Find out how to protect your hair while you sleep.

If you are a heavy sleeper, you probably wake up each morning with tangles, knots and cowlicks that leave you with your hands in your hair – literally – everyday. And while you can’t really change how you sleep, you can change what you do to your hair before you clock out for the night.

Here are a few simple steps to protect against split ends, messy hair and other damage that happens while you sleep:

1. Keep your hair moisturised:
Maintain – Just like your skin needs moisture to stay elastic and beautiful, so does your hair. Make sure your hair is properly conditioned. That doesn’t mean you need to condition your hair before bed, but conditioning the hair shaft an inch from the scalp to the tip will ensure your hair is protected throughout the day and through the night. Conditioned hair is less likely to break, frizz and become damaged.

Treat – While we sleep, our bodies can concentrate all its energy on all the growing and healing processes that we require. This makes it the perfect time for a leave in treatment for your hair. Simply apply before you go to bed, and then gather your hair into a loose braid or bun. You may want to use a towel or an old pillow case over your pillow to ‘protect’ it from the product in your hair. Or if you do not have any leave in masks or treatments, there is always the old favourite – coconut oil. Work warm coconut oil into your hair, focusing on the ends, then put your hair in a bun before heading to bed. The next morning you can wash out the oil and you’ll find your hair beautifully soft and super shiny. It also provides the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair and can even provide relief from dandruff.

2. Untangle your hair before bed
It seems like a simple idea, but when you think about it, if you brush out that big tangle you had before bed, that’s one less to take on in the morning. Simply brushing your hair before your head hits the pillow ensures that when you wake up, minimal knots and damage will have occurred. Giving your hair a good brush from root to tip will also help to spread you natural hair oils from your scalp, to coat your hair all over, helping to protect it from friction damage while you sleep.

Here are some tips for untangling you hair.

3. Choose a protective style
If your hair is long, it might be a problem if you don’t know where to put it and what to do with it when you go to sleep. You can lie on it and wake up thinking somebody is pulling your hair. Your partner can lie on it too, or even the cat! By restricting the range of movement your hair can achieve at night, you minimize the amount of damage that could occur from friction and pulling.

Braided Hair – From ancient times, girls who had long hair plaited their tresses into a loose braids in order to keep it from tangling. There are different styles of braids, but if you tend to sleep on your sides you might go for the single braid that won’t cause any discomfort. Make sure your braid is loose and allows the hair to breathe all through the night. Too tight braids will be damaging rather than protecting your hair. You can also try a French braid, or 2 braids, if you sleep more on your back. And as an added bonus, you will have some loose waves after unbraiding it in the morning.

Sleeping Buns – Similarly to braids, buns can also prevent pulling and friction damage while you sleep. For the comfort of sleeping, it’s best to place the bun fairly high up on the crown of your head. Turn your head upside down, loosely gather your hair on top of your head and use a soft elastic/scrunchy to secure your loose bun.

4. Satin or Silk
Silk and satin fabrics are smooth and cause much less friction against the hair.

Satin Pillow Case – When we toss and turn, dragging or rubbing our heads and hair across the fabric of our pillows, we can snag the cuticle layer of the hair against the fibres on the pillow. This rubbing results in tangles and knots as well as roughing up the surface of the hair shaft, which lead to damage over time. Switching to a satin or silk pillowcase will make sure your hair glides across your pillow at night, rather than scratch and catch on a rough pillowcase. And, will preserve the delicate cuticles of your hair. Furthermore, it is also a well-known fact that the cotton might drain the hair from its natural moisture this way further aggravating the deterioration process.

Satin Night Caps & Silk Scarves – Nightcaps may seem old-fashioned, but served a purpose for our grandmothers. So, why not for us still today? If you don’t want to change your bedding/pillowcases to silk or satin, this would be your next best option. Nightcaps have the added benefit of constraining longer hair so that it doesn’t get moved around and roughed as much during the night. Or if you cannot find a silk or satin night cap, you use a silk scarf for the same effect. Tie the square or triangle-shaped scarf around your head, so that it keeps and covers your strands. Secure it with a loose knot on the crown of your head rather than in your neck to prevent any sleeping discomfort.

5. And lastly… If you don’t like any of these ideas, but don’t want your hair to get in the way at night, there is one other option for you to try. Just pile up your hair and put it above your head/pillow when you lie down. This way you won’t lie on it while sleeping or turning around. Just make sure and check that your hair won’t get caught in any part of your bed/headboard. This is also a good way to keep your hair straight, rather than waking up with the wavy effect from an all night braid or bun.

Article by: Mariaan Enslin http://www.beautybulletin.com/blog-directory/our-bloggers/promakeupme