These 22 Hair Products Are Key to Maintaining Your Protective Summer Hairstyle

For those with natural hair, taking on a protective hairstyle is more than an expectation, it’s a symbolic rite of passage. Whether you leave it to a pro hairstylist or opt to manage your curls on your own, eventually we all reach that point where we can use a mini break from the daily routine. That said, tucking your hair into a protective style is not an excuse to completely disregard all hair-care practices.

If anything, it’s the exact opposite: Establishing an effective hair-care regimen is essential to maximizing and maintaining a protective style, so once it’s removed, both the scalp and hair are healthy and happy.

“The reason for opting for a protective style is to [firstly] protect your hair,” Whitney White, the founder of Melanin Haircare, tells Fashionista. “[It’s also] to give it a break from the constant tugging, pulling and manipulation of daily styling, and what it does to the hair and the roots. Hair-care is so important, because staying consistent with your routine and protecting your hair and scalp is going to determine the quality of your hair growth.”

While you’ll likely have to make a couple of adjustments to your daily and weekly regimen, the modifications are well worth the reward if done properly. Ahead, a complete rundown on everything to know when tending to protective styles — including expert-approved tips and products to make the most of them.

Start with a good base

First things first: Before putting in a protective hairstyle, make sure there’s a solid base to build off of. This means ensuring the hair going into it is in its best possible condition.

“A protective style is only as good as the hair going into it,” says hair-care and texture expert Jazzee Green. “If your hair is dry, if you need a haircut, if you have split ends, if the hair care is missing, there’s no protective style in the world that will protect it.”

White expresses a similar sentiment, suggesting giving your hair “a really good spa day” before installing a protective style. Start with a cleanse, ridding the scalp of any buildup, then follow with a deep conditioning treatment and trimming the ends. By putting damaged and dehydrated strands into a protective style, you run the risks of causing breakage, exacerbating dryness and triggering irritation.

Don’t wear your protective style for too long

After sacrificing eight hours of our lives getting our hair braided, twisted or faux loc’d, it’s understandable that many of us might want to keep these styles intact for months at a time. But experts warn that the longer you wear protective styles, the more damage you are potentially doing to your hair.

“I think [for] any protective style, no matter what you get, four weeks is the maximum [for keeping it in],” says Green. “Take it out, treat your hair, and then if you want to go back into a braid style, do it.”

Wear your hairstyle any longer, and you thwart the whole purpose of a protective style in the first place — to protect the hair. If you’re on the fence about whether you want to sacrifice an eight-hour process for a monthlong hairdo, remind yourself of the following: A protective style is meant to be temporary.

“Be mindful of the reason why you want to get the protective style — is it really to protect the hair?” says Green. “You want to think about the type of protective style that you want to do, and you want to make sure that it’s something that can be taken out in a couple of weeks so that you can take care of your hair.”

On a similar note, for braided and twisted styles, White advises not to implement them too tightly, since too much tension can cause further hair damage. Once taken out, breakage, irritation, inflammation and other issues can occur, even leading to more dire concerns, such as alopecia, in some cases.

Protective styles need to be washed, too

A common misconception is that protective styles don’t need to be washed; again, the contrary is true. It’s best to wash your hair once a week, to keep your scalp refreshed and strands moisturized.

White suggests an optimal wash day experience can be, “as simple as getting a water bottle full of shampoo and water and mixing that together.” She advises pouring the mixture over the top of your scalp and gently massage it in, careful not to disturb the style in place. “Then, rinse that out, follow it up with a conditioner, and use some mousse to reset it,” she says.

For scalp-cleansing alternatives, an apple cider vinegar rinse or aloe vera spritz also works for a gentle cleanse, followed by the same conditioning-and-mousse treatment, with an oil blend to seal and re-moisturize. Finalize the regimen with a satin scarf to seal it all in.

Look for the right ingredients

When it comes to incorporating products, it’s important to consider the formulas themselves and the ingredients in them, according to our experts. Green suggests cleansing hair with a gentle, paraben-free shampoo, and adds that it’s important to avoid anything with sulfates that can get too sudsy and dry out the scalp. Cream-based options also work well, but focus on ones that are lightweight and clean-rinsing, so they won’t build up and get stuck on the scalp, Green notes.

“When it comes to the scalp, I would definitely look for ingredients that are clarifying, antimicrobial and made to kind of cleanse the scalp naturally,” says White. “Tea tree oil is really great; rosemary is an amazing ingredient that also helps to strengthen and promote hair growth. Aloe vera is healing, soothing and helps balance the pH. Witch hazel is also another option you can use, as it’s really great to help clarify.”

And know which ingredients to avoid

As for what to avoid, White cautions against “any butters and heavy conditioners that are not water-based,” noting that these might not penetrate, and will instead sit on top of strands and skin to create dullness and buildup.

It’s also important to pay attention to how your unique hair texture responds to the products you use: “Have a relationship with your hair first,” says Green. “Get into the habit of touching your hair… Once you establish that relationship, you will find what your favorite products are. Listen to your hair — let your hair tell you what it wants.”

Below, we’ve compiled 22 expert-approved products for protective styles. These formulas — from clarifying shampoos to satin scarves and scalp-soothing oils — keep both the hair and scalp moisturized, refreshed and healthy.