Protective Styles for Hair Growth Without Losing Your Edges

Protective styles for hair growth don't make your hair grow any faster. What a low-tension style can do is keep the length you grow from breaking off. That only works if tension, weight and wear time stay in check.

If you've ever taken out braids after two months and found thinner edges than you started with, the name of the style usually isn't the problem. The way it was installed, how heavy it was and how long it stayed in usually are. Each of those can be checked at a different point between install day and takedown.

Do Protective Styles Help Hair Grow?

Not directly. Growth happens in the follicle under your scalp. A US National Library of Medicine physiology review puts it at about 0.4 inches (1 cm) a month. A braid or twist can't change that rate.

What a style can change is how much of that new length you keep. Less combing, detangling and heat means fewer chances for strands to snap. Why your hair seems stuck at one length walks through the math of growth against breakage.

The catch is that the same styles can cause hair loss when they pull too hard. That's traction alopecia, hair loss from repeated pulling on the follicle. A 2018 review reports that one-third of women of African descent are affected. In one study of South African schoolgirls, the rate was 8.6% in first-year students and 21.7% in final-year students.

What Makes a Protective Style Safe? Tension, Weight and Time

Three things decide whether a style protects your hair or pulls it out. Each one has its own guidance from dermatologists.

• Tension: the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) puts it simply. If your hairstyle feels painful, the style is too tight. Its list of styles that cause traction alopecia when too tight includes cornrows, locs, tight braids, tight buns and ponytails, and weaves.
• Weight: the AAD advises keeping braids and locs short, because longer hair is heavier and pulls more. It also suggests thicker braids and locs over very small ones.
• Time: how long one install stays in, and how often you go straight from one tight style to the next. The guidance on this varies, and the section on wear time below sorts it out.

Weight and time add up. The 2018 review describes one case of a dancer who wore a tight bun for years. She then wore a 1.5 lb (0.7 kg) hairpiece every day for two years. The review's authors note that both how hard and how long hair is pulled raise the risk.

What Should Braids Feel Like on Install Day?

They shouldn't hurt. The AAD's advice on caring for Black hair is that if styling hurts, ask the stylist to stop and redo it, because pain equals damage.

The AAD's hairstyle guidance lists four signs to change a style straight away:

• pain from tightly pulled hair
• stinging on your scalp
• crusts on your scalp
• tenting, where sections of scalp are pulled up like a tent

A headache counts too. The AAD's guidance on weaves and extensions says pain or a headache means the style is too tight. Ask your stylist to loosen that area. Don't wait a week for it to settle.

Ask for the hairline sections to be done loosest. The AAD specifically says to loosen braids around your hairline.

What to Watch for While the Style Is In

Keep your scalp clean. The AAD's general advice for Black hair is to wash once a week or every other week, and to use conditioner every time. What causes scalp buildup on natural hair covers what happens when washing gets skipped.

Check your edges at least once a month in good light (the AAD's advice), or more often in the first weeks of a new install. Look for the early signs listed further down. Stinging or crusts that show up mid-install are on the AAD's list of reasons to change the style straight away.

If you wear a hijab, headwrap or other covering over your style, the AAD says to pull your hair back loosely beneath it. A tight base under a covering adds pull you can't see. The same goes for rollers worn to bed most nights, which the AAD also lists as a cause.

How Long Should You Keep Protective Styles In?

Most guidance lands between 6 weeks and 3 months, depending on the style. The numbers differ by source, so it helps to see them side by side.

• Braids: the AAD says no longer than 6 to 8 weeks. Researchers at Johns Hopkins, in a 2016 review of Black hairstyling and traction alopecia, say no longer than two to three months.
• Weaves and extensions: the Johns Hopkins team says to remove them for a period after 6 to 8 weeks. The AAD's extensions guidance says two or three months at most.
• Between installs: the AAD says to give your hair a break in a style without added hair. The Johns Hopkins team suggests alternating styles and cutting back on updos so follicles can recover.

A practical way to use this: treat week 6 as a check, not a deadline. If your edges look fine and nothing has hurt, you can keep going toward the limit for your style. For braids, the AAD's is 8 weeks. If you've seen any of the warning signs, take the style out early.

Takedown and the Break Between Installs

Expect more hair in your hands than feels normal. The AAD says it's normal to shed between 50 and 100 hairs a day. Braids hold strands in place. So hair that would normally shed over those weeks is likely to come out all at once at takedown.

Go slowly, in small sections, with plenty of conditioner for slip. How to detangle natural hair without breaking it covers the technique step by step.

If you relax your hair, be most careful here. The 2018 review says traction alopecia risk rises when hair has been chemically relaxed. The review cites a simple patient message proposed by other dermatologists: "No braids or weaves on relaxed hair."

The Johns Hopkins team notes that untreated, unprocessed hair can withstand greater pulling. If you're moving from relaxed to natural hair, transitioning without breakage goes month by month.

Early Signs of Traction Alopecia That Need a Dermatologist

See a board-certified dermatologist as soon as you notice any of these. Early traction alopecia can often reverse once the pulling stops. If the pulling continues, it can progress to permanent scarring, according to the 2018 review.

• broken hairs around your forehead
• a receding hairline, especially at the temples and above the ears
• patches of thinning where your hair is pulled tightest
• redness around hair follicles, which the 2018 review calls the earliest sign, sometimes followed by small bumps or pus-filled bumps

Dermatologists also look for the "fringe sign," a line of finer hairs that survives along the front or temple hairline, to help confirm the diagnosis.

A US National Library of Medicine review says that early on, stopping the style that caused it can lead to complete regrowth. It also says loss typically begins at the temples and above the ears.

The AAD warns that once traction alopecia advances far enough, your hair cannot grow back. That's why timing matters more than any product. Why edges thin and when they grow back goes into regrowth.

Not all hair loss in braid wearers is traction alopecia. Thinning or breakage that starts at the crown, sometimes with itching or pain, can be central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA). The AAD says it often affects middle-aged Black women and advises seeing a dermatologist at the first sign of hair loss.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Box Braids Bad for Your Edges?

Not if they're loose at the hairline, not too long or heavy, and taken out on time. The AAD lists tight braids among the styles that can cause traction alopecia, so tension is the risk, not the braid itself.

Can You Wear Protective Styles on Relaxed Hair?

It carries more risk. The AAD lists extensions and weaves on relaxed hair among the styles to watch. A patient message cited in the 2018 review is "No braids or weaves on relaxed hair."

Is It Normal to Lose a Lot of Hair After Taking Out Braids?

Much of it is likely normal shedding that the braids held in place (everyone sheds 50 to 100 hairs a day). Broken short hairs at your hairline or bald patches are different, and a dermatologist should check them.