Tangle Teezer Causing Breakage

I was going to put a question mark at the end of this title, but honestly, there's no doubt in my mind anymore...

Remember when I posted how much I loved the Tangle Teezer? Well, I may have spoken too soon.

A couple of weeks ago I was detangling A's wet (full of conditioner) hair with the Tangle Teezer, I was finished within 10 minutes. Afterwards, instead of removing the little bit of hair that was in the brush, I began detangling Lil Man's wet (with conditioner) hair with the Tangle Teezer. Again, I was done in minutes. Yay! Right?

Well, I starting removing the hair from the brush but there was still hair on the bottom that was hard to get off so I ran some hot water and put the Tangle Teezer in the water (bristles facing down). Once the water had drained I picked up the Tangle Teezer and saw short pieces of hair everywhere! O_O I picked up the little hairs and examined them. There's no way these short hairs could be A's, or so I thought. After examining both A and Lil Man's hair I came to the conclusion that they did, indeed, belong to A. Lil Man's individual strands are much thinner than A's. These short hairs were thick.

I didn't want to blame the Tangle Teezer just yet. I thought maybe I was detangling too quickly and I was to blame. I mean, I had just posted in a thread over on Naturallycurly.com saying we have had no issues with the Tangle Teezer. I told myself I would try it again before I made a post.

When I posted about banding I mentioned I was preparing her hair for something. Well, I was actually preparing her hair for a trim. I was trying to blame her neverbeentrimmed hair on the breakage. The trim hasn't happened yet, her father let her hair get wet the day before the trim but it will happen within the next couple of weeks. I have never seen her ends in this condition though. I always pay close attention to her ends but lately they look and feel terrible. Nothing has changed other than using the Tangle Teezer.

I still wanted to give this brush another chance. I used it last time I washed her hair (about a week ago) with the same results. After detangling I sat the brush face down in hot water, waited for the water to drain and saw yet AGAIN little pieces of hair in the sink. They are very short. I wish I had taken a picture. I feel bad. I know hair is hair but I have been hearing some talk about breakage and split ends from the Tangle Teezer but didn't pay it any mind because it detangled so well and so quickly. Even though very little hair is left in the brush, it's the small pieces that count. Those tiny broken ends at the bottom of the brush. Her hair is going to grow regardless, but if her hair is going to keep breaking off after each detangling session then she is not going to retain length, now is she?

I will be retiring the Tangle Teezer for now. We will be having another Protective Styling Challenge some time in May so hopefully I can get her in for a trim by then and I can start to give those ends some extra TLC. What's that old saying? Ah, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I think I'll go back to regular ol' combs for a while.

If you have experienced breakage with the Tangle Teezer then I sincerely apologize if you bought it after my review.

Please share your experiences with the Tangle Teezer below.

Edited to add: Please do not freak out when you read this post! Obviously everyone's hair is different and the Tangle Teezer may or may not work for you. Just pay closer attention to the hair next time you use it. Check those ends and look for very short, broken pieces of hair in the brush or in the sink. I have gotten some feedback on our Facebook page already and some people have not had this experience. Check out our Facebook pages for more feedback.