4 Tips To Keep Your Hair Healthy While Wearing Weaves

Weave is great. You can style, fry, dye, and cut the hair any way you want to without ever damaging your real hair that is neatly braided and tucked away underneath. Flexible styles, hair protection, and an overall love for weaves* is one reason why many women—myself included—still wear them despite loving what we’re working with naturally.

Yeah, it’s all peaches and cream until you get a bad weave* and your hair health starts going south. So while getting a weave might work wonders for things like protecting your hair and getting a ton of new growth, it can also cause a lot of unnecessary and highly avoidable damage.

But no need to fret! There’s actually a few precautions you can take before and after getting a weave to ensure that your hair remains healthy during installation, styling, and take down.

Do not leave it in too long.

I know you guys have heard the horror stories of women leaving their weaves in for 6 months to a year— growing mold and experiencing severe hair loss and matting. Now, most women won’t leave it in that long but some keep it longer than they probably should. Not to the point of mold, but to the point of dirt buildup, breakage, and foul smells.

You should only leave your weave in for 2 to 3 months—and 3 months is pushing it if you are someone who exercises/sweats frequently and can’t easily access your scalp. Loosening braids, too much product or dirt build up, itchiness, and unpleasant smells are good indicators that it’s time to take down your weave.

If you do plan to wear weave* all year, please do multiple installations instead of wearing one weave the whole time. That is not only unhealthy, but you absolutely need breaks in between weaves* to take care of your real hair and keep it healthy!

Uninstall it correctly.

We play a lot of attention to how weaves are installed; the braids have to be neat and not big or lumpy, it has to be sewn or glued in correctly to avoid pulling or breakage, and the list goes on. But when it comes to taking it out, some women seem to not care as much unless they are planning to reuse the hair. This is a mistake.

When uninstalling a weave, you need to do it as gently as possible to prevent unnecessary breakage—this is especially important if you are transitioning because your hair can be fragile when dealing with two different textures.

This means you shouldn’t be tugging or yanking out tracks, thread, or braids; you should also be very careful not to cut your own hair when removing sewing thread. If you glued your tracks in, avoid breakage by working oil through your scalp and gently sliding the tracks out of your hair.

Basically, the key to successfully uninstalling a weave—no matter how it was put in—is to take your time and be gentle with your hair.

Take care of your leave out.

When wearing a weave*, your leave out may be experiencing some damage if you’re applying heat to blend your hair or neglecting your everyday hair regimen.

This tends to be a problem when you have a leave out especially if you are going for a style that differs greatly from your real hair or simply forgetting that your hair still needs to be cared for.

Even if you only have your edges and bangs out, always continue to wash, moisturize, and protect your real hair because while the rest of your hair is covered, your leave out is not so it still needs some attention.

If you have to blend your hair with the weave, try heat free methods before anything. For example, using flexi rods* instead of a curling wand* will give you the curly look you’re going for without use of heat.

Blending your hair with straighter textures may require some heat, but using a heat protectant*, cutting back on frequent flat ironing, and keeping your hair moisturized should be enough to prevent heat damage.

If you want absolutely no heat and/or low manipulation, pick hair that blends effortlessly with your natural hair. Companies like Curl Sistas and HauteKinkyHair offer high quality weft hair that was specifically made to match your natural kinks and curls.

 Do not neglect your scalp!

Depending on the style, you may still be able to access your scalp while wearing a weave*. If you can, please do not neglect it! Many women don’t know that you can—and should– still wash and moisturize your scalp while wearing a weave.

You won’t be able to get to it like you usually would so investing in an applicator bottle* with a narrow tip would help when applying shampoo and oils* to your scalp. Taking care of your scalp will benefit your hair a great deal after you take your weave out; and like the preceding tips, it is a great way to keep your hair healthy while wearing your protective style.