Protective Styles for Straight Hair
When protective hairstyles are mentioned it is almost always in relation to curly natural type three and four hair that Black people tend to have. While my hair as a white person with 1C hair may seem extremely different, good hair care is surprisingly similar across hair textures and types.
There’s a myth that Black hair does not grow as long as white hair. Black hair can grow, but the big difference between straight and curly textures is that curly hair is more delicate. While it mostly grows at the same rate, it can more easily break off. So length retention becomes key for growing naturally curly hair. Straight hair is more resilient and takes a lot more damage before it shows.
But if you are a person with 1 or 2 type hair, fine hair, straight hair, and you want it to be longer and healthier, length retention is going to matter for you too.
The Keys To Good Hair Care
Avoid Damage
For length retention it is important to avoid damage when possible. Things that damage your hair are friction, heat tools, and bleach. Your hair can’t reach its full potential if it is breaking off mid growth cycle. If you like heat tools you can get away with it a little bit, especially if you use a heat protectant, but if you do it too much that damage will catch up with you. Same with hair dye. Especially going lighter, which requires more bleach. Bleach is extremely harsh and if you are going to bleach your hair make sure a professional does it and that you don’t go over your hair too often with more bleach procedures.
Friction is far harder to avoid. Friction rubs away at your hair when it brushes against your clothes, furniture, is picked up by the wind. Even a hair elastic digging into your hair.
And that’s where wearing hair up in protective styles comes in.
Protect The Ends
The ends are the most delicate part of your hair. That’s where your hair is the oldest, so naturally it is the most fragile. In our protective styles a big key is tucking the ends in underneath the updo.
Moisture
Dry hair is more likely to break off. It is more brittle when it is dry. Curly hair tends to be more dry but straight hair can suffer from it as well. Sometimes straight hair is too fine to cope with hair oils but a little bit on the ends can sometimes help. Using a shampoo with an emphasis on moisture can help (this is the shampoo I use) but if your hair is very fine you may want to alternate with a clarifying shampoo.
While dry hair is more susceptible to friction, wet hair is very delicate in its own way. People with curly hair find it necessary to brush while wet (brushing while dry causes intense frizz) but they have special combs and brushes for it. On straight hair I recommend a wood wide toothed comb to very gently detangle from the bottom up if you need to detangle when wet or damp.
How Protective Hairstyles Are Different Between Curly and Straight Hair
Hair styles like cornrows are meant to protect curly textured Black hair by covering it and not manipulating it too much. It stays in braids or other styles for a long time. I can’t say that I am any kind of expert in protective styles for Black hair and I don’t know the details of how the styles work to shield the hair from damage but I do know that these styles are too tight to be safe for straight hair.
For straight hair we want a style that doesn’t pull too much, that tucks in the ends, and that uses gentle accessories to hold. It’s unusual to keep a straight hair protective style in for weeks as for most that would cause bad tangling. But I do have a friend who does it with Elizabethan hair taping!
What To Learn From Black People About Hair Care
Because their hair is more delicate Black people tend to know a lot about good hair care that is applicable to all hair. Because of racism hair can become very politicized. It breaks my heart that Black people encounter people criticizing and disrespecting their hair. All hair is beautiful. All hair is good hair. And that may seem hollow coming from me but it’s what I believe.
All that to say that far from being looked down on, white people have a lot to learn from Black people about good hair care. The problem with that is there’s already a lot of sensitivity around white people copying Black people and taking credit for all the good things they invent.
So I’m not sure how to navigate that.
But I do believe that all people, regardless of hair type, should be using silk or satin sleep caps or pillowcases. It significantly reduces friction, breakage, and frizz while sleeping. This is the one I use.
Protective Hairstyles for Straight Hair
Hair Accessories To Use
For your protective updos you’ll need safe tools for putting your hair up. Traditional hair elastics are rough on your hair. Many people are now using satin scrunchis or those telephone cord ties (which I must admit I have not tried yet!) I personally have been using PRO hairties because they can be unclasped to get out of your hair instead of dragging them through your hair. (You can get them on Amazon here). Even so, I avoid any hair ties as much as I can.
Most of the protective styles that I wear in my hair are held up with sticks, forks, spin pins, and flexis. I also like Amish pins for putting the ends in. You can read more about my favorite hair accessories here.
You can practice with pencils or chopsticks too (though make sure they are smooth and have a sharp enough point to not break hairs as they enter your updo).
You can get hair sticks and forks from Etsy. Learn the basics of how to use them here: How To Use A Hair Stick and How To Use A Hair Fork. And you can get flexis from the lilla rose company. I am an affiliate for both (and amazon), so please take a look at my affiliate disclosure at the bottom of this article!
Protective Hairstyles Tutorials
Many people use braids to protect their length but I don’t favor them myself. The delicate ends are still exposed and a swinging braid can get caught in things. So when I use braids I usually do them pinned up.
Here is a playlist of a few simple protective updos to get you started. There are many more tutorials on my channel too!
Find me around the web at https://longhaircarolyn.my.canva.site/
Links in this article may be affiliate links, which means I will get a small commission if you decide to purchase, but the price for you does not change.
