Dance sport hairstyles

[MamaLou]

I need to do very sleek buns for ballroom and latin dancing (similar to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FUBY-mgqZk), however I don't want to use heat and hairspray anymore. I will still be using hairnets because those things are amazing and underestimated. Do you have any experience with non-damaging dance hairstyles that are super secure? My hair is almost bsl right now. I can't be the only dancer at this forum :)

[squirrrel]

While I have tried many different things out, loving things like crown braids in the past, the dance school I currently attend insists on buns. Now, they did call the Amish braids I wore once a ‘bun’, and that is another style that mostly supports itself, so they are pretty loose about what the term covers.

I’m slightly surprised at your question though... I never use either hair spray or heat when styling my hair. Generally speaking I plait my hair (because I like it in braids), wrap it in a bun shape, and secure with spin pins. Job done.

[MusicalSpoons]

Depending on what your hair type is, a BBB might be all you need to make the scalp hair sleek; if you need a bit extra hold there are natural gels you could try (aloe vera, flaxseed, etc).

(I don't have any other practical suggestions because I stopped dancing years before finding LHC; our hairstyle for exams and shows was a French plait as soon as the hair was long enough. We didn't wear uniform or have a certain hairstyle for lessons though.)

[MamaLou]

While I have tried many different things out, loving things like crown braids in the past, the dance school I currently attend insists on buns. Now, they did call the Amish braids I wore once a ‘bun’, and that is another style that mostly supports itself, so they are pretty loose about what the term covers.

I’m slightly surprised at your question though... I never use either hair spray or heat when styling my hair. Generally speaking I plait my hair (because I like it in braids), wrap it in a bun shape, and secure with spin pins. Job done.

I only need my hair a certain way for competitions, I'm not even sure how strict the judges are about hair but I don't want to look much different from the rest. I do like these ideas for training :)


Depending on what your hair type is, a BBB might be all you need to make the scalp hair sleek; if you need a bit extra hold there are natural gels you could try (aloe vera, flaxseed, etc).

(I don't have any other practical suggestions because I stopped dancing years before finding LHC; our hairstyle for exams and shows was a French plait as soon as the hair was long enough. We didn't wear uniform or have a certain hairstyle for lessons though.)

I love the idea of using a natural gel! What is a BBB?

[Kat]

While I have tried many different things out, loving things like crown braids in the past, the dance school I currently attend insists on buns. Now, they did call the Amish braids I wore once a ‘bun’, and that is another style that mostly supports itself, so they are pretty loose about what the term covers.

I’m slightly surprised at your question though... I never use either hair spray or heat when styling my hair. Generally speaking I plait my hair (because I like it in braids), wrap it in a bun shape, and secure with spin pins. Job done.

Lucky! No matter how nice my hair starts out (and no matter what style), little tiny bits (and big bits, like, shoulder-length strands) pull out all over and pretty soon I look pretty fuzzy and unkempt (like, I probably look like I did my hair the night before and slept on it). You should see my teacher chasing me with hairspray at dance competitions. But short of spraying/gelling it into a slicked-down helmet, there's not much that can be done for it to make me look presentable. It's very depressing to know that no matter how nicely you dress up, your hair will make you look like a slob in short order unless you slick it down so it looks flat, fake, possibly-greasy, and makes you look bald from the front. I was always glad I never attended a strict ballet school that were very picky about buns, because I probably would have gotten thrown out of every class without the teachers understanding that I couldn't help it.




I love the idea of using a natural gel! What is a BBB?
BBB = Boar Bristle Brush

[chrissy-b]

Braided bun held in place with bobby pins. I would usually do a low bun, or a really high bun. For some reason, if I placed it directly on the back of my head, it was more likely to unravel during pirouettes. Sometimes I'd do the front kinda like this: https://www.hairworldmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/hillary-duff-pulled-back-bangs.jpg and then tie the rest back into a bun so it wouldn't be totally slicked down against my scalp.

And for me personally, there wasn't any way to get around *not* using hair spray. I always needed it for the little wispies around my face.

[squirrrel]

Lucky! No matter how nice my hair starts out (and no matter what style), little tiny bits (and big bits, like, shoulder-length strands) pull out all over and pretty soon I look pretty fuzzy and unkempt (like, I probably look like I did my hair the night before and slept on it). You should see my teacher chasing me with hairspray at dance competitions. But short of spraying/gelling it into a slicked-down helmet, there's not much that can be done for it to make me look presentable. It's very depressing to know that no matter how nicely you dress up, your hair will make you look like a slob in short order unless you slick it down so it looks flat, fake, possibly-greasy, and makes you look bald from the front. I was always glad I never attended a strict ballet school that were very picky about buns, because I probably would have gotten thrown out of every class without the teachers understanding that I couldn't help it.


Aaah... I might put it up and go, but that doesn’t mean it’s especially neat and tidy. My biggest concern for classes is that it isn’t going to fall down — turns with a waist length braid to manage are not something I wish to indulge in! Occasionally I might put my hair up before going to work, and if I manage not to take it down before the end of the work day, it can generally go like that.

My hair can be pretty quick to get messy, and since I have no intention of spending half my time fixing it, I’ve just had to learn to live with it. I have also learned that I am prone to thinking it looks worse than other people do (I thought it looked a state once when I ended up going to work with it still in its sleep braid. I said something about it to a colleague, who insisted it was so neat she wouldn’t have known. She feels she couldn’t have looked so neat, and yet, I always see her as someone without a hair out of place.)

I haven’t done an exam or show with this school yet, I’m told that the staff put the hair up themselves (for the exams at least), and people are instructed not to wash their hair for the week before the exam... given I usually wash around once a week, I might make that a fortnight if I get to that point!

[Cg]

I never used heat or hairspray. What I did:

1. Bun (anything that works for you) and pin tightly.
2. Cover the bun with the top half of a hairnet letting the bottom hang loose.
3. Pin the hairnet in place along the top of the bun.
4. Pull the bottom of the net tight, twist, and cover the bun again.
5. Pin for the zillionth time.

Takes lots of pins, but absolutely no heat, spray, or elastics, and very solid.

Sometimes I used a small snood and scrunchie. You might ask local dancers what they do.

[HaMalka]

I second the hair net over whatever bun holds well and is comfortable suggestions. For specific buns to do I'm afraid I'm not much help with what works for BSL length hair.

[illicitlizard]

For dance I used to have my hair in a cinnabun (least I think that's what it's called, I used to just call it a bun lmao) which I'd pin the bejeezus out of as I went, topped off with a hair net also pinned to within an inch of its life. Occasionally some hairspray/super strong gel for performances but as mentioned above, you can use natural gels no need for legit hairspray.

[Kat]

For ballet class where I'd need a bun (or the one Highland competition where I had to have a bun because of a group choreography where we agreed that's how we'd do our hair), I'd make a high ponytail, put it in two braids, then do a sort of vortex bun with the braids, lots of pins. It's the only bun that can stand up to jumping for me. For Highland dance competitions I much prefer Heidi braids; much easier to pin securely for constantly bouncing up and down.

[MamaLou]

I'm sorry for bumping up this thread but I found the solution of hair friendly dance hair :D For hairproducts I'm using the Cantu Styling stay glue gel (any other strong hair friendly gel should work) instead of hair spray to slick my hair back, I'm using those phone cord elastics instead of normal elastics, I use leave in conditioner to give my hair a little bit of hold when I put it in a hair net, and I pin it very very well to eliminate hair gel for the bun part. And of course I decorate with a lot of sparkly things (duhh). The other thing that I do is I rinse out the gel by using a lot of conditioner before washing my hair, this really helps to get everything out.