If you’re anything like me you love the way your hair looks when you hair is wet and after you apply the product for my wash & go or any other style. Your hair appears its longest and the curl most defined. The your curls dry and the shrinkage sets in – not always my favorite look. Do you too struggle with shrinkage? Are you amazed by how much your hair loses length after it dries? Here I outline the benefits of stretching natural hair.
WHAT SHRINKAGE MEANS
Shrinkage is not a terrible thing. Some days I enjoy shrinkage because some styles look better and fuller that way. Shrinkage means your hair is healthy and moisturized. Your hair’s elasticity is why the shrinkage occurs. Shrinkage occurs too if you live in humid climates. The humidity can be exasperated once you step outside because of certain products you use. One of the most common ways to surpass the shrinkage is “stretching”.
WHAT IS STRETCHING?
Stretching is when you perform certain techniques on your hair to maximize your length and make your hair closer to your actual length. Stretching can be done in various ways depending on the type of style your hair is currently in.
• For wash and go’s, after my hair is 70-80% dry I will put my hair in a high ponytail to stretch my hair out. Stretching hair when completely wet can be harmful to your hair which is why I wait until it is between 70%- 80% dry.
• I’ve also used a blow dryer to stretch my hair out too in preperaion for a wash and go. I grab the ends of my hair while moving the blow dryer across my roots for stretching. Also, over the week my wash and go continues to stretch by using the pineapple method at night.
• I braid my hair into three strands which too causes my hair to stretch
• On hair just before a wash, if I want to stretch my hair I use rubber bands at the root of my hair, the middle and two towards the ends of my hair
• When I two strand twist my hair I pull the twist from opposite sides of my head and bobby pin them down while they are drying to manage shrinkage and get the maximum stretch.
• Wearing styles like bantu knots, twist outs and braid outs are also great a stretching.
BENEFITS OF STRETCHING
Not only does stretching help with showing off the length of your hair, there are other benefits as well. One benefit I see from stretching constantly is I have a lot less tangles and knows when it’s time to detangle and wash. My wash time is cut shorter on wash day because over the week I was stretching my hair and thus preventing my hair from curling on itself and getting tangled.
Stretching has also helped me retain length. A lot of naturals struggle with length retention. I’ve found that this is one of the valuable techniques. With retaining length comes hair growth over time. The growth will not happen overnight. Once you find a regimen that works for you, add stretching.
Note that excessive stretching can damage up your hair shaft and disturb your natural hair pattern. As always monitor your hair so you can be sure that added techniques benefit the hair and don’t put a strain on it.
