Evil Hair Day!

[purplerabbit]

So things are getting desperate on the hair front.

What is she talking about?, you ask. Hair is an issue for me.

Back story here: I was bald until I was two. When it did grow in, it was blond curls. Which made people really silly around me. Seriously. I did so not like being patted on the head. I had my hair short until I grew up. Then I grew it out in back in the 80s. Big big head of massive curls. In 1990, I chopped it all off except a set of long braided tails in back. Wore it that way until a couple years ago. Then shaved all my hair off. Wore a buzz cut for over a year. Then, after the last buzz cut in July 2004, I decided to grow my hair out again.

Problem? I have absolutely no *^$* idea what to do with it. It is now a mass of thick long brown hair that is always in my face. It isn't long enough to pull back easily and I am at a loss of what to have it styled like. I like having my hair long in back, but I also really feel more comfortable looking butch. Not to mention not having it in my face all the time.

A couple weeks ago I had it done into cornrows. Looked fantastic on me. Problem is that after a week, my scalp hurt and itched to much to keep them. So I am back to the mess again.

HELP! If I don't figure something out soon, I may resort to cutting it all off again. Sigh.

Comments

[lady-equine.livejournal.com]

First, the hair bands. These particular ones are way too froo-froo, but there are plain ones out there too. I have pretty thick hair, though not extremely thick, so I really sympathize with most clips, ties, barrettes, and scarves sliding right out because of hair weight and/or softness. http://www.dressytresses.com/store/hbands.asp

Next, the picture is actually of someone starting a french braid, which I'm not recommending as it takes some practice and takes longer to do. But the starting location is about right, maybe even a little further back on your head depending on your hair length. When my bangs were still shorter, the braid started up pretty high like in the picture. As they grew longer, I would start the braid farther and farther back and down. The first two pictures are the applicable ones: http://www.dressytresses.com/hair/gallery/instruct/hair-braid/default.asp

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

The inside-out French Braid is the one I did on you, Purplerabbit.

[beanolc.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone with a lot of very thick hair (each strand is thicker than normal, and I simply have a hell of a lot of the stuff growing out of my head -- it's also wavy and likes to be unruly), I echo the merit of head bands. Good ones are hard to find, but I have a couple I've owned for *years*, they're that good. I like them plain and wide -- 1-2" wide are best for me. The ones with teeth lady_equine mentions are a bit of a pain to re-adjust; my hair likes to tangle and will get caught in the teeth as I try to remove and adjust.

I also lived with scarves rolled up like head bands; they required a lot of adjusting during the day, but did the trick. As my hair got longer, it would require less adjusting because it would also get heavier.

For barrettes I buy specifically for thick hair. The french style ones are the only ones I can use, but even then there are plenty I've tried only to have break during the day.

For a cut, I loved how my hair looked layered, but it was a total pain to maintain. The middle stage of growing out one's hair is a TOTAL PAIN IN THE BUTT but worth going through.