Tired of waking up with out of control frizz and breaking hair? Let’s go over the best protective hairstyles for sleeping, so you can wake up with soft, healthy hair.
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So, you’re waking up with your hair all over the place. It feels dry, and looks pretty dull.
It takes you so much time in the morning to tame the frizz and get it looking somewhat presentable.
Your hair is not as long as you want it to be, even though you feel like you’ve been growing it out forever.
And if you look closely, many of your hair strands are broken or have split ends. If you want to wake up with frizz-free, not-broken-off hair, you MUST do this one thing:
Wear protective hairstyles at night.
Wearing your hair in styles that protect it while you sleep can prevent ALL of those problems. You current bedtime hair situation might actually be ruining your hair (and even your skin! More on that later).
Protecting your hair from damage at night is important no matter your hair type. But to my fellow curly girls, especially: this is a must!
For the love of all that is curly, do not wear your hair loose while you sleep. Especially on a cotton pillowcase.
If you want some easy, quick hairstyles to sleep in to protect your hair, I have you covered.
In this post, I’ll also share some products to protect your hairline and ends while you sleep. Here are the best ways to wear your hair to protect it at night!
Protective Hairstyles for Sleeping: Need to Know Info
What are Protective Hairstyles?
They’re pretty much what they sound like! They’re hairstyles that you wear while sleeping, to protect your hair at night. They help to minimize damage to your hair while you sleep.
These styles keep your hair secure, and prevent friction and moisture loss throughout the night.
Wearing protective hairstyles help you to maintain your gorgeous hair and help you save time in your morning hair care routine.
Many of these are also pretty hairstyles that look presentable and can make you feel more put together while you’re doing your evening routine.
The Benefits of Protective Styles
- preventing frizz and unruly hair
- preventing breakage
- allowing moisture retention in the hair
- preventing friction that causes hair loss
- allowing you to keep certain hairstyles intact
- preventing split ends
- preventing tangles
What Hairstyles are Best to Sleep In?
1. Classic Bun
A super simple style for long hair. Secure your bun with a silk scrunchie, making sure not to pull it too tight, to keep tension off of your hairline.
Avoid sleeping with your hair in regular hair elastics, or even worse, actual rubber bands. Using a silk scrunchie is much more gentle and will help keep your ends healthy. They come in a larger size as well as the skinny variety, that come in colors to match your hair color.
2. Rope Braid
It’s basically one big twist using all of your hair. Protective and also a very cute style to wear out of the house too!
3. Loose Fishtail Braid
They look a little complicated, but once you get the hang of it, they’re easy. A fantastic style for waking up with beachy waves.
4. Bantu Knots
An awesome hairstyle for keeping the ends of textured hair totally protected and free from manipulation. You can do as many or as few as you want to.
5. Pineapple
The pineapple is one of the best protective hairstyles for sleeping for curly hair. It’s quick and easy, and it’ll keep your hair gently secured while you sleep. Pull your curls up high on your head and loosely secure it, and you’re done!
6. Braided Bun
You can do this either high up or as a low bun. Braid your hair loosely into a single braid, and then wrap it around into a bun.
7. Low Ponytail
A simple choice for the nights when you’re super tired and don’t want to put more than 5 seconds into your hairstyle! With your ends loose in this style, I’d definitely recommend wearing a bonnet.
8. Space Buns
Keeps your hair up and secure, while still looking cute. Split your hair in half, and then secure each section into a high bun.
9. Twists
Twists are a great protective style, and you can do as many twists as you’d like. With each section of hair, split it into two, and twist each strand. Wrap the two sections around each other, in the opposite direction that they were twisted.
10. French Braid
French braids are simple to learn how to do, and are a classy style that you can also wear out of the house.
11. Two Dutch Braids
Another awesome protective hairstyle that’ll leave your straight or blown out hair with pretty waves.
12. Heatless Curling Rod
Silk curling rods are an awesome tool to use if you have straight or wavy hair, or have straightened your curls. Simply wrap your hair around the rod on both sides of your head and secure it. When you wake up, you’ll have big, bouncy curls!
13. Pigtails
Simple, cute, easy. You can do them high or low, depending on how comfortable it is with your sleeping position.
14. Loose Braid
A loose braid is a great way to keep your hair secured and out of your face while you sleep. Using a silk scrunchie to finish the hairstyle will keep your ends feeling moisturized and protected.
15. Low Bun
Perfect for keeping your ends tucked away. Loosely twist your hair into a bun at the nape of your neck and secure with…yep, you guessed it, a silk scrunchie.
How to Protect Your Hairline and Ends While Sleeping
The two areas you’ll want to make sure you protect most are your ends and your hairline. They can be very prone to breakage and dryness, and that will prevent you from growing your hair longer! Here are some super helpful tools that can protect those delicate areas of your hair.
1. Bonnet or Scarf
Whichever sleep hairstyle you wear, a silk hair wrap, scarf or satin bonnet is an awesome way to add even more protection for your hair at night.
Wearing your hair up and off of your pillowcase prevents hair products from being transferred to your skin, which can cause breakouts. It’s also one of the best ways to sleep with short hair.
A bonnet can also help you to maintain a hairstyle and prevent it from being disturbed, and getting a ton of frizz. That hairstyle could be flat ironed hair, box braids, or any other style that you want to keep intact.
If you have straightened your hair and you want to keep it smooth and sleek, use a boar bristle brush to smooth the hair before putting on your scarf or bonnet.
As you brush, wrap the hair around your head and secure it with bobby pins. Here’s a great tutorial (not my video).
2. Silk Headband
Wondering what hairstyles protect a damaged hairline? Wearing a silk headband is perfect for protecting just that area of your hair.
If you’re someone who gets hot at night, wearing a headband is perfect for protecting your edges while keeping the rest of your head uncovered so you don’t overheat.
Be aware that it may not stay in place as well as a bonnet or scarf, so if you tend to move around a lot while sleeping, it could fall off (though you could slip a couple of bobby pins on it).
3. Silk Pillowcase
If you have hair and skin, you need to be sleeping on a silk pillowcase. Your standard cotton pillowcase is drying out your hair and skin, and causing friction.
Silk pillowcases are amazing for preventing moisture loss, preventing hair breakage, and preventing breakouts.
This one by Slip comes with a delicates bag so you can easily throw it in the washing machine, instead of hand washing.
4. Hair Oil
Before hitting the hay, applying several drops of hair oil to your ends is a great way to make sure you wake up with soft hair.
To boost hair growth give yourself a 5 minute scalp massage with the oil.
You can use a single carrier oil like argan oil, or a blend with several potent hair growth oils, like the Umberto Giannini Rosemary Scalp and Hair Oil.
You May Also Like: The Ultimate Hair Care Routine Steps for Hair Growth
FAQ
Sleeping with your hair up and secured in a style that keeps your strands protected is definitely better! Wearing your hair down can cause friction that results in breakage, split ends, frizz and hair loss.
Of course, in a protective style. Choose a style that best suits your hair texture, length and comfort while you sleep.
Have flat ironed or blow dried hair? Stick to a style that’s going to preserve it so you don’t have to spend time heat styling it again it in the morning.
Have curly hair? A pineapple, loose bun or a couple of big loose twists can keep it secured without ruining your curls.
So, which hairstyle is safe for sleep? The best protective hairstyles for sleeping are the ones that keep your hair secure, and that don’t pull tightly on your hairline. Try out a few and find your favorite!
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