How To Wrap Curly Hair At Night

How To Wrap Curly Hair At Night:

Wrapping your curls at night is mega important if you want to wake up with frizz-free locks and curls that last up until your wash day.

But what is hair wrapping, and why should you do it?

Wrapping your hair in a silk scarf or satin bonnet is a way of preventing friction from occurring while you rest. This is extremely beneficial for those with curly hair as it prevents frizz, helps with moisture retention, and prevents tangling.

We’ve all been there when second-day hair looks like fourth or fifth-day hair, not a good look. But turns out using a satin bonnet or silk or satin pillowcase can make a world of difference for protecting your hair and prolonging the style.

Silk bonnets are changing the hair game for our natural curls.

What I love about a satin bonnet is that it protects your curls overnight; it holds the curls on top of your head to protect the natural curl pattern and protect against frizzy curls.

So let’s delve into all the ways you can wrap your hair to protect those luscious curls at nighttime.

Why Wrap Curly Hair?

There are many benefits and reasons why you should use a satin or silk sleep cap, especially if you have curly hair. Satin caps protect your hair from dryness caused by friction and moisture-absorbing materials like cotton, as well as prevent frizz.

Silk is one of the few materials that are both very soft and very strong at the same time– after all, it protects a silkworm during growth and will work wonders for protecting those luscious curls too. But here are some of the top benefits:

Prevents Tangling: 

If you think about it, if you toss and turn throughout the night, it is just going to lead to tangles, your hair is moving over itself, and this will cause it to become caught within itself and cause it to become tangled.

By twisting your hair up into a hair bonnet or softly tucking it into the bonnet, it will help prevent new tangles from forming, and it means your hair is protected from all the tossing and turning throughout the night.

Less Frizz: 

Unlike cotton, satin and silk are not moisture absorbing, and it also does not create friction, meaning you’ll likely have less frizz when you wake up in the morning.

It keeps your curls in one place, so it prevents tangling and frizz.

Using a silk hair bonnet alongside your favorite hair oils or leave-in treatments can massively benefit curly hair by helping it stay hydrated.

By being hydrated also helps aid in preventing frizz and giving your curls a deep condition overnight.

As much as we love our cotton sheets, they can strip moisture from the hair and cause dryness. By leaving the treatment on your hair and wrapping it up in a hair bonnet each night, it can help replenish and retain moisture in the strands, preventing breakage.

Preserves Your Hairstyle: 

By keeping your hair in one place, sleep bonnets can really preserve your hairstyles.

Instead of your hair moving around as you toss and turn, it stays in one place on top of your head, so you can wake up with fresh hair.

It also prevents frizz, so instead of waking up with a bird’s nest that you call hair, your hair will be looking as fresh as the day you washed it.

It also helps preserve moisture within the hair, which also helps with frizz.

Helps With Moisture Retention:

Another brilliant thing about wrapping your hair at night is that, unlike a cotton pillow, a silk pillowcase or hair wrap does not absorb moisture from hair.

Since as a curly girl myself, due to the texture, I find that my hair gets very dry QUICK. I love to wrap my hair up at night with my favorite nourishing oil and wake up the following morning to revived curls.

Wrapping your hair up helps to keep your hair secure, and for that little extra reassurance, you can tie your hair up with a hair tie in a loose bun or pineapple.

I would recommend investing in a silk or satin scrunchie to do this to prevent breakage.

How To Wrap Curly Hair For Bed:

There are a few different ways you tie your hair before you wrap it for sleep. Personally, my favorite and easiest way to wrap my curly hair before I sleep is to pop it up into a pineapple or a loose bun before wrapping my hair wrap around my hair.

So let’s talk about all the ways of how to wrap curly hair for sleep.

Pineapple Hairstyle:

This one is my personal favorite as it is the easiest method of them all. The only thing you will need along with your sleep cap is a silk or satin scrunchie to tie your hair up with.

Your regular hair tie may be causing premature breakage, so throw it out!

Scrunchies cause much less breakage and don’t tug on your head. You can even use a cloth to keep it in place. The looser you secure the scrunchie, the better; this will minimize breakage and hair creases in the morning.

All you need to do is turn your head upside down and gather your hair as close to the top of your head as you can; between the crown of your head and your forehead is ideal. (This will prevent you from sleeping on top of it).

If you have short hair, this can be a bit more tricky, but try to put your hair as far forward as possible.

Sleeping with your curly hair in this hairstyle will prevent breakage and frizz because it reduces friction as you turn at night, preventing you from crushing your curls. It will help curly hair look fresher for longer.

You can wrap the base of your hair in a wrap or wrap the entire head; if your hair is in a high enough ponytail, then just wrapping the base should be enough to protect those luscious curls while you catch up on some beauty sleep.

Braids:

Styling your hair in braids is another excellent way to keep your hair protected at night. Lot’s of Curly Girl Method guides suggest that this is one of the best ways to secure hair.

The only downside to braiding your curly hair at night is that you’d lose a fair amount of curl definition because of the braid pattern, but if you’re planning on wetting your hair in the morning, then it is ideal.

You can either do a french, dutch, or even twist two strands around eachother, bringing in a new piece of hair for every stand (this is probably the best way to maintain your curl style).

I personally love a messy braid, waking up in the morning and pulling out the front two curls and leaving my hair in those messy braids for the day; the two little curls at the front can be quite cute.

But in order to keep these braids in place, it is best to wrap silk hair wrap around the hair to protect it from damage, frizz and to help keep the style in place, even if you’re tossing and turning throughout the night. A hair wrap is better for braids, but a silk bonnet works too.

Make sure you use a penetrating or protective oil before braiding; this will help keep your ends protected from the tightly put-together hairstyle.

But with some oil, this hairstyle is certainly a good one!

You can use some gel to sharpen the edges too, or if you prefer it is quite messy, then I love to pull out the baby curls around the front to finish the look.

Turban:

Pinappling isn’t for everyone; in that case, you can wrap up your hair as if you would if you were wrapping your hair up in a turban.

You can use a cotton t-shirt as you would for plopping, but cotton can be quite drying, so not recommended.

You can preserve your curls overnight using this technique by placing your curls in a position that works and doesn’t mess up your hairstyle.

Loose Bun:

One of my favorite ways to protect my curls while I sleep is by popping them into a bun. It keeps my hair on top of my head, makes it easier to wrap the entire head, and looks cute.

If I use the bun method before wrapping my curls in a silk scarf, I tend to apply my favorite essential oils to the ends of my hair and then twist it up into a loose bun on top of my head.

In order to find the best oils for curly hair, you’ll need to consider your hair porosity first. Some oils work better than others, after all.

But once you’ve tied your hair into a loose bun, then cover your entire head with the scarf and tie it around the bun. This should cover your entire curls.

This method is brilliant for those who tend to toss and turn in their sleep and/or their curls are extra dry and in need of some extra moisture, then this hair wrapping method would probably be best for you, it allows the oils to work to the best of their ability too.

Don’t Forget The Oils:

Before you pop your curls in any protective hairstyle you should always apply oils to the ends of your hair, this will protect your curls even more as well as help replenish moisture.

Applying oils to the ends of your hair, focusing on the drier areas before bed will allow the oils to work overnight and really penetrate the ends to nourish and moisturize.

Oils can also help revive brittle ends by penetrating and repairing the hair from the inside out.

How To Use A Silk Scarf/ Satin Bonnet:

Start by placing the satin scarf over your hair; it should be of considerable length. Your hair should be in a loose bun, as this makes this task much easier.

Knot it tightly at the back and then bring the loose ends to the front of your hair and tie it securely. Tuck the sides of the silk scarf behind your ears to secure it.

How To Wrap Wet Curly Hair At Night:

Going to sleep with wet hair is really a no-no for any hair type. All hair, no matter what hair type– wavy hair, curly hair, straight hair is always most fragile when wet.

This is because the actual structure of the hair changes when it is wet. It has less flexibility, so when you tug and pull wet strands, it causes breakage.

The same goes for if you go to sleep on a pillow with wet hair; as you toss and turn, this will ruffle up the cuticle and cause breakage.

If you have a cotton pillow, then this pillow will also absorb all the good moisture in the hair, so all of the products you’ve just used to rehydrate the hair will go to waste.

But this doesn’t mean that you must style your hair before you sleep in order to have healthy curls, you retain the hair’s moisture overnight by wrapping it in a protective style.

Grab your scarf and face it silkier side up (if your scarf is only silk one-sided). You’ll want to style your hair as usual with your leave-in conditioner and oils.

I would recommend styling each curl and then scrunching upwards using your cotton t-shirt or microfiber towel to remove excess water before wrapping.

Wrap the scarf around your hair and tie one end at the nape of the neck and tie it tight enough that it doesn’t fall out but not too tight that it is uncomfortable.

Once secure, use the head scarf to cradle your curls on top of your head with the other end until you reach the nape of your neck, then fold and tie around the front of your head to secure.

It should be fitting comfortably but covering the entirety of your hair.

This should leave you with voluminous curls as this method is similar to how you plop your hair; by keeping the curls on top of your head, gravity cannot weigh down your curls, so you should wake up with super defined curls and not flattened curls.

Make sure you apply a strengthening oil if you do sleep with wet curls, as despite being wrapped up in a silk headscarf, wet hair is still very fragile, so be careful.

How To Wrap Short Curly Hair At Night:

For short hair, you don’t necessarily need to wrap your curls (unless you prefer this method) instead of investing in a silk bonnet as well as/ or a silk or satin pillowcase to protect your curls.

A silk pillowcase is great for maintaining the natural curl pattern as curls can move easily on the pillow without causing friction or frizz on the curls.

Hair accessories like a silk sleep caps for curly hair are also beneficial for short hair as it secures around the head and won’t budge in the night.

But using the same method as above, you can still easily wrap your curls if you’d prefer, but for short curly hair, a bonnet that is secured with bobby pins may be better.

Apply nourishing oils if you have dry hair.

Summary:

So there you have it, the easiest ways of wrapping your hair up in a scarf to protect those luscious curls at night– who knew cotton pillowcases could be so damaging?

Give some of these techniques a go when wrapping your hair next; remember to use your favorite oil before wrapping your curls if your hair needs a hydration kick!

After all, everyone deserves a good night’s sleep and beautiful curls, not a flattened mess.