How To Prevent Smelly Braids With An Active Lifestyle

Do you work out often? Sometimes when we have protective styles and we have an active lifestyle you might end up with a bit of a smelly situation.

It can be embarrassing if you are caught out there but you won’t need to be embarrassed if you have some quick fixes up your sleeve.

If your scalp starts to smell it means that the build up on it is unreal. Build up can include dead skin cells, over production of sebum, oils* that you might have added, sweat and other environmental factors that you might not consider.

Another reason your scalp might smell when you have a protective style could be an infection from the style being too tight and irritating the scalp.

If that is the case you need to see a doctor immediately so that they can examine your scalp and tell you the best course of action.

How to prevent smells

Pay attention to your scalp and hair

If you have a tremendous amount of itching and flaking that can be a great indicator that something needs to be fixed.

With braids you can pretty much cleanse your hair daily but you have to ensure that your braids dry so that you do not end up with mildew which can smell pretty bad after a while.

This is why if you have an active lifestyle we would recommend medium to small braids so that there is no stress on the hair line but also the smaller the braid the easier it is for them to dry.

Big bulky box braids take longer to dry and are more susceptible to mildew more than you would think.

Use great products

Witch hazel is a great product that you can use to clean your scalp in-between washes using a q-tip. It isn’t expensive but it also does not irritate the scalp.

When we say use great products we mean high quality and as natural as possible, not necessarily high cost. What do you do when your braids start to smell?