How to Stretch Natural Hair and Reduce Shrinkage

Natural Hair Shrinkage


Shrinkage is something that all naturals will face. You can't run away from it. Your hair will shrink.  Now, finding ways to reduce the amount of shrinkage you get, which can be up to 80% of your wet hair length, is something that all curly, coily beauties out there are looking for.

Sometimes, we do love to embrace our shrinkiness by doing cute styles that works with it versus against it.  However, whenever we do want to take advantage of the length our unshrunk here has, here are some ways that we have been able to reduce shrinkage without heat.

Banding
This process involves using several hair ties to band the hair to allow it to dry in a stretched manner. Click here to read more about this technique.
 


 
Braiding
Not only can braiding help with shrinkage, when you unbraid the hair, you can also get a nice wavy look. To ensure that this method works, clip the base of your hair with a bobby pin and then wrap the braids around your head.
 
 
Stretched twists
This is similar to the braiding process. The only difference is to do a two strand twist instead of braids. You can pin your twists around your hair, or use the method below:
 

 
Threading
Although this method takes longer to do, it does work pretty well. Threading, or African Threading, involves using a thread to wrap the hair in different sections.  This can be worn as a style or the thread can be undone to show the stretched hair.  Click here to read more about this technique. Click here to view a video on how to create a fancy threaded protective style.
 

 
 
  • Ribbon Stretching
 


  • Using Curlformers


 
  • Roller setting



 
 
     
     
     
 

  • Blow Drying

 
  • Straightening with Flat Iron
 

  • Wrapping Your Hair

     
  • Airplaning Your Hair

Do you know of any other ways to reduce shrinkage?

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 26, 2012 at 6:22 PM

    I love your blog!!! You should write a book!!!

    ReplyDelete

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