Frustrated!!!

[ALenee]

I bought some cheap plastic hair sticks at the grocery store the other day. I was thinking I would practice some updos and see if I want to invest in a more expensive pair. Well, turns out Im no good at hair stick styles! I feel like when Im putting the stick in that Im pulling out hairs from my scalp!! :mad:

Also, maybe because they are plastic, or maybe because of my inexperience they dont stay in or feel secure. HELP!

[Gumball]

Hair sticks, for some, can have a steep but luckily (at least in my case) short learning curve. It just takes some time and some practice. Also it could depend on how you put them in. When I was learning to use them I put them in in an X fashion, but I often had to fight with pulling. If it's something like a figure 8 then I've learned to put the sticks in parallel. I still fight with some pulling hairs now and then, but the pulling has gone down a lot. Practice inserting them in different ways, maybe see if changing how tight your hair is twisted (should you be doing that for your style) could work, and generally just power yourself through the new-to-sticks experience! You'll have it down in no time! :flowers:

[Friesiangirl]

I agree to the nasty, frustrating learning curve, which ends quickly.

I just learned how to use hair sticks, but it's still a bit messy. I just spent about 20 min. of my morning for about a week trying, and one day, it worked. I took it down, and did it again, to get it "stuck" into my brain.

It'll come, I promise :)

Hayley

[Juneii]

ahh, my suggestion would be to look at the hair video tutorials and lots and lots of practice.
my trick would be to wind the hair around underneath the bun until the very last strand, it actually makes the bun a lot more secure.

[dukkelisa]

My hair is very straight and slippery. I find that if I put my hair in a pony binder first, then wrap my hair into a bun and secure it with a stick, it works fine. It helps hold the hair and stick if you push the stick under the pony binder after grabbing enough of the hair from the bun and scalp on each side.

[Wind Dragon]

The cheap plastic chopsticks from WalMart that I practiced with at first also had pretty blunt ends compared to the ones I use now -- took some patient wiggling to work them even halfway comfortably into the tight coils I had to make to get anything to stay up, and at that I think I broke three pair before I gave up on them. If that's the case with yours, you might try a thin metal pair -- I got a couple at Claire's for I think $5-$6/pair. Where the tops are attached is kind of flimsy, and the tips are only smooth because they're dipped in hot glue or something, but those I still wear now and again, and they still work just fine.

[Starr]

Two words: YOU TUBE

I spent forever trying to figure out how I could possibly get only ONE hairstick to hold up ALL of my hair. . . I think I gave myself a migraine once (and stabbed myself in the head a couple of times) just trying to figure it out. Then one day I saw some else do it in a video and the rest is history. Now I'm a hair stick/fork addict.:D

[Dolly]

I did ok with straight ones, after a LOT of practice, but they would fall out rather quickly.......then, I got some ketylo sticks, and they hold like rocks!

[crystal_89]

I find it easier for my hair to stay when I've let my hair get a bit greasy and dirty first.

[HairColoredHair]

I agree, practice, practice, practice!

Check your sticks for sharp edges, if there are none, then you're probably okay.

Maybe try a figure 8 (one of the easier style to hold with one stick). Also, when inserting them, sometimes you put in the first stick and it's not right, but the second stick is perfect... then you can move the first. :)

[Katze]

I am terrible at all updos and my hair is bad hair for updos, but the way I do it is to make a ponytail, stick the stick along the bottom side of the ponytail, then turn and turn and turn the stick until my hair is all caught up in it. Then I poke the stick back through the bottom left side of the ponytail-thing, and weave it through to the other side, then pull it out a tiny bit and poke it back in the other direction.

Hairsticks 'sort of' hold but I ride a bike and find that they constantly get in the way, or fall out of my slippery hair. They are not something I wear very often.

[Shanarana]

I had a heck of a time with hair sticks when I first tried to use them. The ladies are right, practice and before you know it you'll be throwing one in and out the door in secs.

[ALenee]

Thank you all sooooo much! :grouphug: I will practice, practice, practice!! Going to look at clair's for some better sticks. The ones Im using are very slippery plastic and have a seam where the two halves are put together which maybe contributing to the hair pulling :justy:

[LeaM07]

Braids are good for learning hairstick styles, also.

If you don't have to worry about keeping your hair twisted (and getting it twisted just tight enough, but not too tight), you can focus more on the style itself and your stick technique.

I still have a few plastic sticks, which I use mostly in either braided or Chinese buns. I tend to snap them in others. :)

[Anje]

Keep messing with it!

Two suggestions:
1) Try securing something other than a cinnamon bun. I think cinnamons are a rather difficult variety of bun to secure with hairsticks, because all the coils need to be pierced. Figure 8s, infinities, and many of the different knotted buns hold much more easily for me with sticks than cinnamon buns do.
2) If two sticks pull, try inserting them parallel rather than crossing them. Or see if you can get away with using just one. I could never get hairsticks to work for me until I left one of them at home. Crossed sticks have a lot of potential to pull my scalp hair.