Big mistake!

[cobden 28]

Six months ago I decided to have a fringe cut into my hair, because my husband said that with my hair tied back in a ponytail (how I usually wear it), I look like an old granny - especially if I wear my hair up. I have a photograph of my parents' wedding back in the 1950's and yes, I do look the spitting image of my paternal grandma who was in her late 70's at the time, so my husband's comments about the 'old granny' look aren't said just to annoy, it's the truth!

At first I thought my fringe was fine; I have a good hairdresser I can trust not to cut too much off when I go for a trim, but with the arrival of the summer weather I discovered one reason why I'd grown my fringe out all those years ago. On a hot summers' day my forehead gets all sweaty and the skin of my forehead all spotty underneath a heavy fringe, also at the end of the day I have a 'suntan line' across the middle of my forehead with lobster-pink skin below and lilly-white and freckly above, under where my fringe is. Not a pretty sight! :(

I've recently discovered a second reason why I grew my fringe out....what the hairdresser calls a 'cowlick', this being the way my fringe grows in that the left side of the frionge sticks up at an awkward angle whereas the right side of my fringe hangs down nice and neat-like. I tried to trim the offending cowlick myself but made a right hash of the job, ending up with a lovely wavy line of a fringe, so i had to nip into a local hairdresser to have my fringe neatened up and cut in a straight line as well as being thinned out for coolness. This has left me with a fringe somewhat shorter than I would have preferred but at least it's in a sort of straight line.....if not for that darned cowlick!

I've now come to the conclusion the only way round the probl;em is to grow my fringe out again. At the rate my hair grows it will be two years before I can tie it back in a ponytail/off my face in a topknot/put it up neatly.

Tomorrow when I'm out and about I'll be booking myself in for a proper professional trim - I need an inch or so of untidy split ends cut off the length but will probably not need anything done to the fringe as it was trimmed only a fortnight ago. I'm just going to have to wait now till my fringe is long enough to be held back with an Alice band at least - probably about four to six months.

Should I keep the long ends of my hair - just fractionally above waist - at the length they are whilst I wait several years for my fringe to grow out completely, or should I carry on trying to grow the long ends of my hair at the same time as trying to grow my fringe out?

[BlazingHeart]

Cowlicks in the bangs are a huge nuisance! Can't live with them, can't cut 'em out...

Hopefully your fringe will grow out quickly! Who knows, you may find you like it when it grows out to face-framing length instead of where it is now.

Oh, and regarding whether to hold your length up, well, I guess that depends on whether it will bother you to have a few little bits in the front that aren't as long as the rest. If you want to keep growing, I say why not! If you want it all together, though, you do you.

[Flor]

You could always use a wide fabric headband to pull bangs back. And once they gets long enough, you could pin them to the side (fake side bangs style). It'll be a change from your "old granny" style :)

When I had bangs (for rather short time), I used to straighten them. They wouldn't lay nicely otherwise. I think a lot of people heat-style their bangs, especially if they intend to keep them (they get trimmed frequently anyway, so damage is less of a concern).

Don't do anything with your length for the sake of bangs though. Treat them as two separate entities.

[cobden 28]

I remember back around 2006 - 2007 when I was growing my fringe out last time it wasn't long enough for AGES to tie back in a ponytail so I had to make do with an Alice band and be careful about little sticky-up ends of my former fringe till they grew long enough to tuck back behind by ears, which took almost two years.

NO WAY am I going to have the length of my hair cut off short - it's my lifetime ambition to be able to sit on the ends when I wear my hair down, and I'm so near that yet also so far away from it! I do have untidy split ends, no doubt about that - but fortunately I also have a reliable hairdresser who knows just how much to trim off in order to make the ends look nice and neat and even.

[cobden 28]

And by the way, I don't have any recent photo's of me taken since I had the fringe cut into my hair; I'm too embarrassed to have any taken!

[goldenlady]

I started growing my fringe out about 3 years ago.. It's now part of my layers and so you cannot notice it! Keep the length...! Check out Mollie King (The Saturdays) She grew her fringe out by flicking them out when they got a little longer.. I did that too and it actually looked quite nice :)

[Mely]

I straighten my bangs by blowing them dry. Otherwise they go in a lot of crazy directions and look weird. I did grow them out a few years ago, but cut them again after deciding the bang-less look was unflattering for me. I live in a very dry climate but when I travel down to the coast, where the humidity is higher, my bangs go into crazy frizz mode and become uncontrollable. Blowing them dry doesn't help when I'm on the coast.

[CurlMonster]

I always pinned my fringe straight back with bobby pins. It needs to be slightly grown out to do it, but probably only a month or two (the right-in-your-eyes phase). You can either clip it smooth back (like it's slicked back into a ponytail/french braid/bun or with a bit of a quiff. I always liked the quiff style, perhaps because I liked the illusion of a taller face. I actually kept my bangs at about nose-length for years because I liked being able to pin it up! :)

[YamaMaya]

When I was a kid I had a cowlick that stuck straight up and was really obvious, yet for some reason my mother kept cutting fringe into my hair until finally she decided to just let it grow, and the cowlick went away, I haven't seen it since. I did cut fringe into my hair as an adult and it never really showed up this time.

[CurlMonster]

You can see in my avatar the pinned-back style I am talking about, I have a larger photo in my albums (which I think you should be able to access) if that's too small to see the detail. To get the height I just pushed the hair forwards a little before clipping it, but like I said you could clip it straight back too. Growing out bangs for me was 100% painless, so I hope this helps you out! :)

[jacqueline101]

Instead of bangs like you're talking about have you tried other options like side swept bangs or those clip in bangs. Those might be options. You could grow out your real bangs if you don't like side swept bangs then buy clip in ones and wear with your up do.

[Kwantslonghair]

Keep the length, I am growing mine out and they are to my shoulders now or just a bit past. I plan on growing mine until my bangs reach waist length or a bit longer and then cut straight across around waist so I have all one length.

[lapushka]

What I would do is grow the fringe (absolutely *no* trimming!), while you grow your length. You could always keep trimming back to waist while the fringe steadily grows.

[spidermom]

There definitely are advantages and disadvantages to having a fringe. I let my fringe grow longer for the summer so that I could secure it out of my face by braiding and/or using a head-band, tying my hair up with a scarf, using a hat, etc. Like your husband with you, I really hated the sight of myself with my hair all skinned back. I looked exactly the same from the front no matter what bun or braid I did. My fringe gives me styling options. I have a cowlick in the front, too, and I either use a flat-iron or style my bangs waving back and to the side. It gives my face lift; I like it a lot.

[Cherry*Tree]

I got rid of my bangs a while ego.

[Cherry*Tree]

*ago, not ego.