Holding your hair up vs keeping it contained

[chen bao jun]

facepalm! I have just realized these are two different things.

I had been wondering and wondering why the small size ficcare that obviously doesn't hold all my hair keeps my hair UP (and comfortably, at that, though not for too much longer).

And then I suddenly realized that my problem has NEVER been holding my hair up. I am a curly. Curly hair wants to stay up and cooperates nicely about this. It clings to itself (even when you DON'T want it to).

My hair has always been keeping thick hair contained and avoiding THIS situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0jG9GYIY0

Which is impossible to avoid with drugstore hair accessories and difficult even with more expensive ones. Irresistible force meets immoveable object type of situation, if you know what I mean. (aka, what most manufacturere mean by 'large volume barrette' is not something that holds a 5 inch circ., especially not a curly 5 inch circ.)

and the ficcare is working because it is SO STRONG (its an old style) that its not going to break AND because its working with hair that likes to stay up. the problem was always the toy breaking because too much hair was in it, and then the hair fell down--it was never that the hair fell down (and broke the toy in so doing).
Am I making sense?

[ejking2]

Interesting observation. That explains why the small ficcare can hold up your hair but wouldn't have a prayer in mine, yet I can (barely) wear the Old Navy fakkare and you can't. My hair, being slightly wavy, doesn't want to stay up.

[Kaelee]

I have thick and slippy straight springy hair- I've broken the teeth right off of numerous claw clips, as well as broken the bracket that holds the spring. I even have trouble with ficcares...it's hit or miss and I've stopped collecting them because I never wear mine.

[chen bao jun]

Thick and slippy sounds as if you would have problems breaking things AND problems staying up.
What a shame. You have such pretty hair, Kaelee and some of the ficcares, such as the bright candy stripe looked so lovely on you.
Is it all ficcares or just the new ones? Or just the size large--I remember you had switched to medium. did ficcarissimo with teeth slide on you also? the one I have seems to have a better hold than the maximas (not that I'd know).
What are you using now instead of ficcares? Hair sticks or another kind of barrette?

[Kaelee]

Thick and slippy sounds as if you would have problems breaking things AND problems staying up.
What a shame. You have such pretty hair, Kaelee and some of the ficcares, such as the bright candy stripe looked so lovely on you.
Is it all ficcares or just the new ones? Or just the size large--I remember you had switched to medium. did ficcarissimo with teeth slide on you also? the one I have seems to have a better hold than the maximas (not that I'd know).
What are you using now instead of ficcares? Hair sticks or another kind of barrette?

It's all of them, it's not that the hair slides out of it so much as that the weight of the thing causes it to re-position itself in my hair in such a way that it pulls uncomfortably. I wore my multistripe max for a few hours today and boy was I ever glad to take my hair down when I got home.

I mostly wear sticks. Sometimes a fork but 90% of the time, sticks. They've pretty much become "old reliable" at this point.

[chen bao jun]

Thank goodness there are such a lot of beautiful sticks.
I'm sorry ficcares don't work for you, I know you liked them. I sympathize, as someone who could not find hairtoys that would work for such a long time. But its pointless wearing something uncomfortable. When I get my hair up and it gets uncomfortable, I'm miserable all day and sometimes get a headache. At first Ficcares gave me headaches (whcih is why I missed the last chance to buy the classics) but now they don't anymore.

[Kaelee]

I think they'd get more comfortable with practice, but I tend to reach for the things that I don't have to struggle with.

[Amapola]

This is an interesting distinction you are making here, I must admit I never thought of that. But I can really grasp what you are saying; I have a friend who is a curly (not quite as curly as you though!) and her hair used to be at hip for the longest strands stretched. She had a heck of a time with it. Back then I did not understand the challenges that curlies face - I just thought her hair was really cool and wished mine was that long (and now of course it's even longer). And yes, one of the things she was trying to do was to contain her hair. She teaches horseback riding and skiing and has to wear a helmet, so she did not really care about it staying up. She just wanted it contained! This just never worked. She finally cut it. It's about 2" long now. It looks really cute on her. Although I miss her long hair, I can appreciate the difference in her hair vs. mine.

Ficcares used to give me headaches too, and I used to long to get them out of my hair. And then either I finally learned how to use them right, or my hair got the right length, or my bunning ability finally blossomed or something. I'm not sure what is different but suddenly, I can use any size Ficcare and wear it comfortably all day long.