Girl...just ignore, ignore, IGNORE!
It's YOUR hair. If you're fine with it, then let it be.
The only time I compromised was on a date and I took my hair down from being pinned up, BUT I still wore my hair bantu knot style. So, it was at least a low manipulation style
I had an incident the other day at my local bank. The teller is really cool and fairly sweet. I came up to cash a check. I was wearing my hair pulled back in a bun. She says to me, "You look so plain with your hair put up." I looked at her, smiled and said, "You know, I hear mixed things. Some people love it because it highlights my face and looks sophisticated. Others like me better with my hair down. But the bottomline is that it's MY hair, so I will wear it so that it pleases ME."
She quickly looked down, cashed my check, handed me my money and gave me a nervous smile and wave good bye.
Thanks to protective styling, my hair is FINALLY retaining length (at least, I think it is
) and it is definitely thicker than it was when I was first lurking on LHCF.
Do what's right for you