Hair shedding after a protective style is unavoidable. But there are steps you can take to minimize the amount of shedding you might experience. Our hair sheds between 50-100 strands per day. So, when you have your hair in a protective style, it is normal to see more hair shedding than you would be used to vs when your hair is loose. However, if you’re not taking care of your hair when it is in a protective style, there is a good chance you’ll lose more strands than you should.
What is a protective style?
A protective style is any hairstyle that tucks your natural hair away so that you aren’t manipulating your own hair as much. Some people feel this is the best way to give their hair a ‘break’ from constant touching/combing/heat/etc. Basically, any everyday styling that can cause damage to your hair. Because hair is a fiber, once it has been damaged, then there isn’t much you can do to repair it. So, with a protective style, the goal is to minimize that damage.
Some common protective styles are braids, knots, twists, and weaving your hair so that it won’t be manipulated as much as if your hair wasn’t in one of these styles.
Healthy-looking hair is everybody’s goal. However, to keep your hair from shedding after a protective style, you want to avoid dryness, and dullness through certain steps. We often think of the typical protective styles for healthy hair, well, this is not the only way to protect your hair. My motto is that moisturized hair is protected hair.
Any long-term protective hairstyle may lead to your hair shedding after that protective style because of losing moisture. The result is your hair more prone to dryness, and breakage which can appear as excess shedding. They can also cause hair thinning as well as hair loss from keeping them in for so long. Also when you use a high amount of gel and conditioner while doing a protective hairstyle, it may build up and flake up in your natural hair. You should also take extra care of your protective hairstyle even while sleeping because it can make your hair frizzy and cause breakage.
Hair shedding after a protective style: What to do before.
For naturally curly hair the key is to keep your hair moisturized. Here are some tips
- Cleanse and Deep Condition Your Hair
- Use a thick moisturizer such as our Sealing Hair Butter
Before installing or styling your hair into a protective style, you want to make sure your hair is as hydrated as possible. Doing a deep conditioning treatment ensures your hair will have the hydration it needs. Our Sealing Hair Butter is perfect when prepping your hair for protection because it helps to seal in moisture so your styles don’t suck all the moisture out of your hair.
The takedown: How to avoid hair shedding after a protective style.
What you do after you take your protective style down isn’t going to be that different from when you put it in. The key is to be gentle with your hair to avoid snagging or tangling. That extra shedding you notice can be from hair that has knotted together.
- Us a lot of conditioner or a detangler. We love our Detoxifying Clay Cleanser for after you remove your protective style. You want a gentle product with lots of slip that is also conditioning. Wet hair and apply your conditioner or detangler. Let it sit on your hair for a few minutes then detangle in small sections.
- Clarify your hair. After detangling, you’ll want to give your hair a good cleansing. This will remove any debris, dust etc. from your hair.
- Deep condition to add more moisture back into your hair. If your hair is extremely dry, you might want to include a steam treatment.
There are some precautionary measures that you need to take when you want to protect your hair like:
- Stay away from heat, excessive exposure to light and heat can cause damage to your hair.
- Trim your hair regularly.
- Wash them regularly, don’t let that dirt build-up.
- Never forget to use a good conditioner.
- Use a water-based moisturizer, as water is the ultimate moisturizer.
Protective hairstyles are wonderful and awesome as hairstyles as long as you make sure to take care of the hair you are protecting. . So take these precautionary measures and follow the above tips to keep your hair moisturized and protected from dryness and damage. Follow these steps to avoid any hair shedding after protective style.
Be sure to read 4 ways a protective style can go wrong.