J'adore TajaMarie: Protective Styles and Me

Hey Dolls,

So I wanted to talk a little about natural hair, in particular protective styling (PS). I guess you can say that I'm a bit addicted to protective styles. But before I get in too deep, let me give you guys a brief history on my natural hair. I wore sew ins for most of my Sophomore year of college and on February 16,2008 I was officially natural. On January 13th, 2013 ( 2 months after giving birth to my beautiful baby girl), I Big Chopped. Having a newborn and an all day wash day wasn't working for me anymore. I enjoyed my short hair and the "lower" maintenance of it, but by the summer of 2013 I was ready for a change. Honestly, I didn't want to deal with putting all this time and effort into a twist out just for humidity to completely disrespect my hair and all my hard work. On top of being a full time mom to a very busy, at the time almost one year old, I soon discovered trying to carve out time to do my hair was becoming a bit of a challenge. July of 2013 is when I did my first installment of Chunky Marley Twist, and I've been hooked since. My PS allow me to worry less about my hair without neglecting it. I have a few Do's and Don'ts when it comes to prep and maintenance of MY protective styles. I moisturize my hair twice a week with S Curl No Drip Leave in moisturizer ( I saw you chuckle), and organic coconut oil. Also between each installment I allow my hair to breath for a few days. Prior to my install I make sure that my hair is clean and moisturize thoroughly. I shampoo, followed by a moisture balance shampoo,deep condition, then add my leave in and oil. Now for my Don'ts. I do not shampoo my hair while it's in a protective style. I know, this may have a few people gasping for air but I've done it in the past and it doesn't work for me. Last, I do not keep my styles in past 8 weeks.
I can definitely see a difference in my hair, I am retaining length and my hair is full and healthy.