Growing Black Hair: Low Maintenance Hair Styles
Written by Samara on November 1, 2008
One way to keep your hair on your head and to add length is by wearing hair styles that require low maintenance. Low maintenance hair styles don’t require the use of lot’s of heat, combing, tugging, and pulling. These hair styles will give the hair a rest and allow the hair to grow longer and stronger because it reduces hair breakage due to styling. It is okay to curl your hair or wear a beautiful, sleek, straigtened hair style occasionally, but this shouldn’t be something that you practice normally if you are trying to grow long hair.
If you are the hair style diva and you like wearing your hair in multiple styles, changing it daily then growing long hair is not the way to go for you. You are causing way too much stress on your hair and it will take longer for you to achieve length if your hair even holds up against the daily styling stress to even add length.
So what are low maintenance hair styles?
Low maintenance hair styles are:
- hair bun
- cornrows(not too tight)
- french roll
- Asian french roll (french roll with chop sticks)
- Set
The above hair styles will allow your hair to rest. It is okay to wear an occasional wrap which is less damaging than most hair styles because the use of heat is limited to only being dried under a dome dryer. Just remember to use foaming wrap lotion to help the hair stretch and prevent breakage during the wrapping process before the hair is dried.
Credits: Photo from i.ehow.com
24 Responses to Growing Black Hair: Low Maintenance Hair Styles
my hear tend to break what shud i do???
Follow the hair regimen recommended on this site to stop hair breakage.
my edges in the front sides of my head are thinning but everything else seems to be growing normally, what do I do??
I have a few questions before I can answer your question properly. Do you brush your hair or just recently stopped brushing? Do you wear ponytails or other hair styles that require pulling? Have you had micro’s before? Do you relax your own hair? The above could be the reason for your hair thining at the nape.
Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to contribute this educational and thorough website. I would like to know if you have any advice or if you can shed some of your thoughts on wearing fall wigs? I follow all of your hair care steps when not wearing my falls. However I wear my own hair pulled back in a pony tail underneath my fall. I don’t wear my own hair braided. At night I remove fall and sleep with satin bonnet. Is there any cons to wearing a fall on long term basis even if I’m taking care of my own hair properly? Thank you.
Hello my daughter’s hair breaks a lot. She normally wears braids, micros, due to her playing basketball and sweating so much. How can I get her hair healthy and growing again? PS she has a relaxer.
I think everything that you are doing is wonderful and the fall shouldn’t have any effect on your real hair as long as it isn’t pulling and tugging on your hair. I have noticed that falls can leave your scalp sore from the combs in them.
Follow the Grow Black Hair Guide on this site. You may also want to see this article on micro braids to understand why your daughter’s hair is damaged.
I got my hair cut, just back in July.It’s only about 1 1/2″ in the back and sides. I want it to grow back fast, do you think Indian Hemp hair grease is good for my hair?:)
No it won’t. No grease will make your hair grow. Hair grows on average 1/2 per month. Follow the Grow Long Hair guide to grow your hair long.
At the end of october, I decided to grow my hair from jaw bone length. My goal is to get it to a mid neck lenght by January. But It’s been 3 weeks since I relaxed my hair and my hair has only grown a little over 1/4 of an inch. Is there any advice to help me reach my goal.
Hi, I’m 16 & I was wondering if you can you tell me if it’s a good idea to stop perming my hair? I really don’t want to perm it anymore since I found out that perms are actually bad for your hair. I was also wondering why my roots get sore on different occasions, like today for example, while in class, my roots just started hurting so badly. I just recently roller set my hair 3 nights before & my hair was curly up until this morning. i combed my hair & put it into a nice loose bun & went on my way. I noticed that my roots also hurt when i blow dry my hair upside down for volume since rollers & I don’t get along. PLEASE HELP ME!
First and foremost please stop using the blow dryer. It is very damaging to your hair. The rollers and the blow dryer use can be the cause for your scalp hurting. I will also like to commend you on want to grow out your relaxer. I am also currently in the process of growing mine out also. Just take extra care of your hair by conditioning it and applying moisture while you transition back to natural hair.
It may be because of breakage. Have you noticed any hair shedding or little hairs on your back everytime you comb it?
I really don’t use the blow dryer that much though. i either let my hair air dry or i sit underneath the hairdryer. Why do the rollers hurt my roots? They aren’t tight when i put them in. Will my hair become “nappy” once i grow my perm out? I really want it to be manageable.
Your hair will become your natural texture…
I don’t know what your original hair texture is and I don’t really like the use of the word “nappy”. African American hair is naturally curly or kinky. You may have curly spirals or kinky zigzags…I don’t really know. Proper moisturizing and conditioning can aid in making your hair more manageable depending on your hair texture or you can opt for a texturizer if you think your hair is too hard to manage. The rollers could be pulling a grinding into your scalp while you sleep which is probably why your scalp hurts.
Oh! OK then thank you.
So by natural, my hair would grow out to be the hair type i was born with- which was wavy.
Oh! wow, haha thanks.
I know it’ll take some time, but hopefully it’ll be worth it.
I just wanted to congratulate you on having a very informative and helpful site! Your advice and tips are better than what we read often in magazines such as Essence that is suppose to over the best advice for our hair care. Best of all, you’ve offered help for free! GOD Bless You! I once had below shoulder length hair, and now my hair is just below jawbone. From non-caring stylists, to bad products and techniques, my hair is no longer the length and strength it once was. I agree with you that the best advice is to keep the scalp clean! When I was getting my hair cleaned, and with moisture treatments weekly, plus using moisture lotion daily, my hair grew quickly! And yes, you must insist that your stylist not clip your ends. At the time of my hair being it’s longest, I believe I allowed the stylist to ‘snip’ the ends twice a year. Keep up the good work! I intend to regain healthy and longer hair, but like you, I also want to go natural. I do not have a relaxer. I have soft, thinning hair, and get a press and curl.
May I suggest one thing to your hair care regimen that may help with the thinning. Make sure the straightening comb you are using is no hotter than 200 degrees to avoid burning the hair’s cuticle causing the hair to break down and thin. Hair tends to burn at the temperature of 300 degrees so to be safe keep it at 200 degrees and below. Good luck growing your hair and please send me some pic’s of your wonderful progress!
ok so if i stop brushing and do hair styles that don’t pull my hair will grow back at the nape? I have another question, for some reason my hair is growing extremely unevenly! The back left side seemed to have stopped growing or is growing very slowly and the back right side is growing like a beast! This has been going on for over a year and im not sure what wrong. I even cut it evenly so that both sides can match and months later the right side grew back and the left side hardly did. What should I do??
Yes, the brushing is the issue with your hair breaking at the nape. Also are you sleeping in a satin scarf or bonnet? Do you sleep more on your left side than your right? My sister has the same problem and it’s due to her sleeping on that side more.
Umm, I’m twelve and when I was nine I had hair like a queen, now my hair is dull, thin, lifeless and just BORING! I really want to know what i should do to get it back to being long and thin (Well it is long but not as long as when i was nine!). I have been getting bangs and ponytail and microbraids (Just found out it wasn’t working!). My hair is relaxed and I also wanted to know if Just For Me hair relaxer (coarse) or African Pride Dream Kids is the best for a twelve year old with damaged and breaking hair. Also, is it okay to use shampoo’s that are different then the relaxer’s brand and conditioners that are way off the list?
I’ve decide to answer your question in an entry on the Black hair blog. Please see this entry:
http://growblackhair.net/blog/societys-impact-on-young-black-women
My hair is a little past my neck and I have been finding hair all around my bathroon and house. I am not sure if it was from heat or lack of proper naturals oils but recently I have been watching a lot of great videos on hair breakage and growing ethnic hair and in as little as two week my hair is stronger and a lot shinnier and no breakerage.
One thing I eliminated right away was heat.
Thank for giving us some heat free hair styles..
Ethinic Hair