Two combing techiques used for curly hair

Clearing a path

It helps to have an image in mind of what's happening with your tangles. If you have a game plan, you'll be able to figure out what approach to take when clearing out a tangle. Otherwise, combing is a chaotic, frustrating process, and the goal becomes a rush to rip through your hair as quickly as possible.

The most constructive way I've found to view tangles and plan to get them out is to imagine that they're solid objects that need to be moved through a heavily wooded path. You have to clear the path before an object can make its way through. If the path isn't clear, then the tangle you try to move out will only jam into the other tangles blocking its exit. This will create a tangle-jam. If an entire section is tangled, as it usually will be - this is in the nature of our curls - start from the ends and clear an opening path. From there, you'll move out tangles inch by inch, one by one.

Start by combing your ends. Then move up a little, comb the next tangled section out to the ends, and imagine releasing the tangle from the ends of your hair. Now that the path has been cleared, go up a little farther in the section. Comb this tangle down to the path and out the ends. Make your way up the section. All the while, use the Pinch Grip and the Twist Pinch.

Beads on a string

Your genes traded ease of combing for volume and your rich hair texture. You simply can't run a comb from the top of your hair to the bottom in one swift motion. This is a property of curly hair. Instead, it's best to move your comb in overlapping steps, to slide your tangles out like pearls on a string.

If your hair is long, you can remove tangles in stages. This is like sliding all the pearls from the top of a long string to the middle, and then moving them from the middle out to the ends. This saves you the effort of moving every bead from the very top to the bottom, one by one. First, make sure that you've combed out the immediate area where the tangles will be moved into. Move tangles down from your scalp to the middle of the section of hair you're working on, one by one. Then work tangles from the middle out to the ends, sliding them off the bottom, one by one. You're finished with a section when you move out that last tangle. For very curly hair, the difference between combed and not yet combed will be obvious. Hair combed with conditioner is slick and smooth, while hair yet to be combed will be puffy or snarled.

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