Why Leaving Your Natural Hair Alone Is The Best Thing To Do For It

When it comes to natural hair, sometimes less is more. Many people with successful hair journeys can attest to this. Quite a number of them share that they were able to retain length and achieve their hair goals by simply leaving their hair alone. Now, when we say “leaving hair alone,” we don’t mean neglecting the hair and completely phasing out things like shampooing and deep conditioning. No. By leaving the hair alone, we mean cutting back on unnecessary manipulation.

What Is Unnecessary Manipulation?

Unnecessary manipulation is usually done through things like over-combing and styling your natural hair. It can even be through the constant unconscious touching and pulling you do to your hair when bored. Yes, it’s nice to play in your hair and see all the different styles you could do with it, but if you’re wearing out your natural hair all the time, combing it every day, and trying to manipulate it into different styles daily, you may notice over time that you’re losing a lot of length, and you may even start to think that your hair growth is stunted (yet it’s not).

As per the hair growth cycle, your hair actually continually grows, about half an inch every month. This length may be longer or shorter, depending on your genetics and other factors. Nevertheless, your hair grows. What hinders us from seeing this growth is breakage. Breakage happens every time we overmanipulate our hair. You’re more likely to experience minimal breakage if you leave your hair alone. If you’re wondering how you can leave your hair alone and still care for it, here are some of the best ways:

How To Leave Your Hair Alone

1. Minimize manipulation as much as possible. Cut back on the combing and daily styling of your natural hair. The best way to do this is by wearing protective styles. We’ll explain this further at the next point. Otherwise, wear your hair out as few times as possible to reduce the need for daily combing and styling. And when styling, avoid making tight hairstyles that exert a lot of tension on the strands, as this could also lead to loss of length.
2. Have your hair in a protective style. Keeping your hair in a protective style is an excellent way to avoid having to comb and style it on a daily basis. Whether it’s with hair extensions or not, there are many protective styles you can pick from. Be it flat twists, intricate cornrows, braids, two-strand twists, wigs, sew-ins, or temporary locs, there are so many styles to pick from and many ways to be creative with them. These styles keep the ends tucked away. The ends are typically where you notice growth, but they’re also the most prone to breakage. So protecting them by keeping them tucked away can help you retain length. Make sure to regularly moisturize your scalp and hair with a spray of water or a water-based moisturizer followed by a natural oil to keep it strong and healthy even when it’s in the protective style, and give your hair a break of at least one week before changing to another protective style.
3. Reduce the use of heat on your hair. You may not realize it, but frequent direct application of heat to your hair can be a form of over-manipulation. Heat styling processes like blow drying involve combing, which contributes to physical stressing of the hair. On top of that, heat styling dries out your natural hair, making it brittle and more likely to break. Limit use of direct heat to as few times as possible (blow drying, straightening) and make sure to use apply a heat protectant cream or spray when you do. Additionally, adopt indirect heat techniques like steaming, use of hood driers when deep conditioning or roller setting.

Ultimately, if you can follow these tips while still taking the necessary steps of proper haircare such as shampooing, moisturizing and sealing in the moisture with plant-based oils, your hair will thrive. By leaving it alone and only doing what’s best for it when need be, you’ll unlock the full length potential of your hair.