I admit freely that I don’t like protective styling. I’m not saying that I never use protective styling, I just never genuinely enjoy it.
You see, for me it’s a novelty to have my own hair the length that I’ve used weaves in the past to achieve. Call me vain but I’ve worked so hard so I think I deserve to show off my length often!
Having said that, from a length retention perspective, wearing your hair down week in week out is not the best idea.
It brings to mind something I noticed a few years ago when I had a 9-5 job. I worked with two Caucasian women with similar honey* blonde hair but there the similarities ended.
The younger of the two had hair that remained at around the BSL level for the 2 years that I worked at that company.
She had the natural razor ends that develop when you don’t have your hair trimmed for a while. The older one had waist length hair that she was always having to trim back so she had blunt thick looking ends.
Being nosy enough to ask, I wasn’t surprised to learn that they both washed and blow dried their hair every morning. The younger one either straightened or curled her hair afterwards and wore her hair down every day.
The older woman tied her hair into a ponytail after her blow dry. In fact, she only wore her hair down a handful of times per month!
You may be surprised to learn that some Caucasians also having trouble retaining length and if their hair care forums are anything to go by, the problem is quite widespread mostly because many of these women turn to heated tools to style their hair every morning.
I would imagine that most of you have already given up daily blow drying/flat ironing and the take home message here is if you are wearing your hair down daily, it stands to reason that a lot of you are probably also combing/brushing your hair daily too.
Don’t most natural hair websites warn about edge breakage due to wearing ponytails too much?
It really depends on how you are wearing your ponytail. I always wear mine slack.
Not only edges thinning but if you keep your pony tail in the same spot you can create a bald spot.
I used always pull my hair back, especially when I was first transitioning. But it was hard on my edges and hair would break off at the point where the ‘gentle’ ponytail holder toutched my hair. So now I only wear them occaisionally
Ponytails proved extremely damaging to my hair, to the point that the middle section broke off to next to nothing
Omg yes…this just happened to me recently so ive been using Castor oil to grow it back…i am so mad at myself
Ladies, if you connect a rubber to 2 Bobbie pins, wrap them around and tuck the Bobbie pins in you
Will suffer less with breakage;)
It can be damaging because the hair is pulled back so tightly it break your edges. Another thing I see a lot are women putting their hair in a ponytail while still wet. Bacteria grows in moisture areas which causes damage
Our hair cannot be compared to other races!!!!
Why-ever not? All hair is made of the same stuff and low manipulation styling is the same regardless what race you are imo.
I wear very lose ponytails and my edges are just fine. Also don’t wear it in the exact same place everyday. Move it around a little. Once you are home let it breath.
Cute
Won’t the constant snagging on clothes by the exposed hair lead to breakage?
If I wear wool then I won’t pony but when wearing anything else I do and I’ve never had breakage from regular ponytails.
Created a bald spot for me.
Pretty ponytail beautiful hair
I think it just depends on an individual’s hair.