3 Ways To Stretch Your Hair

I think we can agree we all have a love hate relationship with shrinkage. It lets us know out hair is moisturized and healthy but doesn’t allow us to show off all out length! One way to combat shrinkage is by stretching your hair. The act of elongating it to give you more length and volume! Here are my favorite three ways to stretch my hair!

BANDING

This is done by putting your hair in mini ponytails, and putting elastic bands down the length of your hair to stretch it. You leave it like that for any amount of time (best to do it  overnight) and your hair will be stretched by the time you take them out. Banding works on already styled hair (place bands carefully as to not mess up your style), or on freshly washed hair that will be styled after its stretched.You can use regular hair elastic ties or rubber bands. I would say about 4-6 sections is a good amount to be sure all parts of your hair will stretch well enough. (classycurlies.com pictured)

PINEAPPLE

Similar to banding this includes putting your hair in a ponytail, but just one. It is one ponytail bringing all the hair to the top of your head, resembling a pineapple! This method is best for preserving styles overnight and still stretching your hair. It is also less tedious than banding. This is the most go-to style for preserving styles.  A tip to pineappling is if you put the puff on top of your head it will add more volume to your hair when you take it down the next day and if you place the puff at the base of your head, it’ll give you even more length. (moknowshair.com pictured)

I like to do mini pineapples to preserve my styles. I do about 3 or 4. Doing this helps me maintain my styles for at least 4 days. I just put my headscarf on over them at night, tying it the same way i usually would. In the morning i take out the bands and shake out my hair , using my fingers to shape my fro. I know some say it doesn’t work, and if it does not work for you, one possible reason may be your hair is not as moisturized as it needs to be. From my experience I am never able to preserve styles if my hair is lacking moisture.

TENSION BLOW DRY

This is my favorite way to stretch my hair,  I have a post about it here. It does include using heat but its very fast and always effective. The tension method is stretching your hair and running the blow dryer alongside it, allowing the hot air to stretch the sections. I personally do not put heat protectant on my hair while I do this because I spend about 1 minute and thirty seconds (if even that much) on each section and get my desired length.I do about six section with my blow dryer on the highest heat setting. Whenever i want a blow dried look for a style, this is how i blow dry my hair. I no longer use comb attachments, i do not use a brush, or any tool.  I even do use this method right after i take my hair down from a twistout, braidout, etc. , and it does not disturb my curls. It just immediately stretches them! (naturallyobsessed.net pictured)

Have you used any of these methods? Or do you have one i haven’t listed? Let me know below! Comment, like and share!