Protecting your braids and locs at night

A braid installation takes between three and eight hours and often costs more than the rest of the routine put together. What wears it down fastest is not the passing of time: it is friction.

In practice, it is the frizz that creeps up along the braids and the roots that come undone. You do not redo the installation because it is “old”, you redo it because it is no longer wearable. Every night gained is money kept.

Why braids suffer especially at night

A braid has much more exposed surface than smooth hair. Every head movement makes the braids rub against one another and against the pillowcase.

Cotton snags this surface and ruffles it. The shortest hairs escape the braid, creep up, and form the characteristic fuzz that makes an installation that is still holding perfectly look “dirty”.

Cotton also absorbs the oil applied to the scalp — the very oil you put on to avoid itching between two washes.

The specific problem of weight

On a long or dense installation, there is a factor that loose hair does not have: weight.

If you tie something tight over it, or if you gather the whole mass on one side, you add a permanent pull on roots that have been under tension since the installation. It is this repeated pull, and not the material of the bonnet, that thins the temples over time.

The rule is simple: cover without pulling. What you put on at night should contain the mass, not suspend it.

Bonnet or scarf?

The tied satin scarf is the traditional method and it works. Its flaw is that it depends entirely on the knot: too loose, it falls off; too tight, it pulls on the front hairline; and it has to be redone every evening.

A wide bonnet does the same job with no decision to make. For braids, the criterion is not how good-looking the model is, it is the interior volume. Many bonnets on the market are cut like shower caps: they compress and flatten the installation at the root. There must be room for the lengths.

Our night bonnet is deliberately cut wide, with a wide elastic band rather than a thin one — this is what avoids the pressure point on the forehead.

The gesture that changes everything: the loose bun

If your braids go past your shoulders, do not let them hang inside the bonnet and do not pack them down at the bottom.

1. Gather the mass high on the head, without tightening.
2. Coil it into a loose bun, without a thin elastic or pins.
3. Put the bonnet on over it, placing the band on the nape of the neck rather than too far back.

The weight then rests on the top of the head, spread out, instead of pulling down on the temples.

Four common mistakes

• Covering braids that are still damp. Satin does not absorb: moisture stays trapped against the scalp and, on a dense installation that dries slowly, it ends up smelling. Wait until it is completely dry.
• Tying a scarf on the front hairline. Go above it, never on it.
• Keeping the same bonnet for six months without washing it. Scalp oil settles on it and goes back onto clean hair.
• Counting on the bonnet to save an installation that is too tight. If your installation hurts, the problem is the installation. No accessory will fix it.

The case of locs

Locs present the opposite problem to braids: they do not ruffle in the same way, but they hold moisture for a very long time and the little fuzz they produce shows immediately on a neat surface.

Same principle: cover without compressing, never cover while damp, and prefer a wide container to a tight one. On long locs, the high bun is even more useful, because the weight is greater.

What the bonnet does not cover

On long braids or locs, a large part of the hair does not fit in the bonnet and rests on the pillow. This is the case where the satin pillowcase and the bonnet complement each other instead of replacing each other: the bonnet contains the mass, the pillowcase covers what spills over. The same polyester satin on both sides, so the same contact surface along the whole length.

What satin will not solve

It does not slow down the regrowth that shifts the installation. It does not rescue temples already weakened by successive installations that were too tight. It does not exempt you from washing and moisturizing.

What it does: it removes the friction against cotton and leaves the oil on the hair rather than in the pillow. On an installation, this generally translates into neat roots for longer. We will not tell you how many more days — it depends on your texture, the density of the installation and the way you sleep, and nobody can honestly put a number on it.

In summary

• Cover every night, without exception — it is regularity that produces the result, not the piece.
• Loose, high bun as soon as the length goes past the shoulders.
• Wide interior volume, wide elastic band.
• Never on damp hair.

To choose between the different pieces, see our comparison. For the fundamentals, why sleep with a satin bonnet. The rest of the range is presented in the buying guide.

The pieces discussed here

• Satin night bonnet — €13.90. Wide cut, wide elastic band.
• Satin pillowcase — €29.90 for the two pillowcases. Sizes 65 × 65 cm and 50 × 75 cm, colors sand, black, pearl gray and white.
• Long-tail durag — €13.90.
• 3-piece set — €21.90.

Polyester satin. Free delivery in metropolitan France, shipping within 8 to 15 business days.