The Downside of Knotless Braids

I love knotless braids and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to traditional box braids.

A knotless braid is started with your own hair, as opposed to the knot stylists make at the beginning of classic box braids. This makes knotless braids look super natural, as if they are growing straight from your scalp! 

However there is one thing about these braids that I don’t like.

They get messy so quickly! Because the braid is started with your own hair, the scalp area of your braids gets both frizzy and messy quicker than usual. I notice that after the first two weeks of having knotless braids, the braids still look shiny and new but my scalp looks like I’ve had them in for a month! This makes me work extra hard to keep my braids neat, always wearing my headscarf to sleep and trying not to pull too much at my scalp. I talk all about my box braid routine here.

However, after a few weeks I have to accept when my scalp looks messy and find ways to combat this. Last time I had knotless braids I dealt with the messy look until I couldn’t anymore, and took out my braids a little sooner than I wanted too. This time I feel more prepared! I plan to wear some cute headbands (see more about those here), and trying out some new headwrap styles. This will allow me to cover the scalp area while my braids still look cute and intact.

Although this is a con, I still love the braids too much to stop getting them. I still feel like the knotless braid look is worth the extra money it costs over regular braids. To read more about my knotless braids, click here.