Doubling-up your braids ?

[FRESHstart101]

when do you start doubling up your box-braid extensions and what are the benefits

 

[Nonie]

when do you start doubling up your box-braid extensions and what are the benefits

What do you mean by doubling up? Sorry I'm slow...

(Do you mean folding the extension hair in half so you're working with double the thickness?)

 

[FRESHstart101]

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[FRESHstart101]

yayyy nonieeee's here. okay so i mean just by taking two braids, un-doing both & make them into one BIG braid instead of two separate ones

 

[Nonie]

yayyy nonieeee's here. okay so i mean just by taking two braids, un-doing both & make them into one BIG braid instead of two separate ones

Gotcha. I have done something similar but in my case it's undoing 3 braids or twists and redoing them as two. Usually it's because I realized I didn't like how small the original braids/twists were. Or I've also done it because after wearing braids/twists in for as long as I do, it's very easy for the parts to become "permanent" and appear to grow into very wide gullies. So changing the braids up helps solve these two problems.

If I plan to undo my braids in a few months, I might also double up just so that the take-down will not take as much time as it would've if I had left them small.

I will confess that I have also done it because during a HIH attack, playing in my hair as it got longer just felt better when the braids were a little thicker. They also don't swing as painfully if they aren't so tiny, if you leave them a little longer w/o redoing.

Those are my reasons. Not sure why others do it.

 

[FRESHstart101]

THANKS Nonie ! So how long do you leave your braid in ? The end of this month will make me 3 months but I've taken down 90% and either doubled them up or just removed the shed hair i also wash, moisturize and oil my scalp every other day, would you see any harm in leaving them in until lets say ....... December if i keep this up

 

[Nonie]

THANKS Nonie ! So how long do you leave your braid in ? The end of this month will make me 3 months but I've taken down 90% and either doubled them up or just removed the shed hair i also wash, moisturize and oil my scalp every other day, would you see any harm in leaving them in until lets say ....... December if i keep this up

FRESHstart101, OK, my regimen is kinda wacky. First of all, I usually wear braids for over a year. That said, I redo them one at a time as they get loose as time allows, so that I can remove shed hair, dust the ends and just ensure that I move the weight of the extension hair to newer stronger growth hair and away from the original sport that has borne the strain from the beginning. So while I keep the same braids in for many months (The last set was on my head from April 2009 to August 2010), whenever I sit down to watch TV, I will redo the perimeter first one at a time (because loose braids along the edges swing painfully and seem to threaten breakage), and then I start working from the back, undoing one, finger combing and then redoing it afresh. Usually this happens while I watch TV. And I only do it when I feel like it, so there's never a feeling of being overwhelmed. I might work on just two or on 20...depending on my mood, and then I just pick up next time from where I left off. And because I don't undo more than one usually (unless I'm planning a change in parting when I might undo two or three), the whole experience is usually more fun than work. Did I mention I have HIH disease?

So I really cannot tell you if there's any harm in leaving them in until December because I don't know your regimen and can't recommend mine because I don't know if it will work for you. For example, I do not use any moisturizer/leave-in when I wear braids with extension--none whatsoever for as many months as I rock the style. I just baggy nightly and shampoo/condition/ACV rinse twice a week. Until just a couple of months ago, I didn't use any moisturizer/leave-in on my twists either, but I'm experimenting with using S Curl on my ends now to see if my retention might be better. So that's another vice that hair gurus would cringe at, but it works for me. I find my hair doesn't mat at all in braids and wonder if it's the no-product regimen. (Video of me undoing a braid; notice how easily the hair separates) But also not using a leave-in means your hair is exposed to the elements, so more wear and tear. Another thing I am careful to do is not apply conditioner to the base of my hair when I wash and leaving my hair hanging down during conditioning limits the amount of residue that builds up at the base of my braids, thus preventing knotting or matting--a big problem people have when they wear braids for a long time.

Whenever people ask me questions pertaining to braids, rather than share what I do, I always tell them to look to Black Hair Care---Braid Extensions---How To Care For Them for guidance, because that regimen has not failed any of the people I know who started off with it. From there, you can then tweak it as you see fit, depending on how you find your hair responding.