A guide to healthy braids

There’s this myth circulating amongst braid fanatics that braids help your hair grow faster. Contradictorily, there’s this other myth that states that braids break your hair. Just to put this whole thing straight: braids neither break nor do they help grow your hair faster.

Braids are a protective styling technique, they help you retain length, you hair will grow regardless (even after your death), the question is: will you be able to retain your length.

If you’re complaining about hair that breaks every time you slap some box braids up’ inn therrr… there’s definitely a problem.

Here are the possible issues you may have with your braids:

1. You’re braiding too tight and therefore risk suffering from traction alopecia.
2. You’re not hydrating your hair as you should be. Not hydrating your hair properly will definitely lead to breakage as dryness and dehydration weakens the hair and makes it more prone to breakage. What you ought to do to ensure that your hair will not break whilst having braids in, you should hydrate and moisturise with the Suki Suki Naturals Hydro-Protective Hair Mist. This should be used on the length of your hair on a daily basis.
3. You’re using braids as a means to ‘ignore’ your hair and take a break from caring for it. Newsflash: you can never ‘take a break from caring from your hair’ if you actually want it to be healthy, just like you can never take a break from properly nourishing you body and expecting it to be healthy and to function properly.
4. You’re not washing you hair enough, you should be washing your braids at least once a week with a sulphate free shampoo. microbes accumulate when hair is dirty which leads to unwanted odours and eventually hair loss as microbes weaken the hair.  
5. Your braids are way too heavy on your head and therefore are weighing down your hair and causing it to literally come out of its socket.

So next time you’re thinking about whether to braid your hair or not, consider these few points; let them dictate what you’re willing to tolerate from a hair dresser. At the end of the day, as I always say:“Your head is your own, when the hair dresser is done doing it, you’ll still have it, you are but a client”.