Protecting Your Hair at Night

Satin Bonnet
for when I'm wearing rollers and
curly braid outs

I've been writing lately about Protective Hairstyles which can help with length retention.  Yet another way to protect the hair is by wrapping it up at night.  This may sound like a no brainer to some but there is a lot of benefit for the hair by doing this one thing.   This practice can be a huge help when trying to reach your hair length goals.

I  recently re-read a bit of Wanakee Pugh's "Practical Guide to Haircare" and something stood out to me.  She stated that even if your hair is too short to be pulled back into a protective style, you can still benefit from wrapping your hair at night.  This reminded me of the beginning of my Natural Hair journey because I did this faithfully every night.  My hair was maybe only 1 1/2 inches long at the time but I kept it wrapped up in my satin scarves when I went to sleep.  Now that my hair is longer I can tell a huge difference in my hair when I go to bed without covering it up.  I wake up to tangles and sometimes dryness.  I agree that it is not the cutest look going but it works.

I mentioned my satin scarves (I have a nice little collection) but you can also use a satin bonnet.  Satin is a man made material that is easy to wash and can be long lasting.  This is highly recommended as far as material choice because it does not draw moisture away from the hair and is smooth so it won't disturb it very much while you sleep.  When I wear rollers to bed I usually reach for my satin bonnet.  Otherwise, I have scarves in a variety of sizes for when I wear braids, twists and protective styles to bed.  Here's a few pics of how I wrap my hair.

Pineapple for the Corkscrew Braid Out
with my edges protected

Air drying while smoothing my edges 

Large Satin Scarf to protect my
 Roller Set from the rain

Satin Bonnets and Scarves from
the local BSS

Knitting Season

Almost finished knitting up my scarf

During the warmer months I don't tend to think very much about knitting.  For me, I always reach for my yarn when the first sign of fall hits.  As always, I have a long list of projects on my brain especially this close to Christmas.  Let's face it though, my dream of knitting everyone in the family a hat and scarf set is probably not gonna happen at this point.

My Crocheted Beret
Completed last year

For right now, I'm finishing up a replacement scarf for myself with a neat little yarn I picked up at an estate sale a couple of years ago.  Once that's done, I'm moving onto knitting Harry Potter themed scarves* for my kids.  The twins are in first grade so I can get away with knitting something a little shorter in length but I'm sure my oldest would like his full scale.  His will be in the colors of Slytherin house.  I guess my Griffindor scarf will have to wait until after the holidays because I'll be really busy until then.

This leaves me with very little time to knit or crochet up a nice beanie for when my hair is still in braids on cold mornings.  Whenever I do a braid out my hair is sometimes not completely dry until the afternoon.  For this reason I just keep it braided up while I take the kids to school.  For now, I'm using the beret I crocheted last year but I want to change it up a bit.  Also, it would be nice if I could just wear french braids as a protective style under a cute beanie a few days each week until I reach my goal length.  I'm really pushing for APL (still!) by New Year's but I've got to start wearing my hair up more.

Up Close

Luckily, I just found out about a good deal on crocheted beanies at Forever21.com from NaturallyObsessed.net (natural hair blog by Kinky Curly Queen of YouTube fame).  She mentioned that some hats on the site were priced as low as $5.50 so I'm gonna jump on it before they're gone.  As far as crafting goes, it looks like it'll be a cup of tea, a movie and some knitting needles every night until the holidays if I want to get those scarves in.  Happy Crafting!


* CLICK HERE If you want to find out more on How to Knit a Harry Potter Scarf