The hair products that we use can only do so much to keep our hair on our head and looking healthy. It is important that we take steps to protect our hair from unnecessary breakage. Limiting manual breakage helps with retention, which expedites the results we see from growth. It also ensure that our hair's potential for fullness/thickness/volume is maximized.
Handle with Care. A lot of damage occurs from how we handle our hair. Just because there are no nerve endings in our hair doesn't mean that it doesn't suffer from mishandling. Be gentle and patient with your hair when styling and detangling. If you are too forceful your hair will break off. So be careful.
Limit your hair's contact with rough fabrics (especially wool). Gravitated towards smoother fabrics like Satin and Silk. And incorporate them into your pillow cases, scarfs, the lining inside of your hats, etc. Rough fabrics like wool and cotton can be the source of hair breakage because they absorb moisture from the hair and cause our ends to snag.
Limit how often you manipulate your hair.
- Low Manipulation Styles - wear your hair in styles that don't require daily restyling (roller sets, twists outs, braid outs, bantu knot out, etc.)
- When sleeping loosely tie up your hair with a high bun, hair bonnet or scarf to limit unnecessary manipulation.
Protective Styles - wearing your hair in styles that hide the length of your hair and more specifically the ends of your hair (Examples: buns, braids, wigs, weaves). When you wear protective styles your concern for the above three ways of protecting your hair become a non-issue because your hair is hidden away. You get all the protection without the worries, which is why many people on a hair journey are so in love with them. However, protective styling is not an absolute requirement for your hair journey. Just remember if/when you are not protectively styling to be vigilant about protecting your hair with the other methods above.
