A Bad Wrap: Is The Doobie Damaging To Your Hair?

Doobie doing you wrong?

The Doobie, also known as the Wrap, is one of the main elements of the Dominican Blowout.

By stretching and holding your hair, it keeps your straight look intact for the week.

But could the method itself be doing your hair harm?

The Final Wrap...

After your hair is washed, deep conditioned, roller set and blown out, the Doobie is the final element which needs to be in place to ensure the signature silky swoosh of your Dominican Blowout. The Wrap helps your hair to fall correctly, hang and move more like naturally straight hair. Its stretching action also works as a straightener, particularly if you leave your hair in a wrap overnight after leaving the salon; the effect is more potent while the heat is still in your hair, setting it in place while your strands are still flexible from the heat.

Making sure to mold your hair into a Doobie at night before bed also works to extend the life of a Blowout or press. Keeping the hair stretched, wrapped and held in place counters the effects of shrinkage which happen over time as your hair slowly absorbs moisture from the air, products and handling. A Doobie means you don't have to overexpose your hair to the pressures of heat by getting touchups in the week to lengthen how long your straight look sticks around.

It also means your straightened hair is instantly styled every morning when you wake up; the rolling action created by the Wrap adds shape and form to straight hair and your parting was set in place the night before when you wrapped your hair. You're free to just let down the Doobie and go!

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Downsides to the Doobie. . .

Wrapping can have its difficulties, just like any other method. Here are the usual pitfalls and how to avoid them:

Overbrushing: Sometimes, people can get a little carried away when they are brushing their hair. It's easy to forget that brushing is a styling method which, overtime, inevitably puts pressure on the hair.

If you don't brush too much, the damage will be minimal and and your hair will not look or act damaged. Overbrushed hair, on the other hand, gets weak, sparse and unruly due to all of the friction.

So brush your hair efficiently and be sure to use gentle bristles like boar and flexible plastic, rubber or silicone (these last three textures are for the separated style of bristles as seen in the picture on the right) and avoid nylon bristles.

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Overuse: Beware the phenomenon known as styling fatigue: repetitively relying on the same style will put some strain on your hair. While wrapping is a styling method, a means to an end, remember that it is a style in and of itself - reminiscent of the 1960s Beehive. Thus, just as continually pulling your hair back into a ponytail will cause wear from the friction and tension it takes to create the style, so can overly-used Doobies, as a styling method which also requires continued tension to stay in place.

So mix it up while you are wearing your hair straight; for example on some nights, opt for bunning, particularly if you are not wearing your hair down.

Wrapping it too tight: This is the biggest reason for damage from Doobies. People wrap their hair too tightly and it strains the edges, overstretches the strands and, overtime, causes thinning and weakness. So don't pull your hair too taut in a bid to get it extra sleek. Instead, make sure you brush your hair as smooth as possible first, before wrapping it. If your hair comes loose easily, then opt for more bobby pins rather than more tension to keep it in place.

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Staying aloof of these all-too-common errors means you can be secure in the knowledge that you are causing no Doobie-related damage to your hair.

Instead, you can have hair that balances being straight when you want it to be, with the ability to swing back to full-blown, bouncy curls in the next!

Image credits:
Brent Borreson
Daniel Kulinski
Gabriel C
Lyre Lark