For those of us, who are on a natural hair journey, we have heard this term a lot.  A true protective hairstyle is at its base simply a style that protects the ends of your hair, which in turn helps decrease: tangling, shedding, breakage and wear & tear.

Protective hairstyles hides your ends from exposure (ex. your clothing, the weather) but should leave them in a detangled state.

 

For instance, once you have properly detangled your hair and pull it into a ponytail, you can then twist down your ponytail and pin it into a bun and keep that style for a week or two.

This helps to promote hair growth, as the idea is to actually retain your length rather than the very ineffective idea of speeding up hair growth.

Remember, you’re ends are the oldest part of the hair strand and requires the most care and protection.

Prep Before Protective Styling Your Hair

Before you do a protective style, make sure that your hair is in its healthiest state before tucking it away for a while. 3 Steps to do before you start you protective styling:

1. Trim:

In preparation for your new look, make sure you get rid of any split ends. Even if you haven’t noticed extreme damage to your ends, getting a trim every 3 or so months is an important healthy hair habit. This trim is going to promote hair growth before your style is installed. If your hair is not trimmed, it can cause more breakage and damage to go up toward the shaft of the hair. Getting regular trims will not only look and feel good, but your hair will be easier to detangle.

2. Wash:

To get the most out of a protective style, your hair must be thoroughly washed, conditioned, and moisturized before the style is installed. Our Clarifying Shampoo (Step 1 Purify) is great for nourishing and cleansing your hair and scalp This scalp-invigorating hair strengthening shampoo is infused with organic seed oils and Aloe to bring your hair back to life, just in time for your new protective style.

3. Deep Condition:

On wash day, don’t forget to incorporate a deep conditioning treatment to ensure your hair is as strong and healthy as possible before putting the style in for the next few days or weeks. We recommend using our Deep Conditioning Hair Mask. Our Mask includes ingredients link aloe vera, sea kelp, rosemary, and Pomegranate, this mask is going to give your hair the deep moisture it needs to last while in your protective style healthy and grow, strong!

Maintain Healthy Hair while Protective Styling

While you are wearing any protective style cleansing your scalp and re-hydrating your roots are very important.  Our Protective Styling Bundle includes everything you need to achieve just that. 

It includes our flagship product, Hair Boost which locks in the moisture while you are protective styling since some styles can be drying (ie. styles with synthetic hair)

 

My TOP 10 Go-to Protective Styles

 1. Box Braids
 2. Bantu Knots
 3. Cornrows
 4. Top Knot
 5. Crochet Braids
 6. Wigs
 7. Faux Locs
 8. Senegalese Twist
 9. Flat Twist
10. Slick-Back Bun