Long Hair Emergency of Sorts

[MissJessicaMary]

Last night I did a photo shoot which included the hair stylist backcombing/teasing my hair. My hair is very long (about 2.5 feet) and thin stranded. It already breaks easily. Thankfully she only needed to do the front sides and only went about halfway down my hair, but I am having the hardest timing getting it out without destroying my hair.

I washed it thoroughly last night to remove everything that was in my hair, which included ash and hair spray so combing through it before washing was not going to happen. I also generously conditioned it both with my regular conditioner, plus two deeper conditioners. Once it was dry I tried to comb through small section starting at the end with a very wide tooth comb and using my fingers to pick out the snags. After a few minutes I realized some of it was not dry and decided to wait until today.

This morning I tried to pick through it once again and discovered that some of the ash and hairspray was still in at least part of it so I have now rewashed it, conditioned it, sectioned it very carefully in the shower up to my scalp and am wait for it to completely dry before I touch it again. It seemed that I got more of it out, but I will not know for sure until I start trying to pick the rest of it out.

Is there a better way to do this if, God forbid, it happens again? Is there anything more I should do now before it dries? Is there some product I can apply to my hair before photoshoots requiring teasing that will style allow them to style but maybe protect my hair a little bit?

 

[Hellocat4]

My hair is long & porous. I always comb it while wet to prevent breakage and it makes snarls easier to undo.

 

[MissJessicaMary]

That is really interesting because every time I try to comb my hair when it is wet it stretches, snarls, and breaks. I know my hair is apparently not very porous, but I wonder if that would make such a difference?
 

 

[zadidoll]

Always brush your hair first before washing your hair, this will help eliminate any knots and tangles in your hair and remove any loose hair. When washing your hair you can use a wide tooth comb on wet hair with a conditioner but never use any other type of comb because it's not meant for wet hair.

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I think in your case that if you can brush your hair before hand then do so, you can always wash your hair brush after. Normally I would NEVER say use a dish soap but if your hair has something foreign like ash then as a preliminary wash I would say try it first then wash as you normally would. Dish soap will dry out your hair if you use it often but in your case because you had something weird in your hair that obviously didn't come out with normal shampoo then maybe something more drastic is needed. Just don't use one with bleach in it or peroxide, normal liquid dish soap would be better.