Does Braiding Your Hair at Night Make it Grow Faster?

The Beauty Brains investigates an interesting claim…

Bebelyn says…There is an old mexican wives tale that if you braid your hair at night it will grow faster, I doubt this is true but I would like to know what hairstyle has the most benefit for the hair in terms of preventing damage at night while sleeping…braid, bun or wrapped up???

The Right Brain responds:

That’s an interesting wives’ tale and I can certainly see the grain of truth that may have sparked it.

More breakage = takes longer to grow out

While no cosmetic product or treatment can truly make your hair grow faster, it can help your hair reach a certain length faster by reducing breakage. In other words, the more your hair breaks the more time it will take to reach the length that you desire. So anything you can do to reduce breakage helps you grow it “faster,” in a manner of speaking.

Reduce breakage by reducing friction
Braiding could help reduce breakage because when you wrap your hair in a tight style, the fibers are immobilized and can’t rub against the pillow as you sleep. By reducing the fiber-fabric friction you can reduce damage to the hair. Therefore, the ”best” hairstyle to wear while sleeping is the one that reduces damage-causing friction the most. While braiding may reduce the friction against the pillow it doesn’t prevent fibers from rubbing against each other inside the braid. Theoretically, the best thing to do is oil your hair to reduce fiber-fiber damage. Of course this creates another problem: oil will transfer to your pillowcase. So perhaps the best option is to wrap your hair in some sort of bun cover.

Ladies, how do you maintain your hair at night? Do you braid? Twist? Add product? Share your nightly routine!

61 thoughts on “Does Braiding Your Hair at Night Make it Grow Faster?”

Excuse my ignorance, but what are “plaits”. Is it sectioned braids?

Michelle says:

August 23, 2012 at 6:24 pm

Yes, it’s the same as braids but I call it plaits because that’s what I grew up hearing as a child…whenever I hear the word ‘braids’ I usually think of the ones that involve synthetic hair that are added onto one’s own hair. But I realised that ‘braids’ mean the same as ‘plaits’. Here is a pic of my braids (plaits) below:

+4

Reply

There is no quick fix for fast hair growth. Your hair grows in cycles. The best way to make get longer hair is to keep it healthy. You can do this by washing your hair to keep the follicle clean and clog free and to keep your scalp moisturize. Also take care of split ends. It’s not that your hair isn’t growing fast enough. It might just be that the rate of breakage is faster than the rate of hair growth. So, controlling breakage should be the priority.

If anything, I would think braiding your hair every night is too much manipulation, especially for naturally curly hair. Then again, different things work for different hair types and textures, but I wouldn’t recommend this practice.

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To make hair grow faster…
•breathe slower and fuller
• massage your scalp
•flip your head upside down
• don’t shampoo or use heat everyday

my neighbor put her hair in a braid every 3 days when she takes a shower! she barely washed her hair (like 3 times a week) and boy did it grow it grew like 4 inches in 3 months!!! but thats just her, it might work for you to, try it I am….you only live once.(;

If you want straight hair the next day you should wrap your hair.. if its curly and you want it to remain that way for the next day just put a bonnet on.