Hiya Ladies,
How's everyone doing?! Hope well.
The other day I was moisturizing the back of my hair and felt a single strand knot(SSK) and was reminded of one of those Saturdays at the hub, there must have been about 5 or 6 NHCG readers that day, we were just chatting on and on about HAIR!lol then a lady called Chinedu(hey girl,where have you been!) brought up the issue of single strand knots, she was like how crazy is it that a hair strand just decides it is going to knot itself into the tightest, smallest knot making untangling impossible and forcing you to cut it off!
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As crazy as that sounds, that's what our hair does!! The curlier the hair, the more prone to SSKs it is that's why naturalistas tend to be the main bearers of this cross. But we relaxed/texlaxed folk deal with it also especially like I said if your hair is curlier or more textured and that's why I've noticed them more in the back area of my hair which is the kinkier, curlier fully texlaxed part of my hair.
So how do we deal with these darn knots....well we have to know the main cause so we can avoid aiding and abetting(Lawyer lingo :)
Dryness/Friction- think of your hair like a sponge or towel fibers, the drier it is the more likely it is to curl/ scrunch up and just a little friction, from clothes, the air, your hands can make it curl up so much it just knots and tangles up- as much as I'm trying to reason through this explanation, I'm as confused as you probably are as to why the knots are so perfect...but try it, rub your hand against a towel that has threads sticking out, you'll see knots form after sometime and you didn't knot them, the dryness and friction did!
So now we know the cause what can we do to prevent them;
SSK's usually happen around the last 4/3 inches of your hair strand so it will help if you take the extra pains to reapply a sealant like oils or Shea butter to those very ends especially if you are prone to dryness.
Avoid allowing your hair deal with any kind of friction like rubbing against clothes, leaving it out in rough air, hand in air syndrome( note to self), all these cause even more dryness that lead to SSKs.
Protect your hair while you sleep with a (Savvy Chic luxury satin sleep cap-*wide grin*). I think the fastest way to get SSK's is from sleeping! All the rubbing that takes place as you toss and turn on your regular cotton sheets without your hair covered will do you no good, by the morning, even if you moisturized and sealed before bedtime, your hair will be back to square 1- dry tangled hair! Especially if you sleep with air conditioning.
Finally, get your ends trimmed, those untrimmed mostly split ends are the biggest culprits for SSKs, I got an inch of my ends trimmed off yesterday to prevent SSKs because as I stated, once you get those knots, you have no choice but to cut your hair off at the knot and as tempting as it will be, please don't just snag them off with your fingers, use hair cutting shears and snip right above the knot.
With that this post is complete and will hopefully help those out there dealing with this issue, remember, the culprits are dryness and friction.
In other news, I texlaxed my hair and will be coming at you ladies with an update post tomorrow, I've had a major revelation and can't believe I'm just noticing it!! Have a great weekend ladies, for those in Lagos, stop by the hub let's gist hair and everything in between :), I'll be there for a few hours today!
Xxx
Dabs
