Tangle Free Tips

Do you struggle with tangles in your hair? Growing up, I heard things like "You have a rat's nest in your hair." Nobody wants to walk around feeling like they have a rat's nest in their hair. Nor do they want to look like they haven't brushed their hair all day. While these are very good reasons to keep tangles at bay, there is another reason. Your hair tangles because it is unhealthy. So... in order to have tangle free hair, we have to have healthy hair.

How to ensure healthy hair

* Start with a haircut. This could be as little as a micro-trim, depending on the condition of your hair. Over time, hair starts to split from the ends. If left alone, the split continues up the hair shaft. If you trim the hair regularly, you keep the split ends cut off so this doesn't happen. The longer you leave the split ends, the farther up the hair shaft they go and the more you need to cut off to get back to healthy hair. You should never go longer than 8 weeks between haircuts. Talk to your stylist to decide how often you need to schedule your appointments.

* Do not use over-the-counter color or perms. There is a reason your stylist spent years in school and still spends days at a time continuing their education. Good quality hair products are not sold to people without a license. The products you buy from drug stores are harsh and drying on the hair, and it's not a "one size fits all", get what you see on the box kind of deal. There is a lot to be considered when choosing the right products to use on your hair. Leave those decisions to your stylist to be sure not to cause any unnecessary damage to your hair.

* Keep chemical processes to a minimum. Talk with your stylist about what your hair can handle. A few clients are able to get color and a perm, while others wouldn't have any hair left if we tried that.

* Condition you hair. Use a good conditioner that will moisturize and repair your hair. Everyone needs to use conditioner every time you shampoo your hair. Yes, even you. Now, I understand that conditioner can weigh your hair down and make it flat and possibly even oily. The solution to these problems is to only apply conditioner to the ends of your hair. Your scalp produces oils to keep your hair healthy and shiny. In the old days, people didn't shampoo their hair as often as we do today. That's why they would brush their hair 100 times before they went to bed each night. By brushing, they were distributing oils through their hair all the way to the ends. Since our current hygiene habits keep the scalp oils from reaching the ends of the hair, we need to add those oils by using conditioner. Since the oils from our scalps condition the hair near the root area, most of us only need to condition the ends.

* Use a deep conditioner once a week. While daily conditioning helps to keep our manageable, a deep conditioner will penetrate the hair deeper to moisturize and repair the hair. There are different types of deep conditioners, so talk with your stylist about which one is right for your hair,

* Leave-in conditioner is your best friend. Apply to towel dried hair. Again, keep it toward the ends of the hair to keep from weighing your hair down,

* If you still need more help, invest in a good detangler. You will be amazed at how easier your hair will be to comb through when you use detangler.

*Use the right brush (or comb). Avoid vent brushes. Most vent brushes are made in a way that leaves a pinch point on the bristles that will break your hair off. If hair is stuck in your brush and you are unable to easily remove it, the brush likely broke your hair off when it got stuck. When combing out tangles, use a wide toothed comb, and start at the ends of your hair and work your way up. And work on it gently. Don't rip the tangles out! When you do this, it breaks the hair off and causes split ends which in turn cause more tangles.

* Avoid as much heat as possible. Heat from dryers, curling irons, flat irons, and hot rollers dry the hair out tremendously. The less you use these tools, the healthier your hair will be. Use as little heat as possible on a daily basis. Save these for special occasions. Shampoo your hair ahead of time so it can dry naturally, find styles that set the hair as it dries, or just go natural.

Tangle free hair is achieved by having healthy hair. Use these tips to get your hair as healthy as possible and say goodbye to tangles. Do you have any other tips for keeping tangles at bay?