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MagusBride
March 18th, 2020, 10:20 PM
Does anyone know of a method to stretch type 4 hair to at least 80% of its actual length *without* using heat or a chemical relaxer?

My hair is about APL but shrinks to look neck-length no matter what I do. I would say the shrinkage is about 50%. So far I have tried braid-outs, twist-outs, kardoune, and wave formers...all of those methods still produce a neck length style on me when dry.

Specific details: hair type is 4a, is very thick and dense, possibly low porosity.

blackgothicdoll
March 18th, 2020, 10:33 PM
Can you give more details on how you do your braidouts? I find them very effective.

MagusBride
March 18th, 2020, 11:03 PM
Yeah, I typically wash and condition my hair before bed, apply products (e.g. olive oil) and then braid my hair (4 braids left side of head, 4 braids right side of head). When the hair dries, the result gives the expected texture - it looks wavy and smoothed out - but the waves are still so small and stiff that they aren't creating much elongation. I tried using wave formers to create looser waves. It gives more elongation, but not enough to balance out the risks of using those (you have to yank your ends through a tight tube with a hook every time you use them and I could feel them pulling on my roots the whole time I was wearing them...too much potential for damage at the roots and ends of hair).

blackgothicdoll
March 18th, 2020, 11:12 PM
I do my braidouts the exact same way, but once dry I immediately put them in dutch braids. This elongates them more. Products also matter. I find glycerin causes more shrinkage, so I avoid leave-ins with glycerin or even most gels when I do braidouts.

Here's an example of before and after, these were from last year as I don't have a lot of pictures from this year.

Post-wash:

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40678&d=1584594499

Elongated Braidout:

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40679&d=1584594520


I'm not sure I'd even call that 80%, but that's day one. Throughout the week I continue stretching with dutchbraids or buns.

MagusBride
March 18th, 2020, 11:34 PM
Thank you! I will give the dutch braids a try. I actually don't know how to do them, but I'll look up a tutorial video.

Lucy McLucyFace
March 19th, 2020, 02:29 AM
Have you tried the silk scarf method? It's meant to straighten hair without heat but if done right it might give you loose waves or something. I don't have curls so I wouldn't know, just saying this based on what I've heard

YvetteVarie
March 20th, 2020, 12:45 AM
I find African threading gives me more stretch compared to braiding. It usually gives me a "blowout" look when I do it, and stretches my hair to 70% of its length if I do it in large sections. Smaller sections gives me more stretch

lapushka
March 20th, 2020, 03:55 PM
There's the banding method. If you search YT for 20th century natural woman, you'll find that she bands a lot.