DG Kids Detangling Spray (Dollar General)

EDITOR’S NOTE: View our update on this detangling spray toward the bottom of the post. 

If you have girls in your house, you’ve probably used some type of detangler or spray-in, leave-in conditioner to fight knots and tangles and make the combing process less painful for everyone involved.

My go-to detangler is usually the Suave brand because it’s inexpensive and comes in a variety of choices, including scented or scent-free. Suave generally costs around $3 for a 10-oz. bottle from stores like Walmart or Target. If I opt to go upscale and purchase Johnson’s brand detangler, that costs almost $4 for 10 ounces at Walmart. If you want to go super cheap, Dollar Tree sells detanglers that are $1 for a smaller 8-oz. bottle, although they tend to be hit or miss in terms of whether people like them or not.

In the mid-priced range, costing less than Suave or Johnson’s but more than the Dollar Tree brands, is Dollar General’s hair detangler. DG Kids Detangling Spray claims to compare to Johnson’s No More Tangles and cost $2 for a 10-oz. bottle at the time of publication.

It’s made in Canada and distributed by Dolgencorp. It has an “Applelicious” fruity scent, can be used on wet or dry hair, and is advertised as tear free.

To use on wet hair, after shampooing, rinse hair thoroughly and squeeze out excess water. Spray evenly over entire length of hair and comb through. No need to rinse out. Repeat as necessary.

To use on dry hair, spray directly onto hard-to-comb areas until damp. Comb or brush through hair.

Ingredients are: water, behentrimonium methosulfate, sodium benzoate, dimethicone, poylsorbate 20, cetearyl alcohol, trilosoxane, hydroxethyl behenamidopropyl dimonium chloride, citric acid, fragrance, ceteth-10, and laureth-4.

For an explanation of some of the common ingredients in detanglers on the market, read this.

My kids liked this spray, and it smells good. Our only potential complaint is that the spray mechanism twists to open and close, and it can be a bit finicky to operate. The upside is that their is no small lid that might end up getting lost. The downside is that it can be difficult to tell whether the spray mechanism is open or closed. If you’re storing the bottle upright in a closet, or on a shelf or dresser, you could probably leave it permanently in the open position for ease of use.

UPDATE (2/15/2022) — As I continued to use this bottle of detangler with my kids, the mixture got very thick so that it was hard to spray it. Several times now, I have added water to the bottle and shaken it up to thin it out, which gets it spraying well again. As a result, this spray has lasted us a long time, and it works well even after diluting it multiple times. It’s a bit unconventional to have to add water, but it works for us.

The Verdict:

Dollar General’s DG Kids Detangling Spray is a mid-priced detangler, cheaper than brands like Johnson’s or Suave, but more than the detanglers sold at Dollar General’s competitor, Dollar Tree. The Dollar General detangler smells good and it works well, but it has a tendency to thicken after some use, so we recommend adding water as needed. The lid has an odd closing mechanism that’s a bit of a pain to deal with, but it’s not a deal breaker.