6 Easy Ways To Prepare Your Hair For A Protective Style

Hey bestie, it’s your Internet BFF, Kaylannk here! Let’s talk protective style prep.

If you are going on a vacation or want to grow your hair, you without thinking will install a protective style. But what no one openly talks about is the unfavorable breakage that occurs after protective styles. We have all been there where we are removing our protective style of choice and there are clumps of hair coming out. Yes, we know that hair sheds daily, but excessive shedding and breakage will defeat the purpose of you installing a protective style. If a style is protective and results in excessive shedding and breakage, how is it truly protective? Here is where me, your Internet BFF, comes in. If you want to retain length and protect your hair with protective styles you need to prepare your hair properly for the install and maintain your hair during the installation. Let’s first start with how to prepare your hair for a protective style.

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1. Clean your hair: Cleaning your hair, you put your hair, and most importantly your scalp, in a great condition for staying in a style untreated for a long period.
2. Deep condition your hair: Deep conditioning your hair helps keep your hair moisturized during the install. It also keeps your hair in a healthy state for the install. Additional hair installed onto your natural hair can leave your hair dry and brittle.
3. Detangle and stretch your hair: Detangling your hair allows for an easy installation without any tangles. Stretching your hair is a process that also promotes an easy installation because your curly or coily hair will not knot on itself. Stretched hair allows for any oil or water added to your scalp to easily travel down your hair strand. This is important for hairstyles that are expected to be installed for a long time because it helps your hair to stary moisturized during the installation.
4. Trim your split ends: Trimming your split ends helps will retain hair growth and prevent split ends that can lead to excessive hair breakage during the hairstyle takedown process.
5. Clean the extensions: Hair extensions are processed with chemicals prior to us receiving the hair to achieve the look we see in the package. To ensure that the chemicals on the hair does not cause scalp irritation, it is recommended to clean the hair first. Soaking extensions in a water and apple cider vinegar mixture will remove toxins from the hair that can cause scalp irritation. 
6. Avoid using too many styling products. Be mindful of styling products that you use before getting your hair done. I understand that you want to make sure your hair is truly moisturized, because I do too. But adding too much products to your hair before getting your hair braided or twisted can make your hair difficult for the hairstylist to grip.

Remember, protective styles are only great if they are truly protective.

Written with lots of care, 

Kaylannk

Your Internet BFF

P.S. Share your favorite protective style in the comments.

Check out: How To Take Care of Natural Hair in a Protective Style?