Top 10 Detangling Tips for Length Retention

Last updated on June 30th, 2025 at 12:28 pm

How you detangle your natural hair will determine if you achieve length retention or hair breakage. Below you’ll find my top 10 tips for detangling to retain length on natural hair when you are removing shed hairs and tangles.

Let’s face it. Detangling your hair can be a chore. Sometimes you just don’t wanna! But…it’s inevitable. You have to let down your mane and get to detangling and removing shed hair.

If you never detangled your hair, eventually it would just dred up. I’m not an expert on locs but I think the only reason you wouldn’t want to detangle your hair is because you actually want it to loc up.

At any rate, let’s assume length retention is your goal. Hence the title of this post!

There are some tips that can help you with length retention when you are detangling your hair. Like to read them? Here they go:

1. Detangle in sections. Don’t try to remove all the tangles from your hair in one fell swoop. Section your hair in 4-6 (depending on the density), clipping each section out of the way and then work through each section methodically and carefully to remove tangles. If you have longer hair, it may be necessary to create more sections.
   
2. After detangling a section, twist or braid it up and then clip it out of the way so that the section does not get re-tangled.
   
3. Detangle on damp – not wet hair (unless you are using the shower stream as an aid, and even then, you need to be careful) because your hair is stretching, making it prone to breakage.
   
4. If dry detangling, always use a lubricating oil to allow for the free flowing movement of your strands. However, detangling in the shower is the best way to detangle and retain length.
   
5. Finger detangling is preferred for fine hair or hair that’s prone to breaking. You can feel the tangles in your hair with your fingers –  not so much with a comb. A comb will rip through your strands before you have a chance to remove the tangle. So, start detangling with your fingers before moving on to using a wide tooth comb or detangling brush.
   
6. Detangle from the bottom up when using a comb (a large tooth comb). When using your fingers, you can detangle some at the roots if that’s where your hair is most prone to tangling.
   
7. A combination of oil/conditioner works well on detangling dry hair, but again in the shower with conditioner is best. Dry detangling is only better if you’ve had your hair in a long term protective style and need to remove the shed hairs before allowing water to hit it.
   
8. Detangle when you pre-poo. You’ll be prepping your hair and detangling it in one step, cutting down on manipulation, which leads to unnecessary breakage (like any breakage is necessary!)
   
9. Never detangle when you’re in a hurry. If you’re in a rush, you’ll try to do it quickly (ultimately causing breakage from rough handling). Some detangling sessions can take upwards of an hour.
   
10. Keep a pair of scissors handy that you use only for trimming/cutting your hair. If you come across an SSK (single strand knot), clip it out. You can try to manipulate the tangle out, but if it’s in good and tight, you can cause more harm than good to the surrounding hairs by trying to remove it. It’s best to just snip it out. Notice, I said snip, not pop 🙂

Stretching Natural Hair to Retain Length

BONUS TIP: Keep your natural hair stretched and you’l reduce the amount of tangling that occurs. Less tangles will provide less opportunity for breakage.

Here are some additional articles about stretching natural hair that you’ll find useful:

• Best Practices for Stretching Kinky Hair
• 3 Best Methods to Stretch Fine Natural Hair
• Banding Method: How to Safely Stretch Natural Hair

Detangling is the favorite part of my hair routine (just kidding). It’s a necessary step in any hair care care regimen. During the process, you can quickly evaluate the condition your hair is in.

Does it feel dry? Do you feel lots of little balls on the ends or along the hair shaft? When you’re detangling, it’s the perfect time to determine if your hair needs further treatments or trimming.

Putting a little extra effort into detangling your hair will help you retain some of your precious length. If that’s your goal, these 10 tips can help.

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