Headaches already????

[Pamberpestana]

Hi! So I have collar bone length hair with hardly any layers. My hair is 2a/2b/m/ii.

Right now i have a mixture of conditioner and coconut oil in my hair wearing it in a high bun and I have SUCH a headache! My hair feels so heavy! I've never had this problem before, as the longest my hair has been is a little past BSL. (When it was that length though, it was quite damaged so maybe that had something to do with it..

Now my hair doesn't feel so heavy when Its dry, but I'm worried that when my hair does get longer, I'll have headaches more often, because of the weight my hair will have wet or dry especially once it gets past BSL. I just cut my sister's hair to a mid neck length A-line because she kept getting terrible headaches and her hair was barely past APL with tons of layers!! I've even gone through her hair with thinning shears multiple​ times!!

I just love the look of thick long hair!
Are my dreams of TB length hair with a solid hemline being crushed before I even get there?

I just took out my bun a few minutes ago and maybe it helped a little?? It kind of feels like the location of my headache shifted from my temples to my eyeballs....


Maybe I'm just dehydrated... I'll go drink some water as well..

[lapushka]

Maybe the headache(s) = unrelated to the hairstyle (otherwise, just take it out of the bun).

I do know that your hair is *far* too short for a bun. I am iii and it takes until hip before I can manage a center-held bun (LWB). Trying to do a bun at shoulder is asking for trouble. It will be far too tight, which might be the reason it is giving you trouble.

[lithostoic]

You just have to find your sweet spot. There's only one place I can put bun without getting a massive headache.

[Anje]

I'm prone to headaches when I make the follicles go directions they're not used to. So top-of-head buns were an easy way to trigger a headache or scalp pain after a few hours. The good news is that you can train follicles to be more tolerant of certain positions, by gradually doing them for increasing periods of time. (However, since I'm not thrilled with how I look with a bun on top of my head, I never bothered!)

[Aredhel]

Because I have a sensitive scalp, I used to have the same problem with any and all updos, so I never used to wear my hair up at all. I gradually trained my scalp to withstand more and more updos, as others have said you just have to do it for short amounts of time, then gradually for longer and longer. Putting my hair up loosely helped too, instead of super tight; tight updos can still cause my scalp a lot of pain after a while of wearing one.

[akurah]

Headaches from long hair are typically caused by the hair being too tight, or "unbalanced" when up and some hairs are pulled more than others. Another thing to cause headaches is your hair being pulled an unusual direction like Anje and others describe.

Hair only weighs a few ounces, and for hair to get that heavy, it has to be quite long and quite thick. Hair with product can weigh more, but usually not much more unless it's something truly heavy like henna.

Bunning chin length hair on top of your head is surely the culprit. That length isn't even really long enough to ponytail, let alone bun.

[Pamberpestana]

My hair certainly CAN go into a bun at this length with a not very tight ponytail to hold it in. I had so much goop in my hair, and my house is usually 70 degrees so the coconut oil kept all my hair together. I don't really like wearing my hair up anyways so I took out the bun. My hair has since been washed and is now dry, and my head still hurts like crazy!!! I'm thinking it's not caused by my hair....

[pailin]

High buns always pull and hurt on me. But other than that, there are some days that it feels like whatever I do with it, my hair is making my head hurt. That tells me it's not my hair at all, I have a headache coming on for some other reason.

[CrowningGlory]

High buns give me headaches; conditioner or oil that makes the hair 'heavy' can give me headaches; and bobby pins give me headaches. I'm assuming you had all three going on. The reason I love hair sticks and forks is that they hold my hair up with no headache whatsoever (unless it's for another reason).

[megthehennahead]

It may have just been a coincidence, or pulling your hair up may have been the straw that broke the camel's back because you were already dehydrated or something. I'd experiment with different placements of your ponytail and methods of securing your hair and figure out what works for you. You may find certain placements will always trigger a headache but adjusting it just a bit is fine. I doubt the weight or tightness of your hair caused the headache, but it may have felt different enough that it was truly bothersome once the headache came on.

[Nique1202]

You're getting a headache now for probably many reasons. Collarbone length hair often needs more tightness in a bun to keep it solid, and you have a LOT of product in your hair making it grams and grams heavier than your scalp is used to supporting, and if the follicles aren't friendly to being pulled in different directions yet, all of those things can contribute to a headache. As your hair grows and you wear buns like that more often, your head and your neck will adjust to the growing weight. More length, up to a certain ultra-ultra-long point, helps you to be able to secure a bun with just a pen or a stick with less tension on the follicles.

tl;dr It won't be as bad at tailbone as it is now, you'll build up tolerance between now and then and be able to enjoy it with much less fuss or pain.

[olivetime]

We have similar length/type hair and I went through a headachey phase a few months ago. I was so tempted to cut it all off. Thankfully I pushed through it and the headaches went away. At work I do a very loose /messy bun and at home I wear a cute little braid. Hope that encourages you to keep growing :)

[meteor]

I don't know about specifically headaches when hair is down - headaches could, for example, relate to some patterns of recurrent back/neck pain, etc - there are so many potential causes to discuss with your doctor..., but I think loose collarbone length hair is very unlikely to have anything to do with that.

I will just add one thing since you mentioned buns and it sounds like you started bunning recently. When I first started bunning my hair, I had massive scalp tension (felt like headaches) simply from putting hair up. It felt like I wouldn't ever be able to wear hair up. But what I did was immediately take hair down when I felt pain and give myself a quick scalp massage. Then try again. Next day, the bun could last comfortably maybe 5 minutes longer, then 15 minutes longer, then half an hour, then maybe a couple hours and then whole day. Now I can even sleep with the same updo and it doesn't bother me at all. I think when roots and hair follicles are feeling some tension from pulling/combing over in unusual directions, you can get this pain until your scalp gets used to it.

But of course, whatever you do, don't pull the hair too tightly - keep it as loose as possible (as long as the hair still stays up) to prevent any risk of traction alopecia.

Alternatively, braids are a good protective style that doesn't normally bother the scalp (unless you do tight on-scalp braiding, like dutch/french/lace/etc).

[akurah]

My hair certainly CAN go into a bun at this length with a not very tight ponytail to hold it in. I had so much goop in my hair, and my house is usually 70 degrees so the coconut oil kept all my hair together. I don't really like wearing my hair up anyways so I took out the bun. My hair has since been washed and is now dry, and my head still hurts like crazy!!! I'm thinking it's not caused by my hair....

Apologies. I misread. For some reason I thought you said chin length, not collarbone. Collarbone is definitely bun-able