Babyhair / Nape Hair

[maborosi]

I've wondered about this- a lot of people have ultra-fine hair at the nape and places like the temple, I also have it on my...I don't know what to call them besides "sideburns" :P. This hair is extremely fine- like silk, and very transparent. It does not take henna or other dyes very well, and it seems to grow at it's own pace- completely in contrast to my normal hair. While the rest of my hair is 41", my babyhairs range from barely CBL, all the way to hip length! The hair on my nape is also a different texture- it is in the 2's rather than 1a/b, but as it's grown, this wave pattern disappears. My "sideburns" are BSL (although only on one side- I cut the others really short, oops, lol) at their longest.

A lot of people cut theirs, but I've found that growing it is actually pretty fun and now that it's finally long enough to braid, or put into other protective styles, it's easier to grow than before! I think the big hurdle is getting it to the point where it can be protected in some way.

How about you? I haven't seen a lot of discussion on this on LHC! I'm curious :)

[Doreen]

I have babyhairs all around the border of my hair, which tends to stick up when I make buns and do french braids. I do tend to get annoyed by the ones at my nape but I enjoy having the ones framing my face. My longest ones are around BSL at the nape. That is their terminal length for me. As much as I'm not crazy about them, I imagine cutting them off would look quite odd on me.

[Groovy Granny]

For me they are a sign of new growth and there is no point in cutting them off because they curl....and are more manageable as they grow longer....thought it means a curly halo from crown to hemline :p

I find that my mini mixed bristle BBB blends them in pretty well.
If I really need them to be tame I brush them in place then spritz with hairspray ;)

Most of the time now I just ignore them, but I am happy I do have new growth :cheer:

[draysmir]

I have a lot of nape and baby hairs myself. I always have side-burns too- mine are soo fine and they usually end up flicking upwards, I call them my "hair antennas" lol. Finger detangling the hairs around my hairline and nape gently helps grow them out, having a silk pillowcase, and avoiding wearing pontyails or scrunchie buns much. I have had a lot of new growth around my hairline the past few months, and they break immediately if my tangle teezer (and a regular brush is worse) catches a knot. I haven't tried trimming them and I don't see why I would at the moment.

Some of my baby hairs have grown out long enough to braid and bun now where they used to be stuck around mouth- chin length. My new growth are a few inches in length but too short to contain still. A portion of my nape hairs used to end between CBL-APL, but now much of these sections are BSL-WL now. While having fine baby hairs can be difficult to contain and look nice sometimes, I do enjoy trying to grow them out more and obtain a less damaged mane. :)

[AutobotsAttack]

I love my nape and baby hairs. Sometimes I lay my edges (babyhairs), for that cute playful look.

My nape hairs are at BCL, so they mostly behave like the rest of hair. They don’t take well to relaxers, so I just let them be.

[Stray_mind]

I have these baby hair all around my hairline. The longest ones grew to about 3 inches already. Theh tend to curl and wave when it's humid or raining. I like them. After my big stress related hairloss i am glad i have Something growing on my head hahaha.

[TreesOfEternity]

I have lots of these, specially at the nape of my neck and around/behind my ears. When I take my glasses off they get pulled to the front and make quite a funny look until I tuck them back behind my ears lol...

[lapushka]

I just let it all grow, if it's longer than half an inch (sideburns like the hair on your cheeks that is half an inch?), and it can reach BSL, it's not baby hairs in my book. Nape hairs to me, and front wispies are hairs that just grow about 4/5 inches.

ETA: there is a thread about wispies & baby hair, please join the club:
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=131555

[Margarita]

Ugh! The curls on my nape hair are so loose. Its the second sections of my head that my curls are very loose and often gets wavy. There are times i have to wet, put mousse on and scrunch again. Especially when its humid outside, my curl pattern changes a lot, no matter how good i have moisturized my hair. Its also a reason why i dont updo my hair, because the nape hair are almost straight to the top, so i feel unsecure having the rest a bit more curly, and the nape area wavy. :rolleyes:

[blackgothicdoll]

My baby hairs are the reddest-ish part of my hair, feel like straw/velcro and I always end up picking at them. They drive me nuts and are always super knotty and dry.

[MusicalSpoons]

"I think the big hurdle is getting it to the point where it can be protected in some way."

Yes!! Absolutely most definitely that is the biggest hurdle. My nape hairs never, ever grew long enough to go into any updo before I started protecting my hair and using conditioner from my nape down. They are currently not very long still, but longer than 4 or 5 inches because the majority of them stay put. I do have a fair crop of inch or two-long hairs round my nape though; I'm always cold so often wear cardigans with collars, and/or turtlenecks, and a scarf which does my nape hairs no good whatsoever. There will often be a few crinkly hairs just because I cannot prevent all damage - I'm very glad that hair-friendly styles have helped, but I'm not going to worry about the hairs that have to be sacrificed in the name of attempting to keep warm :shrug: they're also no finer than the rest of my hair, as far as I can tell.

I don't have sideburn hairs really; the lowest any real hairs grow is the top of my cheekbone, level with where my ear starts. Those hairs I'm certain don't grow more than a couple of inches long. The ones just between there and the rest of my scalp never, ever got long enough to put up until I stopped using hair elastics and started containing my hair at night, and it was a great feeling the first time I noticed that my flappy ear tentacles(!!) stayed up! I don't know quite how long they are now either, but they're definitely beyond collarbone length :D they are a bit finer than the rest of my hair but not dramatically so.

I have babyfine wispies along the front of my hairline; most of them seem to have a terminal length of ~4-6 inches at most; they are far more prone to damage from exposure to the elements but they certainly wouldn't grow very much longer even if they could be protected, I'm sure. There does seem to be a greater concentration of them at my temples, and they are all much lighter blonde than the rest of my hair.

[Lady Stardust]

Henna doesn’t take properly on my nape hairs, and the hair that grows from my temples is just weird. I think it needs a load of moisture because it has occasionally formed into spirals, but most of the time it floats around feeling a bit straw like. It’s hard to moisturise just those bits without weighing down the rest of my hair, the conditioner always seems to disperse elsewhere!

I think my nape and temple hair is generally getting lighter, but it always bugs me that I end up with what looks like sun bleached stripes from my temples, from root to tip. My hair is easily damaged by the sun so I always protect it, and it’s just not possible for a couple of locks of hair to be bleached from root to tip when the rest of my hair hasn’t lightened at all. It always happens all of a sudden one day, there’s no gradual lightening.

[kitcatsmeow]

For me, these hairs are new growth. They were all at least waist length then after my postpartum shed all the sudden they started sprouting up everywhere. They are now about 4-6 inches and at the annoying length where I can’t contian them. On the bright side...new growth!

[Lady Stardust]

For me, these hairs are new growth. They were all at least waist length then after my postpartum shed all the sudden they started sprouting up everywhere. They are now about 4-6 inches and at the annoying length where I can’t contian them. On the bright side...new growth!

Yes new growth after postpartum shed is to be celebrated, mine all seemed to stick straight up for months :)

[Hairkay]

I've got wispies all over. I have sideburns which I leave to curl on its own or I might shave them about to even them up since once side grows more than the other. Hair in my nape area tends to unravel from plaits/twists and can get tangled in collars. That's a lint magnet so I have lost patience and cut some away. Hair can be anywhere from 1 inches to 6 inches in length. I try to curb the tangles by putting two small twists at the nape then including that in whatever plaits I have or it's hidden under my loose hair one the rare days when I let my hair out.