8 Ways To Determine If Protective Styling Is For You

Honestly, I love watching all kinds of hair tutorials from low manipulation styles to crochet braids to loc styling.

I can seriously watch them like a marathon of my favorite TV show. However, there are some tutorials that say protective styling are best for those of us with curly, coily, and kinky* hair who want to retain length and avoid excessive manipulation.

Here is the thing, even though I can appreciate a great protective style I do think that protective styles are not for everyone and that there are some women who would like to retain length and still have their hair out.

Protective styling means that you are hiding or tucking your ends away in braids, twists, bun, or other styles to avoid manipulation as mentioned before.

You can keep this style short term from 5 days to two weeks or long term from 4 weeks to 10 weeks. There would be no reason to use any hair tools or manipulate your hair, other than accessories to switch your look up every now and again.

So how do you know if protective styling is for you, especially if you are just starting on your healthy hair journey? See if any of these conditions apply to you:

Want to give you and your hair a break

If you notice that you are detangling less and less or you are becoming more rough with your hair when styling, then it is time to invest in a protective style.

You absolutely love your hair and the goals that you are setting and completing are giving you life, so you don’t want to mess your hair up because you are stressing out over it.

Sometimes you can get overwhelmed with daily styling or even weekly styling. Having to figure out what styles to do with your hair daily can frustrate you. So allow yourself to breathe and take a break from constantly styling your hair.

Want to save time on your styles

Sometimes that extra five minutes in bed means the world to you early in the morning. You may think that your two strand twists are fully dry for your twist out or you know how your wash n go is going to turn out, only to see your hair become a huge mess in the process.

Now you have to figure out how to do your hair and determine if you are going to try that style again the next day. Protective styling allows you to get up and go.

You may want to style your box braids or add some accessories to your bun, but no extra styling is needed for your style.

Want to achieve length retention

Now some women can achieve length retention by not doing protective styles. If you notice more breakage when styling your hair, then this option may not be for you.

When some women leave their hair alone for a long periods of time, they notice more length retention than when their hair is in a twist out, wash and go, or other out styles.

This is just a fact and comes with experience. If you are the girl who can wash and go and retain length then by all means do so.

Want to try other styling options

Instead of going through hair envy of wanting locs NOW or long hair NOW, try adding extensions* that are a protective style.

Faux locs and crochet braids are all the rave right now. You can instantly experience how you think you would look in the future if a certain style or long length is your goal.

You are still unsure of how to style your hair

Not only are you taking a break from styling your own hair, but you can learn to style the protective hair style just for your own practice and experience.

If you have box braids, you can teach yourself how to do different styling options with box braids. If you have crochet braids, you can go on YouTube to learn the different and possible styles you can learn, instead of having your own hair down. Protective styling is another tool to help you learn how to style your own hair once you take it out.

You just do not like your hair out

And there is nothing wrong with that! Who says while you are on your healthy hair journey that your hair has to be out all the time.

Confession: Although I absolutely love my hair, I absolutely hate my hair down. My shrinkage is neck length, but when stretched it’s at APL? Yea…

That’s just not for me. I rather have a protective style any day. That’s just what works for me. Some women just don’t think having their hair out is for them and they love how they look with different protective styles.

Your lifestyle agrees with protective styling

If you are always on the go, a busy mom, an exercise guru, or you just don’t have the time to do your hair other than spray water and oil on it, then you should definitely do protective styles. Go for the style that will keep you cute, but out of the way while you have other things to do.

If you are absolutely not sure if protective styling is for you because you just started on your healthy hair journey, try a few different ones out.

Check out the styling options on Pinterest, YouTube, magazines, and our gallery here to get pictures and ideas on different protective styles you would love to try. As long as you continue to care for your hair while in protective styles, you and your hair would definitely be happy with whatever you decide.