How to Wear Your Hair When You Sleep

Just in case you haven't yet discovered the importance of protecting your hair at night with either a smooth and silky pillowcase or hair cover, remember that part of a healthy hair routine includes nighttime care. It's harder to maintain healthy tresses if you don't take a few minutes to prepare your hair before bed.

Here's several ways you can put your hair up before you sleep.

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Wrap It

Relaxed or flat-ironed hair gets a lot of benefit from wrapping at night. It keeps your hair smooth and tangle-free, as well as preserves the body and curl that you may otherwise rely on an iron to achieve in the morning. It may take some practice to get a wrapping routine down, but once you master it, you can always rely on this simple technique for keeping your hair in place at night.

Depending on the length of your hair, you can either begin at the nape of the neck and wrap in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, or you can part your hair into three sections and begin wrapping at the back.

Use a vent brush or boar bristle brush, along with your hands, to smooth your hair and mold it to your scalp as you work your way around. Use long pins to hold hair in place if it has trouble staying on its own. Once your hair is wrapped, tie a scarf around the hairline. Alternately, you can place a large roller in a crown section of hair.

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Pincurl It

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Pincurls are not nearly as tedious as you might think. Unless you want a lot of curl in your hair, you can get by with a handful of pincurls at night. You don't even need to carefully part the hair into geometrically-shaped sections. Simply take a section of hair, comb out any tangles, and wrap the hair into a circle close to your scalp. Tuck the ends into the middle of the curl and pin it with bobby pins or flat clips.

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Roll It

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Rollers aren't going anywhere fast because when you want a lot of curls, they can still provide them. However, sponge rollers are out, unless you use the ones that are covered in satin. The satin doesn't suck the moisture out of your hair or rub against it, causing breakage. If you don't want to roll your entire head, you don't have to. Instead, pull hair back into a loose ponytail and place four or five rollers in the ponytail. In the morning, brush out your hair with a paddle or vent brush -- you'll have sleek body with slight curls on the ends.

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Braid It or Band It

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Do you have long and/or natural hair? If so, try pulling hair back into a single braid and secure the end with an elastic band. You can also try banding, where you pull hair back and loosely hold with an elastic band and place a few other bands down the length of the ponytail. Make sure and keep the elastics loose. Undoing the braid in the morning will result in waves for days, while banding can reduce the volume in natural curls somewhat.

Any of these nighttime 'dos will last longer and result in well-moisturized hair when you cover them with something silky or satiny. Alternately, sleep on a satin or silk pillowcase. Otherwise, how easy is that? With just a few minutes spent on nighttime care, you cut out all the flat ironing and hot curling to get some body and bumped ends in the morning. Less heat = healthier hair, and who doesn't want that?

By Del Sandeen

Black Hair Expert