Why you shouldn’t brush or comb curly hair after it is dry

  • August 17, 2015
  • Home
  • Hair
  • Why you shouldn’t brush or comb curly hair after it is dry
Do not brush curly or wavy hair

“What do you mean, you don’t brush or comb curly hair? What about all the knots and tangles?”. This is one question I get asked very often.

There was a time when I used to brush the life out of my hair. It was also a joy to buy all the fancy brushes in different shapes, sizes and colors *girls*. Having read somewhere that brushing over and over again results in silky straight hair, it was a ‘joy’ I indulged in. And did it help me? Of course not. My hair still looked like hay. Once I learnt the dynamics of curly hair, I realized that this ruined my curls and that one shouldn’t brush or comb curly hair.

The beauty of curly hair lies in those perfectly defined groups of spirals. What helps curly hair stick to each other are 3 things:

  1. A bonding medium – It can be your natural hair sebum, external emollients, silicones; something that clumps hair together. As you brush your hair, you are breaking that bond.
  2. Smooth hair cuticles – Your cuticle can get damaged due to repeated brushing thereby causing frizz.
  3. Lack of static – When you comb your hair, both your comb and hair acquire opposite charges. On materials that don’t conduct electricity (like dry damaged hair) the charges just sit there without getting lost. This like-charge causes hair strands to repel one another just like the like poles of a magnet (too many likes :P).
Do not brush curly or wavy hair

How my hair looks without brushing or combing

As you can see, combs and brushes disrupt all the 3 things that maintain the shape of curls. And this is why you shouldn’t brush or comb curly hair once it has dried.

So what about the knots and tangles? In fact, it is more important to detangle curly hair because it’s more prone to knots and tangles than straight hair. There is a way to get out of this vicious cycle – 2 ways to detangle curly hair – dry and wet detangling

Here is a post with my full curly hair care routine – My curly hair routine .

 

 

Blog Comments

Hey !! First of congratulations on your blog !! Sheer pleasure to read about how to take care of yourself.

Anjana I have dry hair n I think I am loosing all the lustre and texture of my hair. I tried different shampoos and still not working. Could you suggest something.

Hey rithu..I will shortly put up an article on the products I use 🙂

thanks for the article… 🙂 detangling hair in shower is great idea. but my doubt is , once we dry the hair after shower, it gets tangled again.

thanks for the great article… 🙂 detangling hair in shower is great idea. but my doubt is , once we dry the hair after shower, it gets tangled again… 🙁 or how to dry curly hair without getting knots..

Hi Merry, “How to dry curly hair” is definitely a post that is in the pipeline ! Do look out 🙂

Hey Anjana,

Great to see the website up 🙂 Congrats gal!!
One doubt. Do you wash your hair daily with conditioner to get rid of the tangles? As of now I don’t. But the day I wash my hair the tangles are so much that it hurts when de-tangling.
Please suggest.

Reply

Curls and Beauty Diary

Hey Harsha 🙂
I wash my hair once in 2-3 days only. You should soak your hair in conditioner. A palmful is what I use. Also you can oil your hair and detangle it with the oil before shampooing (that also makes it super easy).

Congrats Anjana on your new blog! It’s fun reading you articles. Keep ’em coming girl!! 🙂 🙂

Reply

Curls and Beauty Diary

Thanks Priyanka!!

Hey Anjana … Congrats for your amazing blog … which is mostly dedicated to the curly hair beauties…. I love the technique will def use and share my experience 🙂

Reply

Curls and Beauty Diary

Thanks Sheetal !

And I request you to write a budget products for curly hair.. The products which you use is highly expensive (I think for me) 🙁 🙁 Please and We would like to see your OOTD … 🙂 🙂

Reply

Curls and Beauty Diary

Sheetal, I have tried almost all the drugstore products available in the Indian market and they just give me average results. They don’t define curls like I want them to, they don’t hydrate enough. But if you do want to try them out I can suggest a few – Pantene Smooth & Silky conditioner, Dove Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner, Herbal Essence Hello Hydration conditioner. They are really just average. Dove Nourishing Oil Care Mask was a wonderful drugstore product but they stopped its production I guess – I don’t see it nowadays.

And yes, do look out for a new category called PhotoDiary soon! Not exactly OOTD but something similar 🙂

Yup ! I know actually budget product provides only average result. Thanks for the advice 🙂 And Looking forward to the new photo diary category 🙂 🙂

Hey Anjana, Thank you so very much for all this info on curly hair. I don’t hate my hair anymore!! 🙂

I wish I could go and tell every girl who is confused with her curly hair to read this blog!! Helped me a lot!

Thanks again 🙂

Sushmitha

Reply

Curls and Beauty Diary

Sushmita 🙂
It’s a joy to hear that someone has fallen in love with their curly hair 🙂
You can spread the word to all the girls you know who are struggling with their curly hair!

Amazing post…I already have started following this regimen…and i can feel the difference…thanks Anjana!

Pleasure Geetika!

So you never brush your hair? Have you ever used tangle teezer brush which removes tangled but not hair?

Hi Anjana,pls tell me about ir haircut.. Is it layers or anything more specific?

Haircuts for curly hair Here you go Anu

Thnx a lot mam…You just came like a saviour for my curlsssss 😊

:):)

Hi. Your blogs are really helpful and I was really happy to know I was doing some of those techniques by simply defying mom’s instructions😜
But these past 2 months my hairfall has started real bad. I didn’t face this problem before but now its so much that my hair is quarter of what I used to have. No my eating habits or hair wash pattern or water has not changed. I’m not alergic to anything and am not in stress so I really have no clue what’s causing it.
If u can help in any way with tricks to reduce hairfall or grow it back pleaseeeee tell me:)

Simran I have replied to the duplicate comment on the other post 🙂

It’s funny I didn’t know about it until now thank you so much. But got to make my mom understand

Hehe 🙂 Yes I hear a lot of readers saying how hard it is for them to make their moms understand the new “rules” 🙂

Hello,
Firstly I think your hair is absolutely GORGEOUS! Such amazing texture. Beautiful curls👍
I’m a curly haired girl myself and for the longest longest longest time I’ve been desperately craving for longer hair. I’m unapologetically over-ambitious in this aspect because I dream of attaining tailbone length someday. I’m a little below the nape right now, as in almost close to shoulder length. 😒 I know right….
So anyway, I’ve been reading a lot of articles online on length retention. It’s not about the hair your scalp sprouts but it’s about retaining the length one has achieved. This theory makes perfect sense to me because I had had my locks completely bleached back in early 2015. And I successfully managed to grow out all the bleached length by early 2017 I suppose. Yet my hair length remained stagnant😫. With this I deduced that while my hair has no problem emerging from the roots, it’s failing at retaining length, the reason being steady breakage at the ends, which I’m sure most curly haired girls will relate to. I was yet to find the culprit behind this awful breakage. I assumed my hair wasn’t conditioned well from root to tip and maybe doing things like consuming biotin and vitamin b complex capsules, pre-pooing with oils, hennaing my hair, deep conditioning on a regular basis, eating almonds ever morning, etc would eventually stop or significantly decrease breakage. These things will surely pay off. But despite being blind to the obvious cause for so long, I occurred to me in a flash that I see bits of my hair ends on my t-shirts every time I detangle my hair with my comb. And i don’t even use a seamless, wide toothed one! These tiny bits of hair I lose every single time I comb-detangle have stopped me from having long hair my whole life!!!!😖 Then came to me this wonderful saviour of a concept called finger detangling. As long as you’re gentle enough, there can be zero to almost no breakage. Discovered this just yesterday and have started doing this since this morning. ZERO BREAKAGE!!!! I mean ZERO….NADA!!! I’m super super excited that this practice can FINALLY help me achieve my hair goals. I’ll make sure to be as gentle as possible from my end while detangling.

Hey Nishka! Thanks for the lovely comment! And yes, finger detangling is the best 🙂 😀

Hi Anjana,

You have beautiful hair! 🙂 🙂
Mine is also 2c/3a hair type. My crown is flat and straight but gets curly frizzy and dry at the ends.
In your blog you said we shouldn’t comb dried hair. So does that mean I should never use comb? how to manage hair daily without combing at all?
And is it required to follow all the steps in your routine video? I mean the many products you used like gel styling products… isn’t it too many products for the hair during every wash?
As I mentioned my crown is flat and straight wont co washing make it more flat?

The wash day will ensure that hair stays good for the days between wash. Yes you should use all the products for the best results. Cowashing will make your crown more flat so opt for shampooing. You can also check this – https://www.curlsandbeautydiary.com/10-ways-prevent-crown-lying-flat-curls-roots/

👍
So you suggest not to comb at all.. Only use fingers to de-tangle whether wet or dry?

Yes

Hi!
My daughter got proper ringlet curls after her ‘mundan’. So I came across this whole CG way. Now even I chopped off my chemically straightened hair and embraced my curls. I don’t comb her or my hair when it’s dry. But I get asked that how will you get blood circulation on the scalp. Combing helps in blood circulation. I was at a loss as to how to answer. Can you answer this question for me?.
Thanks and regards.

You can either do scalp massages with your finger tips. If you do want to use a comb, check this https://www.curlsandbeautydiary.com/scalpshampoo-brush-shampooing-co-washing/

Hi Anjana
Your tips are really useful. Do they apply to curly hair which is too heavy and becomes a nest when the hair dries and if I leave it open?
So like I want to keep my hair open but I end up combing my wet hair and tying a not to avoid the aftermath when the hair dries.

Yes they do

Hi Anjana, I love your blog and I think it’s the only good resource I have to refer to how to take care of my wavy hair. I only comb my hair when it is wet after washing it and I wash my hair once a week. Since the last one month my hair has been falling a lot and I see huge clumps of hair in the shower after I wash them. My mother says that my hair is falling as I only comb them once a week so there is no blood circulation in the scalp. I was wondering is that true, can not combing my hair cause this sudden spate of hairfall? I have never lost SO much of hair and I’m really worried about it now. Should I start combing my hair regularly?

Hey Vidhi, I have addressed that concern in this post – Curly Hair FAQ

In case we cant comb or brush our hair, what should be done after getting up from sleep. How to tame them

Thanks for the prompt reply Anjana 🙂
Is it ok to finger comb them?
Also I have issue with my curls clumping a way too much. I would prefer separate curls but they curl in big chunks that also just from lower half. Upper hair is relatively very straight. Is there anything that can be done to separate them?

Nope finger combing on dry hair causes the same issues
For thinner curls, style on damp hair instead of wet hair and use lesser products. You can also try using a comb before applying the styling products

[…] matter what, avoid brushing your hair when it’s dry. This will break up the wave pattern, leaving your hair frizzy and your waves irregular. Try […]

question so if i have curly hair I should never brush then what am I suppose to do with it??

Hello Anjana! So during the 2 or 3 days that you don’t wash your hair … don’t you comb it at all? Do you always have it loose? What do you do with your hair when you go to the gym? . I want to start your hair care routine, but I am not used to having it loose, also in my work I can not have hair loose, is there any recommended way to tie or pick it up?

¡Oh wow!
Thanks, very muchs! 🤩

Hyy,, anjana love frm tamilnadu,,, u said not too use comb at all?? Even while hairstyling too?? … then its my doubt shud i left loose hair throught the day ,,or like tieing up?
Apart
ur awesome anjana ….ur blog meant me so…thank u 4 this worthfull articles which motivate to care my dead curls …and gona enhance with ur power i think…hope to get flawless alive curls like urs….once again thanking u …love

You can see how I do hairstyles without combing – https://www.curlsandbeautydiary.com/11-easy-everyday-hairstyles-curly-hair/

Hi Anjana, I’ve recently started detangling my hair in the shower post applying conditioner. But this disrupts my curl pattern and leaves me with frizzy, undefined curls after the shower despite scrunching. Earlier, I used to detangle it only once with oil (as pre-poo). Please advise?

Hi Malika, how is the hair now different from the hair with the earlier method – I mean with both there is shampooing and conditioner both of which will disrupt the curl pattern anyway?

Leave a Comment