#1 Comb in Reverse
One of the first things I learned at the Maria Madora long hair salon in NYC was about combing.
I was already using wide tooth combs but I would always start at the root of the hair and work my way down with the knots all collecting as I went down the hair. This ultimately collected all the knots near the ends and broke off a lot of those hair ends. This in fact guaranteed that my hair would stay short. The hair would grow at the root and I would break of about the same length at the bottom through this combing processes.
At the salon they pointed out 2 things: 1) the comb really mattered and 2) how I combined could make a huge impact
1.1 ) Combs:
Most combs are made with a small ridge in the inside of the teeth because of the molds used to make them. These ridges on the inside of the combs scrape against the hair, tearing it, snagging it and breaking it. You can either Click Here to order the same combs I use ( #59 and #116 ) or get a wood or metal combs that have smooth teeth with no ridges in them. The comb should have wide teeth. No find teeth combs to be used at all for detangling and styling
1.2) Brushes:
Get a natural boars bristle brush for final touches. The brush is not to be used for detangling. We are NOT going to be doing the 100 brush stokes to move the oils from the root to the ends. My hair is very thin, fine and breaks easily at this time so minimal brushing will be done.
1.3) Finger Combing:
This is my primary method of combing my hair. its very short now, about 4- 6 inches long and runing the fingers though it is enough.
2) Comb in Reverse
this was the single most important thing that I learned at the Salon. a) hold the hair near the ends, comb down from the hand hold to the ends. then move had up about an inch and comb this next section. Keep moving up an inch or so at a time until you get to the root. this leads to the least breakage, pulling and knotting. very little hair shedding and loss as compared to combing from the root first. If you only to this you will see a big difference over time.
Evelyn Rosa 