How do you stretch your hair for dry styling?

29 June 2010 ~ 30 Comments

How do you stretch your hair for dry styling?

Model Wakeema Hollis

So, you’re taking a break from your shrinkage-friendly styles, your wash and go’s, your wet twists, your shrunken twist-outs, to try some dry, stretched styles. This means you have to make the ‘jump’ — getting your hair from wet to dry while stretching it and keeping it moisturized. This, I know from experience, can be a huge challenge — especially for kinky/coily hair, which is particularly shrinkage-prone.

Blow drying is the easiest way to prepare for dry, stretched styles but I’m curious. Are there other techniques you use to stretch your hair for dry styling? Feel free to provide links to YouTube videos and blog posts!

Tags: Afro Hair Styles, Black Hair Styles, Natural Hair Care, Natural Hair Growth, Natural Hair Pictures, Natural Hair Styles, Natural Haircare

30 Responses to “How do you stretch your hair for dry styling?”

Kim 29 June 2010 at 11:54 am Permalink

When I am preparing my hair for a dry stretch hair style; I wash and condition it the night before and slick back into a bun. I tend to wear my hair in a bun for a day or two then take it down and twist it with shea butter and a little gel for hold.

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Moni 29 June 2010 at 11:56 am Permalink

I either braid or band my hair when wet to stretch it. To stretch it even further. You can add moisturizer (cream or lotion, not a spray) and rebraid after its dry, then take it down the next day.

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Nikki 29 June 2010 at 12:10 pm Permalink

I band my daughters hair.

If you scroll down, you can see some pictures here of what it usually looks like:
http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/2009/10/as-routine.html

Stretched hair from banding:
http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/04/criss-cross-cornrow-headband-on.html

There’s a lot more posts on banding on the blog but they are mostly styles for little girls.

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Krys 29 June 2010 at 12:39 pm Permalink

I usually braid my hair to stretch it. I love results and I get a ton of compliments on my hair.

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Tasha 29 June 2010 at 12:52 pm Permalink

I usually dry twist my hair at night with medium to large two strand twists.

You can see it in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTI47WHkcG4

The “stretched-ness” lasts for a full day, then it gradually starts to shrink again =]

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Chantel 29 June 2010 at 1:12 pm Permalink

If Im want a more stretched out twist out or braid out, while my hair is wet I moisturize it and seal then part it down the middle and do two french braids or flat twists. The next day I take them down and braid or twist my hair as desired. This works just as well as using heat and is a lot less damaging on my hair.

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Nicole 29 June 2010 at 1:52 pm Permalink

After washing and using olive oil to seal along with a bit of gel, I put in large rollers usually used for creating volume. It stretches the hair, adds a bit of volume and adds a little curl at the ends.

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BuenaventuraAvenue 29 June 2010 at 3:26 pm Permalink

A 2-day-old braidout works well for dry styling.

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skeeta25 29 June 2010 at 4:17 pm Permalink

Good question! Ever since I saw this video on just 4 french braids pinned down,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anpEDAKXtuk&playnext_from=TL&videos=4PBp6YcpbYw

I do it Sun nt -Wed, then wed night I’ll flat twist for 2 days and rock a twistout fri nt, sat and sun. French braids look SO classy, like here… that I could wear them all week and they stretch GREAT.

http://public.fotki.com/BelleMuse/learning-to-love-my-hair/fuhly009.html

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Jc 29 June 2010 at 4:27 pm Permalink

I think it starts with washing out humectants (like glycerin, some gels, aloe vera, honey etc). Humectants hold on to water and essentially create a nice water rich environment around hair.

Therefore in order to get dry hair styles, we need to wash off this product.

I found great success in using large braids (6-8). My procedure if working with dry hair, just wet a little bit to get it flexible and then add some oil. Braid in the large braids and sleep. In the morning voila stretched hair.

If hair is wet (for example just washed it) then the key is to let it thoroughly dry. If you can take the shrinkage, free hair dries pretty fast. If like me you can’t take the shrinkage and wash in braids then I would wash in the morning and let it dry through the day. At night I would add some oil (my hair still would not be dry). In the morning, I would check for dryness before unravelling the braids.

The real key to having stretched hair is to deprive it of the water and humectants just for a little bit.

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CashmereCurls 29 June 2010 at 7:07 pm Permalink

The easiest thing for me to do is to separate my hair down the middle and make two french braids or cornrows. I’ve tried banding but I don’t think the results are worth the effort on my hair.

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kadiane*francophone 29 June 2010 at 8:08 pm Permalink

@ Jc

If you can’t wait for 24 hours before it dries, unravel each braid and hold it from the tip, streching it in front of a fan for 5 minutes each. The advantage of this is you can cold dry the hair and you can stretch it in 2 sections by holding the hair with both hands. It dries faster.

Oh, i forgot. You need to use a towel paper to dry the strand before you stretch. Takes about 45 min to 1 h for the whole head. For those who don’t know it, my hair is 4C

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cassadie 29 June 2010 at 9:00 pm Permalink

Great question! precisely what I’m in the process of doing right now.

last night I washed and DC’ed my hair and then put into a about 10 braids all over my head (regular braids, not cornrows), secured with a bobby pin and left the ends loose. I intended to wear a stretched fro so that I could dry twist tonight but when I woke up, my hair was still damp.

So I took a few snag-free hair bands and made three small puffs down the back of my head so as to keep the roots stretched and then secured the top section in a bouffant. So its kinda of like half-fro hawk, half bouffant.

an interesting style for sure, but I know it will keep my hair stretched so that I can twist tonight!

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vonnie 29 June 2010 at 9:31 pm Permalink

I like Kcurly’s banding technique: http://newlynatural.com/blog/category/banding/

If i were to try and stretch it, that’d be how I suppose I would do it.

http://socialitedreams.wordpress.com/

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georgia 30 June 2010 at 12:16 am Permalink

For most of my nappy life, my styles were on stretched hair. To me, nothing does it like combing and hair grease. Now of course I use hair butters. By combing out previously washed and detangled hair a second time and adding a good mix of oil to lubricate the hair, my hair gets stretched. The secret is not to add any moisture back as you continue to style. I have found that type 4b hair can be stretched smooth as a blow out approximately two to three days after a wash if it is combed out, oiled and set in chunky braids for a couple of nights.

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Ebony 30 June 2010 at 8:30 am Permalink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpdgevmPV48 chisellecouture has a vid in ths link. after washing your put a leave in ( I use jane cater’s leave in) wrap your hair then put a then sleep with a slik scaf. in the morning unwrap your hair. you will have a blowout and it will be strecth. i did it and have 4b hair and it work well.

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ubersavvyclassy 30 June 2010 at 12:01 pm Permalink

I stretch my hair with plaits. Right after I rinse the conditioner out, I put it in plaits and allow it to fully air dry. I am ready to style later on or the next morning. This helps tremendously!

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Julzinha 30 June 2010 at 1:10 pm Permalink

My family is African so my mother thought me how to thread my hair which stretches the hair in a matter of hours through the tension of the threading.

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- Rae 29 March 2011 at 6:02 pm Permalink
  
  mine too, we’re ghanaian and my mom has been plaiting (or african threading) my hair since i was little. This works like a charm, even if you only leave it in for a little while, when you take out the thread it gives you a really nice stretched blow out look
  
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Les 30 June 2010 at 3:21 pm Permalink

Roller sets work well, both under the dryer & air-drying.

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amber 2 July 2010 at 4:26 pm Permalink

twisting and banding!

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Carolynn 3 July 2010 at 4:06 pm Permalink

I use the banding method to stretch my hair. Her is a link to my video on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmFANHWjgSI

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Ashley 4 July 2010 at 6:58 pm Permalink

I heard that after washing your hair, while its wet to place clips on your ends to allow your curls to hang

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Joy 14 July 2010 at 10:25 am Permalink

Julzinha (and whomever else), I am Nigerian by way of Washington DC. When I was younger, my mom used to thread my hair. Do you know of any YouTube videos where threading is posted? I would love to learn. I combed and tied my hair with rubber bands (same as banding…??? first time hearing this term) last night and woke up this morning to stretched hair. So pleased, but I am afraid that rubber bands might contribute to pulling out some of my hair, as it could suck the Atlantic Ocean to bare land and STILL be dry. I will check out some of the sites listed in this thread and see what I can learn.

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Moni 14 July 2010 at 1:21 pm Permalink

Joy, to minimize the dryness when banding, soak your rubber bands in oil before applying them to your hair. I like to use coconut oil because it penetrates my hair instead of just sitting on top and leaving it greasy, but ymmv. You can also use melted shea butter.

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kadiane*francophone 15 July 2010 at 12:19 am Permalink

@ Joy

You can also use a satin scrunchy for banding. Banding is far better then threading cuz i think the threads are too sharp for the hair shaft. Beside, it takes way longer to do. When my hair was shorter, i will thread to have super stretched hair just sometimes.

Youtube: The videos are in french, search for ” tresses au fil” and you will find the videos that have threading as a subject.

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Dee 18 October 2010 at 2:21 am Permalink

i do a roller-set when its completely dry its stretched out.

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Efe 2 November 2010 at 11:27 am Permalink

After DCing, I section my hair in 6 parts. In each section, I add my leave in conditioner and do 3 braids. The next day, I unravel the braids and style the stretched hair.

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H2WQueen 9 November 2010 at 11:43 am Permalink

Well, maybe I’m too simplistic, but i just blow dry it and my hair is usually so soft and moisturized (maybe a bit too moist) afterwards. How do i achieve this. I wash my hair, apply shea butter generouly for conditioning, then i sit under my steamer. This helps push the shea into my hair. Afters I get that paddle brush and my blow dryer and go for what i know, in sections of course. Takes me no time really and the shee helps the brush glide through my hair effortlessly. When i am done my hair is very soft,very moisturized with a nice little sheen.

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H2WQueen 9 November 2010 at 11:44 am Permalink

I also want to add to my earlier comment, i don’t get it completely straight just enought to be stretched like i want and dry.

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