How to Tease(Backcomb) Hair & Dreads

What is hair teasing or backcombing all about? How do you tease short thin hair for volume, ponytail or 80s style? Is back combing dreads possible? Does this form of hair styling cause any damage to hair? Read on to find out in addition to tutorial on how to do it the Cherly Cole way

What is Hair Teasing or Backcombing?

Hair teasing commonly known as back combing refers to combing the hair repeatedly towards the roots. Some people refer to backcombing as ratting. Backcombing involves combing the hair by creation of volumes majorly done for hair styling. Backcombing differs from normal combing in that, you reverse the direction of your comb from the tip to the root.

Why Tease your Hair?

There are a couple of reasons as to why you should tease your hair. These reasons may differ from individual to individual but all in all, there is always a reason for you to tease your hair. Reasons as to why you should consider teasing your hair include the following;

Giving you hair a nice hair lift. You should tease your hair so that there is an added height to your hair. Big hair looks pretty good and most girls find it more attractive. Therefore, you should tease your hair any time you wish to have it appear as though it has an increased height.
Styling your hair is another reason you should tease your hair. You want to look fashionable in your hair and hence a sure way of keeping to that is by backcombing. Teasing makes your hair free and flexible for styling.
Teasing creates big hair volumes. Your hair does not appear as voluminous before backcombing as it does when you use your long hair comb to tease it. When your hair is in big volumes on your head you will not even need much styling as it will already be appealing.

how-to-tease-your-hair-backcombing-hair — backcombed Hair

How to Tease your Hair for Volume, Ponytail & 80s Style

Tips and Ideas-What to remember when teasing

There are crucial things you ought to remember when doing your back combing;

Ensure that you do your backcombing some inches away from your hair roots otherwise it remains all visible.
To avoid damaging your hair. Always use a soft hair brush.
When washing your hair, use hair conditioners and shampoos that increase hair volume.
In case you have very long hair, do your back combing such that you leave the hair balanced
Always straighten wavy or curly hair before teasing it. This is to avoid extreme tangles
If already have straight hair, brush out all the tangles first.
Do not tease your hair while it is wet or hot hair. Wait completely dry and cool. This can lead to excessive damage since wet or hot hair is in a fragile state.

How to tease for volume

Teasing hair for volume is one main reason you should not stop doing it. It could be done using either a comb or brush. The following steps serve as a guideline on how to tease your hair for volumes;

You should wash your hair then after drying it comb it thoroughly. You want to tease your hair without damaging the hair roots. That is exactly why you must be keen enough not to comb your hair until it dries well. Curling the hair is also an additional style to your voluminous hair.

Single out the first section of the hair to be teased. It is always advisable to tease your hair in bits or rather sections. It should also be done systematically depending on your intentions. Should you want to create volumes on the top part of your head, you only tease that section of the head. Otherwise, if you wish to create volumes on your entire head, it is more effective when you work your way down from the top part of the head. Teasing your hair in sections leaves no hair unattended to. However the size of the sections chosen should neither be too small nor too huge. A manageable size is 2 inches wide. A Size smaller than that would lead to too much time consumption.
You need to hold the hair section up in order to start teasing. You should use one hand to hold the section of the hair up and the other hand to hold the brush or comb just a few inches above the scalp.
Tease your hair. While still holding your hair up, comb it toward the scalp continuously. Since in this case you wish to create hair volumes, repeat the combing until the volume you desire is achieved. If you have curly hair, then only minimal teasing is necessary. You should ensure the strength with which you comb the hair is enough to create firm tangles but again, you should use too much force as that will tamper with the hair causing hair rips.
Hide the teased tangles. You should do this using your fingers while being careful enough not to flatten the tangles. You can now brush the section of the hair that has not yet been teased.
Work on the other hair sections. You do this by first of all setting aside the already teased hair section. The above steps for the first section are followed as well. You are now free to put your voluminous hair into all desired styles while still maintaining the big hair volume.

How to tease Short Hair for Ponytail

Even if your hair is not so long, you could still tease it into a gorgeous ponytail. You follow the normal procedure for teasing long hair. Once you’ve teased your short hair style your hair into a ponytail. Actually, ponytails of teased short hair look as appealing as those of long hair if the correct procedure is followed.

How to tease thin hair

You May be having thin hair which tends to lie flat on your head each time you wish to comb it. This poses a challenge each time you wish to tease your hair maybe to create volumes. The best tool to use for your thin hair is a tooth brush. Here is a guideline on how you would tease and have a gorgeous hair style;

Get your hair separated. You need to use a comb to put your hair into parts as this will enable you to hide the teased hair portions.
Using a toothbrush, comb the hair backwards. Toothbrush bristles are soft enough to handle your thin hair. Tease the parted hair by combing it towards the roots.
Repeat the teasing
For perfect results get the hair turned to the other side by a single flip so that you can tease the hair gently once more.
You can now part the hair in the normal way. You realize you have created a big volume of your hair without creating any mess.

How to tease Hair 80s Style

Hair teasing is not just a style done lately; it was done even in the eighties in a similar way as it is done these days. You could wish to do it the 80s way. The following are steps towards achieving the same;

You should ensure your hair is damp with no smoothing. This is in order to make the hair texture easier to work with. To improve the texture even further, you should consider using salt spray.
For faster drying, put your hair into small braids the day before the event. Blow drying followed by a heat protecting spray could be used as well.
To add volume, backcomb your hair as you blow dry your hair at the crown.
After the hair is completely dry, tease it. This is done by combing the hair towards the scalp in portion of about one inch wide. This is done from the front part of the heads towards the back.
You can then style your hair; maybe by making a pony tail.

Back combed hair 80s style — 80s style hair teasing

Backcombing Dreads Properly

How to backcomb dreadlocks properly

According to Jean Louis David, for satisfactory results, you must mind the manner in which you backcomb your hair. The following are crucial considerations;

Start with a single hair sections. In other words, do not handle all the hair all at once. This is especially because you do not want to leave any hair behind.
For backcombing, you do not just use any comb. There are specific backcombs or teasing brushes. The special condition of those with thin hair requires them to use a toothbrush as it avoids damage of the hair.
You should hold your hair high up firmly and the combing should be done gently.
The downward combing of the hair requires that you do it from the middle section of the hair downwards. Three times is a perfect downward combing number of times.
Setting aside the already teased section, tease the remaining sections.
Once you do teasing throughout your hair, brush it out lightly.

Backcombing dreads white people-how it is done

There are a number of ways that white people use to make dreads. Backcombing is one of the very effective methods. You should do it following the steps below;

Wash your hair thoroughly to get rid of all the oil. You should also dry it completely preferably by blow drying.
Divide your hair into square sections, this is to ensure that the resulting dreads are neatly rounded. You could keep these sections not interfered with by fixing rubber bands to keep them partitioned.
Comb the hair gently backwards. Be sure to begin as close to the scalp as possible to the end of the hair strand.
In between the palms of your hand roll the sections. The hair tangles to clumps eventually forming a mat. For perfect completion of the process, hold the ends of these sections with rubber bands.
Finally, wax using petroleum free wax to keep the hair locked. After about half a year, the dreads are completely ready if you use the backcombing methods.

Teasing Hair Damage

Does Backcombing/Teasing damage your hair? -How?

As much as there is so much beauty that comes with backcombing, it puts your hair at risk. Since back combing involves hair lifts, the cuticles are moved from their initially flat position. It is very difficult to put the cuticle back to its original position. The cuticles with time become very weak and hence the hair shafts are damaged the result of which are split hair ends.

How to Backcomb Hair like Cheryl Cole

When talking of backcombing, Cherly Cole never goes unmentioned. She seems to get her hair teased right almost always. Here are video tutorials by L’Oréal Paris showing to do it for thinner/shorter and thicker/longer hair