Hair Care... Ok any suggestions other than chopping it all off?

Mine too, is at about my waist, I only cut it when It get to where I may be sitting on it...I use conditioner, If you don't shower in the morning, then get a spray bottle and get it damp then add a spray leave in conditioner, this will help those knots settle, and leave your hair silky,...Then you'll never want to cut it, you can do so much more, and it's quicker, During the week I either braid, or just clip it up..On weekends (I have a spiral perm) I leave it down.. Just add gel, scrunch and go.. I love it...AND So does my husband!!!!!

I have always preferred my hair long, I did go for a trim one time and it has been 6 years and I am still not over it, since the trim which to me means trim an inch or less to get rid of the ends which helps hair grow and keeps it healthy. The person who did the trim was not as much of a professional as they thought. Since this hair dressers trim was take off 7 inches. I was very upset. Since then I rarely get the ends trimmed, but it is time, I have avoided this and actually did it myself. The problem is I do use conditioner, if I braid when I sleep my hair knots up, and sometimes not always when I leave it down when I sleep I get these terrible knots, I can only assume that since it doesn't happen all the time this is due to my being more restless. This is when I leave it down when I sleep. If I braid it to sleep I get knots 100 percent of the time. So how do I get the knots out the problem is I have one now that starts at about half inch or less from scalp, and goes to nearly the end which means middle of my back and goes from one side of the back of my head to the other. I realize this is not one knot but a series of knots. I made sure to brush my hair out last night to help avoid this problem but periodically it happens. I have begun using a kids shampoo specifically for tangles and that was helping until this past week when I had to go back to shampoo and conditioner because I was out of the detangle shampoo, and couldn't find it in the store I was in. So now I have been gradually working on my hair all day, in between looking for a runaway dog. I am ready to scream my head hurts so much. I have taken care of the left side but the right side still needs to be done, and I know if I don't take care of it it will only get worse. I didn't used to have this problem I have been slowly trimming my hair from when I lived with in laws they use well water, and it wasn't until after I moved out that I learned my father in law stopped using water softener, the hard water destroyed my hair. I am still waiting for some of it to grow out and I am going to have to give in and cut it shorter than I want to in order to help this along, because the part of my hair that has grown since then is getting damanged from the problems I am having with the part of my hair that was washed for months in the hard water.

Try adding just a little borax to the water you wash your hair in. This is a water softener and should fix problems caused by hard water. lol

I have never tried mayo but when I lived in Alberta I found that olive oil helped my hair in the winter. A small amount at night, wear a cap to bed, wash out in the morning. I have easy to damage hair due to the curls so I have tried a lot of stuff on my hair. Aveda seems to be the best for me, expensive however.

I hear mayo makes a great monthly conditioner.. Though I have never used it on me, I tried it on my daughter (she's 2), this dry winter air is really taking a toll on her baby fine hair..It really did help to cut down the frizz factor.

The conditioner seems like great advice for preventative, however that is not what I am talking about, how do I get the knots out when they are there?

PS I promise not to laugh at the thought of you walking round the house with mayo on your head! This isn't a spoof by the way - it really does work. I'm using it to grow out the baldy look!

I have heard of the mayo as conditioner I just didn't know it could be applied directly to knots as well, to help loosen them before combing. I actually thought you were going to say you promised not to laugh at the cartoon doo, of putting the hair bands first at top of head, then working way down, I will try that it is a good suggestion. Thanks. I appreciate the comments and suggestions. It has been years since I had these kinds of problems, actually onces I stopped using blow dryers, my hair does not look thick because it is so fine, wispy fine, but there is a lot of it, because while the top laywer will dry if I don't sit in the sun in the yard during the warmest parts of the afternoon in the summer to dry my hair, it can take a good 8 hours or more to dry naturally. I am not in the least bit concerned about walking around with gobs of mayo in my hair, I don't think the dogs will laugh at me but the one may try to snack on me LOL. Ahh he is a goof and easily distracted so it should be ok. Thanks again for the help and the suggestions.

I appreciate the suggestion, I finally gave in and cut a chunk of it out, after a couple of days of working on it, and doing this for hours each day making sure I didn't retangle what was detangled. I didn't go to a salon unfortunately I can't seem to find a hair dresser who grasps the concept of trim, they all want to cut my hair the way they want it to be rather than what I like, This is a bother because I do like to get it trimmed and shaped properly but have had to settle for just having the ends trimmed by family member.

Ok that is how to prevent. the question is how do I get the knots out to start with? I need an easier way to get a HUGH clump knot out of my hair other than spending hours yes HOURS working on it with a detangling comb, my fingers and a fine tooth comb. I am aware of the issues split ends can cause and aware that they need to be trimmed regularly which I have begun doing, and recently did trim the split ends. I do not think that split ends caused this knot since the knot starts to high up on my head the last five inches at the end are not in a knot, the inch closest to the scalp are not in a knot. I know I slept restlessly last night but dang. this is ridiculous. I mentioned in reply to others some things I have done to work on this, and what seems to work and what doesn't.

Thanks, I can't blow dry my hair, I haven't used a blow dryer on my hair in years, hmm lets see, yikes maybe even 20 years or more, because it is so very fine, that a blow dryer destroys it instantly and knots it to bad. I don't have curls, so I don't need to straigten my hair. I haven't had these kinds of knots in years, so it is just driving me nuts.