How can I protect my hair overnight without losing volume?
 

If anyone has any suggestions I could try, please share them!! Essentially, I'm looking for a way to decrease friction and protect my hair, particularly my ends, overnight. My hair is thin at the ends and I'm pretty sure it's because it's rubbing against everything--chairs, clothes, pillow, et cetera. I've tried satin pillowcases, and I end up falling off my pillow, so I quit that.

I just watched a YouTube video of this girl who has gorgeous, long goddess curls. She stands by 2 principles to help with hair growth:
1. moisturize often
2. wear protective hairstyles to keep your ends from being exposed to the elements and to friction. Especially overnight.
The protective hairstyle example she demonstrates is a bun that sits on top of her head. It sounds like a great idea, however, I personally cannot do this, because it would make the curls on the top of my head very flat and curl-less.
Here's the video: See 1:30 at URBANOGcom's Channel - YouTube

Here's another tutorial where she shows her braid-out hair routine. She leaves 4 braids in her hair overnight to protect her ends and decrease friction as well as to get her curly hairstyle: Natural Hair Tutorial - Beach Waves with No Heat, How to Grow Hair Longer - YouTube
I am testing the braid-out routine right now. Again, I'm worried it's going to flatten and de-curl the top of my head, but we'll see I guess. (I'll check back in with the results).

Hi.
I have 3C type hair and I do the bun on top of my head every night. It doesn't flatten my curls overnight.
I always apply a mix of glycerin and water to my hair in the morning and I can tell you my curls look more defined and beautiful on my 2nd and 3rd day than they look on the first one. Why don't you give it a try and see.


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a satin pillow case really helps. also i agree with sedadica, i chuck my hair up in a high loose bun, and refresh them in the morning with condish n water. tey do look better then next few mornings as well

Sedadica - I will try the bun idea tonight. Actually, I'm going to try making several buns on my head in hopes to retain my 3a curls better. :)

Fmasuhr - I used a satin pillowcase for 2 years and went back to a regular one recently. I didn't notice any benefits of using a satin case, and my head always slid off of it. :/

Results of my overnight braid-out:
I made two braids, and they stayed in all night. When I took them out in the morning, my hair looked like I got a bad perm or crimp, andmy curls fell straight at the ends. So I generously wet my hair and scrunched some gel in and went about my business. When my hair dried, it looked better than earlier, but it still didn't look like my nice usual botticelli curls. Thus, the braid-out routine was a fail for me.

Tomorrow I'll share the results of wearing a bun overnight. My prediction is it will not work because the top of my head can easily loose volume and curl if I'm not careful. I also predict I'll have a big dent in the back of my head from tying it in a bun. But I sure hope I'm proved wrong!! :)

I hope it works for you as it worked for me. The only difference is that I don't use any kind of gels in my hair. I tried one but didn't like the result of my bun on the next day.
Now I end up with a full unwanted gel jar.


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Wow! You must have easily curly hair! My curls need a bit o' help.
Sorry to disappoint, but I didn't try the bun yesterday. I was having a really good hair day after my shower, so I just couldn't take the chance! Lol

I did however, try a really loose 'pineapple' and then wore a satin cap. My hair was 85% dry at the time. When I awoke the next morning, my head itched a bit from the satin cap haha, but my curls looked shiney, moisturized and curly through the ends! Best of all, the pineapple didn't seem to dent my hair (I did keep it super loose).
I'm going to try it again tonight to see if it was a fluke or not! :)

I'll post some pictures later for you to see. They are not easy but they hate gel. Instead, I use curl oil LI by kerastase. Found a bottle in my stash that was full from last year.
I would like to see some pics of yours too.


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I use a satin bonnet at night. I either do a bun or braid and then put on bonnet. It's comfortable and I know my hair is away and protected. You could also wear a satin scarf.

Surprised that no one had yet recommended pineappling, I was just about to do so :) Probably not a fluke. If you use a loose (but it doesn't have to be excessively so), not-too-tight scrunchie, it should always work without denting. It also gives some lift to the top.

I pineapple, and thenif the ends aren't so curly, I sometimes scrunch a little plain FOTE aloe gel on the ends, and they curl back up nicely. Of course, it's completely dry by morning and takes very little scrunching unless it was applied over a really hard gel. Just taking it down from the pineapple mostly breaks it back up.

If you hair's long enough, you can also try just spreading it out on the pillow above your head rather than pineappling. This also works well for me unless I'm having a real restless night.

I'm glad the pineapple worked for you. Did it work the 2nd time?

Sedadica where those pics? :)

:) been lazy in uploading them to my computer. Will do it tomorrow, promised.


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Diva,
After a long wait, here they are:)
http://img.tapatalk.com/5c14fd6e-55a5-2ce5.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/5c14fd6e-55cb-059b.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/5c14fd6e-55ed-28c4.jpg

These were all taken two weeks ago.


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I'm also glad you mentioned pineappling, as this works the best for me. I have 2c/3a medium-fine hair, and it is easily "smooshed" out of place by hair accessories or when I'm sleeping (I have the same problem with braids - looks like a bad crimp). I actually started putting my hair up in a high ponytail long before going CG as I hated having my hair in my face when I sleep, but didn't realize until I joined this site that it was an actual technique (lol!). I agree that if it worked for you once, it is probably not a fluke - the loose scrunchy works well for me without leaving a noticeable dent, and I can easily refresh a few problem curls in the morning. I have to have completely dry hair when I go to sleep though, otherwise I will still end up with smashed curls. I have not used a satin sleep cap, but am interested in trying it. Where is the best place to purchase one?

Sally Beauty has them, but I've also seen them at Walgreen's and, I think, CVS

Loreal has a night time treatment. Just put it on it ends before you go to sleep and a silk pillowcase would be good or a bonnet

Beware if you're avoiding glycerin or 'cones - after water, they're the top two ingredients

I have 2c (with some 3a spirals) hair, and I've found that pineappling at night under a silk sleep cap makes my hair have more bounce and volume for the 2nd and 3rd days.

I tried using the cheaper satin sleep caps from Sallys, but there were too tight and uncomfortable, so I caved on a silk one, and love it. I bought it from here:

Silk Bonnets

Hope that helps! :alien:

Tie the bun loosely with a silk scrunchie and refresh curls in the morning :) i personally love my satin pillowcases too

I'm going to have to get one of those bonnets.The one at Sally's suck. they are cheap and sooo uncomfortable

Sedadica where do u get glycerin?

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