Ponytails - The Easiest Low Manipulation Hairstyle For Length Retention

I admit freely that I don’t like protective styling. I’m not saying that I never use protective styling, I just never genuinely enjoy it.

You see, for me it’s a novelty to have my own hair the length that I’ve used weaves* in the past to achieve. Call me vain but I’ve worked so hard so I think I deserve to show off my length often!

Having said that, from a length retention perspective, wearing your hair down week in week out is not the best idea.

It brings to mind something I noticed a few years ago when I had a 9-5 job. I worked with two Caucasian women with similar honey* blonde hair but there the similarities ended.

The younger of the two had hair that remained at around the BSL level for the 2 years that I worked at that company.

She had the natural razor ends that develop when you don’t have your hair trimmed for a while. The older one had waist length hair that she was always having to trim back so she had blunt thick looking ends.

Being nosy enough to ask, I wasn’t surprised to learn that they both washed and blow dried their hair every morning. The younger one either straightened or curled her hair afterwards and wore her hair down every day.

The older woman tied her hair into a ponytail after her blow dry. In fact, she only wore her hair down a handful of times per month!

You may be surprised to learn that some Caucasians also having trouble retaining length and if their hair care forums are anything to go by, the problem is quite widespread mostly because many of these women turn to heated tools to style their hair every morning.

I would imagine that most of you have already given up daily blow drying/flat ironing and the take home message here is if you are wearing your hair down daily, it stands to reason that a lot of you are probably also combing/brushing your hair daily too.

If you do the sink test, you will be well aware of how many broken hairs you get every time you manipulate it. Avoiding daily manipulation then should be your number 1 priority in your efforts to retaining length.

This is where the humble ponytail comes in. With a ‘ponytail regimen’ you can put your combs and brushes away between wash days while still wearing a cute style that shows off the length that you have worked so hard to achieve. Here’s how you do it:

1. Wash and flat iron* or just stretch blow dry at the weekend. Afterwards, I put my combs far away from damaging hands!

2. Wear your hair down for one or two days, finger styling only.

3. Hair goes into a ponytail (not too tight) on the third day. Accessorize with fancy clips.

4. Moisturize and seal the ends nightly with the use of a soft BBB only.

5. Cover with a silk scarf* to bed.

6. Retie the ponytail in the morning which will loosen during the night, you don’t need a comb for this either. A little light brushing of your edges with the soft BBB is permitted.

7. Accessorize!

8. Repeat for the rest of the week!

This regimen is simple but very effective at length retention and there are countless ways that you can style and accessorize a ponytail so that you will never be bored.

I am natural but as you see, most of my ponytails were on blow dried/flat ironed hair but the same regimen will work justs as well on non heat stretched natural hair. Here are some of my pony’s in the last few months.

And if you want even more ideas, this girl is seriously creative with simple ponytails so check out her channel:

Please note, ponytails are more a low manipulation style rather than a protective style. Depending on your length, the hair could still rub against your clothes and if you wear wool or rough cotton often then these fabrics could catch your hair strands and cause breakage.