How to Detangle Natural Kinky Textured Hair

I relaxed my kinky hair for most of my life, and when I decided to go natural a couple of years ago, I saw how drastically different my natural texture was from my chemically straightened hair. I had to learn a lot about my kinky curly texture, even the basics about detangling it. Here's a few steps to detangling natural hair.

Always Add Water

The most important rule of detangling kinky curly locks is to make sure that you never comb it while it's dry. This texture is much too dry and fragile, so in addition to taking longer, combing through dry natural hair will only cause major frizz and breakage.

Water gives the hair more flexibility so always keep a spray bottle on hand, even if you're detangling your hair straight out of the shower, in order to keep strands soaked.

Get the Right Tools

It took me about a year and a half to realize that I needed a detangling comb like Goody's Ouchless Shower Comb. It's amazing, the wide teeth and flexible spine help me to comb through large sections of my hair effortlessly and painlessly.

In addition to a detangling comb, I also use a basic comb with teeth that are more narrowly spaced. It helps to unravel tiny knots and to get rid of smaller tangles that the detangling comb missed.

Another tool that I love for detangling, is the Denman D3 brush. I use the D3 instead of a comb sometimes because it detangles curly, thick hair like a dream, while also keeping the cuticles of each strand smooth and frizz-free.

I recommend buying quality styling tools for kinky, curly hair. Use combs and brushes that are sturdy and strong and avoid using fine toothed combs and brushes with ball pointed tips which can break off strands.

Detangle With Care

To begin detangling, section the hair off into 6 to 8 parts in the rear of the head and 4 sections on the sides.

Spray with water as needed.

Begin to comb each section starting at the nape of the neck with a wide tooth comb (I find that it's better to start with the back sections rather than the sides because the hair there is usually thicker and if it dries out it can be difficult to comb).

Next go back over the section with the second smaller comb or a detangling brush like the Denman. Always comb or brush the section's ends first, then keep repeating a few inches above the ends, until you're near the roots.

Once each section of natural curls is detangled you can style it as you go. But if you want to detangle all of the sections before you style I recommend pinning or clipping the roots and the ends so they won't get tangled all over again.