Protective styles - Is it neccessary?

Everything you do to natural hair is wrong. Don't shampoo/wet too much - hygral fatigue, watch how you comb/brush,/detangle/use heat/manipulate - breakage, you must condition/moisturize/seal/protective style - length. After doing all these things, when is it safe to do anything with natural hair? I figure if I do all these things, then my hair will forgive me when I wear it out because I wear it out because I do all these things.

I believe protective styles work. When I let my hair down, I hear it snag out of my scalp when it runs against my clothing. On windy days my ends take a beating that I can literally see. Protective styles are just that, protects the hair from what can damage or cause hair loss. I see all backgrounds of woman wear protective styles, such as ponytails/buns, braided and pinned up.

I think is nessasary if you want to grow out your hair.

I wore my hair down for years and was able to retain its length. I didn't moisturize much either. When I wear buns and pony tails I find more breakage and I gap developing in the back of my bra strap length hair. Im going to stop with the protective styling.

i think it depends on the hair and the person.

i jumped back and forth for years because i would hear advice on one thing or another about how to take care of my hair. it became really exhausting and while mostly everything worked, the fact that i kept changing it up is what i think messed up my hair. I think protective styles CAN work but it's not the magic elixir to all of our natural hair or hell, even relaxed hair problems.

honestly, i think the natural hair community suffers from a bit of paranoia. we have access to such a wealth of information thanks to the internet that we kind of develop hypochondria over our hair!! Whatever works for your hair is what YOU should do with your hair.

I just don't believe in chastising our fellow hair sisters for making individual decisions when disagree with. it's seriously just hair.

I don't think it's necessary but it works. The more I leave my hair alone, the more length it retains. When I think of protective styling, I think of braids though. I get my hair braided with extensions and when I take them out not only has my hair grown a lot, but I retain all of my length. All I do is spray with a leave-in every couple of days. It seems like it keeps my strands intact and it works for me personally. I can't do the constant styling, twisting, untwisting--I'm too lazy for alla that and my hair thanks me for it. lol

It's necessary for my hair. I went from shoulder length to almost waist length protective styling. Of course I moisturized and cut back on heat. But all of those factors combined got me the longest hair of my life.

So yes, I think it is necessary.

It depends on the person.

My hair thrives on low manipulation, in general. However, it doesn't have to be braids, twists, etc. In fact, I end up with WORSE problems when I try to leave my hair in TSTs for more than 5-7 days (I end up with splits, hair bubbles, etc). I try to wash, DC, style and leave it alone for about 3 days at a time. That seem to work the best for me.

I install marleys purely to give myself a hair break. So it's necessary in order to keep me from chopping my hair off every couple months lol.

I'm curious about this too, although I'm relaxed. Have always worn my hair out but wondering if protective styles will give me enough of a growth boost to make it worthwhile.

I rarely protective style because I like to enjoy my hair and I wash twice a week. My natural hair is still new to me so I like to be able to style it gently every day. I haven't really been paying close attention to my hair length but I guess I made decent progress so far with just frequent conditioning, low manipulation and heavy sealing.

I've never once PSed, aside from bunning on bad hair days. My hair is always out, whether winter or summer. It's not always loose, but it's out. My go-to is banana clipping the hair back and not touching it much, aside from keeping the sides neat. Lately I'm liking WnGs that I put into my pony once I'm tired of it.

I'll be MBL soon if I'm not already there, and I've been sans relaxer for 35 months, 3 years next month!

I've always felt protective styling is a myth. Your hair grows the same no matter what you do to it. Bleaching, relaxing, straightening, it will grow regardless. The only times it does NOT grow is when you have tension pulling the hair at the scalp consistently like a bad weave or tight braids. Other then that, our hair texture is very resilient and grows. I don't wear protective styles. I never have. I wear it out 100% of the time and I sleep on it sometimes. Still grows. The consequences of that are a few tangles and knots but I don't really care. It's not that serious to me.

Protective styling is to help you RETAIN your length. While in braids, twists or a weave your not applying direct heat to your own hair. You are also not manipulating it as much.

If your hair type/texture has always retained hair (Armpit) regardless if wearing a protective style or not than it really doesn't matter. If neck/shoulder length was your version of long hair before hair boards than PS may be what you need to retain length.

Protective styling isn't necessary to retain length. Most people who "protective style" have fine hair or prefer the stretched styles or just like their hair not loose. It's personal preference. It doesn't change how your hair grows, but it changes how much you mess with it. Besides protective styling is some new term that people felt the need to come up with. "Protective styling" used to be just putting your hair up, braiding it, plaiting it, or styling it in a manner that didn't require "constant" vigilance. Those same twist my mom put in my head as a kid were just twist not protective styles. If I could have run around with an Afro I would have but my mom wouldn't let because I had too much hair.

It's been said already, but I think it just depends on your hair. I've seen some ladies have amazing retention with no protective styling, and I've seen some ladies have amazing retention strictly protective styling. I notice that fine haired ladies tend to need more protective styling to protect their strands. I also think it depends on lifestyle, your habits, etc. If you're always touching, combing, brushing and styling your hair, then I think protective styles are helpful to minimize over manipulation. But ultimately I think it's just about learning what helps your hair thrive and retain length.

Sidenote - growth and retention are two different things. Hair will (most times) grow regardless of what you do, but retaining the length is usually dependent on your practices.

tapioca_pudding said:

It's been said already, but I think it just depends on your hair. I've seen some ladies have amazing retention with no protective styling, and I've seen some ladies have amazing retention strictly protective styling. I notice that fine haired ladies tend to need more protective styling to protect their strands. I also think it depends on lifestyle, your habits, etc. If you're always touching, combing, brushing and styling your hair, then I think protective styles are helpful to minimize over manipulation. But ultimately I think it's just about learning what helps your hair thrive and retain length.

Sidenote - growth and retention are two different things. Hair will (most times) grow regardless of what you do, but retaining the length is usually dependent on your practices.

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I want to length but I refuse to do all the stuff that I mentioned prior and not wear my hair out. I wore braids two-and-a-half years straight and I promised myself I will not do that again. It grew but I also lost a lot of hair during detangling every 6 weeks. I don't wear wigs or weaves so that's out of the question. I just pray that my hair retains length considering that I'm adhering to a strict and consistent regime of conditioning, moisturizing, sealing etc. The only thing I don't do is protective styling. I guess I'll find out whether I'm on the right tract in another six months or so.

Misseyl said:

I want to length but I refuse to do all the stuff that I mentioned prior and not wear my hair out. I wore braids two-and-a-half years straight and I promised myself I will not do that again. It grew but I also lost a lot of hair during detangling every 6 weeks. I don't wear wigs or weaves so that's out of the question. I just pray that my hair retains length considering that I'm adhering to a strict and consistent regime of conditioning, moisturizing, sealing etc. The only thing I don't do is protective styling. I guess I'll find out whether I'm on the right tract in another six months or so.

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I am going to be one year since I shaved last May and my hair is making progress. However, my hair type is medium fine and dense. And I my hair is a complete riddle but I love her. She needs to be stretched so that she doesn't get tangles but yet stretching means a protective style to get it stretched. And when protective styled, I have to be very careful with the style that I choose. Like flat twists are easier for my hair at this length but I cannot twist tight or twist when my hair is completely damp. If I want a curly wash and go look, I have to pull and manipulate to get the curls and my hair will get broken pieces with too much manipulation. For me no braid extensions or weaves as my fine hair doesn't like that either. So, I have come to accept my hair is finicky and I go with the flow as to her wants and needs each day. I have grown my hair APL before so I am not anxious about it not growing, I just want to be able to get out of the flat twist stage. I want to experiment with dry roller sets like Chary Jay. I love her!!!!

Best,
Almond Eyes

The non black women who don't protective style their hair, end up complaining about how splitted their tips are, then end up at their hairdresser chopping 2 inches.

Long haired Asian and white women DO protective style. I also see them wearing braided ponytail or buns buns.
Also go longhaircommunity (majority white women) they all do protective style.

It works.
It might be not necessary for every black women, some hair break less than other hair but maybe the"being split before breaking" stage last longer on some people.