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View Full Version : Braiders, how long do you wear your braid for?



Agnes Hannah
December 19th, 2015, 06:16 PM
Hi those of you who wear braids, do you change them daily, or can you leave them in for longer periods of time? If so how long do you leave them in for. Does this help to protect your hair, have you grown longer by doing this.

Thank you

excentricat
December 19th, 2015, 06:48 PM
When I wear braids, I usually detangle and braid in the morning, then wear that braid all day, sleep in it, and take it out the next morning and either bun or rebraid. Sometimes I can leave a french braid in for 2 days, and once I managed to get 3 out of it.

littlestarface
December 19th, 2015, 06:50 PM
I have to rebraid at night and in the morning everyday.

neko_kawaii
December 19th, 2015, 06:59 PM
My braids form mats at nape within six hours (if worn down). If I braid I need to rebraid morning and night or the tangles are damaging.

Isilme
December 19th, 2015, 07:10 PM
If I braid in the morning I have to detangle and re-braid by lunch and even then I can be sure that my braid is super frizzy with nape tangles by evening. My hair doesn't like to be braided unless I do a faux crown braid. It's even worse when the weather is windy and it's raining, which is most of the time right now.

TrapperCreekD
December 19th, 2015, 07:12 PM
I usually only leave it for the day - braid in the morning, then take down and english braid for bed. However, sometimes after wash I will leave my sleep braid and just bun it the next day, it makes really pretty 3rd day hair. If I put in a paranda I'll wear it for at least two days.

I started sleeping in a braid to keep my hair contained and cut down on frizz. I don't know if it's helped me grow, but I think there's less damage now that I'm draping it over my pillow instead of causing unnecessary friction by rolling around on it all night.

Robot Ninja
December 19th, 2015, 07:13 PM
I usually wear mine for the day and take them out at night. Sometimes I'm lazy and sleep in them and take them out in the morning, by which point they look like an atrocious mess, with wispies sticking out everywhere.

Robi-Bird
December 19th, 2015, 07:15 PM
I generally only wear them to sleep. My hair inches out of them with ease so they don't last anyways.

StellaKatherine
December 19th, 2015, 07:31 PM
I most remake my braid daily, but sometimes can manage 2 days with the same braid if I bun it. If I make 5-10 little braids, I can keep those little longer 2-4 days.

Hairkay
December 20th, 2015, 12:49 AM
I use multiple plaits/braids and or cornrows or two flat twists tucked in. I leave them for a week. During this week I'll water wash daily or every 2/3 days in the coldest days of winter. I also oil the ends of my hair daily. I make sure my plaits aren't small. I make them the size that embraces my curl pattern. I'll have some unravelling at the ends after washing but since I tend to plait and tuck or bun the hair it's not going to show. The plaits can get French braided and tucked or put in a huge plait coming around from one side of my head with the ends tucked and woven in so the plait is doubled up half it's length or there's the bun. Sometimes it'll just be up in a scrunchie.

Arctic
December 20th, 2015, 02:54 AM
I have sometimes slept with braided hair (as in, in an attempt to wear it for two days versus trying to get braid waves) and in general it doesn't work, only sometimes crown braids have been successful, they tend to look even better on next day. But in general I usually re-braid daily (and sleep with loose hair), and most likely will only have any one style for only part of the day. I often change my style 2-3 times a day, (either because it starts to be unpleasant to have my hair in same position [this is more a mental thing to me, an urge to start fiddling with my hair than for, say style being uncomfortable or pulling or shredded], or I just plain like to play with it), unless it's something that took a long time to do (like the forementioned crownbraid).

ETA: Do I win the prize for most brackets in short piece of text?

restless
December 20th, 2015, 03:10 AM
Im always impressed reading about people who can keep the same braid in for a whole day, or even go to sleep with it and then use the same braid the next day too (!). Mine? Well, they only last for a few hours before they start to look fuzzy and unkempt with little hairs falling out all over and I have to redo them. For that reason my hair doesnt feel protected in braids and I seldom wear them even though I love the look.

Dessi
December 20th, 2015, 03:18 AM
Usually I leave my braid or two braids for 12 or 24 hours. If I'm very busy I may even leave it for 2 days haha! :D (Wear a braided bun during the day, put it down during the night and then put the braid up again for the next day).

Nique1202
December 20th, 2015, 04:02 AM
Any braid I wear down my back is so shredded up from my layers within a few hours that I get really self-conscious of it. If I do heidi braids, though, they stay in place and un-shredded for 2-3 days at a time, which is good because I don't like the tiny braidwaves they leave on me so by the time I take them down I want to wash my hair to set it into some other style immediately.

bte
December 20th, 2015, 04:09 AM
I have tried wearing the same braid for up to a week, but it tends to get untidy and very loose. I have also ended up with tangles from leaving the same braid in fo too long, so it's rebraid evening and morning.

littlestarface
December 20th, 2015, 10:40 AM
I dont know if wearing braids protects my hair but I like it out of my face and they hurt less then buns so thats why I wear them. Tho I do hate braid waves, so it is a necessary evil for me.

truepeacenik
December 20th, 2015, 10:48 AM
I make one or two three strand braids. My hair is generally straight with moments of hope. ;)
When working, I have to re-braid or bun each morning. When I'm off for a few days at a stretch, I will braid, bun that, and let it go until washing night/morning.
My main reason is looking untidy. Not so much that there's damage or damage control.

Groovy Granny
December 20th, 2015, 10:53 AM
I usually keep them in just overnight, or for the day.
They aren't used consistently or for protection and I have had great growth and no damage or splits.
I could never keep any style for 24 hours or days without redoing it; it just feels unkept for me :o

Duchess Fuzzy Buns
December 20th, 2015, 01:16 PM
Usually just for the day and then I re-braid it at night. Sometimes I don't bother and just sleep on the same braid I had during the day. Every now and then I'll leave braids in for two days, but that's maybe when I'm going camping or something and don't want to fuss with my hair. If I plan on doing that, I've found that it works best if I do dutch or french braids and do them while my hair is wet. I don't know why doing them wet helps them stay together better, but it does.

Lauraes
December 20th, 2015, 04:49 PM
Braids only last through the day for me, if that. I could sleep with braids that I wore all day if I really wanted to, but I'd have tangles and frizziness by morning so it's not worth it at all.

Becs
December 20th, 2015, 05:03 PM
I wear my hair in two braids, and I generally leave them in for 3-4 days. They're fairly fuzzy by the time I get around to changing them but they tend to still look all right.

meteor
December 20th, 2015, 05:17 PM
Hi those of you who wear braids, do you change them daily, or can you leave them in for longer periods of time? If so how long do you leave them in for.

If I wear a braid down, it doesn't last me longer than a day (and gets fuzzy within an hour or two).
But since I almost always bun my braid tightly, I can wear it for a couple of days (I just re-do the bun) and it actually stays sleek and fuzz-free.
I always wrap my coiled braid (or braided bun) with silky scarf at night and that prevents frizz and tangles really well.

If I create tiny accent braids, they can last a very long time (2-4 days). I just need to redo the main style every day, but the tiny accent braids stay in good shape. I still try to redo them often, because if I don't, the hair can dry out quite a bit without moisturizing/oiling.


Does this help to protect your hair, have you grown longer by doing this.

Yes, it really protects my hair from tangles and helps distribute the weight for updos without twisting, ponytailing or tightening. I pretty much live in braided buns and have done so since my hair was around MBL (it's around thumb-length now). I find that braiding hair before bunning helps "corral" thicker hair and makes the updos stay much more securely for longer.
I think braids are very useful, possibly particularly for slippery, dense, multi-textured, tangle-prone but resilient hair. (I know some fineys who find braiding somewhat damaging, and I can understand that, too.)

chen bao jun
December 20th, 2015, 05:45 PM
If I do a faux crown braid, which I often do when my hair is wet, it looks good for 2-3 days. I should really say two days, because it looks kind of tolerable on the 3rd day if I've put a stocking cap over it to sleep, but not actually 'good'.

I have to have braided wet hair for it to look decent the second day at all, with dry hair, it looks fuzzy by evening, couldn't last two days.

I'm talking about when I do at most two large braids, maybe three. It is pointless for me to do the hairstyles with the myriad tiny braids. I remember, years after I went natural, someone told me there was good advice for natural afro textured hairstyles on the web (there is, that's where I found the faux crown braid) and when I went on searching, the default hairstyles were 'braidouts' or 'twist outs' involving myriad braids. It turned out that both of these hairstyles were just terrible for my hair. My hair can't be twisted, it can be braided but its pointless, it takes all day to put in braids (I mean, literally like 8 hours, by a professional, I myself can do it somewhat faster but not much) that have to come out on day two, they are so fuzzy and look so bad. the actual 'braid out' hairstyle involved putting in a great many tiny braids and then taking them out again and since with my hair, I had to repeat that every two days, it was horrible over manipulation, my hair broke off like crazy. I did it for 2 years or so? And I lost easily 6 inches of hair to breakage.

I LOVE the faux crown braid though and it never damages me at all. Or just a single french or dutch braid.

Phanaferous
December 20th, 2015, 06:26 PM
I sleep with loose hair, so any braid is taken out at night. One time on a trip to the Caribbean I had my hair put in cornrows; I kept that for almost 3 weeks. They were pretty fuzzy by then, but removal wasn't that bad, just a lot of accumulated sheds to deal with.

I honestly don't know if braids help protect my hair or not (as far as maximizing gains in length). It does serve as a means to keep it from catching on things and getting closed in car doors, etc.

Anje
December 20th, 2015, 07:00 PM
I frequently need to redo the braid at least once during the day, because it gets fuzzy really fast. I envy those who can have the same braid look good for multiple days!

Hairkay
December 21st, 2015, 09:54 AM
Oh mine do get fuzzy especially after being washed daily but I've learnt to embrace that now. My hair isn't the sleek type anyway. My idea of a lot of plaits/braids is 6-16. There's no way I'm spending hour after hour plaiting hair.

Laurenji
December 21st, 2015, 12:18 PM
If it's a single braid, I'll usually re-do it every 24 hours. If I do 2 braids at a time, I'll leave them in for 2-3 days.

Shepherdess
December 21st, 2015, 12:59 PM
I sometimes keep my hair in the same braid for a week, though it can get untidy with each day if I don't spray it with my leave in conditioner and wrap it up in a bun. I usually only leave it for a few days at the most so it is easier to detangle. Right now I have had the same braid in since Saturday. I guess with not having to go anywhere I sometimes neglect it a little. I have found that if I do smaller braids, then moisturize them good and braid those braids together, it takes much longer to become untidy.

I think that braids can be very protective, though when the braid gets messy, it can become dry and catch on things easier.

two_wheels
December 21st, 2015, 02:11 PM
Usually a day. But when I'm busy and tired I just sleep on it and wear it the next day as well and it's fuzzy but I don't care :p

RebekahE
December 21st, 2015, 02:25 PM
I usually only leave my braids in one day. Sometimes I will leave them overnight but I don't like to leave them in longer than two days as I feel it damages my hair.

chen bao jun
December 21st, 2015, 03:09 PM
Oh mine do get fuzzy especially after being washed daily but I've learnt to embrace that now. My hair isn't the sleek type anyway. My idea of a lot of plaits/braids is 6-16. There's no way I'm spending hour after hour plaiting hair.

I am following your inspiration to wash more often :) and so far it is working. Though more often for me is every 3 or 4 days. Maybe I will end up one day following you in braiding, too. 6 would be about the most I could tolerate. Possibly. I do three at most. Usually one or two. But my hair is not as long as yours, I will not reach MBL for at least another year, so maybe at your length..

Sometimes I bun as many as 3 braids, but this isn't a bun, its more like knob. I am used to bunning loose hair but maybe I should look into bunning braids. My grandmother usually did a braided bun (with one braid) rather than a loose one.

Do your ends ever stick together and tangle when you braid? Unless I'm careful I can get that happening now. It never used to when hair was shorter.

Frankenstein
December 21st, 2015, 11:14 PM
I never go more than 24 hours before re-doing a braid, due to nape tangles and such. As for protecting hair/growing longer; I wore a braid every night for about two years after having to cut to APL (bleach damage). It seemed to help some with preventing more damage.

darklyndsea
December 21st, 2015, 11:58 PM
I rebraid once or twice a week, usually, putting my braid up in a bun during the day and leaving it unbunned for sleeping. It's not exactly the best look, but honestly my hair at its best looks a lot worse than most people would tolerate on bad hair days, so...

Hairkay
December 22nd, 2015, 04:26 AM
I am following your inspiration to wash more often :) and so far it is working. Though more often for me is every 3 or 4 days. Maybe I will end up one day following you in braiding, too. 6 would be about the most I could tolerate. Possibly. I do three at most. Usually one or two. But my hair is not as long as yours, I will not reach MBL for at least another year, so maybe at your length..

Sometimes I bun as many as 3 braids, but this isn't a bun, its more like knob. I am used to bunning loose hair but maybe I should look into bunning braids. My grandmother usually did a braided bun (with one braid) rather than a loose one.

Do your ends ever stick together and tangle when you braid? Unless I'm careful I can get that happening now. It never used to when hair was shorter.

They do start to tangle so I take my time and smooth each section down to the ends every time I turn a section during plaiting. I tend to bun plaited or twisted hair. It can be just the one or many plaits/braids/twists/single strand twist.

On the coldest weeks of winter I'll be washing around 4 times a week.

chen bao jun
December 23rd, 2015, 10:21 AM
Thanks Hairkay.

Update to what I wrote before: I washed my hair a couple of days ago and had had a crown braid in for 2 days, at which point it got too messy to keep. I was paying attention this time because of this thread, and think I can explain what happens (why braids don't look good for more than a day). Its the curls. My hair keep curling itself in spite of being braided and little pieces of curl stick out all over, looking messy. At least until the point where I haven't washed in so long that its become limp. But at that point, my hair is SO DRY that I have other issues (i.e. lots and lots of frizz)

Hairkay
December 23rd, 2015, 11:38 AM
Thanks Hairkay.

Update to what I wrote before: I washed my hair a couple of days ago and had had a crown braid in for 2 days, at which point it got too messy to keep. I was paying attention this time because of this thread, and think I can explain what happens (why braids don't look good for more than a day). Its the curls. My hair keep curling itself in spite of being braided and little pieces of curl stick out all over, looking messy. At least until the point where I haven't washed in so long that its become limp. But at that point, my hair is SO DRY that I have other issues (i.e. lots and lots of frizz)

LOL those curls. I don't like to leave the plaits out like that for long because they'll start to curl and twist and those strand curls will poke out. That's why the plaits get plaited in a big plait/French braid or put in a bun. At my edges the whispies wiggle out to make little Os and Ss.

Mavi
December 23rd, 2015, 12:16 PM
I have a lot of nape breakage so I change my braids at the end of the day, and then again when I wake up in the morning.

However, in the summer I plant trees (wilderness job, endless forest, no civilization) and I will keep the same braid in for a week. It's always a terrible decision. I need to stop doing that... but I don't.

yahirwaO.o
December 23rd, 2015, 06:34 PM
I have to redo it at some point, they get fuzzy and very frizzy!

If I braid it wet or with some product, I leave it out for one full day.

.... and my hair is so fine and sleek that pretty much needs a ponyholder or product if I want a successful braided style, I can't make a single english braid! Its always fishtails, french and dutch stuff!!!!

ashyash
December 23rd, 2015, 10:42 PM
.... and my hair is so fine and sleek that pretty much needs a ponyholder or product if I want a successful braided style, I can't make a single english braid! Its always fishtails, french and dutch stuff!!!!

Yeah, I have the same problem--my hair is really fine and always comes out of simple English braids within a few hours.. I can usually leave in fishtail or french for up to one day. I love braids--both because I think they are beautiful and because I enjoy wearing them as a protective hairstyle!

Klaudia
December 24th, 2015, 04:56 AM
When I do them (French or Dutch braid) in the morning, then I will undo them at night, because I hate having shower with braided hair.
And when I do them for sleeping, and if they still look okay in the morning, I wear them. But I can't wear them more than ~20 hours, and this is rare occasion.

Beckstar
December 24th, 2015, 06:35 AM
2 days when at shoulder length. 4 to 5 days when BSL+ but it turns into a braided bun by the end. I try to avoid washing my hair as much as possible.

arr
December 24th, 2015, 10:09 AM
If I braid my hair in the morning, by noon I feel like it needs to be redone. I don't necessarily always do that but I feel like it could use it. In the evening I undo the braid and rebraid it for sleep. There is no way I could wake up and go out with that braid, it is a mess. So basically a braid lasts me about three hours. I'm sure part of it is that I prefer loose braids. For day I also "pancake" them.

bunneh.
December 24th, 2015, 01:59 PM
I wore my two french braids all day today (about 10 hours or so) and they were surprisingly comfortable... Usually every slight pulling of a single hair on my head bothers me so much I can't wear that hairstyle, but this ones are loose enough for me not to feel them. I wore my hair loose and down for years (at least 10 years straight) and it hates getting in any other position. Low ponytails and loose braids are fine, but anything tight is very uncomfortable. I finally finished my hair fork today so hopefully I'll be able to do buns more often now without any headaches (I tried doing a bun with a pencil once and it was comfortable).

Nadine <3
December 24th, 2015, 02:02 PM
WHen I braid, I try and keep them as long as I can stand. Usually 2 days. I do them on dirty hair and spray a tiny bit of hairspray so it holds well so as long as it looks fine and my scalp isn't itchy I leave it be.

stelz
December 25th, 2015, 06:06 AM
When I was younger, I wore my hair down all the time and it wouldn't get longer than waist length - and that was in the back, the front was shorter and hovered around the bustline. It was only when I started braiding it that it really got long. Now I only rarely wear it down. At one time I had it to mid-thigh, but at that length my ends are really ragged even with protective hairstyles, so I tend to keep just a few inches past the tailbone. Braids absolutely do not damage hair! Look at those old photos of Victorian women with their hair down to the floor, it's because they weren't running around with their hair down.

Something else that helps the length is not letting it dry out, this means washing and conditioning every day, or at least every other day. And hair ties are fine at the end of a braid, but close to the scalp (like for a ponytail) they rip my hair to shreds. So, either a braid, bun, or French slide.

With my hair, a braid will get fuzzy and bristly-looking as the day goes on if I just have the braid hanging, so I take it down, brush it out and re-braid if necessary. When I braid, it's normally nothing too elaborate, just a simple plait. So fixing it only takes a couple of minutes. And the braid I made to sleep in has to be taken out and redone when I wake up. But that's just my hair, my texture. Everybody's a little different.

Zebra Fish
December 25th, 2015, 01:21 PM
I generally only wear them to sleep. My hair inches out of them with ease so they don't last anyways.

Same here. I'd love to wear them for at least whole day, but they alst max 2-3 hrs, and then it gets loose "up the braid" and "thickens" near the end. Whatever I tried, since I started henna again, it just doesn't work. Before henna, they were quite polite.

Daydreamer.
January 9th, 2016, 02:40 AM
I wear it for a day or 2.

Agnes Hannah
January 13th, 2016, 10:16 AM
I have sometimes slept with braided hair (as in, in an attempt to wear it for two days versus trying to get braid waves) and in general it doesn't work, only sometimes crown braids have been successful, they tend to look even better on next day. But in general I usually re-braid daily (and sleep with loose hair), and most likely will only have any one style for only part of the day. I often change my style 2-3 times a day, (either because it starts to be unpleasant to have my hair in same position [this is more a mental thing to me, an urge to start fiddling with my hair than for, say style being uncomfortable or pulling or shredded], or I just plain like to play with it), unless it's something that took a long time to do (like the forementioned crownbraid).

ETA: Do I win the prize for most brackets in short piece of text?

(Yes) {Arctic} [I] (think) {you} [probably] (do)!

Stars
January 13th, 2016, 11:02 AM
I wear a single braid for sleep...usually coil it around into a bun and put a silk bonnet over it to prevent damage. I can just plop a scrunchie over it when I take the bonnet off and wear it as a bun during the day, which I often do...I can do 2 or 3 days like that before I need to rebraid it. I never wear my hair in a single braid hanging down...I just don't like how my ends look when braided and allowed to hang down, since I'm recovering from a major shed a few years ago. Waiting for my thickness to travel down.

brickworld13
January 13th, 2016, 11:23 AM
My hair is Houdini's rival at escaping. I have to re-braid morning and evening at the very least. Sometimes I have to redo it 3-4 times depending on how slippery it wants to be that day. Braids look put together on me for oh maybe two hours when my hair is dry. When it's damp or wet the braid will look good for about 6 hours before starting to shred and look like I slept on it.

lapis_lazuli
January 13th, 2016, 11:48 AM
Before I started bunning my hair, I'd braid my hair in the morning, wear it through the day, and sleep on it at night. Then repeat the next day :) Now I only braid at night.

missrandie
January 13th, 2016, 11:52 AM
I never had any luck keeping braids all together UNLESS it was a damp braided french braid with the bottom contained in a snood. Then I got a whole day out of it.

However, I never slept in braids, as I felt the hair rubbed worse than if it were flipped over my pillow loose.

MlleMC
January 14th, 2016, 09:36 AM
If I braid my hair in the morning, I keep it braided to sleep, and it's generally still wearable the next day. So if I'm in a hurry (which is often the case), I'll just keep the braid for a second day. If I braid my hair at night, it'll normally just last one day. The key point is that if I sleep on it twice, it doesn't look good anymore, but once is alright.

With French braids, I can often last one more day, and I like to do them at night because I prefer them a bit undone. As for accent braids, I keep them for 3 or 4 days, and simply re-do the rest of my hair.