Protective/low manipulation styling

If I had to pick the two things that helped me achieve my goal, I would say:
- Proper combing and
- Protective styling

Before talking about the benefits of protective styling, let's look at some of the reasons we struggle with growing our hair long:

- Frequent combing:
Almost every time  you comb your hair, you cause damage. When you look at the teeth of your comb after combing your hair what do you see?  Hair. Some of the strands are from normal healthy shedding which is okay but more often than not majority of the strands caught in the teeth of your comb are broken strands. Broken strands are bad for more than one reason. First is the obvious fact that your once long strand is now shorter. Second is the fact that the hair strands left behind after breakage have ripped/jagged ends which causes them to eventually split. These split strands then wrap around other strands causing knots and tangles. Guess what happens the next time you comb your hair? Well, because of the knots and tangles, you break more strands, cause more split ends, more tangles... and the cycle continues.

- The elements
Wind, heat, cold weather, dry air etc affect the moisture levels of our hair. The number one requirement for preventing breakage in naturally curly/kinky/coily hair is MOISTURE. So keeping your hair from "blowing in the wind" on a dry day is a step in the right direction.

- Friction:
For those of us who have shoulder length hair or longer. Friction between our hair and our skin/shoulders/clothes causes wear on the ends of our hair (remember that the ends of our hair are the oldest part of our hair and more susceptible to damage). Excessive exposure of your ends will cause them to dry out and break.

The easiest way to address all of these is to wear your hair in a protective/low manipulation style. This would be any style where your ends are hidden and protected from the elements and where you are not required to comb your hair everyday.

For inspiration, here are some pictures of protective styles you can rock as we begin this challenge:

Braids/Cornrows:

Cornrows

Box braids

Senegalese twists
source: www.mymodestmouth.com

Updos:

Be careful that you are not taking down, combing your hair and redoing your updo daily. Even though your ends are tucked in and protected, combing your hair daily would be too much manipulation.

Weaves (Sew in):

Sew in weaves are a great way to protect your hair but be sure to care for your own hair underneath the weave.

Wigs (Full wigs, half wigs, glueless lace wigs):

Anyone who knows me knows that this is my thang! Lol. I just like the fact that it takes away my dependency on hairdressers (too many bad salon experiences...I can't shout!) . It takes 5mins to apply and I just wear it and go.

This is not by any means an exhaustive list of protective styles. There are lots of options out there. Take your pick.

IMPORTANT:
Remember to take care of your own hair while protective styling. Neglecting your hair while protective styling defeats the whole purpose:
- Keep your braids or cornrows (worn out or under your weave/wig) for 6 to 8 weeks at a time.
- Moisturize at least 3 times a week. More if necessary
- Shampoo your hair once every week or two
- Deep  condition your hair after shampooing

When you eventually take down your protective style remember to comb and detangle gently. The less hair you have in the comb the better.

xoxo
B