Does anyone else do this?

[ZoeZ]

For the first time in my life, (I'm 65) I'm growing my hair long, which also means that I have a lot to learn about caring for long hair. (Thanks to LHC!) It's now 26" long, and I was finding it harder to detangle while shampooing, losing a lot of hair in the process. Not enough loss to be worrisome, but I hated losing every single hair, lol, the longer it got. I have slightly wavy medium-fine grey hair.

Anyway, I made two discoveries: the first, that ties cut from pantihose, especially the slightly thicker black ones, are less damaging to my hair than the commercial elastic ties I bought, no matter how gentle they claimed to be on hair. Someone (and sadly I can't remember who) on LHC actually mentioned this.

The second discovery is that after combing out, if I tied a pony tail with aforementioned ties very low on my hair, positioned about in the middle of my shoulder blades, I could shampoo my hair easily, reaching under the hair to the scalp, without tangling the hair nearly as much, since the tie keeps the hairs basically aligned, even though I scrub my scalp quite vigorously (I love a clean scalp! :) ). I always put conditioner or mask on my ends before shampooing to protect them unless I'm clarifying.

I rinse thoroughly with the tie still in place, then condition and comb out with my shower comb, starting at the tail of the pony, then removing the tie and slowly combing from the bottom up. I found that I lose much less hair, only four or five, as opposed to the handfuls that I lost with the untied method. And detangling is much faster than without the tie, about half the amount of time, I'd say. Then rinse of course, with a leave-in.

I plan on adding more ties lower down when my hair gets long enough to do so.

Anybody else do this?

[Dark40]

Nope, I've never done that before but I've seen a youtuber tie her hair back or put in in a ponytail to only shampoo her roots/scalp, and her ends and the rest of her hair didn't get wet or tangled at all! The youtuber's name is Naturally Antonia. She is wonderful! She has some really great videos on how to grow really long hair, and how to take good care of it! Me and her are also really good friends on Facebook! And, her hair length is thigh length! Which is my long-term goal length! Or, between thigh to mid-thigh length! I am hoping to reach mid-thigh length someday soon! :) How long is your hair right at 26"? And, how long are you planning on growing it?

[spidermom]

I don't do it either. I find that combing and brushing out my hair before I wash it and being careful not to mess it all around while I'm washing and conditioning is care enough to keep it from tangling too much.

[Finda]

Congratulations on your success and interesing idea ZoeZ!

I can second spidermom, for me brushing before washing as well as careful handling are enough not to produce tangles. However, it was a long process to get there. When I first experimented with haircare and tried to figure out an ideal routine I actually clipped back several strands and washed them one after another. Sometimes more elaborate handling is necessary to find out what works for you or not.

I also know that technique of tying back hair as scalp wash like Dark40 already mentioned. But then the ends stay dry.

[ZoeZ]

I always comb my hair thoroughly to remove loose hairs before washing, and always put conditioner on the ends before shampooing, to protect them from drying out. I have to shampoo at least every other day (greasy scalp).

That worked well enough to detangle for a while, but now with my hair getting longer, it got more difficult the longer it got. Full disclosure: I should *probably* trim my ends, but they are in really good shape, fairytailed with very few splits that I S&D every so often, so I'm loath to trim at this point. So this method really helps me in that regard, because I really couldn't see growing much longer if it continued, and I really want, at the very least, waist length.

Once my hair is long enough, I will probably go to scalp washes only, but right now it's not long enough.

Haha, nice to know I'm completely off the wall in my thinking! But it does work for me, so there's that. :) Always nice to be a unicorn!

[sipnsun]

I also learned the pantyhose hack from someone on here and I wish I could remember who so I could thank them! They are great for workouts because they don't slip but also great because they don't cause breakage. I have never tied my hair back to shampoo but I've heard of people who do it. Like everyone above, I gently brush before washing and try not to stress over the shed hairs because it's normal to lose up to 100 hairs per day even though I hate losing each and every one!

[lunalocks]

Ah! If only I still had panty hose!

Since I oil my ends and part of the length after washing (and a few times per week, if I remember,) to get the oil out of my hair I use conditioner BEFORE washing. That eliminates any tangles my wide toothed comb missed.

[ZoeZ]

I condition before washing as well,,still get tangles on the ends. I suspect a trim of the fairytailed ends would help, but I don't want to lose length at this point. I don't want to trim until I hit waist! :)

[lapushka]

For the first time in my life, (I'm 65) I'm growing my hair long, which also means that I have a lot to learn about caring for long hair. (Thanks to LHC!) It's now 26" long, and I was finding it harder to detangle while shampooing, losing a lot of hair in the process. Not enough loss to be worrisome, but I hated losing every single hair, lol, the longer it got. I have slightly wavy medium-fine grey hair.

Anyway, I made two discoveries: the first, that ties cut from pantihose, especially the slightly thicker black ones, are less damaging to my hair than the commercial elastic ties I bought, no matter how gentle they claimed to be on hair. Someone (and sadly I can't remember who) on LHC actually mentioned this.

The second discovery is that after combing out, if I tied a pony tail with aforementioned ties very low on my hair, positioned about in the middle of my shoulder blades, I could shampoo my hair easily, reaching under the hair to the scalp, without tangling the hair nearly as much, since the tie keeps the hairs basically aligned, even though I scrub my scalp quite vigorously (I love a clean scalp! :) ). I always put conditioner or mask on my ends before shampooing to protect them unless I'm clarifying.

I rinse thoroughly with the tie still in place, then condition and comb out with my shower comb, starting at the tail of the pony, then removing the tie and slowly combing from the bottom up. I found that I lose much less hair, only four or five, as opposed to the handfuls that I lost with the untied method. And detangling is much faster than without the tie, about half the amount of time, I'd say. Then rinse of course, with a leave-in.

I plan on adding more ties lower down when my hair gets long enough to do so.

Anybody else do this?

No, but the hairs can still be in there; so be careful. You might one day wake up with a "mat" in there because of the sheds not having been removed properly.

I lose handfuls (literally) of hair too when I wash, and the best thing is to just get it out of there! What's going to shed, will shed. No way to stop that.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

What I do is, dilute my shampoo 10/1 with water. Gently massage my scalp hair all over with it, then when I rinse, the suds go through the rest of my length and clean that part. I never do anything like pile all my hair on top of my head and scrub vigorously, that would be disastrous. I keep my hair in it's natural downward direction as much as possible when i wash it. After shampooing, I add mineral oil to the lengths, then conditioner on the lengths, perform other showerly duties, then totally rinse my hair.

I always comb my hair thoroughly before I get in the shower to wash it (I never comb it in the shower). When it is around 80 - 90% dry after washing, I carefully comb it again, and never get much in the way of tangling.

[ZoeZ]

Lapushka/Sarahlabyrinth: I do as you do Sarah, I wash the scalp carefully trying not to disturb the length, which has been combed out and is protected by conditioner so it doesn't dry out, and just let the suds go down in the rinse. All my sheds are combed out thoroughly on dry hair prior to washing, so I won't get any mats. The ties are slid down off after conditioning in the shower, and the length carefully combed out with the help of the conditioner, again in the shower. So there's small chance of mats or damage. I will try your method of oiling pre-conditioning, and drying hair before combing out though.

[lapushka]

Lapushka/Sarahlabyrinth: I do as you do Sarah, I wash the scalp carefully trying not to disturb the length, which has been combed out and is protected by conditioner so it doesn't dry out, and just let the suds go down in the rinse. All my sheds are combed out thoroughly on dry hair prior to washing, so I won't get any mats. The ties are slid down off after conditioning in the shower, and the length carefully combed out with the help of the conditioner, again in the shower. So there's small chance of mats or damage. I will try your method of oiling pre-conditioning, and drying hair before combing out though.

To me it seems a little "much" (can I say that) just to wash your hair. Seems... difficult. And sheds come out whether you try to not let them or not. And consider the mechanical wear and tear of elastic bands on wet hair? No; I wouldn't!

But that's me.

And I had bald spots going through early puberty (hormone imbalance), when literally: chunks fell out. Maybe that's why I have learned not to panic that much. It was fine after a year of issues, BTW. Started when I was 13/14 and by age 15 I was OK. What comes out, comes out. That's just my 2cts.

It looks like you have finer/thinner hair (just read your stats), so on i/ii hair, I for sure would not mess around with elastic bands in wet hair! I think it's more trouble than it's worth.

[MusicalSpoons]

To me it seems a little "much" (can I say that) just to wash your hair. Seems... difficult. And sheds come out whether you try to not let them or not. And consider the mechanical wear and tear of elastic bands on wet hair? No; I wouldn't!

But that's me.

And I had bald spots going through early puberty (hormone imbalance), when literally: chunks fell out. Maybe that's why I have learned not to panic that much. It was fine after a year of issues, BTW. Started when I was 13/14 and by age 15 I was OK. What comes out, comes out. That's just my 2cts.

It looks like you have finer/thinner hair (just read your stats), so on i/ii hair, I for sure would not mess around with elastic bands in wet hair! I think it's more trouble than it's worth.

They're pantyhose bands, not the usual hair elastics.

(I don't think I've ever felt so weird writing an American word before :laugh: pantyhose ... man, that's just bizarre. I mean I assume they're tights, going over panties? Otherwise they might be stockings or knee-high tights, but the same kind of sheer material anyway. Yet we still call that clothing department hosiery, so where the heck did we get 'tights' from? And trousers? At least 'pants' came from pantaloons ... but then our 'pants' are underwear. Man, we're weird.)

Back on topic, I don't do anything like this but I think hair length helps as well, because the weight of it helps keep everything reasonably aligned. I comb it thoroughly before oiling, then the next day comb it thoroughly before putting the pre-poo conditioner on, and if the conditioner gives enough slip I can even comb it whilst rinsing out the shampoo! (Though I always use a second conditioner anyway, just don't always need to comb with it in.) I find I shed a fair amount just from shampooing, and the combing just helps get them out rather than causing any extra loss.

All that said, I'm glad you've found something that works for you :) you might find with more length that it becomes unnecessary, but for now if you're happy doing it then no reason not to!

[ZoeZ]

The pantihose ties are definitely gentler on my hair. I don't see it as much different than doing scalp washes, where, if I understand them correctly, the dry hair is braided or tied off in a loose bun to allow the shampoo underneath. The only real difference is that all my hair gets wet, rather than holding it up out of the way of the running water.

As long as I see no damage, and I spend less time detangling, I'm happy. :) To each his/her own.

Re: the word pantihose, yeah, I thought it sounded funny when I first came to Canada as well. :)

[Tinyponies]

I liked the idea, but alas no tights in my possession. So I cut up one of DH’s old socks (cotton heavy sock, 1 1/2 inch wide pieces from the part that would go around the leg ie before the heel) and that worked very well as a hair tie for a scalp wash. Thanks for sharing.

[lapushka]

They're pantyhose bands, not the usual hair elastics.

(I don't think I've ever felt so weird writing an American word before :laugh: pantyhose ... man, that's just bizarre. I mean I assume they're tights, going over panties? Otherwise they might be stockings or knee-high tights, but the same kind of sheer material anyway. Yet we still call that clothing department hosiery, so where the heck did we get 'tights' from? And trousers? At least 'pants' came from pantaloons ... but then our 'pants' are underwear. Man, we're weird.)

Back on topic, I don't do anything like this but I think hair length helps as well, because the weight of it helps keep everything reasonably aligned. I comb it thoroughly before oiling, then the next day comb it thoroughly before putting the pre-poo conditioner on, and if the conditioner gives enough slip I can even comb it whilst rinsing out the shampoo! (Though I always use a second conditioner anyway, just don't always need to comb with it in.) I find I shed a fair amount just from shampooing, and the combing just helps get them out rather than causing any extra loss.

All that said, I'm glad you've found something that works for you :) you might find with more length that it becomes unnecessary, but for now if you're happy doing it then no reason not to!


The pantihose ties are definitely gentler on my hair. I don't see it as much different than doing scalp washes, where, if I understand them correctly, the dry hair is braided or tied off in a loose bun to allow the shampoo underneath. The only real difference is that all my hair gets wet, rather than holding it up out of the way of the running water.

As long as I see no damage, and I spend less time detangling, I'm happy. :) To each his/her own.

Re: the word pantihose, yeah, I thought it sounded funny when I first came to Canada as well. :)

Ah! I did not realize they weren't your regular elastic bands. Then it should probably be fine.

I still would wash without the bands. I don't know. I love things "simple", I guess. LOL!

[Feral_]

Back in the day when I used shampoo I used to do a loose pony tail, wash my scalp then undo it for the rinse. It worked well :)