The Science of "Braid Training"--Please Explain

[Amoreofcurls]

I dont think its permanent,I wouldn't consider it "damage" and its obvious it depends on hair texture...


Damn ya'll forever tryna find something new to argue about...give it a break...

 

[Charla]

For me its just like that permanent part you get in your hair from parting it the same way over and over and even after you wash your hair that part is still there or when you hair just makes a ponytail almost by itself because its so use to being pulled up or the "natural" bangs that some of us have . After shaving my hair i still have a section in the back that parts its self like it use to when i wore extensions 80% of the time my hair just separates in that spot all on its own i dont know the science behind it or lack there of so i think i also have hair that defies logic.

danniegirl
I think that permanent part we may get is from the constant pressure on the scalp when the part is made repeatedly. I actually think it shifts the follicles so the hair goes that direction automatically because that's how the follicle is now oriented. Not a scientific fact; just my opinion.

 

[silenttullip]

I don't think it's possible unless you just mean hang time
Since Mid 2010 I braid 8-20 braids after washing depending
After I shampoo and condition it hangs down more instead of
going out and down and my "coils/curls" are kinda of looser
but that's about it I still get shrinkage just not like a matted fro
but that's because of better care

 

[ms-gg]

Permanent parts is caused by damage. You keep doing the same thing to your hair, keep putting the same tension on the same strands in the exact same way all the time you are going to cause some form of damage. That's why if you wrap your hair at night, you never wrap it the same way all the time because you end up thinning out one side from all the constant tension. Same way you can thin out your edges from wearing ponytails and braids over a long period of time.

 

[Boujoichic]

This is too funny Im predicting a braid training bandwagon.

 

[Kurlee]

There's nothing to understand. People are just reaching, even if it doesn't make sense. Permanent texture change from "braid training?"

Reminds me of the old Playskool slogan, "What will they think of next?"

thanks for being frank. The braid/twist training stuff was reaching at it's finest

 

[HE_Blesses_MY_Tresses]

I thought that LHDC was actually heat trained?? Look at the 0:25 mark on this vid -

http://www.youtube.com/user/Longhairdontcare2011#p/u/68/G6wFWeUg4r8

How did she go from that to this? http://www.youtube.com/user/Longhairdontcare2011#p/search/0/4Uua3KAkMC8

I'm so confuzzled??

She has some beautiful hair.....maybe she just used used heat more early on in her hhj? Idk... But her progress is outstanding......

 

[Vshanell]

No offense, but I've been wearing a ponytail/bun for like a year, and my hair ain't hardly trained! I rock braidouts almost every summer, and ain't no training going on there either. I guess I view the logic of what you're saying in the reverse: Curly hair/wavy hair already has indentations that are VERY hard to get out--and typically require some sort of chemical or heat-based intervention to get them out. Well one thing's for sure, my hair has decided that it shall not be trained!

I know that's the truth. When I was relaxed a full strength perm couldn't even get mine all the way out.

My hair would never be braid or twist trained because as soon as shampoo hits it curls right back up. I can't even wear twist/braid-outs in the summer because the humidity shrinks it back up to wash n' go status so there's no point, lol.

 

[Vshanell]

Well...Ionno about alladat. I know what I said and I explained myself in the other thread thoroughly, and the other poster, @nappystorm, whom I saw saying this, had the same take on it as me. So I'm not sure who took it to another permanent place. But if they did...naw son. Your hair may not fully revert after taking it out of twists or if you wash in twists then unravel them, but after a wash or two it'll def go back. Not permanent in any way, shape or form. I think that people were saying that the wet n' wavy pic could have resulted from her washing in twists (ie, her hair had just been in twists and she took them out on wet hair) or she had just washed her hair after a twist out - I know my hair gets funky when I wash after a TO and I am always finger combing like crazy in the shower to get my natural pattern back as much as possible.

"Setting" the hair cannot permanently change it - like another poster said, you would need to permanently alter the bonds in your hair in order for that to happen - braiding/twisting is a superficial alteration, not to the actual chemistry of the strand.

I get what you meant now EllePixie. I'm not familiar w/ washing in twists so it went over my head. Also I didn't know people washed and conditioned in twists then un-raveled....if that's the case I could definitely see how the hair could stay in that shape if she washed, un-raveled and immediately snapped picture...no combing involved. I still don't see her texture any differently than I did before but I understand what you were saying now.

 

[CrueltyFree]

I think people were thrown off by the word "revert/reversion" which is a term that is usually used when talking about heat training/damage. I don't think that's how the people that introduced the theory were thinking about it, though. Certainly, if you keep your hair in braids/twists for a little while, it's possile for your curl pattern to not assimilate together as it usually would. That makes sense to me. But that's not necessarily an indication of damage... just the curls may not stick together immediately. The hair will shrink up.

Does it happen to me? Um...I wear my hair in twists over 90% of the time and I don't bother defining my hair so I wouldn't notice anyway.

 

[southerncitygirl]

i do twistouts weekly and wash my hair in 6-8 plaits and my texture bounces right back it ain't hardly trained..... shrinkage is her name. i too feel that people are reaching too much.

 

[NaturalBoss]

I guess "Bun Training" will be next........Reaching...

 

[HauteHippie]

I think this "works" for some people via cornrows. For my brother and I constant cornrowing seemed to make our hair "behave" for my mom and grandma. My hair is problematically/annoyingly sensitive to manipulation. Braiding often made it easier to braid in the future (cornrows). I'm guessing that's what people mean by training, but I don't know.

His 4a hair is curlier than mine (and a little more resistent to manipulation). My 4ba hair is a mostly frizz, no curl pattern with some springy curls in the middle and slightly looser curls in the back back. The frizzy part is so submissive. It just does whatever I tell it to without question. I've come to accept that as a result, my hair will not be as versatile as I thought it would be when I first went natural (I'm slowly training it by using tension when I blow dry and flat ironing every couple of months).

My sister's 4B (she calls it a "real 4B" like everyone else is full of it) hair is resistent to everything. Heat, manipulation and relaxers. It's naturally jet black and so shiny. We've all been natural for a few years now and now we get why our hair responded differently to different things.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using T-Mobile G2

 

[theAlist]

I mean...really...did this have to be made?

 

[Solitude]

Permanent parts is caused by damage. You keep doing the same thing to your hair, keep putting the same tension on the same strands in the exact same way all the time you are going to cause some form of damage. That's why if you wrap your hair at night, you never wrap it the same way all the time because you end up thinning out one side from all the constant tension. Same way you can thin out your edges from wearing ponytails and braids over a long period of time.

So, now a part in your hair is damage??? Damage to what?

This reminds me of a thread I started way back in 2008, asking people to define "damaging." I could see if your follicles are being damaged and you notice balding /thinning at the spot where the part is, but this is not the case for the average person who parts her hair in the same spot every day for years or else all of us who wear our hair parts on the same side for years would have bald spots.

The thinning of one's temples and edges caused by braids is not the same thing as a part. It's actually two completely different concepts. You don't have to put tension on your hair to wear a part, but you put excessive tension on your hair to wear braids in addition to the weight of the extension hair.

I don't see how wrapping is the same thing, either - wrapping is just setting your hair at night, using your head as a large roller. My hair has never been thin...never...even when I relaxed every 4-6 weeks and wrapped my hair nightly for years. I think people's thinning on one side is from overall poor hair care and sleeping on the same side nightly, or even from naturally thin hair, but not necessarily from the wrapping. ETA: People who wrap often do have hair that falls into the wrapped styled, but how does that show that their hair is damaged?

I notice that people often blame thin hair on relaxers or wrapping or whatever, but then they go natural and their hair is still thin.

 

[ms-gg]

It does not take much to damage hair. The wind damages the hair, washing the hair damages the hair, life damages hair, so why is it so farfetched that parting the hair the same way everyday damages the hair strands too?

And I didn't say "a part in your hair is damage" I said a permanent part in your hair is caused by damage. I'm speaking for myself because that is all I know, but when "I" was doing the same part all the time, the same slicing motion with a comb, eventually, all of that repetitive parting led to breakage. It would part by itself and I would see short broken pieces near that part. It may not be "tension" from the weight of fake hair or "tension" around the hairline from a ponytail, but it is "stress" being applied to the same hair strands day after day after day that causes the damage.

Wrapping the hair every night in the same direction "for me" and some others does lead to damage as well. Once again, it is stressful to the hair to do the same repetitive action to the hair all the time. That is why many people switch up where they place a bun when they wear a bun or why they switch up where they do a ponytail. You weather your hair down and cause stress to the same spot on the hair if you keep doing the same thing to it over and over again.

Maybe you never experienced any of this. Good for you. But I know what I experienced and I can only speak for myself just like you can only speak for yourself.

 

[Solitude]

^^^ ms-gg thanks for adding that clarification. I see what you mean.

@ my earlier comments...I asked my mom about shrinkage when I was younger. She confirmed what I said about her never letting my hair hang loose/curl up/shrink, but added that I got my hair pressed more often than I remember, so that would explain why I had less shrinkage, too - not just my hair being stretched out all of the time.

 

[OndoGirl]

I mean...really...did this have to be made?

OT but, your siggy is so hilarious. Hubby and I are cracking up right now!

 

[Cherokee-n-Black]

I mean...really...did this have to be made?

Did you really need to ask this when there are so many people saying "I don't understand why you don't think this is totally possible!!!!" Uh...yeah. I do learn a lot of new things on this forum, things that I've never noticed, bothered to research, etc..., but this is one that I just find perplexing from a scientific/common sense standpoint. I'm satisfied that this term is not meant to be 100% on par with "heat training," although I'm not 100% certain the people who think this is "totally possible" are with me on that...