"Fairy Knots" Anyone????


Reader *Denise* wrote in and asked me

"hey milan!

quest... hair strands in the back have knots on them. always toward the end of the shaft. i'm thinking that it is due to some trauma sustained. don't know what it is called or if i should take some action? do you know anything about this?"


Have you looked at your hair and noticed little knots at the ends? Those are called "fairy knots". As your hair grows out of the TWA stage, your koils n kurls may start to tangle on themselves creating these little buggers at the very ends.

Make sure you are keeping your hair moisturizized, moisturized, moisturized! This is sooo important and can help lessen them. It's best to do a moisturizing condition at least once every week (or two weeks) and moisturize your hair daily if you have to.

SOLUTIONS:

1) Cut them out-you can try to detangle them GENTLY with your fingers but it's not worth it, to me. A lot of the times you just end up damaging and splitting the cuticle so it's going to need to be cut after that anyway. But it's your call. If you want to try to untangle them, go for it. Just make sure the hair is softened with conditioner or oil first. I cut them out with hair shears (it's basically dusting your ends) and keep it moving.

2) Wear hairstyles that either stretch out your hair, like braid outs or twist outs, or wear hairstyles that don't leave your ends exposed

Employing #2 and keeping my hair moisturized keeps my knots to a minimum and I now see a lot less of them.

Black Girl Long Hair did a fabulous article (and probably answered this in better detail than I did) on this issue as well. Click here to check out the article.

Please note, nothing I'm saying is law. This is what works for me and other naturals that I have learned from. In the end, you must do what works best for your hair.

Happy Hair Growing!

Comments

Unknown said…
I'm unfortunately starting to get these annoying things... :( I do plan on wearing less wash'n'go styles just because of the weather so hopefully that should help keep these at a minimum!
Milan said…
Yeah, it's "growing pains". LOL.