ow! everything hurts!

[nytquill]

I'm sure this has been talked about before and I don't really think there are any solutions to it; I think it's just a matter of scalp and hair type and personal preference but...

It seems like almost every hairdo I try hurts my head! I think it's a weight issue, my hair is almost to waist although rather thin in my opinion and the individual hairs are sort of medium-fine. So it's just hard to distribute the weight well without all of it ending up balanced on a few individual hairs.

Oddly the thing I have found that hurts most is a plain simple pony. No matter how I make it, where I put it or how many elastics I use to hold it up, inevitably all the weight will end up on just some of the hair and I feel like I'm giving myself a facelift! Not to mention the pulling hairs. Loose ones pull a teeny bit less but they just slide right out and I have to keep adjusting my hair all day long which just isn't practical for me.

Anything that involves using clips or bobby pins to hold up the hair (like buns) is somewhat more tolerable but still tugs a lot. It makes me sad because there's so many pretty hairstyles, buns and updos and different kinds of ponies I'd love to include in my repertoire but I simply can't wear them longer than a few minutes or my head starts to hurt from all the hair pulling.

Oddly the one thing that is super duper wear all day comfortable is a plain old English braid, even if I gather it really high and it has a little swing to it, doesn't bother my head at all. So right now I'm stuck with braids and the occasional bun (cinnabun or just bun the braid I've already got) and it feels so boring, but every time I try to branch out it's like oops, no, my hair can't handle that. Argh!

[atlantaz3]

I've been having the same issues. Ponys seem to pull just a few hairs, no matter how I try to loosen scalp hairs. I like my amish hair pins but after a few days same issue. What I can wear almost every day are forks. I have metal ones from Speharb, my guess is the weight of the bun, scalp holding hairs are more evenly distributed. I have a wooden fork on order and hope it will have the same luck as the metal ones.

[Purdy Bear]

Does it still hurt when someone else does the braid or updo?

It maybe you have a natural ability to do the braids tight, or more heavy handed with one hand then the other.

It would be interesting to see if your left handed or right, since a lot of dos are made for righties and as such some lefties may have problems.

NB Im ambidextrous.

PS I did have this problem when I was a child, but I cant remember how I got round it. I think I just started to braid further down the pony tail leaving a lot of head room (braid from the nape of the neck if you have the length).

[bumblebums]

Ugh, I cannot handle ponytails. I don't know how longer-haired gals wear them. Maybe their scalps are not as sensitive.

For me, braids are best as well, but a few other things I might suggest are:

- Hair forks! I am wearing a 60th street 3-prong right now, and it does not tug or pull. It takes a bit of practice to make the bun loose enough so it holds and does not tug, but it works, trust me!

- A folded braid held up by a Flexi-8. You make an English braid (no elastic), point it up, then fold it as many times as you have to, tuck the ends under, and clip it to your head with a Flexi-8 of the appropriate size.

- A bun held up by three Good Hair Days hairpins. They hold like a rock and don't fall out, but they also don't tug. You can find them in most drug stores or at Sally's (in the US).

[HairColoredHair]

Honestly, at 'round waist, ponytails became nigh onto impossible for me.

If I did them loose enough not to pull hair, they fell out.

If I did them tightly enough to stay, they pull and hurt.

I stopped doing ponytails.

[Ksenia]

I have a great big clip bigger than my palm that looks like a "D" which is the only thing which will hold up my hair when dry without feeling like it's tugging out hairs. If I try anything else on dry hair it tugs too much - do you notice a difference when you put your hair up damp vs dry?

[paperwhite]

- A bun held up by three Good Hair Days hairpins. They hold like a rock and don't fall out, but they also don't tug. You can find them in most drug stores or at Sally's (in the US).

I second this wholeheartedly! I had to order my GHD pins online, but they were well worth the wait. I can bun my hair using only three pins and I think you get 10 in a package

[Gumball]

I think most of the time it's a matter of weight distribution. Thinner hair or thicker hair, one just has more weight to distribute than the other. Often if even a little of the weight tugs somewhere it will cause the sensation to get annoying and likely pull. With each new length it's a lesson in learning what works with that length, whether it's doing away with an old style, finding a new one, or modifying one to work with what you've got.

Another thing to note is that if you normally don't do much to your hair, or do one thing over and over, then the muscles attached to your hair follicles grow accustomed to doing that one thing, or leaning in that one direction. When they are made to go in another direction it goes against what they are familiar with and they ache, just like if you hold your arm bent for a long time and then try to straighten it back out. It's doable, but for a little while it will be sore.

For a ponytail that consistently hurts, regardless of the hair ties used, then I would imagine it's because the length that hangs down from the ties isn't distributed evenly weight-wise, so it begins to try and bend down where it's tied at. If it does that, the first thing that starts to pull is the hair on the top, in particular around the front hairline, which causes that bothersome "facelift pain." A lot of people who don't tie the tails tightly have it look like it's drooping slightly after a while, and this goes along with that idea. As their ties aren't always so tight, the pulling sections might have some leeway to escape a little, curbing how much pulling they might feel.