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. 

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'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?

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.

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?