It is eleven at night, your style is more or less holding, and taking it all down to redo it feels like too much. Every other night, you go to bed as you are. The next morning, your nape is tangled and your ends have paid the price.
Night does not break hair in one go: it wears it down slowly, against a pillow that soaks up part of what you have just applied. Five styles are enough to cover almost every situation. But before you choose, there is one evening step that matters more than the style itself. If your basics need a rethink, our step-by-step tutorial walks through the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.
The evening step, before the style
In the evening, I take down the day's style, whether it is a French braid, a bun or twists. I put on a little more La Crème Coiffante, working it well into the ends without using too much. I only comb if my hair is tangled. Then I make six braids coiled tightly on themselves, never at the root, to lock the moisture into the hair.
Ghana Elin, founderIt is all there, and in that order. First, take down the day's style, even if it is still holding: after twelve hours, it has pulled the roots in one direction, and sleeping on it keeps that tension going for another eight.
Next comes the only product application of the evening. La Crème Coiffante helps maintain the moisture from your wash day, and it works hardest on the ends, because they are the part that has been through the most. A small amount is enough: too much product the night before means heavy hair in the morning.
The comb, for its part, is not a compulsory evening step: you only reach for it if your hair is genuinely tangled, which tends to happen four or five days after a routine. What causes breakage is not dry hair, it is a comb pulled through hair that is dry and bare.
There is one habit worth dropping, very widespread and doing the opposite of what people expect: the mist of water sprayed on every evening. Wetting your hair every day keeps the fibre swelling, shrinking and becoming porous. Moisture comes from the full routine, every seven to ten days. You cannot make up for it with a spray bottle.
What the night really wears down
Three things happen while you sleep. The first is about fabric: cotton is absorbent by nature, which is exactly what you want from a towel. Against hair coated with La Crème Coiffante, it draws out moisture and some of the product, and holds on to them. You wake up with drier lengths than when you went to bed, without having done anything wrong.
The second is mechanical: the fibre rubbing against the fabric creates knots where strands cross, especially at the nape. The third is about weight: the roots get flattened where your head rests, and the volume disappears on one side. The five styles below tackle these problems in different proportions.
Style 1The six braids
This is the house night-time style, and our first recommendation. Part your hair into six sections, braid each one, then coil each braid tightly on itself, never pulling at the root. The tension sits in the braid, not on the scalp.
This gathers your hair into six compact blocks that can no longer tangle with each other, and keeps the evening product against the fibre. In the morning, take them down, separate with your fingers, and your length is there, soft and supple. Allow ten minutes the first few times, less after that.
Style 2The pineapple
Gather your hair very high on your head and hold it with a silk scrunchie, put on loosely. This style only solves one of the three night-time problems, but it solves it well: it keeps your lengths out of the pillow's reach. It suits medium to long hair, much less so short cuts.
One precaution: the tie should be wide and made of silk, because a thin elastic band will eventually cut through the hair at the exact spot where it grips every night.
Style 3Twists
Each section is split into two strands that are wound around each other all the way to the ends. Six to eight twists are enough for one night, and there is no need to make them as fine as you would for daytime.
Their benefit is not only protective. Taken down in the morning on fully dry hair, they leave soft definition; taken down while your hair is still damp, they only give you frizz, which explains most disappointments. Separate them with your fingers, with a drop of light oil on the ends if you like. The technique is explained in detail in our article on twists on coily hair.
Style 4Bantu knots
The same principle as twists, taken further: each twisted section is wound on itself at the base into a small knot, held with a pin or a soft tie.
This is the style that gives the most defined result in the morning, and the most demanding one: a badly placed knot comes undone during the night, a knot that is too tight pulls until morning. If you feel tension when you lie down, redo it lower.
Style 5The single braid
One loose braid, all the way down. This is the option for nights when you have neither the time nor the energy: thirty seconds, and your hair stops tangling with itself.
It protects less well than the six braids, but it is far better than nothing and leaves an even wave that you can wear as it is. The one rule that is not up for negotiation: do not pull tight at the start, along the hairline and at the temples.
What to tie over the top
None of the five styles is complete without a layer on top. Our first recommendation is a silk scarf, tied without tension, rather than a bonnet: it holds the style in place without covering the whole scalp, and it lets your skin breathe. A bonnet is still fine, especially when travelling, but it is no longer the first thing to reach for.
A silk pillowcase does not replace anything, but it adds to everything: it covers the nights when the scarf has slipped off. We explain what each of these really does in our comparison bonnet, scarf or pillowcase.
Evening mistakes
- Leaving Le Masque Réparateur on all night: ten minutes is enough.
- Spraying water on your lengths every evening, or sleeping with wet hair.
- Making braids or twists tight at the root, or tying your hair with a thin elastic that always marks the same strand.
- Combing dry, bare hair in the morning.
Doing the same style every night with no results?
Our experts go over what happens before bedtime with you, online: your last routine, how much product you use, the state of your ends.
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