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How to Prepare Hair Before an Install

Wash, clarify, deep condition, trim and stretch, in that order, one or two days before your appointment. Hair goes into a protective style for six weeks or more, and whatever condition it is in on install day is the condition it will be in when it comes out, only more so. This is the highest-value hour you will spend on the whole style.

Clarify first

Start with a clarifying wash to strip old product. Braiding over weeks of buildup traps it against the scalp for the life of the style, where it flakes, itches and cannot be reached. This is one of the few times clarifying is unambiguously the right call regardless of your usual routine.

Deep condition properly

A full deep conditioning treatment with heat, twenty to thirty minutes, after the clarifying wash. Freshly clarified hair absorbs more than at any other time, so this treatment does more good than the same product would on any other day. If your hair is weak or recently processed, this is also the moment for a light protein treatment, followed by moisture in the same session.

Trim before, not after

Split and worn ends will not survive six weeks of braiding, and they will travel further up the strand while the style is in. Trimming beforehand means the ends going into the braid are sound. It also makes the take-down cleaner, since damaged ends are what tangle around the added hair.

Stretch it

Braiding on shrunken hair means the braider is fighting the shrinkage, sections come out uneven, and there is more pulling at the root. Blow-dry on a moderate setting with a comb attachment, or band or braid the hair to stretch it without heat over a night. Stretched, dry, detangled hair braids faster, sits flatter and hurts less.

What not to do

Do not arrive with dirty hair and expect it to be handled, and do not arrive with hair soaking wet or heavy with grease and butter, which makes sections slip and the braids loosen within days. Do not relax or color your hair the same week you install, since chemically processed hair needs a few days to settle and braiding stresses it while it is at its weakest. And do not skip the trim because you are growing it out; length kept on damaged ends is length you lose later anyway.