What are protective styles?

I've received the question about protective styles a lot. Here is my definition.

Protective styles are any style that does not brush against your clothing or keeps your hair covered or mostly away from damaging natural elements (eg. extreme cold).

Protective styles include:

1. Headwraps using scarves.
2. Pinned up or short twists and plaits
   
3. Braid extensions
4. Pin-ups (for eg. buns, french rolls, ponytails) and Up-dos (for eg. chiney bumps/bhantu knots)