When it comes to protect your natural hair, you have to ask a question. Is your protective style really protecting your hair or harming it?
It might sound like a silly question but the truth is that a protective style is supposed to protect your hair by relieving your hair from the stress of the daily manipulation. Most people are not aware, but it is extremely important to know that how you install your protective style and also the hair practices that you adopt while wearing a protective style, matters a lot. Specially if you’re going for a long-term hairstyle. When a style is not installed properly or when your hair is not cared enough on a protective style, the result could be lots of breakage and damage to your natural hair.
I want to share with you 6 tips to help you to avoid damaged hair as a result of improper protective style installation, and hair care.
Installation
There are three aspects of the installation to consider when you choose to have a protective style.
Tightness
I doesn’t matter you are going to a hairstylist or if you decide to do your hair yourself, you should really stress about not wanting the style to be too tight. Besides the fact that is extremely painful, it’s not good for your hair’s health at all, especially on the edges. The edges are the most fragile part of your hair, and when the damage it can become permanent causing irreversible bald spots . You don’t want that!
Maintenance
Yes, even though your hair is protected , you still have to make sure you care for it. Be also sure to use proper tools to maintain the style always nice and neat, so pay attention to the quality of the tools you choose, such as combs and brushes. By using tools that don’t work well with your hair, you run the risk of causing breakage.
Products
Avoid products that can easily cause build up and remember that the products you use are going to sit on your hair for the duration of your style, so you should look for products that are going to maintain the moisture.
Wearing the Style
Maintain a cute hairstyle is what we all want, but is also important to be careful and not sacrifice the health of your hair for good looks.You have to listen to your hair even if it may affect the fresh look of your style.
Wash and Condition Hair whenever is necessary: It can be easy to put off washing your hair when it is in a protective style because you want your style to last. But clean scalp is synonym of a healthy scalp and is very important for you hair’s growth. When your scalp starts to flake and feel itchy, it’s time for a wash. The same applies to your strands, specially if you applied heavy products that can coat your hair. Product coating the strands also blocks the hair from receiving moisture, and since moisture retention is an issue many of us face, you want your strands to always be able to receive lots of moisture.
Deep Treatments
When you’re wearing a prolonged hairstyle, and you’re usually a person that struggles with dry hair, it is vital that you continue to deep condition your hair while it’s in the style. This will give your hair the intense benefits that deep treatments can provide.
Protect it at Night
Just because your hair is in a protective style does not mean you don’t need to protect it more. You can do it by using a satin bonnet, a satin scarf, or satin pillowcase to avoid moisture loss when you go to sleep and to avoid tangles from rubbing against a cotton pillowcase, causing breakage.
Well, I hope you guys enjoy and can take advantage of this tips.
See you on the next post.
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