HELP! MY HAIR IS ALL MATTED!

[mumzilou]

Hi everyone,
I recently was on holiday and had my hair braided into about 38 small braids. I attempted to take them out about an hour ago and my hair is completely matted all over, except the roots! I cannot physically get my fingers or brush through my hair! I have put conditioner all over my hair and I will leave it in for a few hours. It seriously does not seem to be working and I really don't want my hair to be all shaved off! Taken me so many years to grow it this long and recently got it layered and dyed! Any tips???

Please help me!!!

Sorry not tips here.
I have lots of long thick hair and i get knots in the back a lot.
Suffering with HG and noy had the energy to brush my hair. Had a matted knot.
I slowly almost tore it apart by getting 2 fingers in at the roots and pulling apart.

Tbh I dont care about damage etc before im told that's bad for my hair lol

Do you have a tangle teaser?

My daughter managed to matt one small plait. It took coconut oil, a tangle teaser and a lot of time to get it out. You’ll probably need help with the back.

My hair does easily tangle a lot! I think i have a frizz problem haha!

I have a tangle teaser just never knew how to properly use it, hurts so bad! I guess i'm going to have to deal with the pain!

Coconut oil i will try definitely!!

Thankyou everyone :)

So much painnnn though!!

Careful with coconut oil - it makes some people’s hair a matted mass at the best of times

Start at the ends and work up. If you brush from roots down you’ll make it worse.

Some detangle sprays work a treat.

Lots of conditioner, section, and brush from the end, NOT the root

So brush the bottom inch, then the bottom two inches, then the bottom three inches, until you reach the root.

I don’t understand how having your hair braided has caused it to be matted though, don’t people usually braid their hair to prevent it knotting? Was it the way you took the braids out?

But whatever you do, do NOT try and just take a brush through it. Always from the ends.

I found a good video on YouTube, she made a mixture of olive oil, conditioner and warm water, something like two thirds water, a squirt of conditioner and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, in a spray bottle, shake thoroughly. Spray on each section of hair and brush a section at a time from the bottom upwards, so the ends, get them clear, move up a bit and so on. Use plenty of spray.

It worked on my daughter's fine hair, she hadn't brushed it for a week on holiday with her dad

Conditioner.. lots of it. Leave it on for 20 mins and slowly brush with a comb or tangle teaser my hair is dreadful after night shifts!

Take a section and start at the bottom . I would go to a hairdressers otherwise and ask tomorrow . You may have to cut it all off though , I never really understand those braid things and how they come out 😬😬.

I think it must be the way i have taken them out, I had no idea what I was doing and brushed straight through them all thinking it would make the waves, well...wavier with more volume.

I guess i thought wrong

I'd probably leave a hair mask in overnight, wear a shower cap so your pillow doesn't get soaked. Use a tangle teaser in the morning, start from the ends not the roots like a pp said. Also try a kids tangle spray, some of them are quite good.

L’Oréal kids tangle spray is good

Yes the tangle spray Ariadne mentioned helped me brush a big dreadlock out of DD1’s haircwhen she was 3.

Thankyou!! They'll sell that in a 24 hour garage won't they? as it's sunday and the only thing open?

I’d avoid coconut oil too, it can make my hair a nightmare . Condition the hell out it

Argan oil or mythic oil would help.

Plain old olive oil if you can’t eat anything else. I’d tend to agree with avoiding coconut oil

*get

I stupidly got my hair dreaded on holiday when I was 18. It lasted a week before I decided I hated it and took me and a friend four hours to tease it out from tip to root with forks (I know, it's what we had to hand). But the matted mess came out eventually. I got a trim after and didn't lose that much in the end really.

You can do this. Patience and persistence.

Fabric softener. Works a treat!

dd gets terrible elflocks* (seems we have a plague of them in her room that sit by her bed and tangle her hair all night)

teasing out one one strand at a time, bottom up, easing out one or two hairs at a time, and lots and lots of time is the way we deal with it.

*sorry, a favourite old fashiooned word I am not completely bonkers just a little bit

wash it as it is (matted) then put loads of conditioner on and work through from the ends, using a wide toothed comb

You could go to a black hair salon and get them to take it out. What they would do is use an Afro comb to unpick it from the roots. No need to cut it off.