Naturals let's talk about knots!

keepithealthy · Dec 30, 2010

Hello ladies

I'v been natural for 18 months and I love it!. But what I do not love is knots!! Actually I hate them! It wasn't so much of a problem for the first year but now that my hair is getting longer I have so many knots in my hair. I'm starting to get some breakage in the crown of my hair which is the kinkier part of my hair. That's also the part that takes the longest to detangle and knots like crazy! :wallbash:

I think I'm going to trim my hair in January get rid of all the knotting at the end :sad:

Soooo how are you ladies dealing with knots?

Advice please :drunk:

westNDNbeauty · Dec 30, 2010

Once I upped the moisture, less knots and breakage.

But when I do get them, I trim that strand just above the knot. I advise against pulling them off. You'll end up compromising the unknotted portions of your strand.

darlingdiva · Dec 30, 2010

I agree with increasing the moisture to reduce knots.

Also, try to keep your hair stretched as much as possible (e.g., detangle, wash & condition your hair in stretched sections using braids or twists; try to keep your hair stretched when you style it as well.).

I find that keeping the hair stretched limits the hair from tangling on itself, which means a reduction in single-strand knots.

keepithealthy · Dec 30, 2010

As my hair has gotten longer I've been wearing more two strand twists. I usually DC every other week but I might have to up to every week. Also I think washing in sections every time I wash will help. Thanks!

SunnyHoney · Dec 30, 2010

Knots are a PLAGUE to me. I haven't really found a way to rid my hair of them, but some experimenting has led me to some observations.

I can prevent them better by:
1) using a leave-in condish that gives lots of slip then sealing with oil.
2) Protective Styling, I usually bun daily, and notice more SSKs when I wear a WNG than when I bun
3) I cowash daily and I try really hard to remove all the shed hairs. I think a loose shed hair helps a strand of hair wrap around itself. So if I keep the shed hairs from lingering, I get fewer SSKs
4) search and destroying SSKs works better than letting them accumlate and then trimming all the hair. Since they'll just continue to come back and might be so far up the shaft that you trim more than you grow in the same amount of time, you may begin to lack retention. And I agree with previous post: resist the urge to just pull and snap!

I also agree with the other post that said stretching helps, so when I do want to wear my hair out of PS, I try to stretch it, but that's usually too much work for me.

some other observations:
1) I only get them in one small section of hair that's about 2 square inches, not sure why????? and not knowing why is driving me crazy, but I think I have a different type (curl pattern) of hair in that section.

2) early on I mistook them for split ends and was trimming like crazy...big no-no! :nono:

again, try to search and destroy.

HTH!

Aviah · Dec 30, 2010

I personally just trim/S&D more often. I've been plagued with them for most of my natural journey, even when I moisturized day and night, DC'd weekly and kept my hair in buns, twists, and braids...

TwistNMx · Dec 30, 2010

I don't get them very often. Every time after I wash I just do a S&D. :yep:

I may get one or two in a month. However, I use a lot of conditioner too. :yep:

Pompous Blue · Dec 30, 2010

I keep my hair well moisturized and stretched, too, to minimize any knots. If I come upon a knot why finger detangling, I gently push against it so that it gives way.

Stepiphanie · Dec 30, 2010

HoneyMama said:
Knots are a PLAGUE to me. I haven't really found a way to rid my hair of them, but some experimenting has led me to some observations.

I can prevent them better by:
1) using a leave-in condish that gives lots of slip then sealing with oil.
2) Protective Styling, I usually bun daily, and notice more SSKs when I wear a WNG than when I bun
3) I cowash daily and I try really hard to remove all the shed hairs. I think a loose shed hair helps a strand of hair wrap around itself. So if I keep the shed hairs from lingering, I get fewer SSKs
4) search and destroying SSKs works better than letting them accumlate and then trimming all the hair. Since they'll just continue to come back and might be so far up the shaft that you trim more than you grow in the same amount of time, you may begin to lack retention. And I agree with previous post: resist the urge to just pull and snap!

I also agree with the other post that said stretching helps, so when I do want to wear my hair out of PS, I try to stretch it, but that's usually too much work for me.

some other observations:
1) I only get them in one small section of hair that's about 2 square inches, not sure why????? and not knowing why is driving me crazy, but I think I have a different type (curl pattern) of hair in that section.

2) early on I mistook them for split ends and was trimming like crazy...big no-no! again, try to search and destroy.

HTH!

I agree with all that was said esp. the bolded. SSK's are a pain in my arse!! I S&D when I feel them, stretching and moisture help, but nothing prevents them, atleast not for my super kinky hair.

ms-gg · Dec 30, 2010

keepithealthy said:
As my hair has gotten longer I've been wearing more two strand twists. I usually DC every other week but I might have to up to every week. Also I think washing in sections every time I wash will help. Thanks!

For some people, twists cause more single strand knots, especially smaller or mini twists.

alive · Dec 30, 2010

darlingdiva said:
I agree with increasing the moisture to reduce knots.

Also, try to keep your hair stretched as much as possible (e.g., detangle, wash & condition your hair in stretched sections using braids or twists; try to keep your hair stretched when you style it as well.).

I find that keeping the hair stretched limits the hair from tangling on itself, which means a reduction in single-strand knots.

i agree with this as well. i keep my hair stretched out and i only detangle on hair that's still warm from deep conditioning. keeps the knots and tangles away. today, i detangled my entire head with my denman in 20 mins. i'm a 4b. quite proud of that considering that it normally takes me at least 1 hour to do it with a wide tooth comb

power to deep conditioning with heat :lol:

snillohsss · Dec 30, 2010

I put coconut oil on my ends to seal. That helped with the knots.

keepithealthy · Dec 30, 2010

HoneyMama said:
Knots are a PLAGUE to me. I haven't really found a way to rid my hair of them, but some experimenting has led me to some observations.

I can prevent them better by:
1) using a leave-in condish that gives lots of slip then sealing with oil.
2) Protective Styling, I usually bun daily, and notice more SSKs when I wear a WNG than when I bun
3) I cowash daily and I try really hard to remove all the shed hairs. I think a loose shed hair helps a strand of hair wrap around itself. So if I keep the shed hairs from lingering, I get fewer SSKs
4) search and destroying SSKs works better than letting them accumlate and then trimming all the hair. Since they'll just continue to come back and might be so far up the shaft that you trim more than you grow in the same amount of time, you may begin to lack retention. And I agree with previous post: resist the urge to just pull and snap!

I also agree with the other post that said stretching helps, so when I do want to wear my hair out of PS, I try to stretch it, but that's usually too much work for me.

some other observations:
1) I only get them in one small section of hair that's about 2 square inches, not sure why????? and not knowing why is driving me crazy, but I think I have a different type (curl pattern) of hair in that section.

2) early on I mistook them for split ends and was trimming like crazy...big no-no! again, try to search and destroy.

HTH!

Thank you. Great advice. WNG seem to be causing me more knots as my hair is getting longer. But I don't seem to have to much of a problem with shingling. My hair is 3c 4a. With the 4a in the crown. Most of my knots are in the 4a section, which is also the driest section of my hair. I think I'm going to do the search and destroy method and see how bad it is before I do a trim. Thanks

ms-gg said:
For some people, twists cause more single strand knots, especially smaller or mini twists.

I love my twists especially smaller ones because my hair is thin around the edges and I can be lazy...I did notice that I seem to have more knots now after I did some really small two strand twists than before...thanks for that info..Oh and I LOVE the thickness of your hair!

keepithealthy · Dec 30, 2010

alive said:
i agree with this as well. i keep my hair stretched out and i only detangle on hair that's still warm from deep conditioning. keeps the knots and tangles away. today, i detangled my entire head with my denman in 20 mins. i'm a 4b. quite proud of that considering that it normally takes me at least 1 hour to do it with a wide tooth comb

power to deep conditioning with heat :lol:

I did have a very good experience with deep conditioning with heat I usually don't do that because I don't have a hair dryer and have to wrap a warm towel around my head....but to get rid of these knots it'l be worth it.

alive · Dec 30, 2010

keepithealthy said:
I did have a very good experience with deep conditioning with heat I usually don't do that because I don't have a hair dryer and have to wrap a warm towel around my head....but to get rid of these knots it'l be worth it.

i'm all about easy hair care so i know what you mean but I'll take DCs with heat over knots in a heartbeat.

i received my ion bonnet dryer as a gift earlier this year so i cant speak to how much it cost and all that but an alternative to the towel could be one of those heat caps they sell at sallys. that way you can still move around and you don't feel like you're in the salon :lol:

keepithealthy · Dec 31, 2010

alive said:
i'm all about easy hair care so i know what you mean but I'll take DCs with heat over knots in a heartbeat.

i received my ion bonnet dryer as a gift earlier this year so i cant speak to how much it cost and all that but an alternative to the towel could be one of those heat caps they sell at sallys. that way you can still move around and you don't feel like you're in the salon

I saw one of those in a tutorial on YT. If it's gonna stop the knots it's def worth the investment.

mzteaze · Dec 31, 2010

I agree with many of the suggestions mentioned. One thing that really cut down on the SSK for me was being hyper-aware of making sure my hair is covered in high friction situations like pillows and things. I make sure I use a scarf or bonnet when seated on the sofa (in case I fall asleep with a pillow behind my head).

Also, two strand twists with JBCO helped.

Nonie · Dec 31, 2010

ms-gg said:
For some people, twists cause more single strand knots, especially smaller or mini twists.

For me who does mini twists all the time, I find this happens only if I undo my twist when my hair is laden with a leave-in product. I only recently started using a leave-in/moisturizer in my twists to see if my ends might survive better than being left bare but I found that trying to redo twists with product in my hair caused my hair to tangle and threaten to knot up. Instead of it being a relaxing affair, I found myself having to spend a lengthy time trying to separate strands that seemed determined to knot up. Hence my contribution to this thread.

An update on that might be that if my hair isn't "overly moisturized"...like if it's been exposed to the dry air in heated buildings so that my hair feels somewhat bare instead of moist, it doesn't knot up as much as it does when it's just been juiced and feels soft and SHOULD be slippery. Go figure.

keepithealthy · Dec 31, 2010

Nonie said:
For me who does mini twists all the time, I find this happens only if I undo my twist when my hair is laden with a leave-in product. I only recently started using a leave-in/moisturizer in my twists to see if my ends might survive better than being left bare but I found that trying to redo twists with product in my hair caused my hair to tangle and threaten to knot up. Instead of it being a relaxing affair, I found myself having to spend a lengthy time trying to separate strands that seemed determined to knot up. Hence my contribution to this thread.

An update on that might be that if my hair isn't "overly moisturized"...like if it's been exposed to the dry air in heated buildings so that my hair feels somewhat bare instead of moist, it doesn't knot up as much as it does when it's just been juiced and feels soft and SHOULD be slippery. Go figure.

Thanks for the link Nonie

I wonder if this may be the case. Because when I first started twisting my hair over the summer with just some loc gel (using very little) I don't remember having any knots but recently i've been experimenting with different products and I have a lot more knots on my ends, especially in my 4a hair......
p.s. you always give great advice on here and your lovely personality shines right through

Nonie · Dec 31, 2010

^^Thanks for sharing your experience with different products. It would be nice to know if it's the TYPE of products (I only use S Curl as a leave-in so I'd never know if it'd be different with some other leave-in)...or just overly moist hair.

When I've taken a leaf out of Happily Me's detangling with conditioner on dry hair, I haven't had problems at all--so maybe it's the type of product. But again, I can't be too sure, coz applying say Trader Joe's to my dry hair doesn't make it as "wet" (moist) as S Curl...so again, seems moisture might be the problem for me.

Hopefully there'll be more people with a similar experience who can help solve this mystery.

Thanks for your kind words. :kiss:

bride91501 · Dec 31, 2010

I normally keep my 4b hair stretched and protected, so the knots (that I def have) are not an issue for me, but my 2 youngest daughters have BAD cases of the SSKs.

The main thing I've found that helps eliminate/melts them is using castor oil to seal. Not sure what it is about this particular oil, but it literally melts away their knots almost on contact.

I've also recently started using SheaMoisture's Restorative Leave-in conditioner. It also melts my knots and tangles almost on contact, and is like a miracle worker on my youngest daughter's knots. Following up with castor oil hasn't even been needed after using this particular leave in on her hair.

HTH!

RubyWoo · Dec 31, 2010

ms-gg said:
For some people, twists cause more single strand knots, especially smaller or mini twists.

This is me! Sadly, I recently realized that mini twists will cause knots if I'm not extremely patient and careful at take down. I found that using a lot of oil during take down helps w/detangling and minimizing knots.

I noticed that the number of knots of my hair reduced significantly when I started doing the following:

-Washing and conditioning my hair in large twists.
-detangling on stretched hair with conditioner and oil in it prior to washing.

I don't really stress too much about knots as I've come to just accept them. I just leave them alone until it's time to trim so that I can start "fresh".

cutenss · Dec 31, 2010

Oil rinses helps too. :yep:

Dee Raven · Dec 31, 2010

I dislike the ssks too. For me, since the length straight is more important than wearing my hair out in its natural state, I have just had to accept not wearing wngs anymmore. I only do twists, twists outs, buns, etc. If I were going to use wngs as my main style, I would cut my hair back a lot.

Nubenap22 · Dec 31, 2010

I have yet figured how to battle these buggers!!! I get them in my temple and nape!!

Trini_Chutney · Dec 31, 2010

I was getting a lot of ssks in the summer when I was doing WNG almost everyday. Since then I don't WNG anymore. I did find that when I shingled as opposed to just WNG I didn't have a problem with the ssks. I get very few now and I think the way I pre poo has really cut down on them. I go through sections of my hair with either evoo or veg oil and really saturate the strands while I finger detangle and then brush with my denman.

temfash · Dec 31, 2010

ms-gg said:
For some people, twists cause more single strand knots, especially smaller or mini twists.

Thats true for me, my fine porous hair just tangles and knots so my twists have to be medium to large. :afro:

RockCreak · Dec 31, 2010

Trini_Chutney said:
I was getting a lot of ssks in the summer when I was doing WNG almost everyday. Since then I don't WNG anymore. I did find that when I shingled as opposed to just WNG I didn't have a problem with the ssks. I get very few now and I think the way I pre poo has really cut down on them. I go through sections of my hair with either evoo or veg oil and really saturate the strands while I finger detangle and then brush with my denman.

Me too. Shingling has helped me to surpress the ssk's. Also, I had to learn how to have more patients in washing my hair. I now do it in sections and stretch the hair to cleanse, then hold the ends to massage the scalp to ensure that the hair is not being tangled. Also, having a good slip on the con or mix with oils helped me tremendously.

I have very little ssk's now.

TwistNMx · Jan 1, 2011

Nonie said:
For me who does mini twists all the time, I find this happens only if I undo my twist when my hair is laden with a leave-in product. I only recently started using a leave-in/moisturizer in my twists to see if my ends might survive better than being left bare but I found that trying to redo twists with product in my hair caused my hair to tangle and threaten to knot up. Instead of it being a relaxing affair, I found myself having to spend a lengthy time trying to separate strands that seemed determined to knot up. Hence my contribution to this thread.

An update on that might be that if my hair isn't "overly moisturized"...like if it's been exposed to the dry air in heated buildings so that my hair feels somewhat bare instead of moist, it doesn't knot up as much as it does when it's just been juiced and feels soft and SHOULD be slippery. Go figure.

You're right! I cannot retwist or I will have tangling problems no matter how neat I do them. :yep:

Evolving78 · Jan 1, 2011

RockCreak said:
Me too. Shingling has helped me to surpress the ssk's. Also, I had to learn how to have more patients in washing my hair. I now do it in sections and stretch the hair to cleanse, then hold the ends to massage the scalp to ensure that the hair is not being tangled. Also, having a good slip on the con or mix with oils helped me tremendously.

I have very little ssk's now.

yep shingling works for me too with WnGs. (it takes longer though) detangling in sections with conditioner helps a lot too. i used to have a problem with them before i started using a tools to detangle my hair, instead of just my fingers. or if i do a wash and go, i can't use gel. i have to use some type of curl cream or creamy detangler to keep my hair moist and to prevent it from tangling.

Naturals let's talk about knots!

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