I’ve always been a braids girl. The first time I had mid-back length braids as a teenager, I felt like the prettiest girl ever, and it became my go-to hairstyle whenever I was in doubt about what protective hairstyle to do next. Fast-forward to university, weave-ons made their debut and were in vogue. They were faster to make and came in so many beautiful styles.
Then came wigs. They were like weave-ons but weren’t stuck to your head. The beauty of wigs was that you could take them off immediately after you returned from an event and have your scalp breathing freely. Also, the hair lasts much longer because it’s not on your head 24/7 and you don’t sleep on it. It also offered more versatility because you can wear a 10” black bob to your conservative workplace in the morning and a 16” red wig to a party at night. The cornrows made it easier to apply hair treatments, and best of all, you didn’t have to sit down for hours to get your hair braided or sewn in. If you wanted to swim, you didn’t have to worry about water getting into your hair. You could easily wear a cap over your cornrows.
Honestly, I get the appeal of wigs and why they have become such a large industry in the last decade. 2024 saw such a huge demand for wigs in Ghana that numerous vendors have emerged to meet that demand. There are so many wig vendors on Instagram now that it is impossible to browse through the app for more than 30 seconds without running into an ad from a wig vendor.
So yeah, wigs are in vogue, and I had a long discussion with myself on what protective styling to do for the new year. Do I braid cornrows and have the option of wearing whatever wigs my mood and outfit suit? After me, myself and I couldn’t decide after the lengthy discussion, I decided to pull my texturised hair into two braids and wear wigs for a couple of days to see how I felt. Girrrrl, just a few days, and I was reminded all over again why braids will just be a better option for a girl who is trying to start the year stress-free.
Below are my very valid reasons why I believe braids will be superior to wigs for me this year.
- IT IS MORE AFFORDABLE
If you want to look glamorous and expensive on a very tight budget, braids are the best way to go. You can even look amazing with short braids that don’t take long to install. One of the easiest ways to look glam with braids is to experiment with colours. The same hairstyle can look 10x better in other colours than in black. The best place to find inspiration for braided hairstyles is Pinterest. You can even search for colour combo inspirations for braids if you like to experiment with hair colours like me.
- IT REQUIRES MINIMAL STYLING
Giirrrrllll!!! I just don’t have the time — or energy — to style wigs every time I have to wear them. Some may argue that not all wigs require styling — and they may be right — but let’s be honest with ourselves. If you want your wig to look as good as you saw on Instagram before you purchased it, you need to take the time to style it. A $400 wig can look like a $20 wig if not properly styled, and an affordable wig can look a million bucks with good styling. Some vendors issue disclaimers to let customers know that their wigs come unstyled because the unstyled version can look completely different from what the vendor advertised. If you’re as lazy as me when it comes to properly styling wigs, you could send it to a stylist to do it for you at a fee, but when they’re in high demand, it could take days for them to get to your turn.
Braids, on the other hand, require very minimal styling. Of course, you could take some time to manipulate the braids into many awesome, different styles with so many inspirations from Pinterest, but the bottom line is that it’s not necessary. You can look good just by letting the braids down. I saw a tweet in November about a girl on TikTok who made all her friends install braids for her birthday trip and I totally get it. The birthday girl didn’t want to risk having her babes being late for activities because they had to spend time curling or straightening their hair every morning.
- YOU CAN ENJOY THE BREEZE WITHOUT MESSING YOUR HAIR
Have you ever experienced being in a vehicle where you had to keep rolling your windows up, and then down, and up again because your hair just wouldn’t stay put so you could enjoy some fresh air? Some wigs stay in place unless there is a strong gust of wind, but many of them will shift and blow around if your windows aren’t up — unless you have the hair tied up. This is why a lot of times you have to do a final comb or brush-through before you get out of the vehicle. My lovely sisters, braids will not stress you this much. You can enjoy the breeze without worrying about messing up the hair that you spent over an hour styling before going out.
- YOU DON’T HAVE TO PACK A COMB/BRUSH FOR TOUCH-UPS
It’s so hard to carry just a purse or small bag when you have to pack a comb or brush for touch-ups because more likely than not — unless your wig has small curls like jerry curls — you will need to touch up your hair here and there if you’re going to be outside for long. With braids, you can be a minimalist because there’s no need to pack a hair maintenance tool.
- THEY DON’T STICK TO YOUR LIP GLOSS
If you’ve ever had a stubborn strand of hair decide to keep sticking to your lipgloss, you know how absolutely annoying this is. Imagine you trying to be all cute and sexy while talking to your crush and a strand of hair wants to kiss you so badly that it refuses to allow you to be great. And what is more annoying is when you’re trying to pick it off your lip and it’s proving to be hard to get a hold of. Ladies, braids won’t do that to you. They stay where they’re supposed to stay and don’t interrupt your flirting moments ever.
- YOU’RE FREE FROM HAIR CLASSISM
Every other market day I see someone dragging the girlies for wearing cheap wigs. I will never understand this discourse because I’m a firm advocate of wearing what you can afford. It is madness to spend hundreds of dollars on wigs when you can’t afford them. Another issue is that as mentioned earlier, an expensive wig can look very cheap without proper styling. So you could be broke-shamed for wearing a cheap wig while wearing a $400 wig.
As you can already deduce, you won’t face that problem with braids. Nobody will broke-shame you for wearing braids because there isn’t much classism in Team Braids.
With these few points of mine, I hope I have convinced you that Team Braids is the best option for the new year if you want to avoid stress. Besides, I will die on the hill that as beautiful as all these wigs are, braids are the ultimate protective hairstyle for African women. There are SO MANY options, and they’re all gorgeous. Braids have a certain superiority while being affordable, which wigs can’t have. There’s just a special kind of African beauty braids give that wigs can’t achieve.
Oh, and I know my locs babes have probably been snorting all through this post because they’re in a whole league of their own and can’t relate to the struggles of us mere mortals.
