Hey there kinky krew 🙂

So I’ve been on the hunt for the magic tool that will help me to quickly and easily detangle my thick, coarse, 4b/4c hair with minimal shedding! So I just wanted to tell you guys about my experiences I had detangling with the Tangle Teaser and Denman Brush.

If you’ve been keeping up with my blog you’d know that I’m trying to retain as much length as possible so I can reach armpit length when I do my first flat iron at the end of December. To achieve this goal I’ve been trying my best not to use any combs or brushes in my hair unless it is wash day. So I pretty much do a thorough detangle on the day I wash my hair and not touch it for the remainder of that week (or 2 weeks, depending on how long I go). Previous to me deciding to try out the Denman and tangle teezer I used a shower comb, which has worked perfectly fine for me, I just honestly wanted to see what all the hype was about and if maybe I could find a tool that would work wonders for me. (We all would love to spend less time detangling, right? Lol) So I said why not. I went out to my local BSS and picked up a tangle teaser, I didn’t really do any research on the brush but I knew I had heard of some naturals using it and I wanted to give it a shot. Wash day came and i’m ready to cowash and style my hair for the week. I co-wash until my hair is cleansed, then applied a generous amount of my detangling conditioner ( I think it was just my Crème of Nature conditioner I had in the shower). I split my hair into sections and begin working my way up starting from the ends of my hair. The brush was a bit difficult to grip with all of the product on the handle of the brush and on my hands, making it a bit slippery. I also noticed the bristles were very short…too short. The stubby bristles kept getting caught in my hair because of how coily it is. I would try to make my way through but it would just stop abruptly unable to make its way through. The amount of bristles on the brush was a major downfall to this brush as well. A brush like this may work with straight hair but with that many bristles, you have no control during the detangling process, which you need when your hair is that tightly coiled. It was just too much for my hair to handle especially in its wet fragile state. (I ended up giving up because I’m trying to grow hair, not pull it out. Lol.) I would not recommend the tangle teezer to girls with a curl pattern of mostly 4c. From my experience, we will actually end up pulling out more hair than what is necessary.

Now the Denman brush is something you all probably know and have heard several naturalistas in the natural hair community rave about for quite awhile now. I was honestly very excited to try this brush but I’m not going to lie…I was a little apprehensive. Don’t get me wrong I’ve heard all sorts of wonderful things about this detangling brush…it defines, detangles, makes your curls pop-lock and drop it—I’ve heard it all! But… this was mainly from the mouths of girls with much looser curl patterns than my own. What about us kinky hair girls? I’ve never heard a girl of a coarser texture speak on the Denman brush saying it was a part of her regimen. So once I realized that I really wanted to give it a try and share my thoughts on it. (Maybe we were missing out on something and didn’t know it lol). I used the denman brush outside the shower on wet hair (I did this mainly because I wanted to watch what I was doing in the mirror, I didn’t want to pull out any unnecessary hair). With my hair in sections, I applied my leave-ins and began detangling. (I was using about medium sized sections.) I worked my way up from the ends per usual and I thought since the bristles were longer and farther apart that it would allow my coils to make their way through more easily, but that wasn’t really the case. (UGH) It was still ripping through my hair causing hair to be pulled. Thinking maybe I was just being rough or doing something wrong, I tried going really, really, slowly but nothing seemed to work. In fear of ripping my hair out I ended up putting it in my drawer next to my tangle teezer and finishing the job with my trusty shower comb. However, through trial and error I did notice if I worked in extremely small sections (like if I was doing a perm or flexi rod set) it seemed to work better but the goal was to cut down on detangling time not spend hours using this brush. My overall thoughts are if you’re a girl with a more tightly coiled curl pattern I suggest you don’t use any type of brush to detangle on wet or damp hair. Use your fingers as much as you can and for those stubborn areas use a shower comb. You’re only working with about 4 or 5 prongs making it easier to glide through your hair, which is minimizing the friction and pulling. I gave it a shot and I will most likely not be using these brushes again unless I’m doing some type of rod set were I’m working in smaller sections.

Have you guys ever tried out the Denman Brush or Tangle Teaser? What were your experiences? Share them down below!