Thin Hair Tips: How to Care for Fine Hair in a Protective Style
If you are looking to grow long hair by regularly doing protective styles, how you go about your protective style maintenance needs to be targeted. These thin hair tips, while focused on those of us with fine hair, can be used by even those with heavier strands.
It’s no secret that protective styling is one of the best ways to retain length. Yet, if you don’t maintain your hair properly when in the style, you won’t recognize much of that length. So, in order to help you avoid many of the pitfalls that actually come with improperly maintaining your protective style, I’ve assembled a few protective styling maintenance tips.
Protein Treat BEFORE Installing Your Protective Style
I’d be reminisce in telling you how to maintain your protective style before sharing the first things you need to do to your hair before you actually do the style.
Very simply, because you are going to tuck your hair away for a period of time (be it 3 days or 14), you want to make sure your hair is strong enough to be put away because you really won’t be touching it much.
A good protein treatment that’s moisture balanced will make sure your hair stays in good shape in your protective style. Then, when you are ready to take the style down, you won’t have to worry about weak, breaking hair. You will have done your due diligence.
Can I get an amen somebody?!
Moisturize for Good Protective Styling Maintenance
Even though your hair is in a style where your ends are tucked away, you still want to give it moisture. Moisturizing your hair needs to be done regardless of how you style it.
If your hair is in a style that can be easily taken down at night, then do so every few nights and get some moisture into it. Then, put the style back up, tie it down and go to bed.
This method of moisturizing a protective style is good for buns and large twists.
If you have a weave, lots of twists or braids, spray moisture onto them. There are good braid sprays available that you can use or you can make your own hair spritz. Even simpler, just spritz some water onto your hair every few days and seal the moisture in with a light oil like Jojoba or Argan oil.
This will keep your hair pliable and keep dryness away. Dry thin hair is guaranteed to become breaking hair.
Protective styles were not meant to be set and forgotten. Please moisturize your hair.
Attend to Your Scalp
Your scalp is just as important as your hair. It is after all, the place where your hair is growing from.
When your hair is in a protective style for a period of time, your scalp can get dry and even flaky.
To combat a dry scalp, you can moisturize it as well. You can also massage your scalp to keep the blood flowing healthily. This also primes your hair for more growth.
When you have thin hair, your scalp is usually easily accessed so this shouldn’t be difficult to do.
Secure Your Protective Style
When you go to sleep, make sure you always secure your style with a silk or satin scarf. This not only prevents your hair from drying out, it also prevents frizz and extends the life of the style.
Recommended Silk and Satin Scarves
100% Mulberry Silk Scarf available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3D6RcT2
Satin, Silk Like Feel Scarf available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3RALflw
Taking Down Braids and Twists
if the final thin hair tip I can can offer, that’s super important it’s to be very careful and strategic with taking down twists and braids when you do them to protective style.
For those of us with fine or thin hair, keep these thin hair tips in mind (front and center):
- Oil your strands before attempting to unbraid or untwist. This will provide you with the “slip” needed to manipulate your hair safely.
- Make sure your nails are manicured and you don’t have any hang nails
- Use the end of a rat tail comb to assist you with undoing the braids/twists. Don’t comb though.
- Lightly remove shed hairs with your fingers as you untwist or unbraid.
It doesn’t take much to maintain your fine hair when protective styling. These protective styling maintenance tips for thin hair and fine hair will help you to enjoy the benefits of utilizing this method of styling your hair for growth without you having to worry about losing the length you grow.
