Wearing protective styles can be a fantastic way for you to nurture your natural hair and help it to grow longer. The beauty in protective styles when maintained properly is that they can help reduce exposure to potentially damaging elements such as hot styling tools and tension.
Protective styles include wigs, braids, buns, and twists. Particularly, any style where the ends of your hair are out of harm’s way.
Ways To Care For Protective Styles and Natural Hair
Regardless if you choose to wear clip-ins, weaves, or wigs, it’s essential to take care of your own hair. With this in mind, here are 3 simple, yet important tips to keep your hair in great shape.
1. Keep Your Hair Clean
Sometimes while wearing wigs or weaves, women and men, tend to go longer than they should before shampooing their hair. For naturally curly hair, the ideal cycle to shampoo your hair is usually between 7-10 days. Use a gentle yet effective sulfate and paraben free shampoo such as Scalp Protection Shampoo. It helps remove dead cells and provides relief from styling products to encourage healthy growth of new hair.
Did you know that you can cause fungal or bacterial infections on your scalp by shampooing infrequently? You certainly can. Your hair follicles become clogged when your scalp is dirty. This can not only slow hair growth, but also lead to fungal and bacterial infections. So ladies and gentlemen, take the time to care for your hair and scalp.
Frequently shampooing and getting conditioner treatments is one of the easiest ways to maintain your own hair. You will also notice that your hair will be softer, pliable and easy to handle.
2. Use a Good Conditioner
Shampooing your hair is not enough to keep it healthy. Wearing a protective style doesn’t mean you don’t still need maintenance for your natural hair. While shampoo cleanses your hair, a conditioner provides compounds to beautify and protect your hair. These compounds also restore lost oils and moisture to the hair.
Have you ever thought about what your hair goes through in a single day? It’s exposed to the excruciating heat of the sun. And, the chill factor of winter, sweat and pollution. So if conditioning your hair has been an afterthought, you may want to adjust your thinking.
If you find that your hair is very dry, consider a deep condition weekly for healthier hair. A great conditioner that we recommend is Scalp Protection Conditioner. Also, using cool water is best. While you may think hot water will ensure there’s no residue, it will also in effect reverse the process by leaving your hair cuticles open. Conversely, cool water closes the cuticles.
Be aware also of extreme tension on your scalp from weaves, cornrows and wigs. In addition to using an excellent conditioner regularly, keep your scalp in good condition too. A good scalp massage every couple of days is soothing to your scalp. Moreover, it can also avert itchiness, increases blood to the scalp, thus stimulating hair growth.
3. Keep Your Scalp and Hair Hydrated
If you have coarse, thick dry hair, the more moisture the better. So after cleansing your scalp and hair with a quality shampoo, protect it with our rich conditioner. Moisture helps make styling your hair easier and it’s vital for healthy hair growth. Before a wig or a weave installation, we also thoroughly cleanse and moisturize your natural hair.
Conclusion
Remember, a protective style doesn’t mean “out of sight”, “out of mind” for your natural hair. Your own hair is still there, being protected underneath that wig, weave or braids. To learn more about the products mentioned in this article or about our natural hair care line of products, call A Diva’s Hidden Hair at (619) 820-0290 or book appointment online.
You may also enjoy reading: Why Men Wear Hairpieces
