Why is it bad to leave braids extensions in?

[kristina]

Okay folks, I'm seriously considering doing a "hair hybernation" of sorts. The plan is to get human hair micros at the end of the month and to keep them in for 6-10 months, redoing them section by section every 6 weeks or so. Do you think this will mess up my hair even if I moisturize regularly with s-curl and braid spray, wash and condition weekly and unbraid enough to avoid matting and build up?
My reasons are simple- I'm feeling lazy about styling, have a economic need to look as conventionally pretty as possible and I want a super low maintainance style to take me past brastrap length. Any advice/input would be appreciated.

 

[ekomba]

That seems like a long time in fact you redo every 6 weeks i see. I never tried that. me what i do is single braids that i leave 3-4months and moisturize with wgo, castor oil and poo cond once a week i dont redo them and after 3-4months i spray them with wgo and better braids unbraid and the build up disappear then i deep condition for a whole week and let it breathe than hop back in braids for 3-4months with daily moisturizing. i hardly manipulate the braids than in a bun with a plastic bag and satin bonnet and silk scarf and when im in the house and when i go out i wear the braids out so it never brake as i hardly manipulate and its always moist as i keep it under a plastic bag. i'm lazy so i wouldnt want to redo every 6weeks. my trick: my hairdresser put a lot of my hair in the part for the singles and use little extension hair with bigger parts

 

[kristina]

I'm think about stretching my touch ups over a few weeks. So if I start in 6-8 weeks, I wouldn't finish redoing all the braids until the 8th or 10th week. I don't want to have to deal with taking them all out at the same time because it'll take forever that way. And i learn the hard way that big parts cause my hair to matt really badly. So I guess my concern is what happens if my hair never gets to breath?

 

[Avaya]

The only thing I'd be apprehensive of is matting. When you take a braid down and rebraid it just make sure you comb that bad fella out first. I know my hair loves to lock when I get braids. That's the only down side I see.


P.S. I only wear my braids for about 2 months.

 

[CandiceC]

Even if you moisturize and redo the braids, you're still putting a lot of stress on your hair by keeping them in for so long.
If you were doing cornrows I could understand though.

I wouldn't recommend micros at all though and especially not for keeping them in that long. The braids are really small and that's just too much stress.

I had a plug of hair come out with those things and I was an experienced micros wearer. Never again though.

 

[asummertyme]

UR IDEA doesnt seem bad...just redo them as u said and remove the build up..moisturize and so on..i pan on keeping my bairds in until the end of sept when i come back off vacation..i was 2x a month..touch up whenever i feel it looks sloppy or slippage or i spot build up... moisturize with braid spray and infusium and some MTG 1-2x a wk..thats it..and my hair is super soft under the braid..its really working well...

 

[Diane71]

I feel ya, I keep my box braids in 2-3 wks max and I even though that is'nt a long stretch of time I still get a good amount of new growth within that time.
I moisturize daily...day and night and I wash my braids once per week and apply a good, strong leave-in conditioner to strengthen my hair while I'm in braids. I never experience any breakage, excessive shedding or thinning of my hair...I find braids make your longer than you could ever imagine if you care for them properly.

_____________________________
http://public.fotki.com/Diane71

pw: diva

"Don't talk about it, be about it!!"

 

[Nonie]

It's possible to wear braids for that long without suffering any damage as long as:

- you touch them up as often as needed, esp the edges. The minute you have some growth, the extensions start to swing painfully and may break your hair if you don't redo the braid firmly; not to mention the fact that redoing them helps move the strain of the added hair from the original starting point, to newer stronger hair.

- you use less hair per braid section, so that your hair isn't supporting more weight than it can handle as well as the poor scalp to which it is attached.

- you wash your hair carefully so that you remove the residue that causes matting at the base of the braid. I use little or no products, but rather keep my hair moisturized by spritzing with an ACV/EO/glycerin mix or just wash whenever my hair feels dry. I'm also a big fan of ACV rinses, dunking my head in the solution and massaging my scalp to remove all shampoo residue. If you must use a braid spray, S-Curl, perhaps you should avoid spraying the part closest to your scalp. That's where matting mostly occurs. Not applying grease to your scalp also help reduce build-up at base.

- another thing I find is, my hair is easier to undo using my fingers. With fingers, you can feel how far down you braid you need to start unraveling so you don't wind up digging too far into the braid and causing knots, as might happen with a comb. And if you've washed your hair, conditioned and rinsed well, it feels baby soft and is a pleasure to undo. For me it is, anyway.

With that said, I'm into my 8th month in single braids (micros?) and besides having HIH Disease wanting to touch up every braid at every given second, I have not had any problems with wearing braids continually. I actually decided to do this marathon because I went heat crazy and damaged my hair such that I had to chop off huge chunks of thin ends. And because I did the trimming/chopping myself, trimming each section before attaching hair...and not with a mirror even but feeling for where the hair tapered and cutting that off, I consider myself starting afresh big time. Coz eventually, I'll have to have some pro trim it evenly for me. For now I just plan on hiding in braids for a year or so.

And why am I doing it this way? Coz I'm lazy. But also because this is the way I grew my hair from one inch to 7-9 in two years, and that was with regular trimming - coz I was following a regimen that called for that. I transitioned in braids, starting off with about an inch of growth and trimming off the relaxed part every few weeks till it was all gone. I continued to trim even after all my relaxed hair was gone, coz again, those were the rules. Of course being able to do my own braids helps coz I can touch them up as soon as they need it...esp the parts along the perimeters or partings...so they can disguise the other braids till I get to them.

I think if you use Robin's ideas from www.growafrohairlong.com and incorporate them into your program as much as possible, you'll be OK.

 

[asummertyme]

and with all this said..braids are the bomb..if cared for properly!

 

[kristina]

This is great advice. I think I'm going to go for it.

 

[Shatani]

Okay folks, I'm seriously considering doing a "hair hybernation" of sorts. The plan is to get human hair micros at the end of the month and to keep them in for 6-10 months, redoing them section by section every 6 weeks or so. Do you think this will mess up my hair even if I moisturize regularly with s-curl and braid spray, wash and condition weekly and unbraid enough to avoid matting and build up?
My reasons are simple- I'm feeling lazy about styling, have a economic need to look as conventionally pretty as possible and I want a super low maintainance style to take me past brastrap length. Any advice/input would be appreciated.

i dont think that will be detrimental to your hair at all....

 

[Shatani]

The only thing I'd be apprehensive of is matting. When you take a braid down and rebraid it just make sure you comb that bad fella out first. I know my hair loves to lock when I get braids. That's the only down side I see.


P.S. I only wear my braids for about 2 months.

mine is the SAME WAY! i realized its because my hair is growing, and it doesnt conveniently grow into the secions ive parted it into...so i get a lot of tangling.....

 

[Sosoothing]

I actually sort of do this. I dont keep my braids for 6 months because I start to miss my hair. I usually go for 2-4 months. I redo them after about 6weeks when my edges look untidy. And I use a bit of braiding hair per section so that more of my own hair is exposed to moisturizers as well as to reduce the tension. I want to keep my braids longer in this time. It doesnt sound like a bad idea to me, as long as you redo, remove build up and moisturize.

 

[SandySea]

I don't know why it's so bad to leave braids in. I guess hair can loc if there's too much new growth. When I get small braids I leave them in for a long time (longest was three months). As long as I moisturize and be patient during the unbraiding, I come out fine.

I'm wearing small braids right now. I am in week 8 and, yes, I plan to get another month out of these babies (gotta get my money and time's worth). I know it's not the LHCF way, but I don't have time to take them out, and they still look good. The only problem is that some of my braids are twisting. This always happens to me with smaller braids, I've never had a problem untwisting them during the take-down. Hopefully these twisted braids won't be a problem this time. I'm loving my braids, and I really don't have time for hair right now.

 

[kristina]

Yeah- I'm fully convinced that my hair will survive- heck I got all the hair on my head now after wearing braids for five month stretches- thing is I wasn't moisturizing or redoing the braids so I had fried ends and matting. I hope it works out.

 

[Phoenix]

I've been wearing braids back to back for almost a year now. I get them re-done about every 2 1/2 months. I wouldn't recommend micros though. In my opinion they but too much stress on your hair.

 

[Dolapo]

ive had mine for nearly a month and they're looking rough. i just tried to redo one myself and it came out awful. lol. so ill just wait till my friend has the time to do the edges. i planned on having them for 3 months but they're like hanging right now. i wash every 2 weeks with clarifying shampoo nd spray my braid mixture once in a while. i took one out and i had buildup at the roots so im guessing the rest are like that. im going to be really careful when taking them out. the longest i had mine in was like 4 months. i was natural then and when i took them out, my hair had really grown! i dont think i could do that again though.........