Stretching Hair without Heat: Banding

Like most of you – I have heard about banding. It’s a hair stretching technique that literally uses ‘bands’ to lengthen the hair. I tried it once using these Goody Ouchless bands and hated it.

They didn’t give much, so the bands were too tight for comfort. Plus they left indentations on my hair. But this time around, I cut a pair of knee highs into 1 inch strips like these:

I’d love to give credit to the vlogger/blogger who introduced me to this concept of using knee-highs. But it's been a while - so I don’t remember who she is. If YOU know – please post her name in the comments so we can shout her out. It’s pretty brilliant because they’re inexpensive and provide the elastic stretch you need with fabric that’s easy on your hair.

So after I cut up my bands, I put them all on my wrist like bangle bracelets (I've found this is a lot easier than picking each one up individually). Then I section my hair into 8-10 pigtails (one at a time). I take each section and apply a cream based moisturizer (KBB Hair Cream) or Jamaican Black Castor Oil) to lubricate my hands. I avoid liquid moisturizers because I don't want my hair to become wet or damp because it will take forever to dry. Then I gently stretch and smooth my hair (mostly stretching). I’m careful NOT to detangle because I don’t want to disturb the existing coils/curl pattern. I just want to lengthen my hair enough to start a two-strand twist. I’ll complete 2-3 crossovers and leave the ends completely loose. When I'm in a rush - sometimes I skip the twisting.

Then I double the next band on my wrist and wrap it around the length of the two-strand twist to make mini afro puffs. If I make them too tight – I’ll loosen them to make sure I’m being kind to my hair and scalp.

Afterward, I moisturize and seal my mini afro puffs with a scrunching action using my 50/50 mix of Knot Today and KBB Hair Milk followed by coconut oil and/or Jamaican Black Castor; put on my satin bonnet and go to bed. Believe it or not – these bands are actually quite comfortable for sleeping . In the morning, if my mini afro puffs look dry, I’ll remoisturize and seal and wear a plastic cap while I get ready (shower, moisturize, dress, apply make-up etc.). Then I lubricate my hands with coconut oil, remove each band, separate the twists, fluff and shape.