6 Ways to Stretch Your Natural Hair

The idea of stretching your natural hair may seem a little confusing at first. After all, the point of having natural hair is for the curls, right?

Well, yes. But stretching your hair will help increase manageability, lengthen the curls, and reduce frizz.

Stretching natural hair is a way of temporarily loosening the curl pattern to control tangles and shrinkage.

You may find that it helps you moisturize and style too because you can get your fingers through it quicker.

When your hair isn’t manageable, it can be time-consuming and lead to breakage.

You might even enjoy your natural hair journey more because your hair is much easier to deal with when it’s stretched.

Plus, stretching it will allow you to retain length and avoid damage to your ends.

But how do you do it, and which stretching methods will best suit your lifestyle?

It’s a good idea to get an overview of the techniques so you can see which one you want to add to your routine.

Here is a list of six of the most useful ways to stretch natural hair, including one you may have never considered.

Each method has instructions too, so you can decide which ones you want to try for your regimen.

Way #2: Do Twists to Stretch Natural Hair 

Twists are probably the easiest of stretching methods because you only need to weave two strands at a time.

You can part your hair in as many sections as you want, depending on how you want it to look and how much time you have.

Big sections will be faster to do, and the manipulated curl pattern will be bigger. However, larger twists will give you less control over frizz.

To do the twists, part a small section of hair and separate it with your fingers.

Apply Mango Moringa Styling Cream and Gel and twist the two strands together until you reach the end. Repeat the technique with more sections.

Getting a frizz-free manipulated curl pattern after the hair dries is one of the best things about twists.

They turn into twist-outs, and you can easily have a curly hairstyle to wear for 2-3 days. Remove the twists when they’re fully dry to make the twist-out. 

Tired of waiting around for your hair to dry with a twist-out? Use the CurlDefiner Natural Hair Dryer after twisting so you can remove the twists much faster. 

Way #3: Do Braids to Stretch Natural Hair

Braids are slightly more difficult to do than twists because they require three strands instead of two.

However, braiding will stretch your natural hair more than twists since the pattern is tighter and more controlled.

In fact, your hair will probably look longer with braids than it does with twists.

Like twist-outs, braids will also give you a braid-out style to wear for a few days.

However, braid-outs won’t give you a uniformed look because the strands are facing several directions.

So, if you’re looking for a uniformed coil pattern, you may want to choose twists for your stretching method instead.

To do braids, part a small section of hair. Apply curl cream or leave-in conditioner, then separate the section into three, and make a braid.

Continue with more sections of hair.

Remove the braids when they’re dry to make the braid-out hairstyle. Again, use the CurlDefiner Natural Hair Dryer to speed up the dry time on your braid-out.  

This stretching method is an ideal starter for low and high buns.