Protective Styles vs. Low Manipulation

Hey guys. Sheesh, this blogging thing is harder than I thought. Only my third post about hair and already I'm slacking off.



Anywho, I'm here to discuss the difference between protective styling and styling which should be labeled as low manipulation. The major difference comes down to this...where are the ends of your hair?



When your hair is in a protective style, the ends of your hair should be completely tucked away. This can be achieved through buns, sew-in weaves, phony ponytails, wigs, etc. protective styling is essential to hair growth. In order to see results in your individual hair growth journeys, you have to preserve the oldest parts of your hair, your ends. See, many people will make statements like "My hair just won't grow" without being properly informed of the actual problem. In most cases, the hair is growing, but you just aren't retaining that length. Why are you not retaining it? Simple, your ends are breaking off.



Low manipulation styles do not keep the ends of your hair protected, but they do allow you to take breaks from handling your hair on a daily basis. As a result, most people will experience very little breakage. Examples include braid outs, twist outs, rod sets, etc.



So, why does my challenge focus on protective rather than low manipulation styling? Because protective styling is the best way to maximize your ability to retain length. Take care of your ends and they will be around much longer.



With that quick lesson, you should understand that my goal is not to GROW my hair, it's to retain my length. Hair grows on average anywhere from 1/4 inch to 1 inch a month. Now I've never been diligent about measuring my hair so I cannot say what's my normal growth rate. However, I will do a length check next month (around February 2nd) and I will let you know what my hair growth for this month was.



On another note, so people have requested pictures and video. I am contemplating whether or not I should start a YouTube page, however, that will happen a little later if at all. Not sure how many people are actually reading and would tune in to my channel.


My next post will talk about moisturizing your hair; this is definitely another key element to hair retention.



Thanks for reading and please drop a comment. Let me know if there are any topics you would like me to address in my next post.


And if anyone's wondering, my protective styles consist mainly of half wigs, buns, and braids :-)

My Hair Regimen

I'll start this off by saying that every hair regimen is going to be different. What works for me won't necessarily work for you....I may love how a product works with my hair, you may hate it. That being said, here's what I do:



I was my hair once a week with my sulfate-free shampoo. However, if I'm going to straighten my hair, I will use a shampoo that does contain sulfates. Why? Because I want my hair to be absolutely clean when I straighten it. Although sulfates are consider harsh because they strip away the hair's natural oils more than a sulfate-free shampoo, there are things you can do to counteract this. Therefore, I will often use a pre-poo mixture of oils on my hair the night before (castor oil and coconut oil are my favorite pre-poo ingredients right now). The sulfate-free shampoo I currently use is Giovanni 50:50 Balanced Hydrating-Clarifying  Shampoo. The other shampoo I use is Organix Coconut Milk Shampoo.



To prevent tangles, I wash my hair while it's plaited (usually six plaits). I usually don't have a problem distributing the shampoo throughout my hair, however, I recently purchased an applicator bottle to make sure I'm covering all bases.



After I shampoo my hair, I will proceed to use a moisturizing deep conditioner. Once a month I will use a protein conditioner, followed by my sulfate-free shampoo, and then followed by a moisturizing conditioner. Protein conditioners can be drying, so you want to be sure to continually add moisture back into your hair. When deep conditioning, I remove the braids to make sure the deep conditioner is evenly distributed throughout my hair. I then twist that section into a bantu knot and secure it with a butterfly clamp.



When I'm ready to wash out my DC that also means I'm ready to detangle my hair. Since I wash my hair in plaits and I keep my hair this way for the week, I usually don't have much, if any, tangling. However, it still is important for me to take down my plaits and remove any shed hairs. In order to detangle my hair, I GENEROUSLY apply a cheapie conditioner to my hair and use a wide tooth comb. Once the section is fully detangled, I twist that section back up into a bantu knot and secure with a butterfly clip. The cheapie conditioner I use is V05 Moisture Milk Conditioners. You can find this at any beauty supply store, but I buy mine from the Dollar Tree for $1/bottle.



So, now my hair is detangled and in six bantu knots. Section by section, I take the knot down, apply my leave-in conditioner, and seal that with a mixture of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (EVCO) and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO). I then braid that section and proceed to the next. The leave-in conditioner I use is a mixture I got from kimmaytube. If you search youtube for "kimmaytube leave-in" you will see the recipe. For those wondering, the mixture is ph balanced.



For daily maintenance, I will co-wash if I feel my hair needs it throughout the week and I pay very close attention to my hair to make sure it doesn't lose its moisture. When needed, I will reapply my leave-in and seal with my EVOO/EVCO mixture.



 Okay, that's it for now. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write them below. In my next post I will talk about protective styles versus low-manipulation styles. Thanks for reading.