If you’ve ever been on a hair care journey I’m almost certain that you’ve come across protective styles and while some people feel that protective styles are the fast food of the natural hair  community others will die on the hill that there is no other way to grow type four hair without them.

Recently I’ve been doing a series on how to retain length without protective styling and I think because of this, some may assume I am against protective styles and that is not the case at all! I still utilize twist from time to time but after my experience with sewins for years I have learned all protective styles aren’t created equal. Twist with my natural hair was the best low manipulation hairstyle I could do for myself during my postpartum months and yielded so much growth! I do believe that there is a time and place for protective styles. They are a blessing that many of the people who lived before us utilized. I do however want to bring to your attention how they can potentially keep you stuck, both mentally and physically.

Before twists and giving up extensions, I was the sewin queen, I wanted every sewin to look like my natural hair and for no one to be able to tell. It had to be flat, extremely versatile, and the texture had to be just right. You would think if only I spent that much detail and time into pouring into my own hair lol. My previous years with getting sewins back to back, however eventually led to thinning edges and it also made me lazy when it came to learning how to deal with my natural hair. I mean why learn how to deal with it if I can just put it away for weeks at a time.

The truth is, even though for a short time they were useful, it ultimately led me to never having to learn to take care of what was underneath, my own natural hair. And I think it is so easy to fall into the convenience trap of protective styles. I knew that if I was dealing from breakage from frying off my leave out it didn’t matter because I could ultimately sew hair in and add length, disguising the breakage! If my hair was thin, I could easily add tracks in to make it fuller. If I did not know what to do with my hair, the porosity, how to keep it moisturized, or manage it, I could just twist it up. This is something I don’t think people think of when it comes to protective styles. The dependency on them and the possible neglect of what’s underneath while utilizing them.

Of course this does not apply to all people but it’s something that I’ve seen as a heart issue! Are we wearing the extensions or protective styles to help our hair for a season because we may be in a busy season or a season of learning how to manage our hair. Or are we doing it because we’ve given up on our hair, we don’t know what to do with it and don’t care to learn, or we just flat out don’t like it!

Now I do believe if you have come to the realization that you are using them to aid in your natural hair journey there are styles you can do to help a ton without compromising the health of your hair! After all, a protective style is a hairstyle designed to minimize manipulation and exposure of natural hair to environmental factors like heat cold and humidity. So whatever protective style we do should ultimately protect our hair from outside factors without damaging it further! Here are a list of extension free protective styles! Pinterest is a great place to get hair inspo for those who want to try other styles!

Twist W/O Added Hair

Braids W/O Added Hair

Two French Braids

Flat Twist

If you do not have a conviction and want to utilize extensions, I would only go for glue-less wigs that allow you to take it off every night and let your hair breath daily! I also encourage you to look into where your extensions are sourced, what products are used on the hair, and your why. I did a video on why I gave up hair extensions that I will link below and if you don’t care to watch the video, check out “Good Hair” documentary!

I heard a Christian girlie say, “when you become a Christian you start to look at the why” and that really stuck with me because it’s exactly what happened in my life. I began to question why I do the things I do. From small things to big things. Why I believe what I believe, why I wear my hair a certain way, why I dress how I dress, why I attend the church I do, why I eat what I eat, why I desire a family or to be a homemaker, etc. For me this included many things and in 2022, it became evident to me that upon searching my why of wearing hair extensions I found it stemmed from a place of idolatry and laziness to figuring out my natural hair. And since giving it up I have been on a journey of embracing my loose hair! Carrying out the experience I was meant to as a woman with curly hair. I do utilize stretching and as mentioned twist during busy seasons but for the most part my go to style is a twist out on a heat-lesss blowout!

Now I am a big believer that as long as it is not black and white sin, everyone does not have the same convictions and I do believe this is one of those grey areas to pray about and use wisdom in! “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 1 Corinthians 10:23

If you want to see more of a deep dive into protective styles, check out this video!