Protective Styling

When it comes to protective styling, I alternate between a few styles. I like to keep them for a full week whenever possible, box braids stay for longer of course, about a month. I find that the longer my hair gets, the more options I have; roll, tuck, and pin styles are my favourite, second only to amagoda. Why protective style you ask? Here are some of the reasons.

Length retention

The name 'protective style' already suggests your hair is getting some form of protection. What you’re protecting mostly is the ends of your hair (oldest and most fragile). By keeping your hair tucked away you protect it from environmental damage and the biggest enemy of all, manipulation. The more you manipulate your hair the more prone to mechanical damage it becomes, which leads to breakage. Hence the myth that our hair doesn’t grow. It does; it’s just more prone to breakage than other hair types. And if the rate of growth is almost equal to and in some cases less than the rate of breakage it makes it appear as though the hair is not growing.

Convenience

Styling natural hair every morning can be time consuming. Mind you, some of these styles need to be prepped the night before. Even worse, your prep flops and you’re stuck with a shrunken mess the next morning. Not to mention, the time you spend getting ready in the morning is directly proportional to the amount of time you have to snooze your alarm. If I don’t have to do my hair in the morning, then I get an extra 20 minutes of sleep, yippee!

I usually do my protective style on Sunday after washing my hair ( see washday routine here), and all I have to do in the morning is take off my doek and voila! At night I spritz the hair and put on my doek; easy-peasy. Here are some of my protective styles.

Amagoda – part the hair into four sections; plait each section and tuck the ends.

Bun/Roll tuck and pin – brush the hair upwards to prepare for a bun. Use an elastic band - if you're fancy like that, I use an old pantihose 👀 - starting from the perimeter of the hair and roll it upwards to the position you want the bun to be. Split the bun into seven small sections – one in the middle and six around it. Pin each section down using hair pins.

Box braids – I do my own braids at home, I have a phobia of saloons lol. They tend to tug, pull and straighten carelessly, at least in my experience. I decorate the braids with beads, some are hair beads, but most of them are from one of my necklaces :)

Igoda – this one is real easy. Tie a top knot with your hair; attach the single braid the same way you would box braids. Using a thinner braided extension, wrap around the base of your igoda to decorate and hide any imperfections.

There! Two styles with my natural hair and two with extensions.

Yimina ozithobayo,

Snothando

My Hair Wash Day Routine #1

Hair wash day, is it really the whole day? Not for me, I don’t have the patience. When I started out, and I was all excited about this new discovery that is my natural hair it used to be a whole day affair. As years go by, I try and simplify things and I’ve learned a thing or two about my own hair; what works and what doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no guru, I’m still learning. However, things aren’t as complicated or as big a deal as they used to be.

Mainly I have two types of wash routines. Maybe four, but I’m not here trying to perpetuate bad habits; but we’ve all had those lazy days... I’m going to discuss Wash Routine #1 in this article.

The first wash day routine is the long one. I Prepoo, Shampoo, Deep condition, Rinse, and Moisturise. Whew!

Prepoo

I start with ‘dirty’ hair. Spritz it with water, I prefer lukewarm water. I have low porosity hair, so warming things up helps with the absorption, or at least I think it does. I then apply oil, usually coconut oil or olive oil. Cover my hair with a plastic cap and let it sit for a minimum of 30 minutes. I usually use shopping bags for my cap; although they’re not as cute, they’re bigger, convenient, cheaper and greener.

Shampoo

I rinse the prepoo off with warm water. Apply shampoo, concentrating on the scalp. To be honest though, this is not always possible. Sometimes my fingers aren’t able to wade through my roots and I feel like I’m pulling and tangling my hair. I do my best; it has to be good enough, right?

I then dry my hair off; usually wrap it in a towel. I tried the t-shirt thing, but it would get too wet and I wasn’t sure if the benefit was worth the effort. Also, sometimes I’d forget to place it close by, which means I need to wrap my hair in a towel while looking for the t-shirt, lol.

Deep condition

Once the hair is dry enough that it’s not dripping, I apply deep conditioner generously, concentrating on the edges, the oldest part of my hair. Wrap the hair up in a plastic cap and a doek; you gotta trap all the heat in girl. I let the conditioner sit for at least 30 minutes. Even though the directions on most deep conditioners say 5-10 minutes, I only follow those directions on my lazy wash days, topic for another day:)

Rinse

I then rinse off the deep conditioner with warm water. Follow that up with a rinse off conditioner; apparently it helps close the cuticle back up, giving the hair a smooth finish. I rinse off the conditioner with relatively cold water (as cold as I handle which is not much, lol); again to help close the cuticle. Wrap the hair in a towel.

Moisturise

Moisture, moisture, moisture. Probably the most important step in my hair care routine. Now, I will admit, this step is still a hit or miss for me. Sometimes I get it right from day one, and sometimes my hair only starts feeling soft on day 3 or 4 – I use softness as a measure of how much my hair is moisturised.

Once my hair is about 80% dry I apply leave-in conditioner; followed by an oil and then a cream moisturiser.

That’s it folks, Hair Wash Routine #1 done!

Yimina ozithobayo,

Snothando