My hair is too dry and knotted.
My hair is too dry and tangled.
Which word is more commonly used? Knotted or tangled?
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Sign up to join this communityTangled is the idiomatic term for hair with a lot of "knots" in it.
While hair that is tangled can, correctly and technically, be described as knotted, be aware that knotted can be ambiguous, because there are hair styles called "knots" (in English-speaking cultures, knotting the hair is a feminine style, which is why all these photos are of women's heads, but in other cultures, its something men do, e.g.). The sentence
Her hair was knotted at the nape of her neck.
means she's wearing a low bun, not that she's unkempt. (Hmm! Google Image search informs me some fashionistas have not gotten the disambiguation memo.)
Both are fine, but idiomatically tangled is much more common than knotted hair. I searched Google Books for greasy there because it's more of a "stock image" for unkempt dirty hair. But you could say if OP wants dry it's better to go for knotted to keep as far away from the clichéed stereotype as possible.
First of all,
I have long thick hair which often gets tangles, especially after I've washed it.
Generally speaking, the strands of hair are not straight, so when I brush my hair I have to tug at it. By tugging gently, the tangled hair will straighten.
Knots usually occur when hair is very damaged, dry and brittle, this is more difficult to untangle.
Literally some of the ends are knotted, it may look like a small ball and depending on the severity, it might need to be cut. If there are a lot of knots in the hair, you could say
My hair is knotted
But without proper context, the phrase could be interpreted to mean a particular hairstyle
Sleek-knotted-hair
When there are several difficult knots and hair looks very unkempt we speak about matted hair