Protective/nondamaging hairstyles

[lithostoic]

What are yours that you use? Do you do them during the day or just at night?

At night I put my hair in a very high pony, and the ends of my longest layer only reach my shoulders. I'm worried keeping it up in an elastic is causing breakage, but I have so many less tangles in the morning and my hair doesn't get in my face while I'm trying not to sweat my butt off as I sleep. Wow, that was long-winded!

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I use hair forks or sticks to hold my hair during the day (no elastics) and for sleeping I wear my hair loose but confined inside a silk sleeping cap. Braids are protective too as long as the elastic is removed very carefully and not just pulled straight off.

[bunneh.]

It's important to keep your hair in a protective hairstyle during the day when you're running around and buns with hairsticks or forks are the best option. At night i try to sleep with a braid most nights and during the day i prefer it loose but am gradually introducing buns and braids (my head hurts if i wear any hairstyle that pulls my hair even if it's just a little).

[LillithTheFirst]

I make two dutch braids then form them into milk maid braids. I find it better distributes the weight of my hair on my head and keeps everything closer to the scalp. Great for workouts too. I haven't worn a pony tail in a long time, but just becasuse my hair is so thick and heavy that it just falls out, but it does cause breakage and damage if elastic is around the same area of hair all the time. I stick to braids and high buns with a large clip/fork. I always use the elastic at different lengths different days to make sure I'm not always "damaging" the same section of hair.

[Zesty]

I wear my hair up daily, usually in a twist or a LWB, with all the usual suspects to hold it (Flexi, Ficcare, forks, sticks, etc.). If I wear a folded braid I use a small elastic and cut it out with nail clippers at the end of the day. I wear a side braid maybe once or twice a month. At night I don't style my hair, I just put it into a silk sleep bonnet because I'm convinced that anything else is damaging (at least on my hair and the way I sleep).

[Anje]

I once had bad ponytail elastic damage (probably as much from "tightening" the pony as just from wearing it constantly), so I almost never do them. My daily go-tos are lazy wrap buns (usually secured by a stick or a fic) and braids. Sometimes braided buns.

I sleep with my hair loose in a sleep bonnet, as I find putting it up to be really uncomfortable and my scalp needs a break. Besides, I get zero tangles with it in the bonnet, and it keeps the kitten from attacking my hair.

[lapushka]

Just make sure it's not a tight ponytail, as you otherwise might see breakage right at the elastic.

My hair is up in a LWB when I'm up and it's loose at bedtime and during the night.

[dogzdinner]

High ponytails just give me a headache after a while. I go for sticky buns during the day and braids at night!

[Deborah]

I think ponytails are pretty damaging because you need to use an elastic or something to hold them in place. I sleep in a braid that I flip up over the pillow at night. As long as the ends are held in place with a small, soft, not very tight scrunchie, no damage is done.

[Agnes Hannah]

Hi welcome to LHC! I always wear my fine hair in an English braid unfastened at night inside a silk sleep cap. In the day it is put into a french pleat at present because I'm doing a 100 day wear a pleat challenge with Stonebridge. However, it is usually in some form of bun, pleat or braid, secured with a fork, ficcare or stick. Ponytails I very rarely do because I am afraid of the damage they can cause.

[missrandie]

Perhaps instead of using an elastic, use a silky scrunchie instead.

I always left my hair loose at noght and bunned during the day when it was long, but I have been much more careful with it during this grow out. I wear my hair loose in my sleepcap, and sleep on a silk pillowcase. Sometimes one, or the other, or both.

During the day, my hair is still a little too short for most "up" styles, but I try to keep it all the way up with clips and my little ficcare.

[meteor]

If you prefer ponytails for bedtime, try using a silky scarf, paranda, silky ribbon, silky scrunchie or a hairtie made of pantyhose maybe? Something soft and gentle. :) It won't hold hair tightly, but for nighttime tight hold is not necessary anyway.
I'd also recommend wrapping the ponytail in silky scarf or lining the area between pillow and headboard with silky smooth material and placing hair there.

Personally, I always sleep with my hair braided (without hair tie) and then coiled above my pillow or I just sleep with my daily braided bun but without any tools to secure it. I find that it keeps hair contained enough and tangle-free but doesn't pull anywhere because I use no hair ties/tools.
I use silky scarves to wrap my bun/length for the night, because silky materials are slippery and help prevent frizz/tangles/dryness in my case.

[Elizabeth E]

I used to wear my hair in braided buns until I noticed that the elastic at the end of the braid causes breakage. So I switched to a regular cinnamon bun with the ends tucked safely underneath and kept in place with a few bobby pins. I cut the foot off one of my old pairs of black silk stockings and use that rounded, silk 'cap' as a hair net to put around my bun. It's very comfortable for daily wear and I keep it in at night too - even if I roll onto my back, the silk 'cap' over the bun prevents friction from the pillow case.
Another bonus is that it stays into place very well - I can literally go days without taking it down to brush my hair. Though I suppose that would not work well for someone with very tangle-prone hair.

[lithostoic]

Yikes this is a really old one lol. These days I wear my hair however I want. The high pony drowns me in hair during the night.

[ravenskey]

English plait - all day and every day except wash day - I am learning new plaits but buns do not work for me in the slightest - my hair is so thick I look like I have an animal nesting on my head and they inevitably fall down in a few hours ( at best but at worst I can't even get them to stay).

[Priska]

High cinnamon bun! I'm so happy to find out that a bun can be a good and protective hairstyle to me too. Before I thought buns are not for me, and I felt only braids were working for me. But I found out, that my problem was that I was only trying quick messy buns, and they really don't work with me. They go bad and loose and I keep making this bun over and over again during the day. I put my hair up, take it down, and put it up repeatedly, and that really creates tangles to my hair. But an UNMESSY cinnamon bun, carefully made, without a one single pulling hair strand... Oh wow, I can keep this same bun many days and nights without taking it down between! Maybe the secret is, that I make a ponytail first, and from that I make a neat and nice cinnamon bun.

[GoatLady]

Oh wow, I can keep this same bun many days and nights without taking it down between! Maybe the secret is, that I make a ponytail first, and from that I make a neat and nice cinnamon bun.

Do you mean you make a ponytail, using an elastic band, and then make the bun? If so, that elastic is going to cause damage. I twist my hair and then form the cinnabun. No need for an elastic and it stays very well all day.

[bluejaysierra]

I've been splitting my hair in two sections down the back of my head, crossing them over each other, English braiding them, wrapping them up and around my head like a headband, then pinning or clipping them at the base of my neck. It actually keeps for a good while if I pin it well enough, and keeps damage low due to both the braids, and it being close to my head. It can look very pretty too with a couple of accessories 😀

[Priska]

Do you mean you make a ponytail, using an elastic band, and then make the bun? If so, that elastic is going to cause damage. I twist my hair and then form the cinnabun. No need for an elastic and it stays very well all day.

Hmm must try then. Somehow I just think there's always some hair pulling if I don't make first the ponytail very even very carefully... But maybe it's only with those messy buns.

But actually I came to add that especially much I've been using claw clip buns and those I must do over and over again and they create a horrible tangle mess to me. Maybe claw clips are for shorter hair.

[Priska]

I've been splitting my hair in two sections down the back of my head, crossing them over each other, English braiding them, wrapping them up and around my head like a headband, then pinning or clipping them at the base of my neck. It actually keeps for a good while if I pin it well enough, and keeps damage low due to both the braids, and it being close to my head. It can look very pretty too with a couple of accessories 😀

Yes that's a cute hairstyle :) My hair is still a bit too short for that, because I like to crisscross my hair behind my head before braiding it up (because I don't like having the tips on top of my head).

[angel-baby]

I don't really like wearing my hair up. My go-to is a French braid tied off with a silk scrunchie, and I sleep in a loose braid + satin bonnet. I'm hoping that when my hair gets longer again I'll like wearing it up more, but it can trigger headaches.

[sarana]

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=48171&d=1671750073

When I started to up my length retention game, I started wearing lots of side braids. Now I have very uneven ends, the right side is visibly broken much shorter. The only culprit I can think of, is my side braid elastic. Could there be any other explanation? Am I done with braids or do scrunchies help? They're very bulky for braid tassels though.

[baanoo]

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=48171&d=1671750073

When I started to up my length retention game, I started wearing lots of side braids. Now I have very uneven ends, the right side is visibly broken much shorter. The only culprit I can think of, is my side braid elastic. Could there be any other explanation? Am I done with braids or do scrunchies help? They're very bulky for braid tassels though.
I have had a lot of hair-tie damage over the years and really love a braid. Here’s my advice: try smaller scrunchies, the soft jersey-knit type hair ties, ribbons, or the method where you don’t separate your hair all the way while braiding and just topsy-tail it through when the self-braided end meets your actively-braided length.

Those delightfully clear plastic elastics are hair destroyers and it’s so easy to accidentally get strands wrapped up in and broken by “regular” ones.

[SeppV]

I use smaller silk scrunchies. They are very gentle and look nice too, I think. Not bulky at all at the size I get them.
Not sure what kind of elastic you are using to secure now. But it might just be uneven growth too. The middle of my hemline grows slower than the sides, for me.

[Croww]

Hair forks and a satin bonnet at night.

[Bluecardigan]

Sarana, I would bet my money on the elastic AND tension from mostly wearing a side braid- because the exact same thing happened to me. I did wear my hair in a side braid (on my right side, used only silk scrunchies) 99% of the time, and was gentle with detangling, no heat at all, ok products etc. I got breakage so badly on my right side that I cut it of til my shoulders. I did the same hair care-stuff as earlier afterwards, but stopped wearing a side braid. Never had that problem again since then.

[WednesdayAddams]

I just cinnabun high with an understated scrunchee. My hair is thin and pretty short, though...it feels protected and out of the way now like this, but when it gets longer I don't know whether it will tug/feel heavy. If and when it does I want to switch to braiding. I love a long braid.

[lithostoic]

Hey this thread is back! Lately I've been doing either a high scrunchie ponytail or a loose English braid. I stopped doing the bantu knot/cinnabun because I noticed the top was rubbing on my pillows, and I was worried about breakage.

[sarana]

Bluecardigan, thanks for your input and sharing your experience. It's relevant especially since your hair type seems similar to mine.

Probably gonna wear more buns this year. I've just re-learned the nautilus and lazy wrap

[gghh]

I slept in a hair stick bun for the first time and it is soooo comfortable. I finally understand how one could just forget about it. I hardly felt it and the overall manipulation my hair had to go through was definitely a lot less.

[Joyful Mystery]

My go-to is an English braid or a side English braid tied off with a silk scrunchie under a buff or headscarf. I also like log rolls held with an XXL claw clip.