Protective Hairstyles and Why Your Hair Will Surge From Them

Hello again, and thanks for checking out my blog, today I wanted to talk about  Protective Hairstyles and Why Your Hair Will Surge From Them and why I think it is so crucial to use protective styling in your everyday life. 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 styling, and I think that this is so important in maintaining healthy hair. So, I will go over why it is so important to be using protective styles to grow the hair out and the different hairstyles that reflect protective styling. I will also go over 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 by 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 is not having exposure to harsh materials like rubbing on your shirt or shoulder you are practicing a protective style.

As I mentioned earlier I love to wear my hair in a bun, although it is also a boring hairstyle I like to put a ponytail over the bun for style. Wearing a bun is so easy to do, and unlike box braid extensions, you can do it yourself.
Here are some of the reasons why are protective styles essential:

Protective styles are easy to maintain

I have found that protective styles allow your hair to grow and give your hair a break from everyday styling. For example one of the other hairstyles that I mentioned in the signature bun uses a donut to secure the donut in place.
This style does not involve much work, and all you have to do is put it in a ponytail and ensure that your hair ends don’t have exposure to the elements.
Another example can be box braid extensions, this style is so easy to maintain and requires little effort to style when you wake up. This way you can focus on other areas in your life and not have to worry about your hairstyling options.

Protective styles protect your hair from heat and breakage

Protective styles are so important may seem obvious, but they allow the hair to be less likely from heat damage and breakage. When you wear protective styles you are not manipulating the hair leading to breakage.
As I mentioned earlier I like to wear my hair in a low bun. Whenever I do this and take my hair down at night my hair is so supple and soft, and that is how I know that it has been protected from the everyday elements.

Protective Styles Can Be Used While Your Are Transitioning

The thing that I love about protective styles is that they are easy to maintain and can help you while you are transitioning or taking 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 (bantu knots, senegalese twists, goddess locs, marley twists, fulani braids, flat twists and faux locs) or leave your hair alone and wear it in a bun, this is my favorite hairstyle to wear my hair while stretching out chemical treatments (my hair is texlaxed).

This is the best styling option for me 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 protective hairstyles for natural hair listed above. There are also some things that you should not practice 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 length check I noticed that my hair was breaking off in the back and looked chewed up.

I realized that 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.

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 your hair when wet as it is the most fragile. You can also experiment with your edges / baby hairs instead of styling wet hair.

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.

My Story….

On the other hand I was using these thin elastic hair bands to secure my hair. This was a huge no-no, and I suffered severe hair breakage and damage from using these hair tools.
So, what I have done so far is steer away from this hairstyle, and what I have been doing is blowing out my hair and flat ironing it. This way the hair is dry and not as vulnerable and fragile.
Then I secured it with a satin velvet scrunchie, and so far I have been monitoring my hair progress and have not noticed any hair breakage or damaged hair so you might want to try this method.
I will only put my hair in a wet bun on occasions and maybe once per month which is a dramatic change from what I was doing before with my hair that was not beneficial.

Do Not Leave Your Protective Style for Too Long

Another tip that I must mention is the upkeeping of your protective styles. Mainly I refer to protective styles such as braids and box braid extensions.
Also I have learned from trial and tribulation that you do not want to leave your hair in the same protective style for no longer than two months.
I say this because the hair will tend to start to matte on itself, causing your hair t knot permanently. This can ruin your hair and you may have to cut off the matted hair leading to hair loss and not hair growth.
On another note I have seen some women go longer than three months and manage to keep their hair. Nevertheless, if your hair is chemically treated you may want to shorten the time you leave your hair in a protective hairstyle.

Conclusion

As you can see I went over some of why it is so essential to incorporate protective styles in your hair regimen and some ways to sport protective styles.
Protective styles are effortless to maintain, and for me my favorite protective styles are extensions , braided hairstyle , and wearing my hair in a bun.
Protecting your hair during your daily activities can also protect your hair from breakage. African American hair can be very fragile at times, so wearing protective hair styling / braided styles can help prevent breakage.
Lastly, protective styles are useful while transitioning or stretching out your chemical treatments, I hope you enjoyed this post, and please leave a comment below if you did.