies overnight. When did it get the chance to tangle so much?!I spent over an hour trying to placate Dafro, the most it usually takes me is 15mins, 20mins tops?! As soon as I was done, I slathered on some Tigi Leave in (current fave coil popper) & HS curl activator then LOCKED those happy-go-lucky coils into place with some Keracare Defining Custard. BAM!
I am not letting these babies go crazy like that on me again. No way! I don't think I'll ever be trying this method again without a holding agent i.e. GEL.
Conclusion: I don't think I'll be in a hurry to try this again, unless it's with a very heavy conditioner that leaves no white/grey cast behind on drying. (Is there any such thing?)

What is your take on the conditioner only method? Have you tried it?

Wash & Go Trials on Coily Hair 3: Conditioner Only Method On Type 4 Hair

Teri's conditioner only method has been tried by many and praised for its effectiveness. I was drawn to this lady's success with this method on YouTube and decided to try it again.

Earlier on in my journey I had tried the conditioner only method with Tressemme conditioner (this is before they brought out the no-silicone versions) but didn't like :
* The way the conditioner irritated my scalp.
*The crisp way my hair felt after it dried,
*And the grey caste it left.
I decided to try it again with Kenzia conditioner mainly because this conditioner never left a grey cast with other wash & go's I had done with gel and had not irritated my scalp to date.
I applied this to wet hair in about six sections and layered some castor oil on top.
When it dried my hair felt quite soft to touch, quite shiny but greasy to touch!
I think I shall leave out the castor oil next time when using this particular conditioner as it seems like the Kenzia conditioner is quite oily by itself.

Wet with conditioner and castor oil layered ontop. (Sorry about the steamed up mirror!)

Just diffused, about 80% dry. A lot of shrinking observed, But lots of sheen.

First day was great, but I was not prepared for what was to come afterwards. The aftermath was not good I tell you. Click here.