I think that’s a funny expression: “Growing my hair out.” I haven’t had a hair cut since December (except for a teensy trim of dead ends at Master Cuts) but I’m not really “growing my hair out,” it’s doing that all by itself.
I have not had hair this long in my entire adult life. I’m letting it grow for one simple reason: travel. At this length, I can pull my wet hair back in a ponytail (who wants to drag a hairdryer around Nicaragua, Greece, Turkey or Transylvania?), put on a cap, and look decent. Down, it looks like a nightmare. So I don’t wear it down. I also only need to wash it every third day or so. LOVE that.
What are your favorite products, styles and tricks for medium-length hair? I find that it’s much drier and more frizzy and staticky than it was short. My bangs are grown out past my chin(s) and if I do wear my hair down I have to part my hair in the middle, which causes it to sit there in flat, grown-out layers. My old stand-by hair plumpers are failing me. Suggestions? Or will I just have to wait until my travels are over and cut off a few inches to give it some bounce?
One fun thing I did do was to color it red with blonde highlights and one big chunk of blonde in the back underneath layer, so that when I pull it up there’s a neat contrast.
I know you’ve been through this, boys and girls. Bring on the sharing.
PB, I seem to remember your hair looking a wee bit curly in a few pictures. Here’s what I do. (Note that my hair if not blown out straight does corkscrew curls but this short work for any hair with a bit of curl to it.)
First my stylist gave me something called Glossing Polish by “Proclaim professional care.” I use a few drops in my palm and work it through, this hugely helps the frizz factor, and it smells really good, but very light fragrance.
Then I use Tresemme (cheap, easy for find and it works) “Curl Care Flawless Curls Mousse”
With damp hair fill palm with mousse. Turn head upside down. Scrunch hair with moose in an upward motion to help define curls. This helps give a bit of body too as you work the mousse into the base. I don’t blow dry, my hair doesn’t take it well. That’s it, I’m done!
I do use “curl” conditioners on it every few days (I do wash mine every day because it HAS to get wet every day or I can’t do anything with it.)
I found big clips great for quick hair days. Just twist it all up on the back of my head and clip. For a fancier look get the little clips (not the tiniest ones) and pull a bit of hair above each temple up and clip behind head. Don’t pull it back tight, give it a bit of a romantic swirl and some give. Easy and I get tons of compliments on it.
Hope that helps! The in between stages are SO hard.
For bangs that are not yet long enough to be caught in a ponytail, can I recommend the old standby the decorative comb sets? (look for “side combs” or pairs of hair combs…
Barrettes also can work, but I’ve found combs are more secure. When they are put in properly they cause the hair in front of them to fluff/pouf.
At 4 months 10 days after the onset of Bell’s Palsy, I still don’t have a complete blink in my left eye. Smoke, dust, and any sort of fumes irritate it because it can’t distribute tears evenly across the surface.
So I am growing out my grey roots. I’ve got about 2.5″ right now; by the end of the year I expect that it will be completely un-coloured hair. I’m actually liking it–with a wrinkle-free face (also partly ‘compliments’ of the BP, sort of like unwanted Botox), it’s a somewhat sophisticated European look.
Do you think dyeing it dried it out? The Pantene Restoratives hair mask is good hydration (also cheap and easy to find).
Hydration will help prevent frizz and static.
It might also be the shape and not the length that’s the problem. What kind of layers are happenin’? If the front is past the chin, you may just need a trim to shape things and cut off the dry ends (no matter what care you take, four months of no trims will make dry ends).
Oh, boy, I’ve been there. I remember, I remember. I grew out from a crew cut to half way down my back. So:
1. Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise. All colouring causes damage, it’s just the way of it, but this can be offset with rich conditioners. I recommend putting them on before bed, then rinsing them off in the morning. Helps them really do their best work, but means you don’t walk around with flat lifeless hair all day. Hot oil treatments are also good (you can make your own with olive or jojoba, or sunflower if you’re feeling poor.)
2. Don’t fight the curl, work with it. Try resisting the urge to comb it once it’s been washed (try it once on a day off) and not touching it at all after you put your product in, and see what happens. If it looks awful, fair enough, but if it spirals nicely, yippee!
3. Did I mention moisturising?
Good luck!
I wish I could help, but I have this pattern:
1. very short hair. Suits me, but I have aspirations. . . .
2. Hair gets to almost chin length and is like a thick, wavy triangle. Also the color is too dry and too dark/heavy.
3. very short hair.
I’m trying to alter this pattern my stopping the overall color and moving to highlights only. Some grey will show through, but it will be in better condition and require maintainence only every 8-12 weeks instead of every 4-6.
Not washing every day is really helpful, as is air drying at least part of the way (good for the waves, too).
Growing my hair out brings me back to puberty, but now grey hair is involved. Good luck!
I had been coloring my own hair at home to save money and my hair was really suffering. Since December I have been going to Goddess Liz at my local Aveda concept salon to have my hair colored. I have certainly noticed a difference in the appearance of my hair- not dry and shiny. Liz does a full color job and then six weeks later does a color touch up and applies a glossy glaze. That way I am not paying for full color when I don’t need it. I have also been using Aveda Color Ease conditioner that I leave in over night.
This is going to sound so weird, but here it is.
If my hair gets too long, the weight pulls all wave or curl out. When my stylist blow dries it after a cut, it’s wonderful and sophisticated, and nothing I can do by myself. So at home, if I want any body, I wash and condition it, finger comb it, towel off until it is not dripping wet, put on an narrow hairband to hold it off my face and off my neckline, and then bend over and either put on one of those oddly shaped supertowels that make a turban, or throw on a hat of the “chinese worker” or “newsboy” style. I let the hair dry inside the hat or turban. If I’m using the towel, I may use mousse, but if using the hat, no product. The result is hair that has some body and lift and shape with interesting waves. Even if I comb it at this point, it still has more body than anything else I could manage, since if I try to use a round brush and a blowdryer I end up with my hair painfully knotted around the brush.
I wish I still had the fabulous naturally curly blonde hair I had as a child, or the marvelous wavy thick golden brown hair I had as a younger woman, but I don’t. My stylist does my color (very gray otherwise) and a great cut, and she says the color adds body, so I believe her.
PB, you have beautiful eyes and a beautiful complexion. No matter what you do with your hair, you will be beautiful.
Have a great trip!
Try the shampoos and conditioners by Burt’s Bees. They are the best!
Peacebang, I have very thick, fairly coarse hair that grew out from an ill-advised neckline bob a while back, so I feel your pain. I relied on cute headbands a lot during those days.
For frizziness, I recommend Frizz-Ease “Straight Answer,” which you spray on while hair is still wet from the shower. I’ve tried LOTS of anti-frizz products and this is definitely what works best for me. Frizz-Ease’s other anti-frizz product, the Serum, has many adherents but is too goopy to work well on me.
PB, I have Eastern European Jewish with a side of WASP hair and it would be lovely if it a) didn’t frizz and b) kept it’s curl.
When it’s misbehaving, I make a part and twist up the sides and shove in bobbypins. Sometimes I twist/flip the back up and use a large barrette. It actually ends up looking rather elegant, in a Victorian sort of way. It’s perfect for traveling, just remember to sunscreen the part.
Redkin All Soft products.
They are THE BEST EVER. Yes, they are expensive, but you need so little as they are uber concentrated, that they last longer, and even my quite oily hair lasts two days on this shampoo (never more than a day with anything else). My hair is long, and before this shampoo I was blow-drying, hot ironing, etc. every day (20+ minutes). Also, another tip, in your last rinse, use cold water. Your hair is smoother (no fly-aways!).
I often go with the Rusk “Smoother” when I am pushing a hair cut and it helps to give the ends and layers a flip, without the stifness of using wax. It also helps with frizzies at the crown of my head. A bottle usually lasts a couple of years… I also just rediscovered, out of economic necessity, the Aussie 3 minute miracle. It is very good and a bottle is something like $3! Magic.
Peace and have a great trip!
Carol