A few days ago Cipriana shared her tips for retaining length, which included protective styling. In response some of you requested a regimen that didn’t involve protective styling. One of my favorite natural hair bloggers, Elle of Quest for the Perfect Curl has such a regimen. Check it out:
Here’s my current regimen, I try to keep it fairly simple.
- Wash hair with shampoo 1x a week in 6 sections (pinned up with clips)
- Condition or use a cleansing conditioner + condition when I am redoing my wash n go (6 sections again), depending on how my hair feels and if I feel the product has left some build up (usually every 2-3 days, could be daily if I don’t like my second day hair or am playing with products)
- DC 1x (Steam, overnight DC, dry DC – varies)
- Daily Style – Wash n Go, bun, or ponytail (Currently, I’ve been doing about 8 sections in order to ensure the product is applied thoroughly and gets on my roots to minimize tangles)
- Sleeping! – Currently I’ve been sticking to my Sue Maesta hood, but I’m thinking of getting a DreadSock when my hair gets longer. When my hair is in a bun or ponytail, I smooth my hair down with my satin scarf. And I ALWAYS sleep with my satin pillowcase!
- Moisturize/fluff out daily using a water based moisturizer (Faves: Oyin Hair Dew, Donna Marie Super Buttercreme) or oil (Carol’s Daughter Hair Balm or Elixir, HerbnLife Butterfly Gold) when refreshing a wash n go.
- Sealing – I only seal when I am using a product that contains glycerin in less than optimal dews (Faves: Oyin Burnt Sugar Pomade, Oyin Hair Dew, HerbnLife Coconut Hemp)
- Trimming – I do not trim my ends, frankly, because I haven’t felt as if I’ve needed to. I keep my SSKs to a minimum by moisturizing like crazy. However, I do search and destroys for the rare split and SSKs when I see them. I did a small trim last time I straightened my hair (half an inch or an inch?), and may do another next time (but that most likely will not be for another six months or so).
- Heat – Diffuse as needed when my hair is soaking wet and I have things to do! Otherwise, I air dry.
Sounds really simple! What are your thoughts ladies? Do any of you retain length without protective styling? Share your tips below!
You can find Elle at Quest for the Perfect Curl. Be sure to check her out!
Hey Ladies!
Any ideas on how she achieved the hair style in her first pic b/c I LOVE it!
Thanks!
@kg do you mean the big pic up top? If so, that’s a wash and go – I have my tutorial on my blog/YouTube. If you mean the first pic in the series, that’s a dry bantu knot out. hth!
Yeah, Elle, I’m talking about the top pic. I’ll def check out your youtube blog. I think I’m already subscribed. Are you naturalchickdotcom?
Hey Ladies!
Any ideas on how she achieved the hair style in her first pic b/c I LOVE it!
Thanks!
I’ve been natural for about 5 years or so and from that time until about March 2011 (when I cut my hair), I was able to grow and maintain thick mid-back length hair. I did it without any kind of protective styling. And if I did protective style, it was unintentional (i.e., a bun on a bad hair). I have 3b/3c hair and on average, I wore wash n’ go’s about 2 weeks out of every month, and flat ironed hair the other two weeks.
I say all that to say, it is possible to retain length without protective styles. You just have to have very good styling practices/regimens. I co-washed once a week, rarely used any heat — other than the flat iron once a week (on my 2 straight hair weeks), kept my hair moisturized and got regular trims.
Sept. 15 will make month 6 of my cut, and I have still been able to retain all length (new and old), without any protective styling. So it’s definitely possible. In my opinion, if you properly care for your hair and keep it trimmed, length will be retained. Best of luck y’all!
I have collarbone length super coily hair and I retain length well regardless of style. All I do is keep my scalp clean and my hair moisturized as well as stretched. I usually wear braid outs but I do buns/updos on ocassion.
If you’re gentle with your hair (washing, detangling, moisturizing and styling), the length will come with time and paitence.
Oh….. I recognize her from naturally curly. She’s very rude and condescending to people in the 4a forums. oink!!!!!
I couldn’t agree more.
You can put lipstick on a pig but its still a pig. I don’t like her she is very very very rude.
I need to try sectioning my hair before washing. But, I co-wash, still I do not have alot of breakage, but I also seem to have sooooooo growth. Thanks for the tips.
Since I became a a frequent henna head, I dont have any breakage or shedding. My hair grow and inch and half without me doing any protective styling. In fact protective styling, like braids and wigs irritate my edges. My hair craves water and as long as I deep condition and give her water shes good
Well since you asked, ”what are your thoughts ladies?” I will go ahead and share mine.
Firstly, I thought this would be tips on how to retain length without protective styling NOT about one person’s specific routine.
Secondly, I seriously hate protective styles, other than braid/twist extensions. Protective styles do NOTHING for my hair. I wore them all through high school (when my hair was permed and then natural) and no matter what kind of scrunchie i used, just helped with the breakeage process and moisturizing didnt help, protective styles are the devil for my hair lol I hate them, and my lovely curly kinky bob, which grows pretty fast, is much better when i only finger comb, dampen and seal with shea butter or olive oil.
Protective styles suck in my opinion and im glad im not the only one who can grow hair without them. I wished this article wasnt based on this one woman’s routine.
I wrote an article with tips – I hope this is helpful. http://questfortheperfectcurl.com/2012/05/13/question-of-the-day-tips-for-retaining-length-without-protective-styling/
why are ppl so pressed to disagree w/ the girl’s regimen? no one is forcing you to follow it. no one said you should never do protective styles. if you feel protecting styling is what helps you retain length, keep doing that, if you want to try a regimen that doesn’t involve protective styling, try it. what’s the pint of hopping up in the comments to rant about how everyone’s hair is different and her regimen wouldn’t work for you?
OMG, our regimen is almost identical! I’ve been doing it for almost three years and started with snaggly hair around my ears. The pic is where I’m at now. The first photo is me now and the second one is me three years ago this July.
Your hair looks nice and thick!
Hair texture does not matter when deciding whether to do PS or not, hair density and porosity is the main factors….I’m not sure why people always refer to texture and curl pattern when expressing hair woes, you can have the same curl pattern as the next person but their hair can be coarse and high porosity and yours fine with low porosity so that means the way you care for your hair and retain length will be totally different. I don’t protective style at all and most definitely retain length…..some people feel the need to put their hair away…..I like to be free with my hair that’s the whole point of MY natural journey to grow long healthy hair….
I agree with you that density and porosity play a large role, but I do think that texture is important too, because finer hair is often more fragile and easier to break than coarse hair. I have some fine hairs by my edges and I have to be more gentle with them when I detangle. Curl pattern also is a factor because it is more difficult for sebum to travel down the hair strand the kinkier the hair is, so the hair tends to be drier/less pliable (however, this is easily alleviated using conditioners so I don’t think it’s a huge issue). I have also talked to many women who say that their hair tangles too much when it’s in “out” styles because they get more shrinkage.
Good day! Just wanted to pop in real quick and let you all know that my regimen has changed a little since my hair has grown – it’s now past my shoulders when curly, so I started sealing more. If you’d like, you can check out the updates at http://questfortheperfectcurl.com/current-regimen/. I also wrote an article a couple of weeks ago on retaining length without protective styling, which can be found at http://questfortheperfectcurl.com/2012/05/13/question-of-the-day-tips-for-retaining-length-without-protective-styling/.
This article can mislead naturals that don’t know their hair type. This regimen is great for Elle, but for the majority of naturals it does not work. There is no such thing as retaining length without protective styling unless you are a 3c and under(with thick strands).Some 4a’s can do it according to their strand thickness, but not all. I’m a 4a and the above regimen is the reason why I had to cut off inches of split hair/fairy knots & edit my entire regimen.My strands are not fragile or weak, but they are on the finer side. Although I have very thick dense hair, wearing it out daily killed it. It would just “eat itself” (each strand would wrap around & choke others causing knots). I now know that I can rarely wear my hair “out” or even in a puff….and I mean ra—-rr–ee-lee–yyy. I stick to large two strand twists so I can still wash my scalp, minimize de-tangling, moisturize & condition regularly and avoid too much manipulation.I just started this about a month ago so I’ll be watching my length retention bi-monthly now.
This has been my regimen since i done my big chop Jan 6th 2012! I however was going to stick to strictly protective styles the rest of this summer. I have been on and off with it as i love how my hair is coming along :) So i now earn that D C on a regular, seal your ends and wash weekly is key to growing hair maybe?? I don’t know, but i do know low manipulation is key and thus far, my hair has not been breaking since leaving it out on a regular-5 months into my journey, so of course i believe you are onto something here :)
I know this is a old post . . . but I use to wear two-strand-twist after growing out my first BC and my hair grew nicely. But my hair is fine even though it doesn’t look like it when worn out. The twist use to take me 2 1/2 hours and by the end of the week the hair crawled out and was bushy and I didn’t care for the look. After my second grow-out from my 2nd BC I have fount that twist-outs after a few days become dry;tried different refreshing spritzes/oils; creams (Shea-Moisture-Milk) itched me like crazy!!. Also by curls became too stretched and tangly during wash day?? Now I’m trying a wash and go with well moisturized hair (DC and good leave-in)and scrunchy’s about 6-8 on gathered sections and a silk pillow case. So far I like it . . . I get to keep more of my natural coils and the ends stay coiled and I’m stretching the just enough to keep from matting hair hasn’t gotten to dry. I did have one day where I didn’t do the scrunchy; just to sleepy. This lasted for a week and hair looked good, but I’m entering into the second week because didn’t have time to wash. It will be more tangled than normal when washing this week ;-(.
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