Yes, it has happened to the best of us. After two years on my healthy hair journey (HHJ), I had a hair setback. Many have fallen victim to issues with tangled hair and matting. I’m simply the latest victim. Looking at my picture, you would never know that mess that was going on in my head. It was just that, a mess!
What happened? Well, I decided to do my first wash n go in years but that was not the problem. The problem came in when I decided not to detangle before I scrunched my hair. I normally detangle when I conditioner my hair but for some reason, I skipped the detangling process this time. The sad part is the look of my hair did not turn out how I wanted it. I think it’s just too long for me to get the result that I did in the past.
When I tell y’all my hair was a hot matted mess when I tried to co-wash the next day…OMG!!! It was crazy. All I saw was my years of progress literally going down the drain as I detangled. I take full responsibility for the entire situation. It was all my own fault because I didn’t detangle beforehand and I got rough with my hair out of frustration while trying to detangle the next day. I just got to a point that I just said, “I want this over now!” Luckily, I only lost my mind for the right side of my head and I came to my senses before I got to the left side. However, for my poor crown, it was too late because I saw the worst breakage there.
In the end, I decided to just put a ton of Suave Almond & Shea Conditioner on my hair and call it a day. This happened the weekend before I moved. So I ended up with the conditioner in my hair until I made it to ATL and got settled in. By the time I got ready to rinse the conditioner out, my hair melted like butter. It reminded me why the Almond and Shea conditioner is one of my staples.
My plan now? I’m just going to nurse my hair and do my best at blending the breakage in with the rest of my hair. It’s not seriously noticeable: so I refuse to cut my hair and start over. This hair setback will not break me or deter me from my ultimate hair goal. Yes, I fell victim to having tangled hair but I will overcome this and keep going.
My Tips For Recovering From Having Tangled Hair
- Don’t panic – I immediately went to a panic and thought I needed to wash my hair again at that moment.
- Create A Plan – With panicking, I didn’t create a plan and ended up frustrated. Figure out what products you normally use that give you the most slip and moisture. Those products will help the tangles slip out.
- Be Gentle – We see the results of my being rough and not taking my time to remove the tangles
- Detangle In Sections – The thing that helped me was taking my hair in small sections and working the tangles out section by section.
- Be Patient – This is regarding growing the hair back. It will take time to recover but know you will recovers. As you see in my finished product, My hair overall didn’t look bad. I just have to nurse my hair a bit and it will all grow in.
Have had any setbacks during your journey? What did you do to overcome them?
I had a similar nightmare last year when i decided last minute to take out my senagaleese twists and rock a sleek sytle for my B’day. I did not detangle properly..just slathered my hair is conditioner thinking that would help melt the tangles and it was a matted mess. I used an entire bottle of It’s a 10 on my head and almost the entire day detangling. It was so not worth it.
Oh no! I can sympathize with you on that one. You almost want to cry when things like that happen b/c of all the hard work you put into caring for your hair.
No more WNGs for you young lady! I know when my oldest daughter goes DAYS without detangling her hair it's a freakin nightmare to detangle but luckily she hasn't had much breakage. Hope that area gets healthier quickly!
Girl, you know I'm staying away from those. I can't believe she hasn't had an issue. You know she doesn't believe in combing her hair. LOL Thank God she hasn't