All you need to know to make the most of your protective hairstyle

You probably heard a lot about protective styling and that you should try and keep your hair in one if you want to avoid breakage and retain length as much as possible. Read on to know how to take full advantage of these styles.

What are they?

These styles help you keep your ends away from day to day damage caused by friction with your clothes/jewellery and the weather. They also require less manipulation than if you were to wear your hair out and down causing less stress to your individual strands. They avoid tangling and breakage which aids in length retention.

Types of protective hairstyles

Short term protective hairstyles

These include buns, roll tuck and pin hairstyles, updos in many variations.

Pros: Help maintain the most level of moisture in your hair as it is not exposed to the atmosphere. A plus from these styles is that they look super professional too if you work in a corporate setting, are very low maintenance and require low manipulation of your hair throughout the day.

Cons: They are short term and might require night-time maintenance or redoing every 2-4 days.

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Long term protective hairstyles

These include box braids, Senegalese twists, mini twists, cornrows, Ghana weave cornrows, crochet braids. They can be done with one’s own hair or have extensions added.

Pros: When well cared for these styles help retain length more effectively as they require no day to day manipulation. They also tend to look neater for longer with little effort.

Cons: Haircare tends to be neglected when in one of these hairstyles due to the convenience of them.

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Make sure your style is not too tight

Ever heard of traction alopecia? Those tight buns and box braids don’t help if they’re pulling your strands with all their might! Make sure you leave your baby hair out whenever possible and find yourself a good hair gel and lay them edges down for a super cute finish.

Resist the urge to manipulate your hair

The more you touch your hair even when in a protective hairstyle the more damage you will do to it. Imagine you did these fresh bomb box braids and now you’re feeling yourself so you decide to style it a different million ways throughout the day. I know it might be hard at times especially if you suffer from”hands in hair syndrome” but believe me leaving your hair just be makes a huge impact.

Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!

We tend to forget about caring for our hair when in a protective hairstyle especially when in braid styles because they tend to be so low maintenance. Moisturize your hair at least twice a day, once on the morning and before going to bed by using a mister with some water. Some prefer to add aloe vera juice or use rose water and a light carrier oil to it for an extra nutrition boost. Click here to try this easy DIY mist recipe.

Use a good hair growth stimulant oil

I cannot stress how important this is when wearing a protective hairstyle! A good nutritious oil blend you can use on your scalp joined with a scalp massage will keep your hair supple and dandruff free. Make sure to use a light oil on the length of your hair also when using braids or twist styles right after you moisturize to seal all the water in the strands avoiding breakage when you remove your hairstyle of choice.

Don’t keep it for too long either

Short term protective styles can be kept for 2-3 days, whilst long term can be kept for up to 4 weeks to get the best growth results with minimum tangling and breakage. Remember we shed on average about 100 strands of hair a day so don’t be alarmed when you take down your long term protective hairstyle. Keeping protective hairstyles for longer periods can be very damaging for your hair as tension from new growth versus the length of your hair can cause weak spots consequently resulting in breakage.