Protective Styling: What does it really protect?

Hair Identity

Growing up when I was maybe 8 or 9, I would ask my mom if I could get extensions (braids) in my hair. At the time my hair was in its natural state and I wanted to begin to experiment with different hairstyles. My mother always told me no. I never understood why, but she always said I didn’t need them. I think she wanted to instill in me or at least not reinforce the idea that I needed to add hair to my head to feel beautiful. As an adult, it took me awhile to realize the benefits of Protective Styling.

At the time, I just wanted to stop wearing my hair in big twists with barrettes. So I began to ask, “so then can I get a perm (relaxer)?” She told me no for a few years. Told me I didn’t need that either, but when I was around 10 she finally allowed me to get my hair relaxed. I went every few weeks to the salon to get a wash and set or a touch up. Even then, I never experimented with weaves or extensions besides maybe a ponytail extension for prom or a special occasion.

With the natural hair movement, more and more women are feeling confident rocking their hair as is. I’ve never really felt insecurity about my hair but I know it is something that we as black women sometimes struggle with. I thank my mom for indirectly instilling the idea that my hair is fine the way it is.

Providing Natural hair care for myself

Once I was an adult and decided to grow my hair out naturally, I went from going to the salon to doing it myself. I usually style my hair in a twist out hairstyle. Wearing my hair this way and doing my hair myself always left me dreading washing and styling my hair which takes me an average of about 5 hours. Each night, in between washes, I moisturize and retwist my hair which averages about 20 mins per night (the older the twist out the longer it takes)but can take up to 40 minutes depending on what I am doing. I say all of that to give you some background with what this post is really about.

Protective Styles

If I am not mistaken, most protective style posts or tips are usually around hair health. Many naturals utilize protective styling as a way to protect their hair from manipulation, and promote growth. This is great! However, the reason why I use protective styles every so often throughout the year is to protect my time and to protect my effort!

Protective Styling Protects my Time

Omg, this is the most important reason why I choose to and increasingly more choose to protective style my hair with extension box braids. To protect my time! You may be thinking this is common knowledge. For someone who never really utilized wearing any other hair or weaves, over the last year I have found box braid extensions to be so amazing! I love my hair the way it is, I do. However, caring for it takes a lot of time.

If I do some quick math, it takes me 5 hours to wash and style my hair on wash day, I attempt to do this every two weeks. Let’s just use 30 minutes for the amount of time I spend every night retwisting my hair. For a two week span that would equal 7 hours. If you add the 5 hours that I already spent that is 12 hours. If you times that by 2 it takes me 24 hours a month to style my hair. A full day of just doing hair! I forgot to add in the time it takes me to untwist and style in the mornings about 15 minutes, but you get the point.

It can take anywhere from 7-9 hours to get my hair braided in one day. And once it is done, I am good to go for a month and a half to two months. I am saving a total of 39 hours of doing hair for a total of two months!

Protective Styling Protects my Effort

So I spend over 24 hours a month just on doing my hair. I can’t calculate the amount of effort that is utilized but the physical and emotional energy can take a toll. I am being a bit dramatic but as much as I love my hair, I hate doing it! With everything on my mind and schedule to do and take care of, my hair unfortunately is a big part of that. So with box braids as a protective style my hair gets a break from daily manipulation and I get a break from stressing about doing my hair. It’s a win-win! I do continue to monitor my hair to notice if there is any stress from the weight of the added hair around my edges. I also continue to use natural oils on my scalp or spray leave in conditioner about once or twice a week.

Protective Styling Protects my Focus

With the saved time and energy I can focus on other things or even take that time to relax. I have an additional 30 minutes per night. I can read, or pray, or write, or do anything else that I want to do before bed. In the past, I’ve used box braids as a protective style twice over the span of 4 years. Now, I will try to utilize it more often just to save myself time and effort. I never felt that I needed to have store bought hair to feel beautiful; thanks to my mom. I do however, appreciate the option to alleviate the time and effort of styling my beautiful natural hair.

How often do you use protective styles? What is your go to? Please share below.