Hello again, and thanks for checking out my blog. Today, I wanted to talk about The Myth of Protective Hairstyles for Natural Hair Growth and why I think using protective styling in your everyday life is crucial. I am on a mission to grow my hair out personally so far, it is at a decent length, but I want more length.
I thought about protective hairstyles for hair growth, and I think that protective hairstyles for black women are crucial in maintaining healthy hair. So, I will go over why it is so important to use protective styles to grow the hair out and the different hairstyles that reflect protective styling. I will also review some of the products and tools you can use for protective styling.
What Are Protective Hairstyles
What are protective hairstyles? Protective styles are hairstyles that tuck away the ends of the hair and protect it from everyday manipulation. Natural hair can be delicate and prone to breakage, and protective styling gives you the option to extend the life of your hair by protecting it.
There are many ways to sport protective styles. One of my favorites is wearing braid extensions. Wearing braids allows me and my hair to get a break from the manipulation that can wear out my hair.
Although I have not worn braid extensions in a while, this is a style that I would recommend if you were trying to grow your hair out. Known as the crown and glory method, you will find a plethora of information about this hair growth technique if you google it.
I have found that I do not necessarily need the crown and glory method because I still tend to notice hair growth without braid extensions. Nevertheless, if I decided that the everyday things I do to my hair are too much of a hassle, I would be doing the crown and glory method.
Another style I like is wearing my hair in a bun, this is not a very popular protective style, but as long as the hair does not have exposure to harsh materials like rubbing on your shirt or shoulder, you are practicing a protective style.
As I mentioned, I love to wear my hair bun. Although it is also a boring hairstyle, I like to put a ponytail over the bun for style. Wearing a bun is easy; unlike box braid extensions, you can do it yourself.
Here are some of the reasons why protective styles are essential:
Protective Styles Can Be Used While Your Are Transitioning
I love that protective, and low manipulation styles are easy to maintain and can help you transition or take a break from relaxer treatments by stretching the time frame out.
Although there are not that many options for styles that you can use while you are transitioning, the options are to wear braid extensions which are low manipulation hairstyles (Bantu knots, Senegalese twists, Havana twists, braided styles, mini twists, Fulani braids, flat twists, and jumbo twists) or leave your hair alone and wear it in a bun. A bun is my favorite hairstyle to wear my hair while stretching out chemical treatments (my hair is texlaxed).
This is the best styling option because it keeps my fingers out of my hair, leading to more breakage due to the fragile mark of demarcation that may be manipulated.
Things You Should Not Do When Wearing Protective Hairstyles
While earlier in this article, I listed some of the benefits of easy protective hairstyles for natural hair. You should also not practice some things while wearing protective hairstyles. Here are a few:
Do not Wear the Same Protective Style Over and Over.
Protective styles are many used to help maintain the hair’s health and can lead to hair growth and make the hair flourish. However, you do not want to repeatedly leave your hair in the same hairstyle because this can lead to hair breakage.
On a personal note, I must share an experience I had recently. I thought it was cool to wear my hair in a wet bun daily with my texlaxed curly hair and thought my hair benefited. However, to my demise, when I started examining my hair progress with a length check, I noticed that my hair was breaking off in the back and looked chewed up.
I realized I was damaging my hair by wearing hair in a wet bun. The hair is the most fragile when wet, and not to mention I was tying my hair in a ponytail that was way too tight. Also, try not to sleep with wet hair because hair is the most fragile when wet, and it is generally not healthy to do so at night.
So, if you think that wet buns are the way to go, I wanted to give you the heads up and save your hair by not recommending styling it when wet, as it is the most fragile. Instead of styling wet hair, you can experiment with your edges/baby hairs.
Also, you may want to try investing in some satin hair scrunchies as these hair types are very delicate on the hair and do not apply too much pressure.
Conclusion
protective styles.
Protective styles are effortless to maintain, and for me, my favorite protective styles are extensions, a braided hairstyle, and wearing my hair in a bun.
Protecting your hair during daily activities can also protect your hair from breakage. African American hair can be fragile, so it’s essential to wear protective styles and braid it correctly to prevent breakage.
Protective styles are practical while transitioning or stretching out your chemical treatments. Whether you have wavy hair, straight hair, or natural hair, by wrapping your hair overnight, you can also practice healthy hair habits with protective hairstyles for sleeping. This is another protective style if you cover the hair with a satin bonnet at night. These protective sleep hairstyles can also make life much easier in the morning. I hope you enjoyed this post, and please leave a comment below if you did.
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