Brushing vs spreading sebum

[Nightingale]

I currently use a bbb when I start to notice that my hair is getting greasy, in an attempt to spread the sebum to my drier length, which works well. However, I have heard conflicting opinions on whether or not bbbs are damaging to hair, especially to wurly hair such as mine. Therefore I am wondering:

How do non-brushers spread the sebum to their length without a bbb?

I would like to try a new method.

TIA :cloppy:

[Lamb]

Depending on how wurly your hair is, you could use a wooden quill brush (the Body Shop makes one which is great!) or your fingers. I am a F/ii/3a and the wooden brush works *sometimes*, more often it is a frizz-hazard esp. as my hair is getting longer. I wouldn't touch my head with a BBB if you paid me! :grim: Not worth the breakage.

[Unnamed]

For me (not a wurly--1a): I don't even try. I just put make sure the length gets more conditioner and, recently, I've sort of forced my hair into liking jojoba oil.

(For why I don't: I have a very oily scalp--and can be an oil slick to BSL if I 'touch', so, yes, fingers do spread oil--and a BBB just makes *all* my hair oily, plus my hair doesn't mix well with brushes due to the fineness (ie, breakage).)

This is more just speculation, but I *think* that perhaps a horn comb would somewhat help spread the sebum a little? After that, perhaps a wood comb? I've never had either of these, though...worrying that it'd spread too well and my scalp would make more oil like it does for a BBB has kept me from getting a horn come, actually! so I'm curious what others' experiences on this are.

[Naluin]

I use my fingers to preen. I slide my fingers into my hair along the hairline and massage my scalp a bit to transfer the sebum from my scalp to my finger tips. Then I slide my fingers along the length of my hair to transfer sebum from my fingers to the length.

Rosa.Damescena on LHC had a great description of how to do this on the NW thread. Maybe some of folks from that thread will stop in and elaborate.

FWIW, I'm a 3c/4a. I don't brush and I only comb my hair when it's wet. Everything else results in breakage for me.

HTH!

[GlennaGirl]

Me too...I use my fingers. I have to do it quite a few times to really feel like I'm spreading stuff around, but that in itself feels good. It's a nice scalp massage and as I get past the scalp and heading toward the ends, I get much more gentle, just to make sure I'm not pulling too hard/causing damage.

[blondecat]

I'm lazy I use a wide toothed Brush from Conair

[freznow]

Fingers and horn/wood combs here! I'm a straighty but for some reason I find brushes damaging (perhaps that'd change with an MP, perhaps not) But preening and natural combs work really well for me.

[Katze]

I can't spread my sebum - brush or fingers - without making my hair greasy and lank and my scalp itchy. Scalp massage doesn't work at ALL for me.

Every couple of weeks I WO wash, and there I massage my scalp under the shower, moving the sebum down the length. Other than that I just can't afford the extra grease or itchiness!

[Chamomile betty]

I use a wide too comb. My wavy/curly hair cannot handle a brush. I also use my fingers at times. Experiment, and see what method works best for you.

[Nightingale]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I have tried the preening before, which does work, though not as effectively/takes very long and I am lazy! But I will give it another go. I'm a little confused as to how combs will spread the sebum...does it stick to the comb and then get distributed? If its a wide tooth, does that work less well? I like the way how with just a few strokes I can really feel like my length is so much softer and sharing in the oil wealth. ::sigh:: I guess we have to give up our bad habits sometime. :ooh:

[GreenerPastures]

I can't use a bbb because I heard my hair break too many times, so now I just use my fingers (I use Snowy's Massage Technique). But since it makes me pretty greasy I usually only do it the night before my wash days. Ooh! that's tonight! ::runs off to go massage::

[Nightingale]

Snowy's massage technique...I must look this up. Thank goodness for those cached pages!

[Messyhair]

I've never seen a reason to spread the oil around my length. When my scalp is grossly oily, I just wash it. I tried using a BBB in the beginning so I wouldn't have to wash as often, but it didn't spread the oil. Instead it just slicked down the hair closest to my head so that I had no body or volume. :ooh: So no benefit, plus negative equals no more BBB for me. :happy:

[Nightingale]

I like to spread the oil to make my length less dry. Especially as I get greasier, the length seems to get drier as well. So in the morning before I put it up in a bun, or before I got to bed, I like to spread some of the sebum to the drier parts. I wouldn't brush it and then wear it down, though, because, just as you said, it does make it flatter at the top and weighed down.

[aisling]

Messyhair, I'm with you here! When my scalp is greasy, I take it as a hint to wash my hair, not try to spread the grease around, which doesn't work very well either. My sebum likes my roots, period.

To prevent the length from getting dry, I add coconut oil to my wet/damp hair after washing. That works better anyway, I'm not sure how long I'd have to wait for my sticky sembum tp move down all the way to the ends of my close to tailbone hair. Since it's also fine, I think the risk of damage would be too big as well if I tried to move the sebum with a brush or even a comb, I'd have to handle my hair too much to achieve the desired result.

[Anje]

I want to figure out a better technique for preening, myself. I tend to end up creating tangles and pulling hairs out when I try Snowy's technique, so for now I've gone back to the BBB, even though I have soemthing of a love-hate relationship with the thing. My horn combs don't seem to spread oil much.

I'd really like to get sebum to my ends, but it seems hard to convince it to go. It seems to wear off faster than I can move it down, so I supplement with coconut oil.

[Ursula]

I find trying to spread (naturally produced) oil down my hair to be a waste of time.

First, because my hair is long enough that, however much I try, oil won't make it to the ends. I might be able to work it down to shoulder or BSL length - but the ends that need the oil most, down by my hips, aren't touched.

Second, because I've found that sebum is not particularly nice for my hair. It tends to leave my hair stiffer than if I use my general combination of oils, CO washing, leave-in conditioners, etc.

Third, by the time my hair is oily enough for this to be worthwhile, it has been several days since my last wash. Which means that there are a lot of shed hairs on my head that haven't fallen away yet, and trying to brush or otherwise manipulate my hair to spread the oil would encourage tangles.

[Sibylla]

I guess Iīm the odd one out..I use a BBB. It makes my hair much thicker and gives it volume. Iīm blessed with super thick hair and I have 0 split ends. I can imagine that curly or thin hair can benefit from using fingers or SMT.I donīt know. I only know the big difference it does to my hair and it is big.

I often think about the comparison with a horses tail:

Have you ever seen a horse who hasnīt been brushed at all compared to a horse with a brushed tail?Itīs a huge differens in thickness,shine and texture.

[Ursula]

Sibylla,

The problem for brushing, with curly hair, is not damage, but that it pulls apart the curls - which look best being left in defined locks. So if you brush curly hair, you wind up with an extraordinary case of frizz. The same thing happens, to a lesser extent, with preening, or scalp massage.

Fine hair (in the sense that individual hairs have a narrower diameter than medium or coarse hair) suffers from these techniques because it is more prone to damage from friction of any sort.

****

Does anyone else here feel as if they are working blind without having hair-type information available with the personal information for each post?

[cobblersmaid]

Yeah, I still find myself glancing for it when I read posts.

[Nightingale]

Does anyone else here feel as if they are working blind without having hair-type information available with the personal information for each post?

I was just thinking that! Maybe we could all put it in our signatures?

I tried Snowy's massage technique while I was watching Lost last night, which was appropriate because it took a long time! It felt really good though, also like I was getting a lot of flakes loose (which I have a problem with :blush:) Like others said earlier, the sebum didn't make it to the ends that needed it the most. I do use coconut oil, but I really like the way the bbb makes the length softer and not as greasy as when I use coconut oil. Because when I oil, I feel like I need to use a lot otherwise I'm not getting it everywhere, or something.

I actually don't have the problem that Ursula mentioned. I find that using the bbb makes my hair less frizzy. It also gives it sort of this Veronica Lake wave effect with the ends still being curly, and staying together in their tendrils, somehow. :notsure:

[Sibylla]

Ursula, noe that you mention it I remember a boyfriend who had real culrly longhair and when we brushed it once he looked like a crazy Bee Gees!!!Haha!

Nightingale, I know what you mean by the Veronica Lake waves. Thatīs what Iīm talking about.