Hairline-Friendly Styles and Tips

[Arctic]

I recently started to suspect, that my front hairline might be slightly thinner than it used to be few years ago. I might be wrong, I need to keep an eye on it for a while. I'm not panicing or anything, but wanted to be proactive, and make sure I'll wear my hair in styles that are not putting stress on the front of my hair (both top "fringe" area and sides/temples).

Googleing brought up sites and results aimed mostly for African heritage / kinky curly hair (no tight cornrows, etc), or were more about how to cut your hair, aimed both for males or females (=short) or were trying to sell some camouflaging products or snakeoils. Maybe my search words were not the best though.

Sooo, I was thinking if we could make a thread about hairline-friendly and also hairline-unfriendly styles (so we can avoid the latter!) for longer hair, and other tips, which does not involve cutting hair into short bob or pixie.

All hairtypes are welcome, by no means I don't want to exclude tightly curlies or anyone else from chiming in. I just mentioned type 4 hair above, based on my google searches. There is lot of info aimed for this hairtype, and I have found the articles to be very helpful, through and informative for the most part. Yet there seems to be very little aimed to straighter hairtypes especially with longer hair. Also men are welcome to post, they have their unique problems. I'd love tips from all hairtypes: 1 to 4, thick to thin, fine to coarse, shorter, long and loooooonger.

My own hair is not long yet, but long enough for many braids and updos (about collarbone length), and we can concentrate on ideas concerning medium to long/longer hair.



Cutting a fringe seems popular advice. I already cut some face framing layers last autumn, which helps from having too much tension on my fringe area hair.

Tight hairstyle are bad.

What about crown braid, french type braids, normal buns. Somewhere someone said that high buns (the very popular top knot) put more pressure on front hairline than buns at the nape. Do you agree? My hair might be a tad too short for nape buns.

For tightly curly: How would you style longer lengths?

For men, long haired men specifically: what style you'd do? I assume vintage inspired style where sides are pushed forward might not be your thing?

For thinner and /or sparser hair: what styles work best for you making the most of what you've got and being hairline-friendly?

There are also many home remedies, it seems. I personally can't use oils other than essential oils. I have also started doing caffeine rinses.


Sooo, let's get brainstorming!

Oh, and if your tips/idea is specific to some hairtype (say only a very thick hair could make that hairdo), maybe write that down too.


ETA: In these posts I explain more how I envisioned this thread - I probably should edit the first post a bit:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...=1#post2965869
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...=1#post2966061

[Madora]

How to create a "pouf" when bunning: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=126475

Inversion braiding: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=126929

I also use inversion braiding for a faux lace braid effect: lace braided in the front (tension not tight so front hairs are not pulled back tightly) from one ear to the other, then remainder of hair loosely braided and wound around the head to form a braided crown.

[lapushka]

You can't but bun tight at shorter lengths - comes with the territory. It takes length to be able to do updos like you are supposed to do them. What I recommend for shoulder and APL is a simple peacock twist. It won't pull on your hair one bit.

[meteor]

I like sectioning hair or doing double/triple buns to distribute the weight and reduce the pulling in one spot. I also noticed that center-held buns pull more (in that center) than spread-out buns (e.g. cinnabun, infinity/figure-8 ).

For sectioning, I think these approaches can be pretty helpful:
- braiding some areas and adding the braids to the main bun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBlPI-JsMfE
- half-ups to buns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZvXrEOfJ4w
- braided beehive (2 or more braids - each going on top of the other bunned braid): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEdMa1HvQmA
- hair-taping (2 coronet braids, taped together): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlwnlfDYzk8
- Amish braids (2 braids woven into pockets, forming an updo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PYjubahR6g
- faux hawk (3 or more buns stacked on top of each other in a Mohawk-ish way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHsFIslbwkM
- bun + coronet(s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQXu9enBrK0 (Regency updo), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOHj74Kk7DU (Renaissance updo)
- double/triple/multiple buns side by side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgXwdARH_oM

etc. etc. ...

[MINAKO]

I think this issue rather depends on the weight of the hair than the style, unless someone buns insanely tight all the time, which i imagine to be too hurtful to wear anyways.
Like every six months when my hair has become noticabl longer and heavier i have this moment as well, asking myself if my hairline is starting to receed verrry slowly. So far it doesnt. You can actually tell by raising your eyebrows up intensely, where your hair would naturally start and if anything is missing.
I think the key is to not overtwist the base when bunning, stop before your forehead starts to feel tight and you will be fine i guess. Also distribute the weight of the bun evenly by properly inserting the toy. The wider the two points are apart and the more hair you grab from the scalp along the way the less tension will occur in one particular spot. Whith this in mind almost any LHC typical updo will be hairline friendly.

[Colochita]

As someone with a kinkier texture, I rarely slick all of my hair back into a low bun. My hair is so thick that the very front of my hair would have to be held super tightly to flatten everything beneath it. Instead, I usually do something with the front - a pompadour or small crown braids - and pull the rest back loosely.

[Arctic]

Thank you ladies! So we have 4 thick haired persons giving tips and sharing thoughts. Any other hair types?


Madora - thank you for the links! I'll have to practice some sort of poof too, I have best luck, visually, with poofs that are off-center, sort of vintage-y style (long face shape).

lapushka - thanks you for chiming in! Oh my, I most certainly did wear too tight buns last summer, it was just grown long enough to bun and I was extatic! Thankfully by now, with my thickness, I can do many comfortable styles that are not too tight. I can't yet make many buns popular on LHC, but I can do few. Mostly I have been braiding lately.

Peacock twist is a great idea! I would add french twist too!


meteor - Wow thanks so much for the numerous links! I'll have to check them out in the coming days! Good points about sectioning! I'll have to start practicing that more.


MINAKO - Considering that four first people commenting on this thead are of iii thickness, you are probably right that the weight of the hair is a big factor. But I am sure people with all thicknesses suffer from thinning hairlines and pulling hairstyles.

I'll have to try your method of checking the hair line, thanks for the idea! Also thanks for sharing your experiences about hairline-friendly styles!

You are probably right that many popular styles at LHC are automaticly hairline-friendly too.

[Arctic]

Colochita - We were posting at the same time. Thank you for participating! So you'd say nape buns pull more than buns that are more up? I'll have to start doing the small pompadour more, too. I do small french braids on the fringe and / or sides quite often too, and have noticed they do seem very comfortable. I bet your crown braid style looks great! I love crown braids!

[Arctic]

Talking about crown braids:

I recently learned finally how to make a crown braid that looks neat and pretty, and works on my hair, that is thinner in the front and thicker in the back. Now I wonder if it is, however, good for the front hairline area - especially if I sleep in it (because I get nice waves!).

I don't know if any of you who have very thick hair can imagine in your minds, but my front hair is really quite sparse, has always been, and when I add sections from the front to the crown braid, the braid is sort of connected to the hairline with these relatively few added sections. I have not counted, but I might have enough hair in the front to add something like 15 thinnish sections to the braid (and that is the whole distance from ear over forehead to other ear). I don't keep the sections super thin, because that seems like the braid would be hanging from only few hairs. I think my added sections are about pinkyfinger size.

I use lace braid because it makes distributing my hair easier, but it also means the braid itself isn't as sturdy as a regular dutch braid would be, and it literally hangs from those sections added from the front. I don't braid tightly at all, mind you, and it feels sturdy enough and I always pin it in place all around the braid. It feels comfortable and doesn't seem to pull or move.

Now would this braid be considered bad for the front hairline?

[Colochita]

Thank you Arctic. Yes I'd definitely say for me that nape buns pull more versus one higher up. I guess the weight is distributed more evenly on all of my edges versus pulling at just the front.