It's that time of the year again, when the weather becomes far more harsh on your natural hair than the warmer months. Protective styling is something that will help you to maintain healthy growing hair and reduce breakage from the lack of moisture of the colder air.
Although the definition of protective styling can become perplexing depending on who you're talking to, there is no right or wrong formula to doing it. Its pretty much just styling your hair in a way that will help you to avoid breakage and damage to your hair from manipulation, environmental factors or the ability to use chemicals in your hair. There are some people that don't consider naturals that wear weaves, extensions or clip-ins as protective styling but these styles can very much protect your natural hair from all of the above mentioned disturbances... 
Audrey Davis-Sivasothy, author of The Science of Black Hair: A Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair defines protective styling as, "styles that protect the ends of the hair from rubbing, splitting, and being damaged by the elements". Styling options could include buns, roll tuck and pin styles, braids, braided extensions, twists, sew-in extensions, and clip-in hair extensions to name a few.
CHATTING WITH 'KURLY KLIPS' NATURAL HAIR CLIP-IN EXTENSIONS OWNER LANA BOONE
The idea is to have your hair styled in a way that you don't have to mess with it everyday, your ends will be hidden and your hair will be healthy. Whatever style you choose is up to you but just know that your options aren't limited. You are the only person who knows how your hair reacts to the colder weather and what your hair needs may be, so choose what works best for you and not someone else.
If you have shorter natural hair and you can't achieve pinned or tucked hairstyles using your own hair, adding hair would allow more versatility for styling while keeping your hair out of the way from damage. Wearing a beanie, scarf or turban is also acceptable as a protective styling option as it serves the same purpose in protecting the hair. Remember to layer with a satin or silk bonnet or scarf to keep your hair from rubbing against the fabric of your beanie and causing breakage.
What are your protective styling plans for the winter?
All images were found via Pinterest.
