I was looking through the Natural Hair section of my blog and I noticed that I hadn’t made a single natural hair post in all of 2018. That’s largely due to the fact that I haven’t blogged much this year, and I haven’t had time to properly plan posts across all blog categories.
This post is basically going to be about protective hairstyles, and my five favorite ones. I haven’t made any ghen ghen hair since last year, maybe even 2016. By ghen ghen hair I mean braids, fixing weave, packing gel, crochet, Ghana wearing, anything. Like, no weave, attachment, or any of it’s alternatives has touched my hair in almost two years. It’s been just my fro, protective styles, and wigs. Oh, my darling wigs.
If you want to embrace the protective style life like I have, you definitely have to own loads of wigs. I personally have more than 5. I’m lucky because my mom makes them and all I have to pay for are the basic materials. 😋😋😋
If you’re a naturalista, you definitely know what protective styles are, and how they help your hair. If you don’t, here goes. It’s basically a hairstyle that protects every part of your hair, especially the ends, from breakage, tangling, and shedding. Most times, as long as your fro is not out, your hair is in a protective style.
So, my top five protective styles for my natural hair are:
All back
This has been my go-to hairstyle FOREVER. When I was in secondary school, this was the only hairstyle I’d do week in and week out. Now that I am a protective style lover, all back is one of my favorites. It’s like one of the GOAT hairstyles.
Twists
I love twists, and I almost always do them myself. It gets tiring to do, but I leave them on for a while, and the end result are stunning twist outs. When I twist, I always apply moisturizer and oils to each section of hair, so it can be soft, tender, and easy to style.
Kiko/ Thread/ Rubber
This style has been in my life since I was a toddler. Is there any Nigerian girl that has lived in Nigeria all her life that hasn’t done kiko? I doubt it. The best part about kiko as a protective style is that when you loosen it, your hair is stretched out, and it looks amazing. You can use what I use, normal rubber from our childhoods, or wool, or any type of thread you’re comfy with.
Wigs
Wigs are amazing and they’re life savers. They come in very many styles, so you can pick one or you’re comfortable with, and stick to it/them. I use wigs almost every time I need to go somewhere official, or when my normal protective style is rough. It causes a lot of heat, tbh, and sometimes (LMAO okay lots of times), I pull my wig in public transport when the heat becomes too much for me to bear.
Bantu knots
I love this style very much, but I haven’t done it in the longest time because of how stressful it is (I do it myself, and my hair is very thick and full). It’s so cute and I always look like a doll.
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