This board seems to be full of people who have/had the most amazingly long hair. Down to the waist, down to the bum, down to the thigh, down to the tippy-toes…you name it, someone’s got it.
Now, I’ve always wondered about this. How does hair that long work? I mean, doesn’t it create logistical problems?
If you’re doing some hanky-panky and your hair is free in all its glory, wouldn’t it get caught under elbows and get stuck in…well…uncomfortable places? There was a reason Something About Mary used bodily fluids as hair gel, ya know! It IS sticky!
And if you braid it, doesn’t that defeat the purpose so far as all those comments go about how the SO melts in a puddle merely at the sight of the luxurious mane?
How about people with wavy or curly hair who grow it down? I have itty-bitty shoulder-length hair and the tangles make me want to beat up the fellow who invented hair. I can’t even imagine what I would want to do to him if I had hair down to my bum!
Oh, and what about the weight of the hair? Does it give you headaches? Or maybe that works like boobs do…once they’re all there, you stop really noticing them after a while. Hmm…
Back in the '70s and early '80s I had hair down to mid-thigh length. I usually wore it up in a chignon, but when I wore it down, it did indeed cause all kinds of havoc. Got bottoned into men’s coats and tucked into their pockets; got caught in car doors and my own blouse buttons–I even inhaled it once when I was laughing and nearly choked.
It wasn’t terribly heavy, though, and not too much trouble to wash and comb out. I finally cut it when I realized I didn’t look like a Gibson Girl; I looked like an aging hippie librarian.
I’ve never inhaled it, but I swallowed a good hunk once. It took the strongest gag reflex supression I ever had to do , while I pulled out what seemed like a foot(put was probably 4 inches) of a pencil diameter hunk of hair.
My hair is only midway down my back…when its dry. Its curly, and when its wet and wheighed down, it goes down even longer.
The only time I can possibly brush it is when I’m in the shower with a shitload of conditioner in it. As the only reason I have long hair is because I can’t in anyway pull off short hair, I usually have it in a pony tail on the top of my head. maybe 3 times a month though I’l wear it down(today was one of those days)and then by the end of the school day its gotten poofy, tangled, and just… BLAH. its still curly but its horribly frizzy, no matter what hair product I put in it. The only complaint I’ve ever had from it is that I’l walk by someone and they’l get it in thier mouth. I’ve been accused of shedding on people, too… although I can’t say that it wasn’t unintentional…
I have about bum length hair, it was almost knee length before I cut it a few years back. It’s dark brown, wavey, thick and rather heavy.
I don’t really notice it much anymore. I only get headaches when I’m really tired and thus more sensitive to all the little things. It takes a rather long time to wash, but seeing as how I don’t do the shampoo and conditioner thing every single day unless I get all icky it’s not too big of a time drain. Brushing it isn’t too time consuming either because if you’re not involved in anything heavily physical it doesn’t get too tangled over the course of the day. I braid it if that’s going to be the case.
Yes it can get in the way during sex… I’ve had to poke my SO quite a few times to “GET OFF MY HAIR” Of course he loves it down so he just has to put up with my quirks, especially since it gets quite tangled during the act. It doesn’t get stuck anywhere or covered in sex juices because, well, I’ve always had long hair and I’ve learned not to sit on it, get it out of the way, etc.
Well that’s about all the questions so I’ll go now.
Kitty
As an afternote, does anyone else get really annoyed with people who think that because you have long hair they have a right to touch it or play with it? Or annoyed with people who gawk and insist upon stating the obvious like, “you have such long hair”?
Up until two weeks ago I had waist-length hair. I cut it to the brastrap and lost 5 pounds. I’m not sure if it was all hair but I don’t feel any skinnier. I think it was pretty heavy. It was too heavy to wear up for very long but I could twist it into a knot and hold it up with a pencil if it was annoying me at work.
I brushed it twice a day and rarely had tangles. I washed it two or three times a week before bed and usually only towel-dried it and let it dry over night. I didn’t blowdry it unless I was cold.
I sometimes zipped it into skirts or it would get caught in my armpit. The only problem I had with it during sex was me lying on it and then getting pushed back. My body would be getting farther back but my hair would be staying in the same place so my head would be getting pulled back and I’d have to lift myself off it to free myself and it was awkward. Other than that, no problems.
You get used to it. When it’s that long you can keep it away from your food. I’ve been finding medium-length hair is much harder to keep out of the soup.
Kitty YES. Do you know how many times people felt free to tell me “you should cut your hair.” I always felt like saying, “You should too you look like a dork.” I got a lot of compliments too but it bothered me that people would think it was okay to tell me they didn’t like it. It reminds me of when people feel free to say things like “you’re so skinny you make me sick.” I think people think it’s okay because they believe long hair is showy and high-maintenance so it’s fair game to criticize. Part of the reason I cut it was that I felt like it was too much attention to one dumb thing. Like, I wouldn’t want to be “the girl with the purple sweater” and I was tired of being “the girl with the long hair.”
I miss it though. I used to like to twist it around my arm while I watched tv. I liked making it all soft and shiny with conditioner and the flat iron and whenever it felt nice like that I would stroke it like a pet. Now it stops right at the place I used to grab it.
My hair is actually REALLY easy to take care of. It’s long, thick, and straight, so it brushes out really quickly even if I’ve had it down all day. I don’t usually take much time to wash it - just glop shampoo on my scalp, rub it down through the rest in decreasing amounts, rinse, put in conditioner, wash everything else, and rinse again.
As for logistical problems… yes, I sometimes manage to get it caught in a sweatshirt tied around my waist… or in a belt… and I knew a girl with hair down to her knees who, upon finishing a paper, leaned back in her desk chair and rolled backwards. And… when there are more elbows near my hair, there are more problems.
The weight doesn’t give me headaches, but pulling the hair into an unfamiliar or badly done style can. Because it weighs so much, it has to be balanced perfectly - too much weight on one side of the bun can be painful, especially after a while. But eventually you learn how to do it quickly.
I had mine cut last month. It was hip length and I cut it to the shoulder. I could wear it up, but it would give me headaches after a while. If I forgot to braid it at bedtime, I would sweep it up and away from my face right as I hit the pillow. That usually kept it out of the way. Sometimes I would have to poke my SO and tell him to get off my hair. In the middle of the night I would find that I was trapping myself with my hair. It would be under one arm and I wouldn’t be able to turn over. It didn’t tangle very much, brushed it once or twice a day and washed it twice a week.
When I had waist-length hair, one of my biggest issues with it (not that this was even that big of an issue) was what do do with it when wearing a winter coat. Since this is Minnesota, we spend a lot of time wearing them, after all. My coat has a hood, so if you put the hair on the outside, it fans out and looks funny. However, if you tuck it inside the coat, that seems kind of strange, too. That’s what I usually did, though.
And, yes, getting it cut meant that my husband could no longer roll over on top of it in the middle of the night!
Did any of you who cut it donate the hair to Locks of Love? That’s what I did. I even got a free haircut out of the deal!
Doesn’t length tend to straighten curly hair? I mean, look at Weird Al Yankovich! Maybe the guy’s got a crack styling team or something, but his hair looks a lot more manageable now that he’s grown it out.
My hair is steadily moving past my butt. The main problem is it catches on the zippers of my backpack and the backs of bus seats. I tend to braid it in the evening, which is generally when hanky-panky will occur, so it’s easy to move out of the way. It’s not heavy at all and doesn’t take much care, although it’s rather fine and tends to tangle.
Oh, hell yes! It pisses me off enough that I’ve started snarling at them, too.
My entire family has straight hair (I’m adopted) and as a result my mother had zero idea how to deal with my hair growing up. Brushing my hair as a child (otherwise known as me sobbing on the toilet seat lid while my mother cursed in frustration trying to rip the brush thru my eternally-tangled dry locks) resulted in my mother chopping off the majority of it when I was about 7 or so. I hated my short hair. I loathed my appearance and cursed my Q-Tip like head all thru adolescence till the day of my 16th year when I announced to the world at large I would never again cut my hair, even if it grew so long I tripped on it when I walked.
I haven’t since. I don’t blow-dry it, use a curling iron on it, straighten it, color it or anything so even though I don’t get it cut (no, not even a trim) it’s in wonderful health, and hardly any split ends. The few split ends I do get I trim with a cuticle scissors while watching TV. I brush it in the shower, gooped throughly with the above mentioned conditioner. (I’ve gone to the store with soaking wet head dripping down my back upon realizing I ran out of conditioner mid-shower, you can’t imagine what happens if I dare go without. It’ll literally start to dreadlock.) I then get out of the shower, put hair gel in it (granted I have to use alot, besides having long curly hair, it’s as thick as horsehair. I go thru a full bottle of gel a week), and am on my merry way 5 minutes later.
I have no idea how you straight-haired people manage, if I had to spend more than 10 minutes on my hair, I’d cry.
Sure my beloved leans on it all the time, and sometimes rolls over on it in his sleep when I leave it down (usually put it in a bun for bed). Heck, I’ve even trapped MYSELF under my hair. I’ll wake up lying in such a way I can’t move my head at all.
Reminds me of an old Gary Larsen cartoon. The kid’s eyes are popping out and the doctor says in the caption “are your pigtails too tight”?
thats a good idea about putting creme rinse in your hair and brushing it out in the shower. Might take a week to dry but its worth a try.
long beautiful hair shining gleaming hair!
do what you want its your hair
I grew up with bowl cuts. Made me look like a boy. Hate short hair on me to this day.
My grandpa was bald by the time he was 20. My dad was a flat-top do kind of guy. He had 5 kids. 4 girls in a row and a boy. My little brother was going bald at 19.
I told Jimmy, if I can make it through life with out big tits, you can make it without hair, long beautiful hair, shining gleaming hair.
To each their own. I don’t even shave my armpit hair. And I’m getting used to the hair on my lower legs. If I can get over the stygma that its ugly I’ll be alright. It hurts and costs money daily to keep it up. If it gets too long I’ll braid it.
My hair is a little past my waist, and extremely thick and curly. It gets caught in everything… car doors and windows, elevator doors, my waistband, you name it. I’m just used to dealing with it.
It is kind of a hassle in bed. When I roll over, I fling it all behind me and frequently whack my SO in the face with it. I elbow him several times a night when he lies on it.
I go through gallons of conditioner, and it still tangles. Nobody has ever successfully run their fingers through my hair.
I get a headache if I put it up in a bun for more than a few hours, because of the weight of it. And I shed constantly. My mother says she was finding two-foot-long hairs on her clothes more than five years after I moved out of her house.
You rinse it out afterwards, the conditioner while brushing is just so I can actually get the brush thru my hair. It’s virtually impossible to brush my hair wet OR dry without having conditioner in it. Trying results in ripping out half the hair on my head before giving up and driving to the store dripping the whole way to get more. Incidentally, my hair does take quite a long while to dry, but that’s just because it’s really uber-thick.
My hair is almost down to my waist, is reasonably thick, but not too thick. Mostly I keep it in a ponytail (I hairagami it in the summer time to keep it off my neck). During cool weather, I do wear it down once or twice a week. Mostly I only take it down during sex, cuz hubby loves it. After we’re finished, the ponytail holder goes back in. I mostly get it caught at the movies, when hubby will put his arm around me, accidentally pinning some of my hair between his forearm and teh back of my seat-ouch! It’s pretty dry, so I only wash it about 2 times a week, and never, ever, use styling products or a blow-dryer! Pretty much, I’ve gotten used to keeping it out of my way.
Went to get it cut for Locks of Love. The salon QUIT doing L of L and didn’t tell me. I am now the proud possessor of a haircut I hate, and am $35 poorer for it. After she cut off the braid, the woman proceeded to hack off four more inches AND taper/thin the ends. I ASKED for blunt cut to the collarbone.
I wore it in an informal updo most of the time (held up by big clips or pens), but down was no problem. My hair is babyfine, except for the grey part, and the weight was/is negligible.
It was about 3 inches below my shoulders whet I had my first cancer surgery. When I went to the mandatory therapy group, I slowly realized that I was the only one there with hair (or eyebrows or eyelashes). I didn’t have chemo or radiation (does not work on this cancer) and everyone else did. Finally, one of the others asked if she could touch it. Then everyone did. The therapist was tweaked that her group had turned into “hair therapy” but our group made better progress emotionally than others did. It was tough for me (I have issues about being touched) but I dealt with it. Everybody else got a lot out of it.
I have donated to L of L once, and done direct donations for little kids with leukemia. The Leukemia Society will make a custom wig from their hair if it’s long enough (they wanted 4 inches). If it wasn’t…the social worker and I would get a chunk cut off of mine and send it as if it was theirs. It’s babyfine enough to pass for baby hair, or at least a 4 year old.
As for bedroom activities, I just flipped it over the pillow (sometimes it got caught between the matress and the wall), but the time it works the best for most SO types is when the long haired peson is on top…I say most SO’s because mine prefers short hair. (Millions of men in the world, and I get the ONE that doesn’t have the long hair fetish. Go figure.)
One of the reasons I cut it is that I may be starting Interferon soon, and if it’s gonna fall out, it will be less trouble if it is short.
I may also dye in blue, just for fun. Personally, I think electric blue hair would look great on a fat fifty year old woman.
Mine’s down to my hips. You get used to it as it grows and flip it around and out of the way. You can kind of sense when you need to do something with it. At this point, it’s been there for about 35 years, so I am really used to it. It doesn’t interfere with intimate moments any more than having arms and legs sticking out does. You know where they are. You move them. Easy to wash, never blow dry, no headaches.
Now, if you will kindly pardon a hijack: Eve, how in the name of flaming perdition did you get mid-thigh length hair up into a chignon? I can do a bun or a ponytail or assorted braidy things, but I can not wrestle this mop up into a French twist to save my life. I’ve bought all kinds of doodads that are supposed to aid the effort and they just tangle it up. It bulges and wisps and lopsides and looks terrible. Not that I’m dying to look like an ageing hippie librarian, but a bun is even more potent in that department. And it’s bloody hot here. But my loved ones are not receptive to the idea of cutting it off. Gravity is taking its toll on the face and I’ve floated the idea, but it was met with universal condemnation on the home front.
I have ever once in my life had my hair shorter then shoulder length.
I dye it all the time, but I use those rinses that wash out, atural instincts or something like that, and they make my hair nice ad soft. I hate shampoo; the minute it touches my hair, even when it’s rinsing/rinsed out, my hair goes all stiff, like semi-dry papermache. I go through probably 2 bottles a week o coditioner…
If I wwant to wear my hair down, I plan ahead. I put in a tad of conditioner when my hair isn’t dripping anymore after my shower, and then I have to be careful not to move it too much while its drying or else it gets so big it has its own orbit.
I can’t blowdry it, I can’t curl it more, and I can’t straighten it(I’ve tried EVERYTHING… not even a regular clothes iron worked…) I don’t use gel or hairspray, and I don’t do any of those hot oil thingies either. I wash it, brush it, and put it in a pony tail. I don’t have the energy to do anything with it… It hates me. no other words for it.
