I Didn’t Protective Style This Winter – But, Why?!

I know that the end of winter is around the corner. I’m really quite fascinated to say that I haven’t put my hair in a protective style this entire winter. It’s the first time in seven years of being natural that I haven’t opted for doing any kind of protective styling. I thought about the reasons why, as it wasn’t a conscious choice. I had the intention to put it away but I just never really followed through with it. I wanted to share a quick update on how I’ve been doing with that.

1. I was indecisive (as always). I couldn’t decide what I actually wanted to do. No style really spoke to me this year so I wasn’t lusting after a particular hairstyle option. I have several wigs in my hair pantry but I never got around to actually braiding/weaving/wigging it up and putting it away. I was very much like ‘I don’t know which wig to do’ – if I even wanted to do a wig or rather do protective styles with my own hair. I thought about just adding some extra hair to mine as a pony or bun it up.
2. Timing. It was never a good time to hibernate the fro. There have been quite a few events that I’ve been a part of or attending that I always feel like I should be rocking my own hair to. And the gaps in between these events weren’t long enough for me to have put my hair into a style. Yeah, I could’ve gone ahead with a wig, as it’s easy on, easy off, but I think I also just never really felt like it.
3. Enjoying my hair. What I did do, was not style my own hair religiously every day. That’s just been my routine for the past year and a half or so. I usually have about 2-3 go-to styles and I’ll stick those that whole week. Here are the main styles I’ve been rotating:

How has my hair been handling all of this? I won’t lie, I’ve gotten quite lazy the past few weeks, compared to my normal routine and habits. I haven’t been moisturising it as often as I should be. So, my moisture levels could be better but I haven’t been experiencing as much breakage as I thought I would. I’ve had some really long days and gotten into the bad habit of falling asleep with Kai when I do his bedtime routine, leaving me to not focus on mine. My schedule has been quite off so I haven’t really been good with the hair bits. I know after seven years of being natural that wash day will never be a walk in the park with this kind of non-TLC.

I’m looking forward to Spring so I won’t have to worry as much. But at the same time, I wouldn’t mind a slightly different look. Haha, the ever present indecisiveness. I kind of feel that having all of these wigs at my disposal is a bit of a waste if I don’t actually use them. So I’m trying to figure out when would be a good time…if ever this year.

How’s your hair doing? How did you keep it throughout winter?