How to Stretch Your Natural Hair... Without Pain

We all see the advice on natural hair websites, blogs, forums, and more: STRETCH YOUR NATURAL HAIR. Of course, the reasons why we're stretching our natural hair are for minimal tangles, styling purposes, and easier management. But let's face it. Sometimes wanting to stretch your natural hair can induce a little bit of pain. This is especially so if you get migraines like me. In the past couple of weeks, the migraines have been quite severe, and since I've been leaving my hair out, having to keep it stretched at night has been stressful. I was on Instagram last week and saw a beautifully gorgeous head of afro hair that had been stretched out using threading. I loved the look of her hair, but seeing the thread just made my migraine worse!

Source

My stretching methods are usually 4 to 8 twists, plaits or twisted bantu knots. I used to flat twist for stretching, but I've kinda dumped that method for no reason. Anyway, with the headaches I've been getting, I've wondered about painless ways to keep your natural hair stretched.

1. RELAX - No, I don't mean you should relax your hair. What I mean is that you should relax the tension with which you're stretching your hair. For instance, when twisting or threading, don't make them too tight. Making your twists, or braids tight could not only be painful, but they can cause scalp injuries, hair breakage and thinning edges.
   
2. REDUCE THE HEAT - If your preferred method of stretching your natural hair is by blowdrying, reduce the amount of heat applied directly on your head. You can keep the temperature setting on your blowdryer on LOW or MEDIUM heat.
   
3. WRAP IT - While searching for information for this topic, I ran into Discovering Natural's video on How to Wrap Natural Hair - I think I will definitely be trying this one out.
   
   
   
   
4. PINEAPPLE IT - If you have longer hair, all this requires is putting your hair in a high ponytail/puff and wrapping the hair with a scarf. Although I wonder how the ends of the hair will be stretched...
   

   

   I was already at work but this is what pineappling kinda looks like, just add a scarf to cover the base.

So there, you have it. These are my picks for easier painless ways to stretch your natural hair. How do you stretch your hair, if you do?

Berry Dakara.