I keep my braids in for 7-8 MONTHS (2024)

I kid you not. This is what a classmate said to me today.
She also uses Dax (grease) with Olive oil.
She does wash it, which was a relief but wow. It just sounded like trouble to me. I tried to tell her that may not be such a a great idea but um... I have "the nice hair" so my comments were irrelvant....
According to her it makes her hair grow. So I asked, are you going to be in braids forever? What if you want your hair ot?
She replied she would be in braids "forever", she doesn't like doing her hair. I just want to see in September what those braids put in recently look like...

Just thinking out loud/sighing... even when we tell people they just don't want to hear it sometimes...

Ok, I'm done.

Foxglove said:

That yearly detangling session can't be fun

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Especially as a natural!

foxee said:

Are these extension braids? If I kept extension braids in that long they would start falling out after month three.

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See Also

Ultimate Guide to Braids: Styles for Every WomanBraids 101: 8 Basic Types That You Need to Know40 Attractive Waist Length to Floor Length Box Braids Hairstyles - Coils and GloryHair Length Chart: Easy Measurement, Styles & Care Guide

Yes, these are extension braids...

My sister is doing this actually. She has kept microbraids in since August and has washed it maybe once. She is holding out till May and I am stocking up on popcorn.

She doesn't want my tips so I am just gonna watch it all go down

U can lead a horse to water but you cant make em drink!

At least she has been told that what she is doing is risky at best.... I feel one of those "I told U so" moment coming in about 7 months -_-

Whew lord. I'm sorry to say, I did this once... It was pretty much almost a whole school year... don't know the exact # of months but it was a ludicrously long time. I had never had braids before, I didn't know anyone who had, and I didn't really know how long to leave them in. The roots of the extensions were so long I used to braid the roots of the braids together and arrange the extensions on top in ways to cover the line of demarcation... I was a HAM.

I did lose a lot of hair to matting and breakage, but the hair that I had left was much longer. I was APL for the first time since I was a child once I finally took them down. I didn't mind how much my hair was thinned out... I had always been made to feel bad about how thick my hair was so to me this was an improvement.

(ETA: I also had some twist right out of my head, and some get ripped out. I had a big noticeable bald spot from losing a braid right near the center part of my head and a white classmate surely felt the need to point out that fact in front of the whole class I used to use a eyebrow pencil or some kind of makeup stick thing to color in the bald spot but you could still see it.)

Man. Looking back at where I've come from, hair-wise, I am SO grateful to LHCF.

Take it from someone who knows, there is no way this girl is going to be able to maintain her extensions in that long without some serious trouble ahead. I have never gone that long for 2 main reasons, 1, is there is no way you can wash no matter how many times and clean the hair effectively, second she does not realize the accumulation of build-up that she is going to experience.

I tried myself to go to the 2 month mark and only made it to 1.5 months, and even then caught pure d h**l trying to unmatt my hair.

Oh and let's not overlook the smell and stretching that long with extensions common sense they will look a hot mess!

The only way I was able to go 1.5 mo. was I was redoing my braids as I saw fit every week, at least the ones that were super loose.

If she is not careful and take better care of her hair she will end up having to do a BC! Once that matting starts after the second month she might as well do dreads! Cus she will not be able to comb that out!

But at least you tried to tell her. I think she is going to have to find out for herself the hard way! So with my own lesson learned, I redo my braids completely every single month. It's a drag to do, but since doing it this way I loose alot less hair.

BTW, I only keep my extensions in 1 month and take them all out and it takes me almost 2 hours just to unmatt, so I know there's not going to be too much hope for her!

You've all heard the expression, a hard head makes a soft a**

Mizz Diamonds said:

no one could get awat with that if you were my friend coz my friends would let you hear about it. chatting like
"Those extensions have gone waaay past it sell by date."
"Your braids looks expired and need to be retired."

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Or " Girl, you got an afro around your braids" They used to tell me this when I was younger and natural with "napps". My mom had no clue how tortured I was at school!

Maybe she rebraids each section when they start looking rough

To each her own, I couldn't do it because I lose a lot of hair after 2 months

In 1992 my best friend came back from California with her hair in microbraids that her mom had done. They were very pretty. She kept the microbraids in for the entire school year she mostly wore them in 1 ponytail or a bun and when her hair started growing she gelled it and slicked it back. Yes some of the braids started to slip out but it didn't really matter or look bad since she was always bunned or ponytailed.

One day she took the bun down and me and our other friend decided it was time for them to come out.

It was a nightmare. Her roots were really long. And luckily clean because she had washed it a lot but most of the braids were loc'd together in clumps at the base.

So imagine like 3 or 4 inches of NG then a loc of 4 microbraids clumped together.
Then...they were so tiny and tightly braided that we were using safety pins to unbraid them. The texture of her hair was so similar to the braid hair (3a/b variety) that we couldn't really trim or cut the ends without cutting her real hair.

NIGHTMARE!

It took us 2 whole days and we managed to get most of them without any cutting but there were a number of hopeless spots that knotted so badly that we had to cut them out.

The only way I can see this happening is if she has certain sections redone ever so often. Like after a month and a half she re-does the front. Then, later she re-does the back, and next time she does the sides. So, she keeps braids in continuously for 7 months, but not the "same" braids.

Otherwise, they'd be falling out and looking crazy. I don't even think it's possible. 7 months would be almost 2 inches of newgrowth for even a slow grower.

Nope, the longest I keep mine in are 6-8 wks... I can't go past that.

It just looks nasty to me.

vkb247 said:

I don't understand how you can have extensions and an inch or more of new growth and not look a wreck.

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that's my primary concern.
forget the health of her hair, matting, possible growth, pros/cons, etc....folks will do what they do.

how is she gonna avoid looking a hot mess??