Just wanted to give an update as I haven't posted in here in a while.
I've been in braids. The first Install i had for 10 weeks. I took a two week break and I now i have the second set. My braider takes a lot of pride in her work and rather than getting messy, they just grew out. I had about an inch and a quarter of growth (which is about average i think). My braid regimen is to cleanse with either tresemme naturals moisture conditioner or CON argan oil shampoo, DC with ORS Replenishing Conditioner. and Spray with watered down curl activator + protein spray + oil. Cheap, quick and cheerful. ( Last time I used grease on my scalp but I don't think that was actually a good idea cos while my scalp was happy, I was attracting a lot of dust)
When I took out my first set, I had no buildup, no tangles. I could have just combed my hair out and went (I did some protein treatments tho). This led me to think I could have left it in for longer save for the stress the braids growing out was potentially putting on my edges. So at the 6-8 week mark I'm going to get my edges, nape and part redone and see how far I can push this install.
ETA.
Also I'm going to cut out the tresemme naturals conditioner. Once I co-washed without using the Deep Conditioner and my scalp felt sooooo dry. So I could only imagine what my hair felt like under the braids. I'll either just DC or shampoo and DC.