* updated 7/21/2021
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Blow drying may be the quickest way to battle shrinkage and show off more of your length but it’s not the only way. If you have sworn off heat for good or just want to minimize the amount, here are five easy ways to stretch natural hair without heat.
1. Braiding
Braiding can give you a similar look to a twist-out while stretching your natural hair. Since there’s more tension used with braiding and the three sections of hair hold tighter, it allows the hair to keep that stretched-out position better than twists would.
2. Banding
Banding is simply putting sections of hair in small ponytails using bands placed along the length of the hair. It’ll work on dry hair but doing this on slightly damp hair and allowing it to dry while stretching may be most effective. Make sure each section is detangled and moisturized, smooth the hair as you go and use bands without the metal pieces or Snappees as seen in this video.
3. Bunning
4. Roller Set
Setting your hair on rollers and allowing it to air dry is another way to stretch natural hair without heat. You’ll need to allow more time for your hair to dry than you would if you were going to sit under a dryer. Using sections that aren’t too thick and large rollers for your length (hair should be able to wind around hair at least one and a half times for security) should help speed up the drying time.
To really make sure that the roots are stretched if your hair is longer and super thick, you can try this method of sectioning the hair into ponytails and then adding rollers or large perm rods to the loose hair. Curlformers can also do the trick!
Ive just cut my locks of 13 years last September. Its been a year. I love my mohawk but Im not to the defined curls I want yet. Need help please
Author
Hi Ebony! Thanks for checking out this post! Glad to hear that though you have had your locs for a long time, you are enjoying your mohawk! But I am wondering what you mean exactly by defining your curls. I don’t know exactly what type of curl pattern you have but either way, defining your curls or kinks will involve using some sort of product like a gel or hair “pudding”.
If your hair is kinky, like mine, it IS possible to define the natural curl pattern of your hair. But you will basically have a fro unless you add product while the hair is wet and let it dry to hold the definition. Otherwise known as a “wash and go”. I don’t normally do wash & gos but this is a good tutorial to give you some guidance: https://youtu.be/Fkn1K5TgTTQ
I hope this helps!