I’ve already told you about my favorite product to comb and detangle my curls. Today’s post is about how to comb curly hair as gently as possible to make combing not only less painful, but also less exhausting.

When looking at the amount of hair you’re shedding every time you comb your curls, remember: Curlies don’t comb their hair every day and therefore it’s natural to loose more when you’re actually washing your curls.

Combing curly hair doesn’t need to be painful!

When it comes to combing curly hair, the most important tip is really to comb your curls only when they’re soaking wet. This means I can’t wet my curls, turn the water off and then again turn it on to rinse the conditioner I’ve used to detangle my curls – I re-wet my curls often during finger-combing them and add some more conditioner. I know this way you’ll need more product to detangle, but it’s definitely the best way to gently comb your curls and also to prevent a lot of shedding. I’m aware that finger-combing your curls the way I describe is going to take a bit longer than just pulling your curls to get rid of the knots. But remember it’s totally worth it: less painful, less shedding and less stretching out your curls!

I took some pictures to show you how I usually detangle my curls (explaining the whole process with only words is quite difficult). Please note that I wasn’t able to take the pictures with soaking wet hair, because I didn’t want my floor to get all messed up!

My combing routine:

1. Add some conditioner or a detangler to your soaking wet curls.

2. Make sure to re-wet your curls if detangling them gets painful. After re-wetting also add more conditioner/detangler.

3. Start combing the ends by raking your curls.

4. If your fingers get stuck raking don’t just pull to get the knot to dissolve, but part the involved hair strands using your other hand separating them where your finger got stuck because of the knot.

5. To get the knot to disappear separate the two hair strand up to the ends.

6. The knot is gone now! Move on the other parts of your head repeating this procedure all over

7. When you’ve detangled the ends of your curls move on to the upper part and continue combing (the same way as before)

8. You’ll notice you’re done, as soon as…

… you can comb through your curls without encountering a knot 🙂

When I’m done combing my curls I make sure to rinse with cold water to be able to get some nice clumps. If clumping isn’t an issue, just go right ahead an style your curls the usual way!