Ends Make Inches Tip #1: Soak Your Hair Ties and Bobby Pins in Oil

Happy Hump Day lovelies!

Lately, I have been doing some thinking. When folks talk about their hair journeys, the focus is always on the major changes. I mean how often have you heard about stretching, protective styling, using less heat, etc? Probably more times than you care to think about. However, I'm finding that the further along that you go in your hair journey, it is the little things that add up and can potentially do damage to your hair. More often that not, we don't really think about what that hair tie, what those bobby pins, or what that comb is doing to your hair. So, I wanted to make a series of quick hits that illustrate some of the things you should think about as you go about the business of styling your hair.

If you guys are anything like me, with the mercury rising you have probably started to bun consistently. Personally, I prefer to bun using a good hair tie (sans the metal clip in the middle) and a handful of bobby/hair pins. However, my hair ties and bobby pins present a problem: friction. It is that friction that rubs against my hair and causes the breakage I see when I take either of these items out. Of course there are ways around this. You can substitute the bobby pins for a Goody spin pin or bun without a hair tie. But what if you don't want to do either of those? Well, you still have another way to use these items without the breakage.

Soak your hair ties and bobby pins in oil.

It can be any oil that floats your boat: olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil....whatever makes your boat float. With the bobby pins (assuming you are using pins that have the rubber ends and are coated), that oil reduces friction you get when you place them in your hair (or take them out) resulting in no breakage. When you soak your hair ties in oil, not only do you reduce friction but you ensure that the section of hair that your hair tie is wrapped around stays moisturized (meaning: your hair tie won't take the moisture away from your hair) and minimizes breakage.



Pretty cool, huh? As you can see, oftentimes the little things we do to our hair on a daily basis can make a huge difference in retention. What do you think about this tip? Have you tried it? What were your results?