Why You Need To Start Banding Your Natural Hair Today

You can see the shrinkage in this young lady's hair even though it looks short, it's  not at all. 

The enemy; SSK (single strand knots)

Some days you just want to enjoy your length. You want to be able to have some "down time" with your hair but due to the shrinkage factor, that's not possible. Instead of flat ironing your hair and risking hair damage, there is a heat free way for you to enjoy your length and avoid SSK's and damaging your hair.

It's called banding.

 You can take pony tail holders, string, or thread, and wrap them around your hair. This stretches your hair so that it will hang down and show the true length of your hair that your shrinkage wants to automatically hide. It's funny how some people think they know the length of your hair by looking at it when it's natural but have no clue how cray cray one's shrinkage can be. I've seen naturals hair at neck length but when the hair is flat ironed, the person was mid back length.

Seriously.

When you have washed your hair, you need to take your method that you prefer and then stretch your hair, effectively letting it air dry. At this point, it will dry stretched instead of in a Black power fist like my hair does if I wash it and let it dry without doing anything to it. This will cause a nightmare to deal with. You never really want to do this unless your hair is short and can get away with it.

My banded ponytail

 In the very first picture, the young lady with the banded hair has great length! Banding your hair after shampooing it will keep the length without having to use heat. It's genius. I band my hair to keep it straight and it works like a charm.

The length of my hair seven months ago. It's longer now.

Banding is a great alternative to stretched and manageable hair for those who are heat shy! Try it and you won't go back to anything else.