Protecting Your Style

People always acted as though when you “go natural,” all hair problems solve themselves.  Your hair will be thick and healthy.  Your biggest challenge will be to find products that work wonders on your specific curl pattern and porosity.  Then, my hair started breaking in the same spots it broke with relaxers, flat irons, and straight weaves.  Imagine my horror!

I will start by saying I was not eating the right foods, taking any vitamins, or exercising regularly, and I was absolutely under high stress.  Yet, I was still in utter amazement as I began to feel the short hair spots.  I scoured the Internet.  This was NOT supposed to happen, and here I was all the same.  Then I noticed a trend in all of my favorite vloggers, bloggers, and Instagrammers.  They all had a period of time where they wore their hair in a protective style…

I was NOT a protective style fan.  I had seen protective styles, and I did not like of many of the ones I saw.  Last year, I did two rounds of box braids, and while I appreciated their beauty in all its simplicity, I was not ready to try them again.  They were not worth the time, effort, or money for me.  Then, I began to notice feed-in braids, and I thought, “Yes!  I can do that!”

And I did it, and I was beautiful.  I loved every second of them for the entire week and a half that I wore them.

I was in no hurry to take down my feed-in braids, and you can imagine my dismay when my sister asked me to take them down for Thanksgiving.  All those pictures without my beautiful style protected…that was, until I took my hair down.  There I was, 7 months later, and I my hair….I loved it.  I played in it. I flat twisted it, and I took advantage of all photo ops.

After a day filled with food, fun, and family, my sister proceeded to complete my second protective style – faux locs.  I washed my hair, slapped in my Bounce Back moisturizing spray, followed up with my Whip It moisturizing butter and let her do her thing.*  LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!  Three times, three styles, three loves!!

I even added some highlights the second go round.  (My sister was super surprised at how soft and moisturized my hair was when I was taking down the braids almost 6 weeks later by the way – #thankyou @theloveofpeople.)

I thought I was done with long hair.  I thought natural meant I was stuck with the big chop until it grew long enough for me to love.  I appreciated my short curls.  I have amazing pictures that cause me to stop and smile as I scroll through my camera roll.

But, the natural hair world has all these unwritten rules that I thought I had to abide by.  Love your big chop.  Learn your curl pattern, and then stick it out.  Embrace your hair through thick and thin.  Find the SUPER in your NATURAL.

I was wrong.  Even more important than unleashing the SUPER in your NATURAL, than sassying your short, than letting go of dead ends…is protecting your style.  You have one –  a style all your own, a blend of character and personality that only you can rock.

Search for it.  Find it, and then protect it at all costs. IT makes your ordinary extraordinary.  You need IT.  IT is who you are.  IT is all you have ever been.

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What are some ways that you protect your style?

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* THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS REFERRAL LINKS. CLICK HERE FOR MY FULL DISCLOSURE.