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puredoxyk
January 25th, 2009, 01:31 PM
Hi all! This question is mostly for my husband, whose hair is much longer than mine; and moreover, it's in dreadlocks, which means it's very thick and heavy.

He mentioned today that his hair is now, at waist length, too long to be contained in a bath towel. He has to do something to wrap it and soak some of the water out of it (the dreadlocks hold water like sponges, so his hair weighs about a million pounds when it's wet). He can't blow-dry it, either.

So I thought I'd ask all you brilliant hair-people with very long locks, how do you secure them while they're wet, if they don't fit in a towel?

Thanks!

spidermom
January 25th, 2009, 01:36 PM
I drop my hair into a soft flannel pillowcase, then twist up at the top and secure with a claw or beak clip. Your DH would probably need 2 or 3 pillowcases; one is barely enough for me. I squeeze all the water I can possibly squeeze out of my hair first. The bottom of the pillowcase still gets plenty wet, though. I sometimes remember to drape a towel around my shoulders to catch extra water.

jojo
January 25th, 2009, 01:57 PM
he could always use a quilt cover!!!

helen2806
January 25th, 2009, 01:59 PM
maybe you could sew 2 towels together along one edge to make a double size one?

liseling
January 25th, 2009, 01:59 PM
Hmmm. Maybe after squeezing all the water out of it he could sort of plop it - he'd have to have a big towel to do that though.

Ursula
January 25th, 2009, 02:00 PM
Are you arranging the towel width-wise or length wise?

My hair is fairly thick, and longer than yours, and I'm able to use a bath-towel by arranging it length wise, so that the short end of the towel wraps around my hairline, and the length of the towel goes around the length. So if you've been arranging it width wise, (the way you usually see it done, by shorter haired people) you might try the other way.

You might also want to look for a fairly thin towel. Thick fluffy towels are nice for drying your body, but I find that they're quite unstable when used to wrap hair, particularly with the towel arranged lengthwise.

I have a waffle weave microfiber towel from here: http://www.neatitems.com/ in the second largest size (24x48): http://www.neatitems.com/microfiber_waffle_cloths.htm that is large, thin, very absorbant, and pretty much perfect for hair wrapping/drying. My hair is hip length, and the 24x48 size is a good fit. If I grow a lot longer, I might move up to a bath sheet (32x68) size at some point.

Feline
January 25th, 2009, 03:17 PM
I use a super-sized towel called a "bath sheet". I bought mine at Costco, but JC Penney usually has them, too. These towels are strictly reserved for my hair, no matter how tempting it might be to wrap up in them after a shower!:D

Dianyla
January 25th, 2009, 03:22 PM
I use a full-size bath towel, and then add on a hand-towel. And then the extra foot of hair just gets folded back into the towel some more. :)

Alley Cat
January 25th, 2009, 03:24 PM
Wow I never thought of the problems with really long hair , even when my hair reached hips I could still fit it in a towel :shrug:

Flaxen
January 25th, 2009, 05:04 PM
This is what CinnamonHair does (http://classiclength.googlepages.com/hairtowel.html). :smile:

Speedbump
January 25th, 2009, 07:09 PM
I use a super-tin Curlease microfiber towel, and I am getting ready to buy two new ones to sew together to make one big one because my hair is starting to get too long for it. I wrote to the people who make the towel and they sounded "enthused" about making larger ones for longhaired people, but they never got back to me...

Anywho, if your hubs wants to avoid frizzy dreds, the double Curlease towel might be the way to go. It does not have that waffle weave thing going on, which gives curly hair horrible frizzies. I can imagine dreds have a similar problem.

HTH! :cheese:

Speedy

MrsGuther
January 25th, 2009, 07:15 PM
Maybe he could try using two towels at once, perhaps?

Opal25
January 25th, 2009, 07:42 PM
Maybe he should try using a large microfiber towel like Rick Steve's Super Size Micronet Towel. You should be able to pull up his travel store website if you google it. HTH ;)

Curlsgirl
January 25th, 2009, 08:11 PM
I use a super-tin Curlease microfiber towel, and I am getting ready to buy two new ones to sew together to make one big one because my hair is starting to get too long for it. I wrote to the people who make the towel and they sounded "enthused" about making larger ones for longhaired people, but they never got back to me...

Anywho, if your hubs wants to avoid frizzy dreds, the double Curlease towel might be the way to go. It does not have that waffle weave thing going on, which gives curly hair horrible frizzies. I can imagine dreds have a similar problem.

HTH! :cheese:

SpeedyI wish they would do that! I love my curl-ease towel and you are right, the MF one does cause frizz for me too!

intothemist1999
January 25th, 2009, 08:54 PM
So....when is he joining?? ;)

Deborah
January 25th, 2009, 08:55 PM
He can just fold the bottom part up against the rest of the length, then wrap in about any normal sized towel.

intothemist1999
January 25th, 2009, 09:00 PM
He can just fold the bottom part up against the rest of the length, then wrap in about any normal sized towel.

I use a turbie knock-off. My hair is now too long for it. I bend over and put it on as though I was going to do it the normal way, but grab my hair about half way up the length and pull it closer to my head before twisting the whole works, sort of "shortening" it by doing that. It creates a little bit more bulk at the top of the head, but it works.

Themyst
January 25th, 2009, 11:01 PM
I use a beach towel sometimes. If it's not handy, then I just bend over and try to double up my hair as best as I can, looking like a maniac while trying to keep it all in there as I twist and wrap up the towel.

Why don't I just go out and buy more beach towels. Maybe I will.:D

puredoxyk
February 8th, 2009, 07:48 AM
Wow, thanks for all the great replies, everyone! (Sorry about the delay; somehow my settings got flummoxed and I didn't get emails for any of these. Awk.) There's a lot of good ideas here -- I think I might try one of the Curlease or other thin towels, possibly sewing two together. I had the idea to combine two regular towels, but it makes them too heavy -- you wouldn't *believe* how much dreadlocks already weigh when they're wet. I swear they hold ten pounds of water -- they're like sponges!

Thanks again -- and unfortunately, I don't think he'll be joining...he reads a dreadlock forum sometimes, but it's pretty sparse...but I did the 'locks for him three years ago and I've been the one maintaining them ever since. They're like my "secondary hair", heh. (Oddly enough, when I did his dreadlocks I had VERY short hair myself, so I'm more experienced with his hair than mine!)

Thanks again!

Drynwhyl
February 8th, 2009, 08:20 AM
I know how heavy they get...before he wraps them up, he should grab a section of hair at around middle lenght, and shake it in circles, you won't believe how much water gets out that way. As for the wrapping, just fold them and tuck between the head and the rest of the hair, so that part is in the towel too. I suck at explaining =\

rockkcor
February 8th, 2009, 08:24 AM
Best idea is to make your own!
As a matter of fact I was struggling to get towels big enough so that I can change my underwear after going home from the beech!
Now I bought towel material and I am finally satisfied with the size! (has to be at least 6 feet long!!)