Hair 911- TWA Color

First of all, I owe the author of this email a HUMONGOUS apology. She emailed me eons ago, and I only just got around to answering her- sad face plus shameful side-eye.  At this point, she might have gone ahead with whatever she was going to do, since I suck at being useful on time, but I figured I'd fulfill all righteousness and answer her anyway. Here's the email-

Hey!

             i wanna say first off that ur blog is an inspiration to me and appreciate u guys efforts cause it has made me see my natural hair in a  different and especially positive way!:) 

         im new to natural.  I had been transitioning for 6 months braid in braid out.When i took out some of my braids my front hair was shorter than my back hair and i dont like that.I know i could have left it to grow and then cut Edna(her name lol) but i want to give her a fresh start.I was wondering whether i could put colour in my hair when i cut it or should i just cut it without colour(as a way to help it recover from braids?). If yo have any tips for protecting a lowboy in winter,it will be appreciated. Thanks.:)

First of all, her hair is named Edna!! How awesome is that! I actually lol'ed at that, and usually I just type it :)

Okay, I'm not as amazing as Miss Fizz with responding to Hair 911's, so y'all will need to chip in here! From what I can tell, dear email author, you've decided to cut your hair and are trying to decide on coloring or not. If you're trying to start afresh and give your hair a break, I would suggest not coloring it. A lot of folk are against coloring in general, but I believe that it depends on each person's hair. Poofy, for example, didn't mind being colored until I tried making her blonde and they processes the color twice. She kinda objected to that.

Color may not destroy your hair, but it will definitely make it more fragile. If you're trying to give it a break and protect it as much as possible, don't color it. If you're just transitioning, you also won't know if your hair can handle color or not. Take the time to get to know your hair, there will always be time to play with color and stuff afterwards (preferably when it's not winter as well).

As for protective styling for a low-boy, I would like the answer to that as well, lol! I've got this TWA for the whole of winter, and so far, my plan is headwraps. Miss Fizz did an awesome video about how to wear winter hats with natural hair, check it out here. I have no memory of what I did the first winter I BC'ed, come to think of it, but then again I wasn't in crazy New England winter. Anything braided up is my next idea for winter protective styling...

Okay, turning it over to the readers now. Let's figure out how to protect Edna :)