Hi, I am Carmen and I would like to know if braids (false braids) are harmful to frizzy hair. Can you email me and say. Thanks in advance. bye.

Hi Carmen,

It is a question that I often hear these days because then you hear braids broke my hair and sometimes you hear braids make your hair grow. So it is confusing. I myself have braided for years. I consider myself an expert in this field. See photo. I wore these braids almost my entire student days.

To be clear, braiding, plaiting, false braids, box braids or nowadays boxer braids, are actually not bad for frizzy hair or any hair type. The problems arise when:

1. The hair is braided too tight. If you can't laugh without it hurting, then your hair is braided too tight. You can hear very bad stories about this. From pus pimples that develop and can become infected to hair loss. This is a big no-no.
2. Hair that is too thin is fought: Very fine braids are a recipe for hair breakage. Especially for braided hair that you leave in your hair for more than a month. Often the false hair is too heavy for the small amount of hair and the braid comes out with the hair root and all. This is very dangerous, because once the hair roots are damaged or out of the pores, the hair does not grow anymore and you have a permanent bald spot.
3. The braids stay in the hair for more than three months: Extensions should not be left in the hair for more than three months, because the hair will curl. This makes it very difficult to remove the extensions without breaking your own hair.
4. The hair is braided immediately after relaxing. This is the biggest mistake you can make because the hair is guaranteed to break. Relaxed hair is processed hair where 1/3 of the hair layer has been removed. It is therefore damaged hair. Not strong enough to wear extensions. To wear false braids you must have a minimum of 1.5 cm outgrowth.
5. You put the false hair in your own hair without rinsing the false hair and prepare your own hair properly: Always rinse the extensions with baking soda to wash off the outer chemical and dirty layer. The hair comes from a chemical factory. Just like how you have to wash newly purchased equipment before use, you should also wash false hair before you put it in your own hair. After all, it will stay on your head for at least a month. Make sure that your own hair is also washed nice and clean and grease it well with the Silky Shea so that your own hair has a protective layer for braiding.
6. You don't take care of your own hair. What I see is that some women take better care of their false hair than their own hair. All kinds of products are bought to make the false hair shine as if your own hair doesn't matter at all. That's the world upside down. False braids are there to give your own hair some rest and to let it grow. So it's important that you take good care of your own hair. You do that by washing it weekly with a good shampoo such as the Going Natural Herbal Shampoo that leaves no residue and the Scalp Conditioning Spray to care for the hair and keep the scalp healthy.

So feel free to braid your hair if you want, but keep in mind the above, which is really just “common sense.”

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