Why I failed at bunning as a protective style

A few years ago I took on a temporary work assignment that required me to wear my hair in a bun on a daily basis.  "Great!" I thought.."this is going to help my hair journey so much!"  You see, prior to that, I wasn't much for protective styling although I was well aware of the potential benefits.  This eight week assignment was the perfect scenerio for me to experience the wonders of daily protective styling for myself.

The assignment lasted a little longer than eight weeks and, once it was over, daily bunning had turned into a habit.  It's been over two years and I'm just now realizing that bunning may not have helped my hair journey the way I imagined it would.

Action shot taken while at a work function wearing my daily bun

The realization came to me, the other day, as I was taking my bun down to refresh it for the day ahead.  Prior to that, I was on vacation for a couple weeks and hadn't worn a bun at all.  Overall my hair was doing well. I just dusted my ends and deep conditioned a few days before.  All was right with the world.  Then, after wearing a simple bun all day, I noticed a few broken strands as I was getting ready to moisturize and seal.  Suddenly, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Have I been experiencing this type of breakage regularly for the last few years?  Why is my hair breaking when I hadn't even touched it all day? Mind you, it wasn't a ton of breakage, but it was enough to cause alarm as I thought about the long term impact if it continued to happen on a daily basis.

Immediately, my mind started racing with ideas of what may have caused the damage not just from the night before, but over the past couple of years.  First thought that came to me was about how neglectful I became when bunning.  The section where my hair is struggling the most is the back/middle part of my hair.  This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I barely focus on that area when I bun.  Sometimes, when I was feeling really lazy or if days became exceptionally long, I would do the bare minimum to keep the hair moisturized. The basic bun hid a multitude of sins (or so I thought).

I also think the way I tucked my hair away wasn't the best technique.  Looking back, I probably should have worn a looser bun. I would create a ponytail, then  grab the remaining hair and would twist it around, kinda like a cinnamon roll.  This, I believe, caused way too much tension on my ends which contributed to breakage.  I also experienced breakage when my top knot was too tight or if I wore my hair up for a couple of days without taking it down.

On the day of my epiphany, I decided to wear my hair in a loose side braid instead of a bun.  I made sure my braid was well lubricated with Gleau oil blend and went about my day. My braid was a bit frayed from rubbing against my sweater, but when I took the braid down at the end of the day, there were no broken pieces of hair.  At that point, I decided to break out of my daily bunning habit and try other styles to see how my hair responds.

Here all the things I did "wrong" when I was bunning. Maybe I can save someone from making all the mistakes I made.

+Not being consistent with moisturizing/sealing while wearing buns.
+Not alternating the direction of the twist.
+Sleeping in buns
+Not moving the bun around (wearing it in the same place day after day).
+Twisting the hair too tightly.
+Not alternating styles. Wearing buns too frequently.

Don't get me wrong, some people are able to do buns right and experience a world of retention.  For me, unfortunately, it wasn't as effective.....most of it was my fault.  I don't think buns are inherently wrong, I just was a bit negligent at times. So what I'm going to do differently is wear different styles on a daily basis.  If I need to wear my hair up, I will leverage the use of my Good Hair Day pins and my Modern Updo Pin mentioned in a previous post.  Over time, I think my hair will thrive again.  With all the lessons I've been learning from my Happy Endings series, I feel more confident wearing my hair down then continuing with daily buns.  When I do wear buns consistently again, it will be very different from the way I've been doing it before.

Do you have some tips for me on creating healthy buns?  Please share.