If your piece is wet you must comb it out before it dries or it will be a tangled mess.

Don't go to sleep until piece is dry after you comb it out.

Yea, and don't be afraid to comb the hair when it is wet as long as the comb glides through the hair easily. If the hair is tangled you will pull out lots of hair, so be careful.

I have a long hair full cap system, and conventional wisdom has always said, "NEVER comb it when wet!". My real world experience however has been that I lose far less hair detangling it while it is still wet than if I waited for it to dry. You lose hair either way, but as JRob says, if the comb slides through the hair while it's still wet, it's a good thing.

And I've never found that using conditioner first before combing/detangling causes more hair to come out or get unknotted. It makes the detangling much easier. Just take it slow and gentle and everything will be OK.