BSL to Waist to Hip to Annoying....

[Vanille_]

Has anyone else run into this dilemma: Wanted to grow hair out. Grew hair out. Now really annoyed with long hair. I went from BSL to a bit past hip, inching closer and closer to tailbone. I find almost every day I am annoyed with my hair. It gets in my face; it sheds EVERYWHERE; it takes forever to dye; the dye stains everything; when I sleep with a braid it gets loose and annoying; if I make the mistake of not braiding it at bedtime I end up being choked by my own hair or constantly flipping it often times over my face or hitting DH; sexy time with DH is full of hair flipping if I make the mistake of not tying it back; braiding takes longer and is harder because the bottom constantly gets tangled and needs to be brushed out; hair is slippery and falls out of buns; hair scares me when it touches my wrists because I think it's a spider; hair sheds EVERYWHERE - I know I said it already but I mean it: showers, toilets, food, bed...; cleaning brush scares me since it looks like so much hair; washing hair is annoying and tedious; when I avoid said washing, hair is disgusting but I still dread the wash so it gets even more gross; hair doesn't look great down because it reflects light too much so every single broken hair sticks out; braids look okay for five minutes and then start loosening and looking very messy; seems like there is more hair on my floors than the fur of both of my two cats combined; forced to clean vacuum after every use due to previous statement.

Man, I swore I'd never consider a cut... but I'm almost not sure that this is worth it anymore. It's gotten to the point where I almost can't stand my hair down and when it's up, it better be damn secure which it often time isn't due to previous statement of slipperiness.

So... I can't be alone. Did you go through this phase? What did you do?

[mzBANGBANG]

I went through this at 29 inches, settled with trimming out my layers. Now it's back at 28. Honestly I've just decided my happiness and hair length don't necessarily correlate. But instead of cutting it I've just decided to allow myself a more conventional routine. Read: I bought a gigantic curling iron....and now I love my hair again.

I go through phases all the time. Not everything on LHC is for me 100% of the time. But I know I do want length on my hair and thinking about intentionally losing length doesn't come up as much as just wanting ny hair to be different.

[Vanille_]

I think I need to learn how to crown braid. What I think I'd like to do is have a really secure crown braid to get it off my face and neck. Buns are okay sometimes, but they are also boring.

[henné]

My hair has just now reached hip and a couple of days ago I already had a bit of a weird 'situation' in the bathroom ... Let's just say that those days when I could use the toilet with my hair down ... are over. :rollin:

I'm pretty sure I don't want my hair longer than hip. I definitely want less layers, so I'll grow the layers out, get a nice trim and then just maintain at hip. Longer hair than that is just not for me.

About the shedding ... ugh, yeah. I shed a mouse or two a day :D

[lapushka]

I'm between hip & TBL and I can't say I have these issues, but then my hair is up 6 days out of 7, in the same updo (a doubly folded peacock twist with a claw clip). It's up on the seventh day until it gets washed and after it's been washed it's back up (in a half-up). The half-up is pretty annoying, but I just don't fully want my hair up when it's just been washed. I sleep with my hair folded underneath my head, and it stays there pretty much the entire night (I don't move much). Or, it gets splayed over my pillow. It doesn't bother me much. I am inching closer and closer to TBL, though, and I find it's getting pretty challenging, with it starting to fall out of its turbie twist, with it inching closer to the toilet when in a half-up (needing to pay attention to that). It's getting to be *that* length and I'm thinking TBL might be my limit. But then my goal length is classic. Hmmm...

[kidari]

I wish I had your problem! My dream length is TBL and the thought of being at hip makes me swoon with happiness. How about doing a combination of a few buns near each other secured with U pins or Amish pins? Sometimes my hair is straight and slippery, which makes it a challenge to put in a secure updo. I can't do braids, because of the way my hair is layered. I remedy my problem by sleeping in rag rollers overnight. The hair is out of the way while I sleep and in the morning it's already styled and it's easier to put up and if I choose to put it down during the day it looks amazing. To make it less time consuming, do it on dry hair and spray it lightly and evenly with water or conditioner or Kimberlily's defrizz spray or rosewater, etc. and take large sections of hair and rag roll it. It's faster and gives you loose curls.

I do understand how you feel though, last time I was at waist I felt like you but not for the same reasons. I was over sensitive about not damaging my hair and stressed myself out over my hair and it consumed me. Also, I grew out my bangs and layers a lot and when my hair was down I looked awful the more the layers were growing out and the longer my hair was getting. I snipped in my bangs again, cut fresh layers, started wearing my hair in curls or waves and now that I'm back at waist again I feel like my hair is too short!

[Vanille_]

Maybe I should just keep it up at all times :( Although, now it's even harder to brush. I can't brush it with the hair all the way behind me anymore. So I put it to one side, brush it, then to the other side to brush it and by the time I put it back in the back, it's somehow gotten messed up again!

[Vanille_]

I'd never considered any rollers. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Seeshami]

These are times when benign neglect is the best way to go. Keep it confined in the easiest style you know until you decide what you want to do with it. Learning new styles and experimenting with what I know has helped me through not knowing what to do with my hair.


If you end up wanting to cut it do it in small increments so you can find the happy length and they re grow it and decide from there.

[kidari]

No problem! It's actually a good thing that hair doesn't grow all that fast since every time it reaches a new length or stage you have to sometimes figure things out all over again. Have fun experimenting and good luck! I also recommend testing out products with cones if you have issues with tangles. Leave-in conditioner sprays on the ends prior to detangling helps a ton. Also, I usually always have it up and when I take it down I brush through it with a BBB or a paddle brush and all my shed hairs end up on the brush instead of all over the place (well it still does but a lot less). As my hair passed BSL I use tons of leave-ins now, I seriously adore serums that contain oils and cones and other things like keratin and etc. Not for everyone, but worth a try?

[jeanniet]

I felt this way at just about the same length--BCL, more or less. I think a lot of it for me was just that my hair is thick and tangles easily. I like to wear it down at home, and it was just getting annoying. So I cut off about 3" over a couple of weeks, and that made a big difference. You wouldn't think 3" would have much of an effect, but it did. I realized that I prefer my hair between waist and hip, or roughly an inch above hip. I can still do my updos, but it doesn't bug me as much down. In fact, I think I need to trim off about an inch now!

[nobeltonya]

When I got past hip, the most irritating thing for me was it was always getting caught in my belt or the top of my jeans.. now, it gets caught in my keys XD But I just figured out how to work around that.. oils and leave-in helped make my hair stickier so it'd stay in buns and braids.. it's also nowhere as staticky [sp?]. I put mine in a nautilus bun to sleep, although if I lay on it and end up on my back, it'll come loose.. and my husband and boys [we co-sleep] cannot lay still for anything.. it definitely requires a lot of patience and awareness to keep it long, but I think if you were going to cut it shorter, start with a few inches at a time, at the most.. you don't want to lose years worth of growing and hate it. :disco:

[kallarina]

When I get the urge to cut, I just remember that no matter what I do, my hair will always be there. It will always be a issue, there will always be some maintenance required. Even if I shaved my head, it would require maintence. So do I prefer to keep it long where I am capable of having plenty of styling options, or cut it off and severely limit myself and make the problem of it being in my way worse? I choose to keep it long. I play around with braiding ribbons into it, and scarves, I go buy a new headband or make a funky hair stick out of a painted chopstick to change things up. I didn't like my hair at hip. Now at solid tailbone, it's playing nice again and I can enjoy it down again.

[jacqueline101]

I'm at bra strap length I'm heading towards mid back length it seems to take a long time.