Let’s talk about hair
Straightening hair takes a while, but when it comes to natural hair that’s a whole other ball game. Everyone knows that heat would damage your ends leaving you with more to fix later on. There are many ways to stretch natural hair. Here is how to stretch natural hair without heat.
1. THREADING
Threading is a way of stretching natural hair with thread which you use by twirling it around sections of your hair and then tying a knot at the end.The type of thread does matter because the thicker the thread,the better. Also make sure you do this in sections that are not too thick but just medium.
You could do this on damp hair but to achieve straightened looking hair, wait for your hair to dry then start doing the threading and do moisturise your hair before doing it and do take care of your edges not to tighten too much or you will damage them.
2. BANDING
This method has the same concept as threading only that instead of using thread, you use rubber bands.You need a lot of rubber bands to do this depending on the length of your hair.Take your bands after sectioning your hair as if you would do a ponytail only that this time it’s in small sections of hair and after one band, tie another band almost an inch or two inches apart from the first one. Make sure that you don’t over tighten the bands to cause breakage to your hair but just enough to hold it down.Doing this on hair that’s not too wet also does help.
3. BUNS
Natural hair loves buns,not only as a protective style but to also stretch your hair and make it look more straightened. So remember whenever you know that you need to stretch your hair out for the next day then just tie it up in a bun. You will not get the flat-ironed texture but we just want it to look straightened, so after putting it in a bun your hair will look longer and stretched with no heat which is a plus.More tips for healthy natural hair can be found here.
4. BOX BRAIDING
This one here is my favourite and if your hair is not long enough to do a bun using this method is beneficial. Section your hair and box braid each piece to the end and pin it at the bottom.Then when you take them down, your hair will be more stretched than before. This way, you can go ahead and style it the way you wanted compared to it being in it’s shrunken state.
5. CURLFORMERS
Everyone has heard about curlformers and you can be able to stretch your hair into a beautiful hairstyle with no heat used. It usually comes with a hook for you to be able to use to put your hair into the curlformers and get your desired hairstyle. I also think that doing this on wet hair is not a good idea but if you have done it on wet hair and it has worked before then please tell me in the comments below.
41 Comments
Needed this. My curl pattern is too tight. Perfect article!!
Thank you, hope it helps.
Excellently well said! I love braiding my hair although at winter it takes forever! Can you imagine it took me 2 days and my hair wasn’t dry yes?! Haha !!! Keep it up dear!
I know the struggle I actually have to braid my hair too this week and I;m dreading it takes so long if your doing it for yourself.
I have long, curly, wavy hair and the reason why I don’t even try to straighten my hair is, it’s too difficult to do it for myself! LOL. But of course there are times when I needed to. Applying heat might be the easiest way to do it but it damages the hair. Nice hair tips!
Thank you very much.
This is good to keep in mind! I tend to always use heat when I want to straighten my hair, and I know it’s not good for it.
My cousin is going to love this post. She is biracial, and her mother wasn’t very educated in biracial hair. She has so much damage from using a lot of heat to try and tame her curls.
i am wondering why would anyone want to stretch their hair. is it the same like as rebonding ? where your straighten your hair?
Because natural hair is very curly and coily so you need to stretch it if you are trying to avoid shrinkage.
I don’t have curly hair but a friend of mine is very curly hair and always struggles. I will send her this post, I am sure it will help!
Hands up I have never heard of any of these techniques, but it is really interesting to find out about them and I have to admit I wondered why people would stretch their hair so thank you for answering someone else’s question about it!
Love all these tips for stretching natural hair! Wearing a bun is my favorite since the hair is up and out of my face.
I haven’t tried a lot of these tips so most are new to me! They all sound interesting, mostly the curlformers. They are my favorite to use on my own hair.
I use alot of these everyday in caring for my natural hair. I haven’t tried threading yet but I probably will.
Very informative. I enjoyed learning these few tricks which I’ll be using, Thanks
I think box braiding really works. My best friend used to do that a lot when she was curly.
I tend to plait my hair to keep it neat and tidy, but I also like the idea of using buns to stretch my natural hair. I use to use heat all the time but now I tend to keep my hair natural and it is so much better for my hair!
It does help to keep it healthy when we avoid too much heat.
These tips are very handy for me because my afro is driving me insane, thanks for the tips
You’re welcome.
I didn’t even know you could stretch your hair, I always thought that I just take care of it and it’ll grow. I don’t like to apply any heat to my hair, unless it’s a special occasion, but these are great ideas for stretching your hair!
I love using buns; the higher I get it slicked up, the more it straightens (except for the very ends). I tried curlformers once, and my hair ended up a frizzy mess! Perhaps I’ll try them again. LOL
These are all such amazing hair care tips. I have really naturally curly hair, so I’m always throwing it in a bun. Sometimes, when I’m feeling fancy, I’ll sleep in what we would always call “sleep in curlers” I wake up, and dang that’s what I call a good hair day!
These are all great hair care tips, I think it is important for people to have natural ways without heat. It can be so damaging. I have naturally very straight hair but my aunt has crazy curly hair and would really like these tips
I honestly don’t know a single of these techniques and given that I have very curly hair, I really should do something about it! Thanks for the tips! 🙂
Oh!I thought only heat can straight natural curly hair.These are great to know,specially the tip about threading!
My hair is naturally straight but all the other females in my family were given very curly hair which I feel these tips would be of more use to! I’ll be sure to forward them on!
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My hairs are straight and curvy naturally an hun I agree that we shouldnt use heat on hairs because it weakens the root. However these tips are really great.
This sounds like such a useful post for people who are looking to stretch their hair. I have to admit mine is curly so I can get away with heat most of the time.
I had no idea you could do this. I’ve never heard of the term “stretching” before.
That is so good you prefer the natural way over using heat. I avoid it as much as possible!
Great ideas! My hair is damaged from so much heat, love the idea of using a bun to straighten it out.
My hair is a little curly, so these tips will be perfect for me. I hate it when I use heat to stretch my hair because it does so much damage to it!
Very interesting – how do you tie the thread in threading? May be a tutorial would help .
This is a great information and yes I would be happy to try this tips too. I like that it’s natural!
Great tips!! My hair is always so boring – it looks the same everyday!
I actually have curlformers and never used it. I have the longer ones I just cut my hair middle of this year so I will use it when my hair grows more to stretch it.
Wow this looks great… I wanna try it to see the results… never tried something like this 😊👍🏼
Threading really works well for me because it’s also, easier to maintain in comparison to the other methods. Wish I knew how to stay with curls and buns longer.
I am also pathetic when it comes to buns, I always mess mine up.