Great hairstyles never happen simply by chance but by appointment. And by appointment, we mean you either learn how to groom your hair regularly like a professional or regularly book appointments with a hairstylist.
Wearing any hairstyle, including dreadlocks, demands a personal responsibility to maintain hygiene, grooming, and aesthetics.
And that brings us to another point - maintaining your hair can damage it.
Regular hair maintenance is like a paradox; if you don't take care of it, you will suffer follicle damage or hygiene problems.
However, the more you physically manipulate your hair and use toxic hair care products, the more you can damage your hair and potentially your health.
For example, if you perform any of these hair grooming rituals too often, then you are damaging your hair:
- Wearing hair in a ponytail
- Braiding, twisting, and pulling hair aggressively
- Washing with shampoo too often
- Using a blow dryer
- Washing hair aggressively with a towel
- Overly brushing your hair
- Relaxing, perming, or coloring your hair
- Using most traditional hair care products
Aggressively wrapping your hair in a ponytail, braiding it, or pulling it can slowly cause baldness or bald patches. It is a medical condition called traction alopecia.
Grabbing, pulling, twisting, and overmanipulating your hair over time causes damage.
Washing your hair with shampoo daily will strip it of its natural oils and weaken it. Using a blow dryer for extended periods will dry out your hair and weaken it.
Brushing your hair too much or drying it aggressively with a towel will damage hair follicles and cause split ends and frizziness.
Hair dyes, relaxers, and perms can chemical alter your hair follicles. Relaxers must be removed shortly after application; otherwise, caustic burns and baldness will resort.
And these problems persist whether you have straight hair or dreadlocks.
Here is a medical site that can help you repair damaged hair. Still, we want to talk about protective styles for your dreadlocks.
The point is that you can't get through life without grooming, touching, and treating your dreadlocks. But you can get in the habit of wearing protective hairstyles that protect the integrity of your locs.
So, we will present to you three protective styles for locs.
But first, what exactly are "protective hairstyles?"
Lion Locs produces the finest in organic and vegan dreadlock care products. Check us out today.
Related: Easy Twisted DreadLock Tutorial in Minutes
What Are Protective Hairstyles?
Protective hairstyles are hairstyles that are stylistic, last for weeks, and protect your hair from the damage caused by chronic and frequent hair manipulation and grooming.
Dreadlocks are a protective hairstyle because you don't need to wash them daily. Dreadlocks, especially thick dreadlocks, act like a sponge when exposed to water and moisture.
You can wash your locs once or twice a week and then dry them thoroughly with a towel or hair dryer. Wet dreadlocks can develop a hair fungus called "dread rot." Additionally, you will preserve your hair follicles' natural oils and reduce frizziness and potential damage by washing them less.
This may sound counterintuitive, but this method can work for straight hair too. Here is a WebMD article that says it's OK to wash your hair twice a week to protect it.
The point is that this is the gist of a protective hairstyle. No one is saying that you should never dye your hair, brush it, or style it again. You should do it less often and wear protective styles to shield your hair from the damage of everyday styling.
A protective hairstyle protects your hair from:
- Habitual physical manipulation
- Daily styling and grooming
- Daily washing
- Environmental contamination
- Weather
- Chemical treatment
Protective hairstyles protect your hair follicles from damage. They also save you time and money when it comes to daily grooming or excessively using toxic hair care products. And you can wear protective hairstyles in between the times when you aggressively style or chemically treat your hair.
Some protective hairstyles may require some minimal manipulation on a daily or weekly basis.
What Are the Advantages of Wearing Protecting Hairstyles?
Wearing protective hairstyles is not appropriate for starter dreadlocks because they are still growing. Protective hairstyles are more suitable for developed and long-length dreadlocks.
However, fully developed dreadlocks are prone to drying out, waterlogged, contamination by airborne particulates, and frizziness. Protective hairstyles will protect your locs from the elements as they grow.
Protective hairstyles also give you more free time in your life, unless you enjoy spending an hour or more daily styling your hair.
Additionally, protective hairstyles will help your locs retain their natural oils and moisture.
You can wear protective hairstyles for six to eight weeks. Wearing them any longer will damage your locs. Moisturize them and wash them regularly.
But the biggest advantage of protective hairstyles is that they can be just as stylish as they are protective.
Here are three protective styles for locs. And it must be noted that these protective hairstyles are more optimal for use with long and thin dreadlock strands instead of thicker ones.
Knotless Box Loc Braids
Knotless box braids or braids that extend out of box-shaped scalp sections on the scalp. Extensions are installed beneath the real hair at the scalp to ease tautness and tension and reduce the likelihood of traction alopecia.
The same protective hairstyle can be used with dreadlocks via faux locs extensions instead of straight hair weaves.
Cornrow Loc Braids
You or a stylist can braid three or four cornrow loc braid tracks on your head. Cornrow braid doesn't take a lot of time to style and will protect your locs.
You can also switch up the braid style weekly or biweekly. You can have the cornrow tracks braided horizontally braided on your head and curve to the back, and then tie your locs into a braided ponytail.
Braided Loc Updo
Yoruba royal women in Africa have been rocking this hairstyle for centuries.
Braid your locs into thin circular rows or straight tracks up towards the top of your head. The thin rows of braids will culminate in a tall, thin, tube-like beehive braided bun.
Lion Locs dreadlock care products only feature vegan, organic, and all-natural ingredients. Parabens, sulfates, and toxic chemicals are never used in our products. Check us out today.
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