Why are BOs, TO's, and BKO's considered low manipulation?

Braidouts are low manipulation for me too, but I think this question is relative to the head in question.

My braidouts last until my next wash day (6-8 days) loose or not, whether I sleep with a scarf or not. Because of this I would consider braiding nightly to be more manipulation than I'd personally need, but we know of ladies whose hair thrives best on braiding nightly. I don't think anyone can tell anyone else that this or that is high/low manipulation for them.

And what happened to just regular ol' manipulation? We speak of no mani, low and high but isn't there a step missing in there?

They are only low manipulation styles if you style it once and then leave it alone until wash day. If you are braiding or retwisting every night and then unraveling in the morning it could become a high manipulation style. My hair cannot take a lot of handling so I don't rebraid or retwist at night. Once the style falls that's it.

When I first started my HHJ all I did was BKOs. That and no heat helped me go from SL to APL in no time. It was lo-mani for me being that I'd wash my hair, knot it up, and the first two days it would be out. Days 3-4 would be in a high pony, and 5-7 would be a bun.

During the week I did not comb my hair, each night I would take down the ponytail holder (and pins if bunned), pineapple in a satin scarf and call it a night.

Nonie said:

Dreadlocks are a tangled mess but are still low-to-no mani. Being tangled or not isn't the determinant for whether a style is low mani or not. If someone with a bun got caught in a gust of wind or a storm, her hair might also end up tangled. Doesn't change the fact that the bun she was going to wear for a week is no mani. If someone with cornrows had a bowl of porridge land on her head in a food fight , it'd glue the strands together. Doesn't change the fact that the style is a no-mani do.

So just coz outside factors happened to have it in for your do, doesn't mean the style requires a lot of manipulation. A few folks who agreed with me upthread and even a YTer many look up to seem to get where I am coming from. But if you don't know how to low mani with -out styles, then for you they are not. It's kinda like how some people can get a perfect blowout or press while others can't. You win some, you lose some.

Click to expand...

I don't care if a style is low or high mani, I do whatever style I feel like doing and my hair thrives.

I still don't see how braiding nightly is low mani, but we can agree to disagree.

For me, I only have two categories for styling my hair, manipulation or no manipulation. I say this because I have the best retention with no manipulation, wearing plaits or Celie braids for a few days at a time without undoing them. Manipulation is when I have to do anything to my hair for styling, twistouts & retwisting them nightly. I love my twistouts but I know for my fine hair, I will not get the retention I can get from a style that I absolutely do not have to touch for a few days. So, there is no in between for me, I'm either manipulating or I'm not.

Nonie,

Daily styling (daily combing, daily brushing, daily twisting, daily braiding, etc.) is high manipulation. When you comb or brush, you are raking through your hair strands. When you twists and braid, your hair strands are rubbing against each other causing friction.

Now if you comb/brush your hair or do a twistout/braidout once a week, twice a month, or once a month, that would be low manipulation in my opinion.

I think frequency of styling as well as the force that you use (rough or gentle) is key when it comes to whether or not a style is high, low, or no manipulation.

The idea of low mani ONLY being "do your hair then leave it alone for a month" sounds wild to me. I know we have fragile hair, but dang. It's ready like that? We're afraid of our hair touching our other hairs with regularity?

Ogoma said:

I still don't see how braiding nightly is low mani, but we can agree to disagree.

Click to expand...

One absolutely must consider the alternative to the BO/TO/BKO. It's true that braiding daily is a lot of manipulation, yet it requires less manipulation than shrunken hair would. If leaving the hair out (untouched) causes it to shrink and tangle on itself in an uncontrolled state, then braiding nightly in a controlled state will equal to less damage and less manipulation for that particular head.

It's impossible to judge every head based on just ours.

Personally, it took me a long time to master my braid/twist-out technique. My first attempts were terrible and didn't last a hot minute. It took me at least a year to get to a point where I can go 4-7 days on the same braid-out without having to reset the hair.

So to answer the OP. At first my braid outs were NOT low mani at all. They were awful tangly masses of chaos that couldn't be maintained for a minute. But now they are absolutely low mani.

This is day 5 of my most recent braid-out.

Amarilles said:

One absolutely must consider the alternative to the BO/TO/BKO. It's true that braiding daily is a lot of manipulation, yet it requires less manipulation than shrunken hair would. If leaving the hair out (untouched) causes it to shrink and tangle on itself in an uncontrolled state, then braiding nightly in a controlled state will equal to less damage and less manipulation for that particular head.

It's impossible to judge every head based on just ours.

Click to expand...

Every head is definitely different. If I want to re-style my hair while dry , then it's definitely easier to do on stretched out hair. But if it's wash day, and I just want to wash and detangle my hair, having it in a -out style makes my hair a pain in the butt ! The pattern of the twist or braidout makes my hair mesh/mat together in those large sections when water hits it. When my hair's shrunken (a wash n'go), when water hits it it curls/coils into it's individual curls and doesn't mesh together. With twist/braidouts I always have to kinda pre-detangle rather than just being able to comb right through. It takes half the time for me to detangle a wash n'go than to detangle braided or twisted hair. I think that may just be me though .

ETA
I agree that braid/twistouts can be lo mani if you're not redoing them. I was using braidouts for bunning and clipping it up alot last year, and my hair was doing good. But I also had to rewash and re-braid every 4 days, or I would get horrible breakage and knotting, and I had to do nightly maintenance. I eventually figured out that just bunning my hair wet, or bunning a wash n'go lasted just as long without the hour long wash days or the night routine .

geejay said:

Personally, it took me a long time to master my braid/twist-out technique. My first attempts were terrible and didn't last a hot minute. It took me at least a year to get to a point where I can go 4-7 days on the same braid-out without having to reset the hair.

So to answer the OP. At first my braid outs were NOT low mani at all. They were awful tangly masses of chaos that couldn't be maintained for a minute. But now they are absolutely low mani.

This is day 5 of my most recent braid-out.

Click to expand...

What is your night time routine for preserving your braidouts? I always retwist or braid, but your hair still looks great on day 5 without.

grownwomanaz said:

What is your night time routine for preserving your braidouts? I always retwist or braid, but your hair still looks great on day 5 without.

Click to expand...

I pineapple. Basically pull it into a high ponytail with a very loose scrunchy and then wrap a scarf over it. I end up looking like a conehead...lol. But in the morning I just take off the scrunchy and with a little shaking, coaxing and just letting it "breathe" it takes on a nice shape.

geejay said:

Personally, it took me a long time to master my braid/twist-out technique. My first attempts were terrible and didn't last a hot minute. It took me at least a year to get to a point where I can go 4-7 days on the same braid-out without having to reset the hair.

So to answer the OP. At first my braid outs were NOT low mani at all. They were awful tangly masses of chaos that couldn't be maintained for a minute. But now they are absolutely low mani.

This is day 5 of my most recent braid-out.

Click to expand...

geejay - your braidout looks gorgeous!!!

I wish l could do a twist out and leave it for a week without having to braid it up every night. I personally think these hair styles are high manipulation for me. My hair tangles so much that l rarely bother doing out styles. For me low manipulation are twists, braid and canerows, where l can leave my hair for weeks without combing often or having to retwist or braid to keep a style.

The longest l have been able to wear a twistout is a day lol. I couldn't even imagine leaving it any longer. The tangles are not worth it.

To me, if a style becomes tangled in a low mani style it automatically becomes high manuipulation since l would have to take it out and detangle it. Ain't nobody got time for that! I hate detangling so l keep it in twists for weeks not to create a tangled mess lololol

Poohbear said:

geejay - your braidout looks gorgeous!!!

Click to expand...

Poohbear I'm fangirling over here. You are one of my hair idols and inspired me to go natural.

geejay said:

I pineapple. Basically pull it into a high ponytail with a very loose scrunchy and then wrap a scarf over it. I end up looking like a conehead...lol. But in the morning I just take off the scrunchy and with a little shaking, coaxing and just letting it "breathe" it takes on a nice shape.

Click to expand...

See, l did this with a rollerset l did 2 weeks ago and the next day my hair looked awful. I just washed it and got it retwisted. Loose hair for me is just too much trouble.

Your 5 day hair looks lovely. I really wish l mine would last a day without having to retwist.

NefertariBlu said:

See, l did this with a rollerset l did 2 weeks ago and the next day my hair looked awful. I just washed it and got it retwisted. Loose hair for me is just too much trouble.

Your 5 day hair looks lovely. I really wish l mine would last a day without having to retwist.

Click to expand...

Everyone's hair is different. I only wanted to add to the conversation that technique is an important factor and it took me a lot of research and practice to get to the point where I could maintain a truly low-mani braid/twist-out. But always always always listen to your own hair.

I agree, you do have to listen to your hair. Although l would love to wear my hair out more often l can't because of the crazy tangles l get. My hair gets super dry even left out in a bun. Leaving it out causes dryness and meshing together.

It took me a while to understand that my hair truly likes to be left alone. Anything where l have to reset will cause me problems. Even knowing all of this l still love my hair, even when it frustrates me.
Its funny that l can leave my hair in extentions for 3 months at a time and my hair doesn't tangle but leaving it out is a nightmare for me lol. Its crazy lolol

Wow, lots of debate. So 'manipulation' is touching and handling of the hair, yes?

Someone upthread said something about relaxed heads who don't bun being high manipulation (I only scanned the thread so I can't quote). I would disagree after looking at what y'all have posted.

As a NL relaxed head who wore wraps for a long time I can tell you that is practically NO manipulation compared to all this braiding/twisting/knotting, rebraiding/retwisting/reknotting, and finger combing y'all do for TOs, BKOs, and BOs. The only touching of the hair I did was a gentle combing to unwrap it in the morning, MAYBE bump a section with a flat iron IF I had a crease, and then an easy comb into a rewrap at night. How is that high compared to touching every. single. inch. of your hair two and three times a day to braid, finger comb, and rebraid (twist, bantu) every day???

Again, everything is relative, but from my point of view there is nothing low mani about BOs/TOs. Lower than detangling, yes, but not low by definition.

LaidBak said:

Wow, lots of debate. So 'manipulation' is touching and handling of the hair, yes?

Someone upthread said something about relaxed heads who don't bun being high manipulation (I only scanned the thread so I can't quote). I would disagree after looking at what y'all have posted.

As a NL relaxed head who wore wraps for a long time I can tell you that is practically NO manipulation compared to all this braiding/twisting/knotting, rebraiding/retwisting/reknotting, and finger combing y'all do for TOs, BKOs, and BOs. The only touching of the hair I did was a gentle combing to unwrap it in the morning, MAYBE bump a section with a flat iron IF I had a crease, and then an easy comb into a rewrap at night. How is that high compared to touching every. single. inch. of your hair two and three times a day to braid, finger comb, and rebraid (twist, bantu) every day???

Again, everything is relative, but from my point of view there is nothing low mani about BOs/TOs. Lower than detangling, yes, but not low by definition.

Click to expand...

ITA. I know if I was a relaxed head, knowing what I do now, I would be manipulating my hair way less! If your hair's straight, combing it isn't usually an issue like it is with curly/natural hair. I also think that styles last longer and are easier to change with relaxed hair. Luckily, I found that the sames true for rollersets on my natural hair .