How to Sleep With Long Hair?

Everyone with long hair knows the struggle of waking up with your hair looking like a mess. Now if you have long hair, you must be eager to know how to sleep with long hair.

Some people have gorgeous long hair but don’t know how to tend it. It takes time and patience to understand your hair needs.

Long hair has always been thought of as a symbol of beauty. Locks of long thick hair running down one’s back always look pretty.

But beauty comes with a price. It has to be maintained and taken care of regularly; otherwise, there is no point of having long hair. 

Look through this article to find different ways to take care of your hair while sleeping.

Why Is Hair Protection Necessary?

Having unhealthy hair care habits leads to damaged and frizzy hair over time. Use of hairstyling products with harmful chemicals and regular heat usage results in severe hair damage.

On top of that, when we neglect our hair during night time, we are causing more brittleness which ultimately leads to hair breakage.

Constant sun damage and hairstyling have made our hair very weak. To reverse this effect, we need to protect it.

How to Sleep With Long Hair?

People who are deep sleepers may move around a lot while sleeping. It can cause tugging and pulling at the hair ends.

Keeping it in mind, let’s look at how you can avoid all this and wake up with hair as silky as Rapunzel’s.

1- Using Silk Pillowcase

When you sleep on cotton pillowcases, there is increased friction between your hair and the cotton threads.

This increased friction can weaken your hair at the roots and even along the length. It can significantly magnify hair breakage.

Ultimately, your hair has many fraying ends and looks very damaged. You can quickly fix that by replacing your cotton pillowcases with silk ones.

Silk fabric does not produce friction and lets your hair move freely and smoothly. It also prevents hair breakage due to tugging at lengths. 

2- Using Silk Bonnets or Head Scarfs

Using a head scarf or a bonnet while sleeping with long hair has proven to protect them from damage.

When you wrap your hair up, they are less likely to get flawed overnight. They don’t get tangled and feel much silkier the following day.

Besides, if you use silk fabric for your bonnets and head scarves, that’s a bonus! As described above, silk is the holy grail for long hair.

The silk head scarf or bonnet keeps your mane hydrated and fresh by letting air pass through and preventing sweating. 

3- Ditching Elastic Rubber Bands

When styling your hair in protective hairstyles, you might want to say goodbye to the elastic hair ties and rubber bands.

They are highly damaging to your locks as they pull and tug on them when being removed. It breaks a few of your hair almost every time.

What you can use instead of these rubber-made nightmares are silk scrunchies. As you can see, silk is very popular in the hair protection department.

Silk scrunchies loosely tie your hair without exerting any pressure on it. They are also easier to remove with little to no hair fall.

So throw out your elastic bands and get yourself some stylish scrunchies!

4- Apply Leave-in Hair Conditioner

Wouldn’t it be lovely If you could multitask while sleeping? Thanks to leave-in conditioners, it is possible to sleep peacefully and restore your damaged hair simultaneously.

Some of us do not have time to apply hair masks and hair serums or to do overnight oiling. Leave-in conditioners are efficient in this regard.

You can choose any conditioner, but please ensure it does not contain harmful chemicals like sulfates.

Apply the conditioner to your tresses and wrap them in a head scarf. You will notice a visible difference in the texture of your hair the next day!

Similarly, you can use different hair serums on your hair before sleeping. The serum repairs your hair all night, so you don’t have to worry about it first thing in the morning.

5- Not Washing Hair Before Bed

Another way of sleeping with long hair without ripping out a few is by saying no to washing hair before bed.

When our hair is wet, it is at its weakest point and can easily be broken. When wet hair is stretched, it does not return to its original shape.

Also, when you sleep with wet hair, you will notice more matted and flattened hair in the morning. It leaves no volume in your hair.

You can prevent all of it by not washing hair at least a few hours before you usually sleep. Remember, using heat to dry hair is not a solution because it defeats the purpose of hair protection.

6- Using a Wide Tooth Comb

Sleeping with long hair can be made even easier by combing your hair with a wide tooth comb before sleeping.

It removes all the tangles from your hair and promotes circulation to your scalp. Increased circulation leads to increased blood flow and ultimately increased hair growth.

After combing your hair, you can wrap it or style it in damage-protecting hairstyles.

For your convenience, we have listed a few of these hairstyles below.

Hairstyles For Sleeping With Long Hair:

Sometimes having a long mane can be very uncomfortable, especially when trying to sleep.

Luckily for us, many hairstyles can help you sleep with long hair. Select one hairstyle from the following list and see if it works for you.

1- Simple loose braids

2- Loose twisted bun

3- Pigtails 

4- French braids

5- Dutch braids

6- Fishtail braids

7- Loose ponytail

8- Loose sock bun

9- Twisted rope braids

10- Space buns

Bottom Line

Another hack is applying an essential oil to the ends of your hair before braiding it. You can also use natural lightweight oils like coconut oil, olive oil, etc.

You can use some of these oils for hot oil treatment. You can put warm oil on your scalp and massage it for better blood flow to the follicles.

Even though long hair looks very ethereal, it is also challenging to manage. All the tips and tricks mentioned above will make your hair stronger and healthier every night.