Tips & Techniques: Easy Stretching For Dense Hair

Lately I've thoroughly enjoyed wearing a shrunken afro because it's much cooler, however, I thought it was time for stretched styling.

There are many sites, products, and videos that talk about keeping hair stretched. Sometimes, those topics don't deal with DENSE hair. Dense hair is hair that has more mass in cubic centimeters than other people's hair (source). That means you have more hair strands on your head than most people. Is that you? If so, that's okay my super-dense haired natural friends. Soon, I'm going to start posting styles that are modified to help you achieve styles.

Let's start with an easy way to stretch hair without the extra 20 twists or the extra 5 hours of drying time. I decided to stretch my hair with my own variation of banding. After washing and conditioning my hair, I moisturized with a leave in conditioner and sealed with oil. On damp hair, I divided into sections, and secured with ponytail holders. Those without the metal clamps work best and help reduce snags. My hair is really dense so I have 5 sections.

Once the sections are secure, twist each of the sections into twists small enough to stretch. Using too much hair in one twist makes it harder to manipulate and increases drying time.

In order to keep the hair stretched, wrap each twist and tuck in the band or use bobby pins to secure. (Yes. I know how the middle looks. I wasn't done. Let's stay focused on the back two.)

It took about 15 minutes to put this style up before bed. In the morning, I untwisted my hair, removed the ponytail holders, and this is my style for the day.

See.... what had happened was... I woke up the next day and forgot to take pictures, and then decided to blow my hair out. This is from the end of the day. But it works! Trust me.

Hope this helps. If you try this style and remembered to take pictures, share it with us on facebook.