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View Full Version : What to do when your natural texture is tentacles?



Ocelan
March 29th, 2013, 01:32 AM
Before LHC I thought my hair was stick straight. Well it was since every time I washed it I brushed it when it was wet and it did become straight. However now I CO and let my hair air dry I get some texture, but it's not the beautiful texture the beautiful wavies here have. My hair is an octopus... with tentacles... that look like they're going to try to reach for you soon... :hatchet:

My hair in it's natural state really isn't something that you could go out and about with without scaring people. It's a bunch of what start looking like waves at some point but then turn into various kinks. That's why I usually end up brushing my hair after it's dried and usually it gets put up. I wash my hair twice a week on sauna days, put it inside a towel or nowadays a t-shirt for a while to suck most of the water out and then do nothing until the morning. Yes, I sleep with damp hair loose (on a satin pillowcase). I'm sure it doesn't help the hair bending in more natural difections but it does this even when I let it completely air dry without myself or a pillow touching it, so I only think the sleeping flattens some parts or brings some frizz.

Now before I ramble more here, I'll give you the pictures. What would you do if you had my tentacl... umm, my hair?


This is my hair washed last night and slept on with nothing done to it. Here comes the octopus!
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3474&d=1364539829


And this is how my hair usually looks after I've brushed those things out in the morning. The photo is slightly blurry but I didn't bother to brush my octopus yet today, so old photo.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3475&d=1364540402

Quixii
March 29th, 2013, 01:48 AM
I have to admit, your title made me laugh. :laugh:

As for your dilemma, I'm not quite sure. I don't think it looks that bad, but if it's bothering you, surely something can be done. Since you are okay with altering your natural texture (brushing), have you tried other things, like plopping, damp bunning, damp braiding, etc.? Also, I bet if you continue trimming your hair so that your layers are less apparent, your ends will look less "tentacle-y."

lmfbs
March 29th, 2013, 02:34 AM
I came here because of the title. I'm not really sure what's wrong. Your hair just looks like hair. Your waves just clump. I'd bet with some more TLC you'd get even more pronounced waves.

Mommyof4
March 29th, 2013, 02:51 AM
Have you tried scrunching it while it's damp?

Mesmerise
March 29th, 2013, 02:58 AM
I'm pretty sure that if I went to bed with damp hair it'd come out looking worse than that in the morning ;).

As it is, I can't give good advice, as your hair pretty much looks fine to me! I guess it depends what you want to achieve with it. If it looks okay after brushing or combing, why not do that? Or comb it when it's wet if you don't like the odd wavies?

spirals
March 29th, 2013, 02:59 AM
I think that sleeping on it damp is distorting your natural pattern. If I let mine airdry during the day, I get spirals. If I sleep on it damp I have right angles the next morning. But, hey--if you can comb it out and it stays straight, it's a good look. Or you could rope braid it at night so you get spirally waves the next day.

woolyleprechaun
March 29th, 2013, 02:59 AM
My waves do that too :) I either damp braid, for the waves or make a damp bun on the top of my head for nice, sensible bun waves. I was horrified when I discovered my natural texture :P
I've got some bits that form stunning ringlets, and other poker straigth bits. The vast majority are uneven, kinky, bendy waves :/

Ocelan
March 29th, 2013, 03:18 AM
Oh, I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one with weird wave pattern. And I'm glad it doesn't seem to look as bad as I thought, atleast to some people's eyes. :) There really are some nice and pretty S-waves and even a few loose spirals, but some parts are just straight with a kink in the end.

I do sometimes scrunch a bit after I wash and the think I do with my t-shirt or towel is kind of like plopping. The sleeping on wet hair might do a little bit of harm but really, it's like this when it air dries aswell without touching too, only the waves are maybe a little more stretched. I might try the rope braiding if I manage to get my rope braids to stay at some point (they just do not like me!). Regular braid and rope braid waves just don't turn out very nice looking due to my layers and the tapering. Maybe I could try that with a paranda? I might try damp bunning aswell as it makes my hair really soft, but I need to get my spin pins first as I think that's the only way I could have my hair actually stay in the bun at night.

And I definitely do think or atleast hope the tentacles will decrease once I get my hemline thickened up! That however will still take a while...

jasper
March 29th, 2013, 04:30 AM
My hair does that too. Weird waves as it dries, unless I comb it out and then it will be mostly straight with some frizz. I usually wash at night and so will sleep with damp hair. I sleep with a braid and get braid waves now instead of the random tentacle waves from sleeping on loose damp hair.

Fantak
March 29th, 2013, 04:35 AM
My hair does that :) I always thought everyone's hair forms 'tentacles' (love the name!) when left to air dry. Mine also does it if I leave it down and don't comb it for a while which is frustrating.

The good news is it has become much better since I have been trimming it and the hemline has thickened :)

cathair
March 29th, 2013, 05:46 AM
When I saw the title I thought 'Wow, that sounds cool, I wonder what you have to do to get Kracken hair?' :D You've given me an idea of a Kracken bun with dangley tentacles and eyes. I wonder how that would look?

My hair clumps at the ends when I let it air dry very much like yours. Mine is a bit more wurly though (pic here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=10947&attachmentid=3445)if you want to see). I am trying to think what I do differently to you, If waves are what you want. I am still working on bringing them out more, really. I think probably mostly just that I don't sleep with it wet. I usually wash mine in the morning, then let it air dry when I am up and about. People give me weird looks for having wet hair, but I have quite a thick skin, I just don't care.

If I touch it at all, it will loose all the wurls and waves and end up sort of flat, with a slight wave. I imagine that if I slept on my hair wet, I would also knock all of the wurls out, because I would move around too much. Do you know how wurly or not you are if you leave it to air dry while you are still up? If not maybe that is worth a go, so you know what kind of results you can expect?

Quahatundightu
March 29th, 2013, 07:28 AM
I had / have this issue as well! Thickening my hemline definitely helped, so I think you're on the right track with cutting off half your monthly growth. Sleeping on damp hair would not look great for me - I do a top knot bun instead which gives me better results. Some hair types just like to clump unfortunately! I try to let mine dry into its natural spirals, but depending on the weather after a long day the spirals can loosen and end up looking very octopus-like. Perhaps you could try encouraging more curl with gel or CG type methods to see if you like the results?

Ocelan
March 29th, 2013, 07:29 AM
Yes I've tried just air drying. It's done pretty much the same as it does if I sleep on it wet even though the tentacles may be a little more stretched out. They're still not pretty waves mostly, just... that thing you saw there. I don't remeber if I scrunched before leaving to dry last time I tried to naturally air dry. I don't have time to wash in the morning in the weekdays and we go to sauna on wednesday and saturday evenings so I don't really have much option for when to wash my hair. Maybe in the summer I will try to do that more to see what I can get.

I once tried to plop overnight and ended up with slightly better results but still half tentacles (might be due to hair bending a weird way inside the t-shirt) and a sore neck/headache, so I haven't done that again. When my hair is dry I will usually sleep with it braided.

Kherome
March 29th, 2013, 07:46 AM
It looks to me like a tad bit of damage/dryness at the ends there. I think in time with trims you'll no longer have an octopus.

Ocelan
March 29th, 2013, 10:04 AM
The ends are a bit dry in the winter but they do not feel very damaged. I just did S&D today and could only find about 10 very small splits and some white spots in the ends of hairs, but obviously that hair at the ends has gotten dyed many many times when I still dyed my hair with chemical dyes so there can be dormant damage still lurking. I hope it will get better with trims as I do nowadays hate my layers with a passion. :cool:

goldloli
March 29th, 2013, 01:22 PM
I have the same problem atm and it's pretty much just because of the layers. They cause the ends to bent in weird ways and look stringy/tentacle-y, this is the reason for my current trimming addiction too.

lapushka
March 29th, 2013, 02:12 PM
Looks to me like you're stuck between straight and wavy, like 1b/1c, or something like that. Maybe that's the reason why you're having these difficulties. Try scrunching, treating it more like wavy hair and see how that goes.

Nebulae
March 29th, 2013, 05:16 PM
Oh, I have tentacles too!
On me I assume they come from layers and damage and I hope that my hair will look better as I trim all of that pre-LHC hair off. It will take me a while though since I don't want to chop. :( I think your tentacles will look better once your layers are gone!
I think it might have something to do with hair type too.. It's like my hair is trying to clump like a wavy/curly when I'm straight/wavy :confused: I think this octopus needs some counseling to find its true identity :lol:

AngryVikingGirl
March 29th, 2013, 06:18 PM
Hahaha! You have nice tentacles! And a good sense of humor! Thanks for the laugh!
Advice, not much. Everything has already been said. It looks fine brushed out. What exactly would you like it to look like?

JadeTigress
March 29th, 2013, 06:38 PM
I feel your pain, my hair does the same thing. Even when it was all one length and virgin. Brushing only works temporarily; if I leave my hair down it starts looking like that again not very long after I've brushed. I'd have to brush it every 20 minutes to keep it looking nice. :p I don't really have any advice (I could use some advice myself), but I just figured I'd let you know that you're not the only one with wonky hair. :p

Ocelan
March 30th, 2013, 05:24 AM
Ok so definitely seems like a layers + some damage + hairtype combo. I will definitely keep trimming off the layers slowly, but don't want to do a big cut as I am trying to grow my hair for a mermaid photoshoot in the summer. After that I might just chop a few inches off just to be done with it. However at the moment I'm only microtrimming as I want as much length gained for the photo as possible. :)

AngryVikingGirl: What I want basically would be to know if there's something with my routine that I'm definitely doung wrong or something I could do better to get more consistent waves/body for my hair. The other option is that my hair just is like that and there's nothing to help it. I wouldn't mind doing something more to my hair every now and then to get out the most of it to be able to wear it down with the natural or natural helped texture, but atm the only option is to brush it or give it artificial other type of texture by braiding or curling. I can't really use much product like gel they usually use for CG method as they seem to be all scented of laden with things I do not want in my hair here. I am hypersensitive to scents. I might have a try with AVG though once I happen to wash my hair in the morning for once.

Thanks for all the replies so far and I would of course appreciate even more of them! It has already helped to know I'm not alone with this "problem".

AngryVikingGirl
March 30th, 2013, 06:54 PM
Aha, I see. I'm not an expert on this, but one thing came into my mind. Cones are reported to straighten hair, if I remember well. Of course if you're already using a coney shampoo or you don't want to use one that's not an option. Apart from that, trimming? Yes, I know you don't want that right now.

mira-chan
March 30th, 2013, 07:35 PM
Ok so definitely seems like a layers + some damage + hairtype combo. I will definitely keep trimming off the layers slowly, but don't want to do a big cut as I am trying to grow my hair for a mermaid photoshoot in the summer. After that I might just chop a few inches off just to be done with it. However at the moment I'm only microtrimming as I want as much length gained for the photo as possible. :)

AngryVikingGirl: What I want basically would be to know if there's something with my routine that I'm definitely doung wrong or something I could do better to get more consistent waves/body for my hair. The other option is that my hair just is like that and there's nothing to help it. I wouldn't mind doing something more to my hair every now and then to get out the most of it to be able to wear it down with the natural or natural helped texture, but atm the only option is to brush it or give it artificial other type of texture by braiding or curling. I can't really use much product like gel they usually use for CG method as they seem to be all scented of laden with things I do not want in my hair here. I am hypersensitive to scents. I might have a try with AVG though once I happen to wash my hair in the morning for once.

Thanks for all the replies so far and I would of course appreciate even more of them! It has already helped to know I'm not alone with this "problem".

Try making your own flax gel. It's just a couple of spoons of seeds into a couple cups of water boiled a few minutes and let cool. You can add essential oils if you want a sent of you choice in it, or nothing at all. It works for me in holding those waves that disappear when I touch my hair. Mine doesn't clump in tentacles unless it's super moisturized, gelled, oiled or gooky. It usually fluffs ridiculously instead, comb or no. Can't win.

earthnut
March 30th, 2013, 11:14 PM
I'd brush, if that doesn't create frizz. Just because you CO doesn't mean you can't brush. The main point of avoiding brushing is to avoid frizz, but if you don't get frizz from brushing, there's no reason to not do it.

I was trying to maximize my curls for a while, doing the whole CG and no touching thing. My hair never looked that great. I was hoping my hair would find it's 3a self though CG, but after several months I had to accept that I'm just not a 3.

I like CO and I don't like brushing, but I also don't like no-touching. Recently I've been giving my hair a good finger-combing instead, and I'm liking the results so far.

earthnut
March 30th, 2013, 11:17 PM
I can't really use much product like gel they usually use for CG method as they seem to be all scented of laden with things I do not want in my hair here. I am hypersensitive to scents.

I just leave some of my regular conditioner in my hair rather than using gel. My hair doesn't like gel.

Ocelan
March 31st, 2013, 01:07 AM
Thanks for the gel/condish suggestions! I guess I'll just keep brushing (doesn't seem to create much frizz for me) apart from the now and then trial of making more out of my waves. I just tried to give myself bandana waves yesterday and liked the result, so I think most of the time when I need waves I'll do that now, since they're so much nicer than my own texture. This, atleast until I get my hemline thickened up.

Thank you all for your replies! :blossom:

jacqueline101
March 31st, 2013, 05:30 AM
Have you tried pick combing the clumps out? After you do that maybe a leave in conditioner on the length to hold down the layers until they grow out.

arcane
March 31st, 2013, 07:07 AM
My hair used to do that, and too an extent it still kinda does (it's my hair type). For me as I got rid of th ends that's were heavily dyed/bleached it improved. Even though I didn't have lots of visible signs of damage the dye did cause my hair to clump a lot more.

Unicorn
March 31st, 2013, 01:14 PM
The ends are a bit dry in the winter but they do not feel very damaged. I just did S&D today and could only find about 10 very small splits and some white spots in the ends of hairs, but obviously that hair at the ends has gotten dyed many many times when I still dyed my hair with chemical dyes so there can be dormant damage still lurking. I hope it will get better with trims as I do nowadays hate my layers with a passion. :cool:

My first thought on seeing the picture, was that there had been some chemical or heat damage on the hair from just below APL down, (the lower 1/3) as there seems to be a change of texture at that point. I guess that this is what happens to your particular hair when it has minor damage. I suspect that once this hair is grown out and trimmed off, you'll have soft waves and maybe even gentle wurls on the ends, when your hair is washed and air dried.

Your [quoted] post seems to be confirming that there is some potential for damage, albeit minor enough for it not to show once the hair is brushed.

Unicorn

trolleypup
March 31st, 2013, 11:27 PM
My first thought on reading the title was "keep growing for longer tentacles?"

Yup tentacles here. And my wave pattern varies depending on my wash method.

Ocelan
April 1st, 2013, 01:10 AM
Oh more tentacly people! I guess It's not so bad then. If the beautiful haired trolleypup has tentacles then so may I. :cool: I will be slowly growing out the damage that I have still lurking around but I will definitely still keep growing longer with just the necessary trims.

I just did an SMT and scrunched after wash yesterday. The waves became slightly less tentacly at some points but they're still tentacles. My waves also dry less wavy/more stretched out than what they look like when all the excess water has beensqueezed out. I guess that's where the gel type things would come in handy.

Toadstool
April 1st, 2013, 11:09 AM
Well, I like your tentacles and your hemline- I think they look pretty.

Anje
April 1st, 2013, 11:16 AM
Add me to the tentacle people, though I think mine tend to be a bit thinner. Think more jellyfish.... I've got minimal damage, so I think for me it's mostly just a texture thing.

When all else fails, if you don't like the tentacles, you can braid them together.

truepeacenik
April 1st, 2013, 11:21 AM
I'm a squid. I can have my hair in a braid and the tassel will tentacle.
Add oils, add obviousness.

It sounds like after your photo shoot, you could just hold your nose and lop off the damage. Frankly, I'd go for that. Start with the virgin section and grow forward.

Ocelan
April 1st, 2013, 11:28 AM
Yes I think after the photoshoot I will snip off most of the rest of my layers since after that I get to grow in peace for a while, but I won't be cutting all my layers yet since the shortest face framing layers are around collar bone or APL length and I just am not ready to be shorter than waist length again anytime soon. So I'm going slow for now. Let there be tentacles for a while. :)

Unicorn
April 1st, 2013, 03:36 PM
As the texture change is only visible under very specific conditions, do you need to do a chop? It doesn't seem visible at all in your brushed hair.

Unicorn

elea
April 1st, 2013, 04:58 PM
my hair does that and I get asked what I do to get it that way.
erm... nothing! *;O)
curlier mind, some hoops, some straight, some weavy; it's the "all in one" deal

I think we all have our own hair, trick is to embrace it and make the best of it.

alternatively, you could sock curl it, add oil when wet and comb when dry, braid it or bun it at night then fine comb it.
me... I like the "locks": octopus all the way yay! *8OD

ravenheather
April 1st, 2013, 09:17 PM
I say long live the tentacles!

Long_hair_bear
April 1st, 2013, 09:37 PM
I have the tentacles too! Brushing my ends makes them go away..... for like 5 minutes! /sigh

truepeacenik
April 1st, 2013, 10:14 PM
Yes I think after the photoshoot I will snip off most of the rest of my layers since after that I get to grow in peace for a while, but I won't be cutting all my layers yet since the shortest face framing layers are around collar bone or APL length and I just am not ready to be shorter than waist length again anytime soon. So I'm going slow for now. Let there be tentacles for a while. :)

If you went to a blunt hemline at waist, would that be a happy place for you? I think you'd have a great hemline there. Possibly waist+ 2 inches or so.

I had to do several allllllmost classic to tailbone cuts between 2007-2009

WilfredAllen
April 2nd, 2013, 12:01 AM
hehehehehe get a career in hentai xD

sorry


but seriously... your hair looks fine to me. Maybe you have a case of the looking-at-it-too-hards :)

KittyBird
April 2nd, 2013, 03:11 AM
There's nothing wrong with having tentacles! My hair is quite tentacly too, but there's just so much of it that it's not very visible. Combing it works well for me, it removes the tentaclyness and turns it into one huge, unmanageable mass of hair :)

Mischamiu
April 2nd, 2013, 03:58 AM
I actually like it! It looks different but I think it looks nice :D I would try putting lots of cone free conditioner and scrunching

Ocelan
April 2nd, 2013, 09:44 AM
I think I would not be quite happy chopping to waist length, but it's only been about 9 months since I hit waist length in the first place so I think after a few months of growing and trimming my hemline will be much better and still stay at hip where I feel happy enough.

I've only been microtrimming 3-4 months (only cut about an inch alltogether so far) and my hemline has started improving already. In a month I will be able to cut maybe an inch off again which will leave maybe 3 inches of really layered hair left. The rest is less layered and that I can live with, atleast until times when I need regular trims anyway.

trolleypup
April 5th, 2013, 11:34 AM
http://www.trolleypup.info/lhc/130329-121247-Tentacles-on-Sentinel-Rock-W-med.jpg

Ocelan
April 6th, 2013, 01:45 AM
Trolleypup, that looks wonderful! And I love the scenery. Makes me wish the snow would melt here so we would get some green going on.

Nae
April 6th, 2013, 11:31 AM
Trolleypup, you always have the best pictures. Just saying.