Yes, I do a little finger combing before I use the comb sometimes, too. I've gotten to where I can gently detangle any knots fairly quickly, as well, when I come across any. I wore my hair down this past weekend to the Irish festival in Dallas, and it was VERY windy. I had a little trouble trying to get my poor hair detangled, but considering everything it went through, it wasn't so bad. Still, I don't particularly want to do that again anytime soon! Heheheh.

If something seems to be working for your hair, I say stick with it I think the main things I learned that helped the most were how to actually detangle hair properly and be more gentle with it. I definitely understand needing to be careful with the septic system.

It sounds like you've already got a pretty good system working for you at the moment. How long are you wanting to grow your hair? For me (and for many people) average growth seems to be about half an inch a month/6 inches in a year. I don't really get any trims, and instead do something called dusting where I take hair scissors and cut any damage or split ends off a single hair. That way, I can keep any damage under control without losing length. I'm sure at some point I might get my hemline evened up a little (or if I decide to maintain at a certain length), but I'd like to find a longhair salon. I don't trust anyone else and most people rip through hair or don't know how to handle hair this long. My husband is too terrified to trim my hair for me and I am too chicken to attempt the self-trimming methods that are available.