This Tool Will Take Down Braids in Half the Time

I am one of the laziest people in the world when it comes to doing my hair. As such, I love a good protective style. Bantu knots, twists, sew-ins, you name it, I will try it if it means I will not have to worry about styling my hair for the foreseeable future. But as much as I love them, there is one protective style that I always hesitate to get: braids. I love the way they look, but I often prefer for them to be a small to medium size, and that means I usually spend hours taking them down when it's time to switch looks. That thought alone has stopped me from getting some really cute braided styles I've fallen in love with; not only do they take forever (more than six hours, usually) to install, but I then have to spend almost as many hours removing them. As cute as they are, that feels like a scam.

As such, I've spent a considerable amount of time either avoiding braids altogether or begging anyone in my nearest vicinity (usually my boyfriend) to help me take them down when I do get the style. So you can imagine my sheer delight when I came across one of the most innovative hair tools I've ever seen: The Original UnBraider ($25).

The Original UnBraider

From

$25

$25 at theunbraiderco.com

Right off the bat, the ingenuity of the product is what caught my eye. There haven't been many hair tools created expressly to make Black hair-care easier. The mother-daughter duo behind The UnBraider saw a longstanding issue in the industry and created a much-needed solution. Additionally, the tool is easy to use, and it does in fact make the take-down process quicker than if I were to use my normal rat-tail comb and go through the braids one by one.

Because I am someone who doesn't like to read instructions (I truly believe that most beauty tools should not make you have to think that hard or physically do too much to make them work), after cutting the ends of three braids, I immediately went in with the comb side of the tool. Because there are larger gaps between the teeth of the comb, my hair was just falling through them at first. So I flipped the tool over to the brush side, and that's when I started to see some results.

It turns out that that is exactly how the brand says to use The UnBraider: the brush side "starts" the process by taking out the smaller ends of the braid toward the bottom of your hair, and as you work your way up the length of the braid, you should flip the comb over to take down the rest of the hair. I did just that, and I did notice that I started to move up the length of the braids more quickly than when I was attempting to just use the comb by itself.

As I brushed through the braids, I tried to make sure I brushed all the way down the length of my hair to go through tangles that were forming. As I approached the roots of my hair, I flipped the tool again to use the smaller brush side, which made removing the portion of my natural hair that was braided much easier, while simultaneously removing product buildup.

While I did find this product useful, I do think it would be much better suited for medium-to-large braided hairstyles. It absolutely did make one of the most tedious parts of taking down braids — unraveling the smaller ends — much quicker, but I found sometimes as I was working my way up the braids that the ends would get tangled and I'd have to undo that by hand. I found giving my hair some "slip" using the Kinky-Curly Knot Today Conditioner ($12) helped a bit with detangling, but I prefer to keep my detangling process as simplified as possible, and the extra step was definitely a con for me.

Additionally, do keep in mind that you are essentially brushing braids out of your hair. This will be quite an arm workout if you're not resting on something, and your arms may feel tired afterward.

For $25, The UnBraider is definitely worth adding to your hair-care arsenal. While I find it to be more of an addition to the takedown routine for smaller-braided hairstyles versus the main act, people with larger braids and perhaps even cornrows will absolutely benefit from the time-saving capabilities of this tool.

The UnBraider tool is currently available at the the brand's website.

Rating: ★★★★☆