How to Untangle Matted Hair Fast [The Right Way]

If you wish to untangle matted hair fast, this might help. Long hair, as with many hair types, has both benefits and disadvantages. It enhances our beauty, looks excellent when floating in the air. It can be easy to straighten, easy to dye, and can also be curled. Unfortunately, it is also easy to damage.

How to Untangle Your Matted Hair?

Detangling your matted hair, whether it is curly, has coils or is kinky, can be painful and uncomfortable. It requires proper care and patience. If not, you may end up causing more harm than good to your matted hair.

Matted hair can happen to any of us, even if you try and avoid it. Admittedly, it can be very embarrassing to have your hair tangling out at parties and events. Knowing how to untangle your matted hair fast removes that insecurity.

Although most people may decide to cut the matted hair or even try out an expensive hairdresser to repair their tangled hair, the good news is, you can fix your hair at home with a few simple tricks and the correct products. Fixing your hair does not have to be expensive and tedious.

Before you try and start untangling your matted hair, it’s essential to know what caused your hair to tangle.

There are many reasons why your hair can tangle; although it can be naturally tangled, your hair matting is caused by dryness using harmful products, dirty hair, and exposing your untied hair to humidity and wind for too long.

The way you treat your hair can go a long way. If your hair gets matted frequently, it can be a sign to get a trim. Damaged hair will easily tangle and matt.

Detangling your hair, especially naturally curly hair, should be done carefully, although it can be overwhelming. The more often you choose to untangle your hair, the easier it would be to comb through it.

I have compiled a few of the simplest methods that you can try to untangle your matted hair fast.

Hair Treatments & Oils

Step 1: Choose a hair product

Although using an ordinary conditioner is the right choice, if your hair has severely matted, you will need to choose another treatment. Deep stay-in conditioners are efficient at returning moisture to your hair.

These conditioners make it easy for your hair to be untangled. Using hair oils like coconut oil, Moroccan argan oil, or olive oil can help you easily remove your matted hair. These oils are particularly useful for afro-textured hair.

Not everybody likes the feel of oil in their hair. To avoid the uncomfortable feeling, I recommend using a hair detangling spray.

Top tip: While few people use mayonnaise to condition their matted hair, the mayonnaise may cause their hair to smell and is not as effective as other detangling conditioners.

Step 2: Moderately wet your hair

Hair treatments are more useful when they are applied on damp hair. To dampen your hair, spray your hair with water or hold your hair under the shower or a sink at low water pressure for a short time.

If you allow your hair to become dripping wet before you apply your hair treatment, it may let your hair be prone to breakage.

Step 3: Rub the treatment into your hair.

When you find the ideal treatment that suits your hair type, Apply at least a handful of the product, thoroughly to all areas of your hair, ensure you don’t miss out on the ends. For long hair that has grown past your shoulder, you can use two handfuls of the treatment.

Top tip: To prevent your hair from tangling even further, apply the treatment into each part of your hair separately, instead of applying through your entire scalp at once.

Step 4: Wait while the treatment works on your hair.

If you choose to use an ordinary conditioner, it will moisturize your hair within a few minutes. However, coconut oil, olive oil, and other oils should be left in your hair for about 30 minutes for the best result; the oils should not be issued for longer than 2 hours.

When you use deep conditioners, check the label for the specific instructions on how they should be used, although most deep conditions should be left for an hour.

To speed up the process of the conditioner and keep your hair out of the way, you can wear a shower cap. Wearing a tight hat over the plastic cap can also help speed up the process.

Top tip: For severely matted hair, I recommend leaving the deep conditioners overnight.

Step 5: Untangle the simplest knots with your fingers.

After leaving your hair treatment for the specified time, it would have started to produce results. Try and carefully untangle the disordered regions in your hair. Large knots and small mats can most times be reduced into separate, shorter bonds.

Ensure you disentangle from the tip to the root of the hair. Untangling matted hair can be fast, but also requires patience although you may not be able to untangle all your matted hair in this process successfully. When you feel too much pain, I recommend you stop and start in a new spot.

Detangling Brush & Scissors

Step 1: Using Combs and detangling brush

Combing can be very painful if it is not done carefully. Always use a large and wide-toothed comb. A comb with strong and broad teeth is efficient in combing out severe mats. Using small combs and brushes will meet too much opposition, and combing will be painful. Small combs can remove out chunks of hair, or make you stop brushing entirely.

Top Tip: I recommend you choose a comb with moderately spaced teeth (not too wide and not too small to efficiently detangle hair without missing out tiny knots.

Step 2: Comb out the ends first.

When you start combing your hair, ensure you start from the ends and work your way up to the root of your hair. By placing the comb a few inches away from the end of your matted hair, it would make detangling less painful and faster.

Comb separate sections of your hair you’re your hair is completely untangled then start with another part. For long and extremely thick hair, it can take over an hour.

Top tip: Holding your hair high up prevents pain. In case your scalp is extra sensitive; ensure you hold sections of your hair as you comb it.

Step 3: Thin out stubborn mats with scissors.

Despite all your tricks, some mats can be very stubborn and will make it impossible to untangle. For these severe mats, you may need to trim them out.

To trim out these mats, hold your hair up and with a pair of scissors, cut along the underneath of the matt, and then gently shake your hair to remove the cut strands.

Top tip: If you try detangling your hair for several hours without seeing results, this can be because you have not combed your hair in many months. The solution may be to trim out all the mats.

Step 4: Finish your detangled hair with a fine-toothed comb or brush.

Straightening your matted hair with a wide-toothed comb will remove severe mats, but some smaller mats can slip through. Switching to a small-toothed comb or a detangling brush will get rid of any little tangles that stay behind.

Step 5: Rinse your hair.

Once you completely untangle your hair, rinse out the hair treatment to give your hair a healthy shine and look.

Top tip: If you have incredibly curly hair, I recommend separating your hair into sections before rinsing to avoid tangling during rinsing.

How to Prevent Your Hair from Matting

Now that you have successfully untangled your hair, it is vital that you know the steps you should follow to prevent it from happening again.

Leave-in conditioner

Using Leave-in conditioners keep your hair moisturized for long periods and help to minimize the fraying that happens when your hair is dry.
Make sure you comb your hair when it is damp, but not dripping wet. When your hair is too dry, it can break easily and may be too painful to comb. If your hair is too wet, it becomes extremely fragile and combing it can cause it to fall out.
The perfect humidity for your hair is when it is damp, immediately after coming after the shower, dry your hair to make it damp but not soaking wet.

Put your hair in a bun before you sleep.

Not everybody can sleep and wake up in precisely the same position, if you notice you wake up with your hair already tangled, you could put your hair in a bun. Alternatively, braiding your hair before bed can reduce the tangling.

Conclusion

Taking proper care of your hair is one of the best methods to prevent your hair from tangling. When you want to detangle your hair, to reduce pain, start with your tip and work up to the root of your hair.

The more tangled your the hair is, the longer it will require to untangle. Taking time to ensure your hair is free from tangles every day will reduce the risk of your hair from matting completely.

How to Untangle Matted Hair Fast