How to Survive Winter without Protective Styling

So it’s March and considering there’s still ice on the ground, naturals are scampering to find the ultimate protective style. But what if you are not a fan of protective styling? Can you still protect your hair without having your ends tucked away? Here a few tips:

• Deep condition- Moisture Moisture Moisture *in my Jan Brady voice*. Weekly deep conditioning for at least 30 minutes helps to replenish loss moisture which is a necessity in caring for textured hair.

• Hair Steaming– Hair steaming is the God Mother of deep conditioning methods. The steam opens up the cuticle of your hair allowing deeper penetration, leaving it soft and preventing breakage.

• Protein treatments– Protein treatments are a porous head of hair’s best friend. If you have high porosity strands, moisture retention will be a challenge. Protein helps fill in the gaps that have been created from chemical processing. Incorporating protein treatments into your hair care regimen is essential to the health of your hair.

• Section Shampoo Method- Shampooing your tresses (with a moisturizing shampoo) in sections allows you to have more control over the process. Smaller sections will result in less tangles, decreased hair loss and will make for a less laboring task.

• Dry Styling– Dry styling aids in preventing curls from coiling around eachother creating more tangles resulting in breakage. (bantu knots, twist outs, braid outs)

• Leave in conditioner– What’s better than conditioning your hair? Leaving the conditioner in! A good leave in conditioner will ensure that the detangling process is much easier while adding moisture and maintaining those moisture levels for a longer period of time.

• Hands off– Try to limit the amount of time you spend “playing” in your curls. All of that twisting and twirling once it has been styled is unnecessary manipulation that could ultimately lead to breakage.

• Little or no heat– Minimizing the heat exposure to your hair will prevent irreversible damage and changes in your curl pattern. Keep those blow dryers and flat irons at bay as much as possible.