I want to put Braids in but my EDGES

[Analiyah9]

Hello, everyone
Recently I've been rocking my natural hair in to a pony, but my edges are REALLY bad. And I don't want to be the girl with the messed up edges...

Before all this: I ALWAYS wore braids, plaits, or kinky twist etc. and my hair GREW ALOT (in fact thats how I transitioned), but my edges would be messed up. Not BADLY messed up, because I still have ALITTLE bit of hair BUT my edges are still bad.

Like I stated previously putting braids on my head helped my hair GROW alot, but the edges aren't growing. The braids also helped me do diff styles (my natural hair is an afro, and I don't like how the braid out, twistouts etc look.)
So what do you think I should do?

1. Duke it out and put my hair in a pony everyday and allow my edges to breath and grow.
OR
2. wear plaits, kinky twist etc, until my hair is at a workable length, and THEN stop wearing braids and rock my natural hair (thus allowing my edges to grow).

How did you guys do it?

This is a bit frustrating for me, because I JUST starting rocking my natural hair but my edges aren't up to par

 

[iri9109]

i think your edges could also be suffering from the everyday ponies...how tight are they? do you alternate the position of the ponies often?

 

[Analiyah9]

i think your edges could also be suffering from the everyday ponies...how tight are they? do you alternate the position of the ponies often?

Sadly i don't alternate. My hair is ALWAYS pushed back. Do you think that will be damaging? Especially since i'm starting to use Gel. and my edges are semi tight.

 

[iri9109]

Sadly i don't alternate. My hair is ALWAYS pushed back. Do you think that will be damaging? Especially since i'm starting to use Gel. and my edges are semi tight.

idk your pony method now, but instead of slicking your edges down and grabbing all of your hair to go into a pony, i would put your hair in secure but not tight pony (dont worry about smooth edges yet), then use the gel to slick the front and edges more and then tie on a satin scarf for about 15 minutes to set it so that you dont pull super tight on your edges trying to pull/smoorh them into the pony at first...also if you can, somedays put the pony a little higher or lower than the pony you had the day before so that its not always in the same exact spot everyday.