Do You Have to Protective Style Forever to Retain Your Length?

[NYLegalNewbie]

I think it's just good practice to give your hair a "break" so to speak from any one style.

When my hair is freshly relaxed/texlaxed, I wear it out. I do this up until about week 4, and then I start switching between buns and wearing it out. Then, at about week 6 or 7, I start wearing more twist outs and buns. I've been doing this since last summer, and it has REALLY worked well for me. Plus, it's fun to switch it up.

 

[hillytmj]

I went from SL to BSL wearing my hair out nearly all the time. Protective styling (bunning) meant stress to me and when I started on my hair care journey I wouldn't let a scrunchie or pin near my head and my hair strived in length, health and thickness.

As my hair got longer is when I started doing things like braidouts and bunning, as those styles looked better on me with longer hair, especially the buns. One of the things I look forward to as my hair gets longer is the buns and wearing my hair out less, just special occasions. Guess I'm backwards.

ITA...I never wore buns from APL to BSL, but when it was suggested to me to bun to break my BSL plateau, I was reluctant, but did it anyway. Long story short, I reached MBL after 3.5 months of protective styling, and guess what...I love doing buns now. I like to wear my hair out when its freshly relaxed or freshly rollerset, but as soon as I'm in the car or at home it's in my trusty bun. I love it now that I have extra length, perhaps because it's easy and doesn't require a donut or any other cumbersome tools.

I've also noticed that many caucasion and hispanic women wear buns if they have longer hair. I remember seeing girls making quick messy buns with pencils all the time when I was school. Now I understand why they did that.

 

[Ganjababy]

I dont do protective styles (buns) because I bc last year and my hair was too short. Now that I am shoulder length (1/2- 2/3) I can and I intend to do this the rest of the year at least.

 

[jupitermoon]

ITA...I never wore buns from APL to BSL, but when it was suggested to me to bun to break my BSL plateau, I was reluctant, but did it anyway. Long story short, I reached MBL after 3.5 months of protective styling, and guess what...I love doing buns now. I like to wear my hair out when its freshly relaxed or freshly rollerset, but as soon as I'm in the car or at home it's in my trusty bun. I love it now that I have extra length, perhaps because it's easy and doesn't require a donut or any other cumbersome tools.

I've also noticed that many caucasion and hispanic women wear buns if they have longer hair. I remember seeing girls making quick messy buns with pencils all the time when I was school. Now I understand why they did that.

This happened to me. I can easily reach bsl to midback length without protective styling. When I started wearing my hair up I reached waist length within months. It's like I retained every single bit of new growth without any breakage. I eventually reached tailbone---the longest my hair had ever been in my entire life.

I haven't worn protective styles this summer, but I am going to start because I feel as if my hair should be longer than what it is now.

 

[BlackMarilyn]

my entire life, my hair was between sl and apl. i had to do PS and no-heat for it to get to BSL. at bsl now, i decided to wear my hair out for about 2 weeks straight...lol, started noticing split ends. had to get it trimmed.

it sucks cuz i look so much better with it straight and out as opposed to boring buns. i'm now working on trying a new regime that will allow me to wear it out more and still retain good ends.

 

[vestaluv1]

I'm hoping that once I get to my new goal length (MBL), I will wear my hair out at least 50 % of th time as opposed to 0.5 % of the time now .
I'm not doing all of this hard work for nuthin'!

However, if I get to MBL and realise that I want to aim for a longer length , I will probably do protective styles more often until I get to that length.