I'm wearing a full cap (swiss lace), 14 inch curly/wavy human hair. Currently one a daily reattachment routine, but in the future hopefully 7+ days in a row, so I'll sleep and shower with it.

After watching a lot of videos on how to car for your hair replacement, I came across a quite popular Youtube channel by a German hair supplier who gives in depth advice to nearly ever topic about hair. There he's showing a technique on how to correctly shampoo wig hair: By brushing the shampoo through the completely wet hair for several minutes, so each and every hair is reached, detangled and so on...

I acquired that method, and by accident I came along someone on the internet saying that wig hair shall never ever be brushed in wet state. So this would be the exact opposite of what that salon tells in his video tutorials.

As only one of both can be true, I hope someone here can help and explain why one should or should not brush hair when it is wet (not towel-dry, really wet). When not attached to the head, I can understand that one could also just "bath" the wig in shampoed-water for 10 minutes or so then just rinse and let dry... but when attached for 7+ days, how should you shampoo/condition it when showering, and get it in style afterwards w/o brushing?

As for me, with my current supplier, I keep getting heavy tangling issues after 5 weeks. I thought that could be quality issues or anything, but maybe it can really have to do with brushing the hair in a wet state? (brushing it when shampooing is currently the ONLY way for me keeping the hair from becoming a complete felty mess)

So, I really hope that someone can enlighten this mystery.

Hi LongHairGuy,
Good question. I would not brush a hair system when it’s wet or dry. Brushing is hard on the hair and can stress the hair and knot. When the hair is wet it is weaker and more fragile. So brushing it when it’s wet is asking for trouble. A broad tooth comb is the best. It will not cause snarls like a brush and is the least stressful on the hair. Try using the broad tooth comb in the shower instead of the brush. I think you’ll see that it solves your tangling issue. Bottom line: be gentle with your hair and it will last longer.
Regards,
John

Thank you, John
However, you saying brush neither wet or dry leads me to the following question: I've read a lot of times that one should "brush your hair as often as possible [not referring to wet or dry though] to strengthen the knots again which are said to become loose throughout the days and weeks plus pretend the hair from even starting to tangle. Those guys where talking about several times a day [supposingly in dry state]. About dry hair brushing oftentimes to give no chance to tangle, I could almost verify this from my personal experience, but I'm not a pro.

So, you stick to not brushing at all, even when using a brush with coated ball-ends (this is what I use). Today a brand-new (silky, untangled) wig arrived here (14 inches, wavy) and I tried to just "bath" it in shampoed water for like 10 minutes and then just rinse it and drop into a towel. Although it was brand-new (and I hadn't brushed) the hair directly started tangling heavily :/ A waited a bit until the hair got towel-dry and then carefully first tried a wide comb working my way up from the tips to the root, but always got stuck. Then I tried (again extra carefully) with a brush and now it's drying untangled... for the MOMENT, this seems nice, but I'm afraid that the tangling issue will come again after some weeks: The one thing I've changed so far is NOT brushing when dripping wet, only when towel dry... hm... :/

in all honesty with hair that long i really dont see how it doesnt get tangled. just sleeping with it would cause tangles to some degree.
i think that the hair still tangled when you last washed is because although it basically just sat there and then you lifted and rinsed the hair moves, which is impossible to stop.
growig hair doesnt tangle because of something with the outer layer of the hair all going in the same direction...i think that although this processed hair doesnt have that layer that is the exact reason it does tnagle when swished about...
personally short ofchanging style i would do what you were doing to clean and just use a wide tooth comb to comb through shampoo and then just stand under the water to rinse..
its crazy to not be able to brush a hair system with the proper brush, i have never heard such a thing

I start out my day using a broad tooth comb to get out any tangles. It goes through the hair smoothly and this is the easiest on the hair. Using a fine tooth comb can just make the hair more snarly. My next step is to use a medium tooth comb to style the hair. This give me better control of the style without pulling on the hair. I like to be easy on the hair system. There’s two ways to lose hair: breakage and loose knots. Brushing promotes the breakage as it puts stress on the hair. And using a medium tooth comb will help with the loose knots. You could even go to a finer tooth comb if you like to tighten the knots. Of course a shorter the hair style if a little different since you don’t have the deal with the ‘leverage’ and stress of longer hair.
Regards,
John