Although this is a common complaint in the natural hair community, I’ve never written about single strand knots because I’ve never really had them.
Until now.
For some strange reason, I have had an insane amount of single strand knots ever since I took down my crochet braids. It’s really strange because my hair was lightly blown out and trimmed right before it was cornrowed away, so I should have taken down my protective style to reveal a healthy set of ends. However, my ends looked crazier than they’ve ever looked in their life, causing me to:
1. Question the quality of my trim
2. Question the quality of my wash process once I took my crochet braids down
3. Not chicken out of my scheduled haircut
Anyway, now that they became a real thing for me – or at least were before I cut my hair a few days ago – I figured I’d share about ways to address single strand knots if you end up with the unfortunate luck of having them as well.
1. Keep Those Ends Slick and Sleek
I’m sure many of you know you’re supposed to seal your moisturizer with an oil, and scalp massages with oil can help keep your edges healthy. But focusing on oiling your ends, which are the oldest part of your hair, can help reduce single strand knots. Anytime you set your hair in braids or twists, take a bit of oil and really work it through the end of the braid/twist right before you finish it up, smoothing your ends down and working through any knots.
2. Stretch It Out
As stated above, regularly stretching your hair via braids, twists, threading, bantu knots, or rods can help alleviate a plague of single strand knots, which are more likely to form when your hair shrinks up on itself and tangles.
3. Detangle Gently
The quickest way to get your hair all knotted up – and this is counterintuitive so pay attention – is to fervently go at it with a comb or brush in the name of detangling. Harsh detangling aggravates your hair strands, and they will proceed to rebel and tangle upon themselves. Which might even be worse than the potential snap, crackle, and pop that you’re gonna hear if you keep dragging your Denman brush through your fro.
4. When In Doubt, Trim
I know someone just read that and thought, “oh snap that’s why she cut her hair”. Nah girl. #ByeFelicia. But really, if you’ve been dealing with single strand knots for some time and it seems that absolutely nothing is working, you might want to go on ahead and book a hair appointment for a trim of at least an inch of your hair. IT WILL GROW BACK, and much healthier too. Just be sure once you have a clean slate of ends that you take care of them in the above ways to prevent and treat single strand knots.
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