Sleepy time hair-do's unnecessary?

[Nadine <3]

ever since I joined here last year I've been putting my hair into a braid or bun for bed time just because I thought it was the thing to do. Well, last night I was really super tired and I had crawled into bed before putting my hair up. I was going to get back up after watching some netflix, but once my show ended I decided it was to cold and I was so warm and cozy so I just went to sleep with my hair down. This morning I prepared myself for some epic detangling and was surprised to find that my fingers could glide right through it and I didn't even need my comb! I am not a still sleeper either, I flop all over the place. So, is it possible that I can just sleep with my hair down? I don't like the braid waves I get and sometimes buns make my scalp sore.

[velorutionista]

I'd say if you don't run into tangles, go for it.

I only put mine in a braid or up in a bun in self defense: to prevent my cat from nesting in it as I sleep (cat walking around on my hair to arrange it to his liking pulls like ouch!)

[Anje]

Length will likely affect things. What you can do at APL might not work as well at waist or classic. I always slept with mine loose at your length, but these days it's too in the way for my taste. These days, I tend to wear mine loose in a sleep bonnet, because my scalp definitely needs a break from updos and this is easy and not lumpy.

[Nadine <3]

Yeah, I will probably have to go back to a braid once it gets longer. I tried a few bonnets and none of them would stay on my head. I'm excited, I can have my straight hair for more than one day! :)

[Sharysa]

Well, if you don't run into tangles at this length, go ahead. I can't do that because I'm an active sleeper and my hair's wavy, so it tangles like a mofo. Hair is only intentionally down when I'm awake.

I tried sleeping with my hair down last night, and it was actually pretty stressful. It was physically very comfortable, but I kept thinking "MUST NOT SLEEP OR I WILL DEAL WITH A BIRD'S NEST IN THE MORNING." So then I just sucked it up and did my usual pigtails.

[hanne jensen]

When I've worn my hairn down to bed I've had very few tangles in the morning. I think that I'm breaking a lot of hairs making my night braid. This thread has inspired me to try sleeping with my hair down.

[ZeppHead]

I think it depends on the person, their hair type, sleeping habits and such. I have a satin pillowcase and still cannot sleep with my hair down. I have fine hair and get tangles if someone breathes on me. I have been braiding m hair at night for some time now and it has gotten long enough where I can place it overtop the pillow but it always ends up underneath me and rubbing out of the braid and looks like a messy braid in the morning. Looks like damage potential to me. I have ordered a silk head scarf to try next and I will tie my hair up into that and if that doesn't work Ill try a sleeping bonnet. Point here, do what works for your hair! If it works now go ahead and do it, I would at least put in some protection before bed though I would always use a split end mender or breakage defense leave in on the ends before bed when I slept with it down at shorter lengths. As your hair gets longer what works may not be what worked for you 6 months ago so always just stick with what works for you, not for someone else. :)

[DreadfulWoman]

It just comes down to personal preference and comfort. I know that some ladies on here with very long, knee length+ hair (can't remember who now) have said that they sleep with their hair loose and flipped over the top of their pillow, so it can work even at very long lengths.

[askan]

I just recently started encountering a lot of tangles from sleeping with my hair loose (APL with bleached ends). Up until then I just braided when I wanted braidwaves.

[Larki]

My hair doesn't tangle. I spent my first few months here braiding it at night, but found no difference in my hair, so I stopped. Now I sleep with my hair loose in a silk sleep cap.

[lapushka]

I'm TBL and sleep with it down every night. It's up during the day, but down at night. I never have had problems, still don't. I say go for it, try it out some more, see what you think. If you like it, keep it part of your routine. :)

[Panth]

I think, like daily protective updos, it's something that is necessary for most people at extreme (e.g. classic+) lengths but not so much for shorter lengths and very often unnecessary for e.g. BSL and shorter.

Also, I think hair-containment when you sleep very much depends on if you sleep alone or not. E.g. my husband complains about having "the snake-trying-to-strangle-me dream" if I sleep with an uncontained braid...

[thebacontree]

im having the opposite problem,when i wake up ,my hair is tangled and frizzed like its a sport, i cant braid behind my head yet (barely even when i can see) and tight buns that wont loosen are still very hard to do. Does anyone have an idea for a very easy braid or bun or a possible solution?

[Angels+Eyeliner]

I have almost APL hair that I usually braid before bed, but sometimes I just cannot be bothered and flop down onto bed without even thinking about it (but I am notorious amongst ex housemates for being 'that girl who will sleep in her boots', so when I need to sleep I will just sleep). Yesterday my silk sleep cap arrived, so I detangled my hair and put it up in that. I wasn't amazed by the effect, it was pretty much the same as sleeping with my hair loose although my hair will detangle if you so much as look at it with a comb in your hand right now (I don't know why I never deep-conditioned before).

When my hair was at its longest (waist) I never wore it up for bed because it tended to break more BUT I was using horrible hair elastics at the time (this is many years before the miracle that is LHC came into my life).

I agree with Panth about bed residents as well. I was a bit worried that my fiancé would start making Little House on the Prairie jokes when I put my cap on, and he likes to stroke my hair in his sleep. I guess anyone sharing a bed (be it with partners, children, pets) will have to take that into account when they're making decisions.

To summarise, my policy on many things (and especially hair care) is: "If it works for you: good for you"

[lapushka]

im having the opposite problem,when i wake up ,my hair is tangled and frizzed like its a sport, i cant braid behind my head yet (barely even when i can see) and tight buns that wont loosen are still very hard to do. Does anyone have an idea for a very easy braid or bun or a possible solution?

Yeah, Madora's braid on the top of your head. It's called something, I can't recall what it's called but it's a particular updo.

[Carolyn]

Nadine, I'm like you. Sleeping with it loose is so much more comfortable and I have very few tangles in the morning. I'm a very restless sleeper and I sleep on a cotton sateen pillowcase because I can't stand my head sweating on a synthetic satin pillowcase. I've never had the least desire to try a sleep cap. The only time my hair tangled was after I had that god awful Natural Instincts removed from my hair and it was redyed to an ashy blonde. I survived that and I don't recall that I braided it during those months while my hair recovered. I'm so glad I don't have to do a braid or bun for bed. The only time I wear a bun to bed is when I wash at night and do a bun on top of my hair that is like 4 huge sort of like pin curls. I only do that if I am planning on wearing it down the next day and I am going to get up really early like 4 am.

Not everyone has to do all the protective things that are discussed here. I certainly don't.

[furnival]

My hair dreads so readily that even one night of wearing it down results in a matted horror that takes hours to detangle and costs me a lot of hair. The same thing happened after I wore it in a ponytail for one measly evening. I envy those who can sleep with it loose/ wear it down/ do anything at all with it except keep it bunned or braided at all times, because my hair is a snaky mass of tangles that much preferred its years as dreadlocks and wants to go back. :(

[kittenface]

im having the opposite problem,when i wake up ,my hair is tangled and frizzed like its a sport, i cant braid behind my head yet (barely even when i can see) and tight buns that wont loosen are still very hard to do. Does anyone have an idea for a very easy braid or bun or a possible solution?
When my hair was shorter I used to wear two braids to sleep instead of one. That way you can braid in front of you so you can look at the hair as you braid, and I also found that it held better than a single braid.

As for the original question, I agree with what's already been said - if wearing your hair down for sleep works for you that's obviously fine. Everybody's different.

[purplevickie]

I wear my hair down at the moment as it's not even APL, but in the past when I've had hair at BSL and longer, it's needed to be tied back somehow or I wake up covered in hair!

[thebacontree]

I cant seem to find madoras braid, does anyone know a specific name for it?

[DreamSheep]

I occasionally braid my hair or shove it in some socks - but am usually too lazy and get away with sleeping with it down, and no tangles.
I am a cone user though.

[Imalath]

I prefer to wear my hair loose when sleeping, but lately I wake up in the middle of the night and find it wrapped around my neck from all my tossing and turning! I usually wear it in a side braid, but have been worried about the damage from elastics lately. I might break out my sleep bonnet...

[woodswanderer]

I've always slept with my hair loose and it's always been fine.

[animetor7]

I think this is, like many others have said, a rather individual choice. If it's working for you, great! But for some people, myself included, bedtime hair containment is necessary because otherwise there will be tangles. The Kraken is a barely tamed beast as is, letting it completely loose is just asking for trouble. ;)

[Johannah]

I HATE wearing my hair in a braid at night. My hair tangles LIKE CRAZY. Now I use a sleep cap from SilkyCocoon and it's amazing.

[jacqueline101]

I wore my hair loose until I reached bsl. After that I started wearing a sleep cap. I do like my sleep cap. I agree with others if you don't have tangles or damage I don't think going loose would hurt. In my case I had an area of damage so I started wearing a sleep cap.

[Neptune]

mine is between waist and tailbone, and at night i alternate between braiding and leaving it loose & flopping it up and over the top of the pillow :) leaving it loose does result in a few more tangles, but i just carefully comb them out in the morning. bonus - leaving it down means my braid doesn't get wrapped around my neck when i'm sleeping (which it invariably does)

[JustPam]

I have bleach damaged ends so when I fall asleep with my hair loose the ends tangle and go all crumpled looking. The virgin and less damaged hair seems to survive relatively tangle free though. I do a top knot bun for sleeping.

[Aderyn]

Depends. There are quite a few people who sleep with their hair loose, oftentimes just thrown over the side of their bed and you may be able to do that as you reach longer lengths.

I can't wear my hair loose when I sleep. I toss and turn a fair bit while I'm trying to get to sleep/waking up and that leaves many, many tangles for me to deal with when I get up. In fact, I'd say that was the source of most of the damage to my hair in my pre-LHC days.

[lapushka]

I cant seem to find madoras braid, does anyone know a specific name for it?

Here it is. All you had to do was search for threads made by her username. ;)
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=126929

[Verdandi]

I always sleep with my hair contained in some way, be it a braid, bun or sleep cap, but because of this thread I hade to try sleeping with my hair loose last night, haven't done that since I joined LHC almost a year ago. It wasn't as horrible as I'd imagined. I slept on a cotton pillowcase with my hair flipped over the pillow as I used to do when I had long hair the last time. I had some more tangles, some really evil ones that took a while to get out, but it wasn't the rat's nest I thought it was going to be. Maybe because it's actually long enough to STAY above the pillow now...? Or that it's in better condition and therefore less prone to tangle?

I'm seriously considering sleeping with it down every now and then since it wasn't that bad and because it feels like I ALWAYS wear it up or in a cap, and I've started to think that the poor scalp might need a little rest...

[lapushka]

I always sleep with my hair contained in some way, be it a braid, bun or sleep cap, but because of this thread I hade to try sleeping with my hair loose last night, haven't done that since I joined LHC almost a year ago. It wasn't as horrible as I'd imagined. I slept on a cotton pillowcase with my hair flipped over the pillow as I used to do when I had long hair the last time. I had some more tangles, some really evil ones that took a while to get out, but it wasn't the rat's nest I thought it was going to be. Maybe because it's actually long enough to STAY above the pillow now...? Or that it's in better condition and therefore less prone to tangle?

I'm seriously considering sleeping with it down every now and then since it wasn't that bad and because it feels like I ALWAYS wear it up or in a cap, and I've started to think that the poor scalp might need a little rest...

I don't drape my hair (that would cause tangles in my case). I just fold it underneath my head, and sleep like that. I don't move much during the night, so it's perfect containment. :lol:

[Imalath]

I also tried sleeping with my hair down last night as an experiment...silk scarf tucked over my pillowcase, and hair draped across it. There was no noticeable difference in the tangles or hair loss come morning, so I may continue to sleep with it loose. Work took a lot of my styling options away...a bun is the only acceptable style at my length, and I miss having options. Wearing my hair loose at night gives my scalp a break!

[Nadine <3]

I've been sleeping with loose hair since posting this and i have come to decide that freshly cleaned hair tangles less. 2 days after wash day my hair starts to tangle. I put coconut oil in it and put it in a braid for bed until my next wash day rolls around. I like it this way! :)

[rags]

I slept with mine down with no troubles till right around BSL. Then it started tangling like mad, and has only gotten worse. So now it is in a silk sleep cap, to get a break from updos and such. In the dead of summer when it's horribly hot, it will be in a braid, but I much prefer the cap (for one thing, the braid does its best to strangle me in my sleep!)

[Arete]

Interesting. I am a 2C with 3A here and there and I always sleep with my hair down. I am nearly to BCL I don't have tangling problems. In fact, my hair tends to tangle worse if it's up when I sleep. :shrug: I am not a still sleeper by any stretch of the word. I constantly shift and sometimes kick my dog off the bed :blushing:

[Ceridwen Iris]

I'm tailbone length and often sleep with it out but I don't have hair that tangles easily. I don't have satin pillows or anything special either.

[captaincrunch]

That's a definite length thing. Once you hit waist I would be surprised if your hair didn't tangle if left down.

[Larki]

That's a definite length thing. Once you hit waist I would be surprised if your hair didn't tangle if left down.

Mine's hip and doesn't tangle. I think it's a hair type thing, not necessarily correlated with length. My hair is very silky and slippery.

[lapushka]

That's a definite length thing. Once you hit waist I would be surprised if your hair didn't tangle if left down.

Mine's TBL and it's perfectly fine, down, at night.

[Theobroma]

I'm at classic and I always sleep with it loose. It never tangles at night.

[clioariane]

I sleep with my hair down all the time and don't have any noticable breakage or tangles at all, but I think it depends on your hair type. If it works for you, go for it!

[ukrworld]

Used to sleep with loose hair, but as it grew, now I have to braid all length of it. It looks very funny this way as it tapers down to 20 hairs and looks like a really long rat tail. When my husband saw it he begged me to go get a professional haircut because "they will be able to do something with this", which of course upset me a bit, but I am still hanging on to my rat tail and hoping for all the layers to catch up. It doesn't tangle at all, but I wish I could sleep in a wrap or something since I often turn around and pull on the braid.

[swearnsue]

It's good to see so many with long beautiful hair that DO NOT wear their hair up at night. This is something I've been struggling with for at least 2 years, not to protect against tangles as much as keep it out of my way while I sleep.

It's too fine to be held with hair pins and if I wear a clip it puts too much stress on a small spot on my scalp. Hair bonnets cause my hair to bunch in one spot and it's uncomfortable.

I started just last night to braid my hair, to one side, and then braid in some soft cotton material near the end to tie off the braid. Very comfortable at my current length. I use Pantene Overnight miracle on the ends to help prevent any breakage.

[SummerCherie]

I usually do a high bun with a scrunchie because I dont like hair around my neck or back while Im sleeping. Silk pillow cases prevent tangles.

[DarleneH]

Do any of you plop and leave it like that all night?

[lapushka]

Do any of you plop and leave it like that all night?

I don't. I hate having wet hair contained all night. It's just not good for my scalp (needs to be dry within a certain time due to SD).

[swearnsue]

Wet hair all night would give me pneumonia! And a sore neck (arthritis) while I died of pneumonia.

I'm still liking my little braid. I might make it into two braids, the one braid annoys my OCD husband because my hair isn't "even". LOL.

[ukrworld]

swearnsue, just had to tell you that you have such beautiful color and shine! I agree, sleeping with wet hair is out for me just because the pillowcase gets wet, and I get really cold too. I think you would look lovely with one or two braids. I will also check Pantene Overnight for ends.

[SThr]

Once I got around hip length I started placing my hair on a pillow next to me, it tangles so much less that way!

[LadyLongLocks]

I mostly try to sleep with my hair down and leave it hanging over the side of the bed. Its sort of a problem now that it is floorlength. I find myself having a low loose ponytail and have slept with it in a bun more lately. I am experimenting with using tools in my hair that I can tolerate while sleeping.A sleep cap is mostly used in the winter, but I look funny and get teased. I try to yank it off before he sees it!

[teela1978]

I toss my hair behind my pillow and don't really worry about it till morning. Braids/buns at night always feel uncomfortable to me. Totally not necessary for my hair.

[katelinn]

I slept with my hair loose until mid back, below bsl, but not quite waist. It was fine then...but now that my hair is quite a bit longer (hip) it#s just no way i can sleep with it loose. i tried it a few months ago because I was just so tired and couldn't be bothered to braid, but it took me ages to get rid of the tangles. So, i braid my hair and flip it over the shoulder to the front when I sleep(I sleep on my back) because I sometimes wake up feeling a pain in my back, and it's the bulk of the braid and hairtie..so needs to be on the front.

I say, if sleeping with it loose suits you, then go for it. I prefer it loose, but it's impossible for me now.

[GetMeToWaist]

I always wear my hair in a single side braid because it gets so tangled and pouffy if I don't; a braid calms it down and makes the waves looser and neater.

[Earelia]

If my hair is already tangling easily throughout the day I braid it before bed. But usually I don't have to up to 2 days after washing and conditioning. I wash my hair at night and I go to bed with wet hair flowing free and I guess the conditioner prevents it from tangling. Everyone's different, if your hair doesn't tangle when you sleep take advantage of it. :)

[höpönasu]

I can't stand my hair loose in the bed. It tickles my face and gets stuck under me or my fiancé.

[tokugawa.miyako]

If I leave my hair down, I'll roll over it, pull it or get it tangled. I used to sleep in a braid, but now I just keep it loose in a sleep cap. It looks a little silly, but it saves a little time and it's comfortable.

[Catatafish]

I've been sleeping with my hair loose so far. I think I have been using to much protein lately though, as it is getting very tangled. The last two days I experimented with putting it in 4/6 braids. I found it was just as comfortable as long as I start the braid below my ear, while holding the hair at a 30-45 degree angle to my neck. That way I can move around, sleep on either side or my back, and move my hair out of the way as if it was loose.

Before that I had tried sleeping with it in a bun made with two scrunchies on top of my head, and I found it really uncomfortable.

I'll probably braid it sometimes from now on. It definitely saves time in the morning.

[pocketsmall]

I put my hair up in the UGLIEST bun at night, right on the top of my head (so I can't feel it at all when I lay down). I also wear a sleep cap over it. I have been doing this for 3 years. I am so comfortable wearing my sleep cap that I cannot sleep without it anymore (it's like my security blanket).

[ukrworld]

I put my hair up in the UGLIEST bun at night, right on the top of my head (so I can't feel it at all when I lay down). I also wear a sleep cap over it. I have been doing this for 3 years. I am so comfortable wearing my sleep cap that I cannot sleep without it anymore (it's like my security blanket).
You are so funny. I am sure you have a cute nightly bun. You should see ME in my sleeping cap. I totally look like Beverly Hillibillies Granny. Feel good though, since my hair is protected.

[mira-chan]

I wear mine in a braid. It tries to eat DH if I don't contain it. It's been carnivorous for as long as I remember and has been tied back since it could be.