I must admit, when I first came across the girls moving into detangling under the shower, I just rolled my eyes, like seriously!!! But I forced myself to quieten my own bias and think about it logically. If you have taken my hair course, you will know that detangling is a big part of it in months one and two, and I always advise that you detangle outside the shower. So this new craze …. Well, it’s counter to my teachings, my experience, and my rules 😊!!! But is it wrong?
It is not wrong, it is not right, it just depends.
So, I went on to the pages of some of the supporters of detangling under the shower and I noticed two main things.
Firstly, their hair texture was more akin to what many understand to be 4A. For those unfamiliar with that typing system, let’s just say it is not as tightly coiled as my hair for example. Their curl pattern was looser even though they had a full head of textured Afro hair.
Secondly and perhaps most importantly, these individuals, two specifically, had grown their hair to great length and it was obvious that they were confident and competent in handling their own hair.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely why I think you should detangle outside of the shower. Many of you are just at the beginning of your journey, you are still learning your hair so to speak. Many of you still need time to understand it through touch, through teasing out tangles. Some of you still need to differentiate between a knot that needs to be gently eased out and a single-strand knot that can only be trimmed off. Discovering all of this under the distraction of water is not the way forward in my strong opinion.
You want to Bam-Bam, you want to chill with the big girls!
Could I get away with detangling under the shower? Most definitely. Even though my hair is not a loose curl pattern, my hair rarely tangles these days because my technique is A***.
I have recently made adjustments, which means even outside the shower detangling takes me 15 minutes. So yes, in my current smugness, I too can do this, not only is my hair not prone to tangles, but I know how to handle my hair superbly, so that if I come across issues under the shower, I will not be fazed. I cannot be fazed because I’m 8 years into feeling this head of hair of mine so intimately. Are you me? If so, try under the shower with your bad self. I still haven’t though.
Do you have a Teeny Weeny Afro? You doooooo, of course, you too can try detangling under the shower with your TWA! Do you have relaxed hair? yes, okay you too can try detangling under the shower. Is your type of texture closer to the original wash-and-go adverts we saw in the 90’s? Yessssssss …. Under the shower you go too!
But if you have hair like mine or still battling with detangling, you still don’t know …. It still takes too long ….. your hair tangles a lot … Please sit on your chair, outside of the shower, grab a bottle of my olive oil, fill your spritz bottle with water. If you are bourgeois, grab my Rose of Jericho spritz, part your hair with my comb, section by section, spritz, add oil, begin to detangle. Leave detangling in the shower for now ….. we will join the big girls later.
