The guide to protective style takedown

I know I'm late but Happy New Year Curlies!!!!

As I gear up for the protective style challenge I had to come on here and write this post. For those participating this will help you greatly, as well as those who may not be participating but are wearing a long term protective style. I know you're wondering long term protective style????, no its not another piece of natural hair lingo- it's just something I thought of. A long term protective style to me is any protective style that you wear longer than 2 weeks without manipulation. There are so many different protective styles and they are all good, once they don't pull on your edges and you continue to moisturize your hair underneath. Just like anything else under the right conditions your hair will thrive, under poor conditions like the aforementioned as well as improper hair takedown that's when protective styling becomes a nuisance.

For the past year I've been wanting to write this post as I've had so many friends who have never protective styled jump wholeheartedly into wearing braids because, well braids are easy, we're in med school and no one has a whole bunch of time to fix hair everyday. Most of them rocked braids for at least 2 months, took it down when they started to get really heavy but made the mistake of shampooing their hair. Most people don't know it but Shampooing your hair directly after a protective style is a big NO, NO! Why, because after having your hair has been tucked away for a long period of time its going to be tangled and matted in most areas and shampooing before detangling will only make the situation worse.

Before I get to the list of what you should do when removing a protective style, I want to remind you that regardless of how long you've had the protective style, know that you will likely see lots of hair loss. This is nothing to get alarmed about. No i'm not crazy.... Your hair naturally sheds about 50 to 100 strands a day on average. Wearing a protective style does not prevent hair shedding, but it prevents the hair from being released because the hair is tangled and much of it has grown into the the protective style. So therefore if you've had a protective style in for longer than a month you can expect to lose about 1500 strands which is going to look like a lot and for some this can be quite scary but if you look at it like I mentioned you'll notice that that is right within average.

The steps although few in number can be a bit time consuming so be mindful of that. Also, don't try to skimp by rushing the process, set aside a couple hours aside to do it properly because this process is going to effect your overall hair health and how quickly your hair bounces back. So onto the take down info. These are 242Naturalista's  steps for effectively taking down a long term protective style.

Step 1
- Release your hair from its protective style. Give your scalp a chance to breath for a few hours.

Step 2
- Use one of your favourite oils and give yourself a scalp massage using the pads of your fingers. Coconut oil is a great oil for this but if you're allergic you can use a bit of olive oil or argan oil. This will not only feel good but will promote circulation in your scalp and release some of the tension on your scalp that the protective style caused.

Step 3
- Grab a hold of a detangling conditioner (something with 'slip' that will make separating your hair easy - There are a ton of great 'slip' conditioners Some suggestions - Hello Hydration - Tressseme Naturals ) and a spray bottle of water. Spray your hair lightly and section it off into small workable sections. This will make the detangling process easy. Apply a generous amount of conditioner to each section and section it away. Let the conditioner sit on your hair for at least 30 minutes. A plastic cap will speed up the process.

Step 4
- Detangle your hair. Use your preference of tools, if your a finger detangler then do that, if you're about the comb life then do that. It's whatever works best for you. When detangling start from the ends and move to the roots. You may need to make the sections smaller or add more conditioner. As each section is detangled twist it up and move onto the next section.

Step 5
- You can let the conditioner sit in your hair for a few more minutes to continue to hydrate your strands then rinse out and wash as normal.

I hope this helps curlies. I look forward to your participation in the protective style challenge. Don't forget i'll be updating my instagram with my new hair styles and tips. Also keep using the #pschallenge2015 so that I can see the styles your creating.

Blessings and Love