thanks Lynne!
Yes, my mother actually came over to try helping me with it, but I started crying (silently)from the pain of having my hair pulled on for 3 hours. When she saw the tears, she was afraid to help me again.
I told her I was dealing with it, but she felt terrible that I was in pain from the brushes pulling out hair and now is reluctant to help with it again.
Do you think that if I called a beauty school or college cosmetology dept. that they would help me and not charge me a zillion dollars to work on this? Honestly, I am exhausted from working on it to no avail, but I have to get this fixed before this big tangle or knot gets bigger and I end up n the same fix as before.