Stretching Natural Hair With No Heat

By Tenisha Mercer

I've heard of stretching natural hair with no heat by using African hair threading in forums and on natural hair blogs, but I've never seen it done practically. But this video from @GirlsLoveYourCurls, which was posted on CurlyNikki.com over the weekend, really breaks the process down. And the results on her two adorable girls are just AWESOME!

 

Source: YouTube

Though it's largely an African technique, I found GirlsLoveYourCurls' technique of stretching the hair with braids connected to each other very similar to how my grandmother and countless mothers styled our hair (without thread, of course) in ponytails when we were little girls. They were "stretching" the hair, though I'm sure they didn't call it that.

I actually think I'm going to pick up some weave thread this week and try this. Depending on how my hair behaves, I might try it on my girls.They're due for a blow out. Looking at her girls' results on what appears to be 4ish hair, it definitely looks blow dried, but it's not. And I love how she adds oil at the second step for even more stretch. 

At the very least, it could eliminate at least one step in the flat ironing process for less potential heat damage overall.

Have you tried African hair threading?