What is protective styling? Most of us have been doing it for years without a given name attached to it but in the hair community it's referred to as a style that keeps your ends tucked away. Why the ends you ask? Because they are the oldest part of our hair and therefore they require more care. In addition, a protective style requires very little if any maintenance on a day to day basis. Finally, by protective styling it helps your hair stay moisturized. If you haven't read my post on the importance of moisturizing and sealing your hair you can find it here. In it I discuss the importance of moisture particularly in black hair growth. By protective styling you are fostering an environment for growth by keeping your ends tucked away from the elements and moisturized.
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| Starting at the top right my fav's including (half wig, goddess braids, twisted top knots, bun and double decker bun) |
How many times have we installed braids or weave with the objective to grow our hair? I was blessed to follow two young ladies in their hair journey that grew their hair with the use of protective styling with very different results. Lets take a moment to review both growth scenarios. Subject #1 over the course of a year subject number one chose to grow her hair by placing her hair in a bun for one year straight, during that year she never wore her hair down, not once. Having been a part of a hair care group she understood the importance washing and deep conditioning her hair, she kept her ends well moisturized and she chose to bun wrapping her hair into a bun and pinning it opposed to using hair bands or other utensils. Her regimen remained simple yet focused on healthy hair care and by the end of the year her hair grew from somewhere between shoulder and arm pit length to waist length. Subject #2 over the course of a year subject #2 grew her hair from above shoulder length to about somewhere between bra strap and mid back length. She accomplished this by having a sewn in weave installed every 2 to 3 months (three months in a protective style is NOT recommended) over the course of a year. She did very little to her hair between installs and yet her hair grew. I noticed one major difference between subject #1 and #2 which is the moral of the story, subject #1 continued enjoying long, healthy hair by maintaining the healthy hair practices she learned throughout her journey. She protective styled 70% of the time after she achieved her goal length and reserved wearing her hair down for weekends and special occasions. Also she continued her healthy hair practices by moisturizing and sealing and following a weekly wash and deep condition routine. Subject #2 on the other hand had no clue on what to do with this newly grown crop of curls sprouting from her pretty head. It was beautiful and longer than she could imagine but overtime it begin to become shorter and appeared less healthy. She increased her salon visits but still couldn't understand why her mane failed to maintain its length and luster. Frustrated by her hairs lack of vitality she resorted to a dependence on weave to maintain the length she longed for but couldn't seem to maintain.
Now, I've done quite a bit of explaining to get to this point and what is the moral of my story you ask? Moral of the story is your hair is going to grow whether it's barely cared for and left unattended or provided with a minimum amount of growth necessities and left mostly unattended. Both women experienced growth, the difference is one was aware that she had to take certain steps to maintain the length she worked to achieve. Now just in case anyone is wondering I have nothing against weave. I've been a weave queen at certain points in my life - glued, quick or sewn in, I've had it! What stood out for me was the level of confidence each women portrayed having achieved long hair. To witness subject #2's confidence dwindle as her hair begin to break was actually sad for me too, if I knew then what I know now we'd both be happy and waist length!
I like my readers to understand as much as possible about why certain steps are important. So back to the topic of discussion, as discussed in both scenarios protective styling will allow your hair to grow or help you to maintain healthy hair. It keeps your hair moist and protected and away from wind, clothing, cold air, dry heat or anything that could cause breakage. My wedding ring snags and breaks my hair, when I went to Texas for my daughters Air Force BT graduation the dry heat literally caused my hair to feel brittle to the touch, which causes breakage. How many times have you heard your hair snapping from contact with clothes or furniture? Well if you are protective styling and doing extra to care for your scalp such as keeping it clean, moist or applying growth aides then you are really ensuring that your hair achieves the best level of growth possible while protected. Protective styling doesn't mean you can't enjoy long, healthy hair but as a women with afro textured hair you must be aware that certain habits are important in our hair care routine.
My favorite protective styles include: various types of buns, crown or goddess braids, half wigs that resemble a braid out or natural hair pattern and crochet braids. I am not necessary a fan of sewn in weave anymore because I have to be able to access my hair. It's a me thing so if sew-in's are your thing please continue. If you do however choose to maintain a permanent protective style (braids, sew-in, etc) do your hair a favor and give it a good light protein treatment followed by a moisturizing deep condition before your install. Secondly, make sure your ends are healthy and dusted or trimmed. Also take care of your hair underneath the weave by spraying your scalp with water and oil, "washing" with dry shampoo and applying castor oil which has antiviral properties and promotes growth.
WARNING: Protective styling can work against you and I do NOT recommend the following practices. I hate micro braids, they are the devil - period. Having every single, tiny baby hair on your scalp pulled into submission is not healthy, sorry not sorry. If ever there was a real life edge destroyer it's micro braids, just don't. Secondly, when I do sit down to get crochet braids or any install I forewarn my stylist that I do not like my hair pulled tight, if you have bumps on your neck or hair line it's too tight. I have no problem voicing my concern that they are braiding too tight, it's your hair, speak up! So many of us are so desparate to get our moneys worth that we don't care if our hair health or edges are at risk, don't be that gal! Also, when using buns as a protective style you need to either do what subject #1 did and wrap your hair daily and pin it securely or better yet rotate your bun. I've witnessed women with very long hair experience breakage because they placed their bun in the same spot and either kept it there for days or weeks (without taking it down at night) or the hair simply broke because they were pulling the strands on a regular basis in the same spot. I wear high, low, double and middle of my head buns. I change the location on a regular basis and take them down every evening. Finally if you choose to bun make sure you use elastic bands without metal closures that can cause breakage. I love keeping it real so I'm not ashamed to say I often soak my Goody elastic bands in oil to give 'em a bit of lubrication especially if my hair will be in a bun for a few days.
I've given you all a lot of information, some may think it's too much but if you want to fully experience healthy hair or long hair then protective styling needs to come into play. Some of you think nothing of this because you don't yet understand the dynamics of black hair growth but when I'm walking across the artic tundra (the parking lot of my workplace) in the cold winter months with my precious ends moist and tucked neatly in a bun I know that neither the harsh outdoor cold and wind nor the dry climate indoors is going to harm my hair. When I see another sister walking in with a combination of dry, split ends that seem to be screaming for a deep condition I wish I could tap her on the shoulder and give her some advice. Poor little tink tink, I'm not going to end up in jail because I offended someone for telling her she needs to tuck and seal, ha! Moving on....
Throughout the Braidouts & Barbells Facebook page I've offered some examples of protective styles with the hope that you'll find inspiration. If your nervous about protective styling, like I was in the beginning, then play the style up with makeup, headbands, earrings and attitude! Here's to protecting those ends this winter darlings, if I have a say so in this we will all have long healthy hair and fit derrieres by summer! Have a great weekend and to my hair growth challengers, I'll see you on Sunday!
I found this very helpful. I am excited to join the challenge and try some new protective hairstyles.
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited to have you join the challenge, let's grow!
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