Anyone else feel like they *need* to wave their straight hair to wear it down?

[Ponytale]

I have had long hair since I was 10 or so... And through all these years, I have always felt the need to braid it or twist it at night to wear it down the next day. I have braided, bunned, used hotdog rollers, everything you can think of--just so it looks good down IMO. Otherwise, my fine dishwater hair looks "scraggly" to me, especially at the ends. Even after years of good care (almost an obsession--even before I joined LHC), it has never been to the point of looking spectacular straight.

This may be my own harsh opinion of myself, but has anone else felt this way?

[Mary <><]

WOW! That's a little different than what I am used to! You straighties have now idea what we wavies go through to have hair straight enough to wear down, LOL! :laugh:

[prosperina]

Yeah, ditto to what Mary said. I often think I need to straighten my wavy hair so I can wear it down. It can be messy otherwise.

[MsBubbles]

Hey Ponytale (Hairtwin!).

I do not feel like I have to have wavy hair to wear it down. For one, it only stays 'wavy' for about 30 mins, and for another, I mainly only feel like I can wear it down if I've washed it that day! But then, you've got 6" more hair than I do, maybe I'll change my mind by that length!

[AJoifulNoise]

I'm an in-betweenie. Not quite straight and not quite wavy. So, I feel like I have to choose. I have to comb it straight or crimp it with braids/buns. I share the feeling that my natural hair can't be left as it is.

[misspriss]

WOW! That's a little different than what I am used to! You straighties have now idea what we wavies go through to have hair straight enough to wear down, LOL! :laugh:


Exactly! I like my hair down much better straight, I feel it gets out of control wavy. Tangled, the waves get out of pattern, caught in the wind....straight lays perfectly straight, I like it down straight.

[Tangles]

I always manipulate my hair, either by wrapping (works only on low humidity days though) or bun curling/braid waving. As a certified in betweeny, I don't want to leave it as is just air dried normally, nice to see I'm not the only one.

[Torrin Paige]

AJoifulNoise and I are in the same boat. My hair, when left to it's own devices, is neither wavy nor straight. It only waves in sections, with other sections being straight and looks decidedly scraggly. If I want to wear it straight, I have to blow it dry, so if I plan on wearing it down I either save up one of my blowdry days (I try to keep it down to twice a month or so) or braid it wet the night before so my waves will look good. I always think of myself as a long hair ambassador and want my hair to look its very best when I'm out running around in public. Therefore it cannot be scraggly. Otherwise, I just wear it in a pretty braid or up-do if I haven't prepared for a "hair-down" day.

[royalscorpio]

I'm inbetween. It's not stick straight and it's not quite all the way wavy, too. I have faint waves in it. I've envied both stick straight and super curly.

But what I have learned is that someone always wants what they don't have. Well, not always. But often. We are so often, never content with what we have. And I've had so many compliments on my hair lately, that I've come to realize .... my hair is gorgeous. And enviable. So... you know what? I love my hair. I think it's gorgeous and while I ADMIRE other peoples hair, I've learned that if you really want to be happy, ... learn to love what you have. Because someone else will envy what you have. So.. why shouldn't you?

[kwaniesiam]

Yes. I'm for the most part a straightie, and when my hair was longer I never wore it down without braidwaves from the night before. Due to my type, to me it looks thin and straggly :shrug:

[Tornerose]

YES!!! I feel that when my hair doesn't have waves/curls in it, I look like I'm undergoing cacertreatment because it's so thin and unnoticeable.

I had my hair down when I met a bunch of strangers once. Had washed it the day before, and hadn't put it in a bun because I wanted it to dry fast. And after I comb it, my hair wouldn't get volume even if you threathened it with chemo (or heat .:lol: )
Noone noticed or complimented my hair until the third day, when my hair started to get alittle volume because of enough oil finally going trhough it. They all said "wow you have amazing hair. I didn't even notice the lenght until today".

[Gypsygirl]

I'm kind of like that. It's not like I don't like my hair straight... But I like it better wavy.

[JamieLeigh]

WOW! That's a little different than what I am used to! You straighties have now idea what we wavies go through to have hair straight enough to wear down, LOL! :laugh:

Exactly!! I was always the opposite - I used to feel like I had to straighten mine to make it look nice when loose. (And to look longer...;))

[freznow]

That's me! I was contemplating opening a thread like this.

It just looks a little limp and thin when down and straight. If I have gentle braid waves, it fixes it! Also, being compressed while drying makes my hair smoother, so I don't like air drying.

Wavies and curlies actually want the 'definition' that we call 'stringiness'. So, when I have braid waves, it effectively hides the strings not only in breaking up the individual pieces, but because people are used to seeing it that way. Maybe I'm a bit biased or jaded or something, but I don't think the wavies on this thread realize that straightness seems to require perfectly clean hair with no stringiness, which is hard to do, and gets really annoying if you have to try to manage it often.

[earthdancer]

If you notice, the women who don't like their hair straight when worn down have hair type 1a or 1b/f/ii (me, too). Hmm, I sense a pattern here! It's a very particular type of hair. The only time I like my hair worn straight is the day I wash it, when it's squeaky clean and fluffy. Next day, no.

[Furiana]

Maybe I'm a bit biased or jaded or something, but I don't think the wavies on this thread realize that straightness seems to require perfectly clean hair with no stringiness, which is hard to do, and gets really annoying if you have to try to manage it often.

I never knew that! Makes me appreciate the staighties I see who keep their hair that way.

[plainjanegirl]

Count me in on this too. My hair is an in betweener. I want it to decide if it wants to be straight or wavy but it is difficult hair. So frustrating.

[Teacherbear]

I prefer wearing my hair down when I have it as wavy/curly as I can possibly get it. I stopped trying for "straight" hair long ago. Even if I straighten it (even with jumbo rollers or by combing my hair every 10 minutes as it dries) it ends up being wavy for before the day is overwith anyway. It isn't worth trying to straighten it if I will wear it down for more than a few hours.

I've given into my hair's wavy/curly personality and don't fight it be straightening it any more.

[AnneAdeline]

Wow, I'm not alone! My hair only looks good down the second day after a wash, and I only wash once a week. So...it stays up. If I know I want my hair down, I will wash and Dutch braid it the day before. The next day I can undo the braids and have pretty waves instead of just blah.

When my hair was shoulder length, I even used to straighten it! Before I learned the horrors of heat, of course.

freznow - About the cleaness--exactly! My friend is a 3a/b and her hair looks great when it's down, and she doesn't wash very often either.

[inertia]

I usually either straighten or curl my 1b/1c hair when I wear it down. Either is okay but I do feel like I have to choose. I grow crinkly and curly hairs on the crown and nape, and that plus the slight non-waves can make my hair look more damaged than it really is when I let it air-dry naturally.

In the winter when the air is dry I frequently go for straight hair because it's quick and easy. When it's humid (from about May through early October), nothing will make it smooth, so I use curls to camouflage the frizz.

[spidermom]

In the distant past when my hair was more straight, I'd put it into about 4 braids when it was wet so that I could have wavy hair to wear down later. I preferred it that way. Now that I have lots of natural wave, I like it straight. That's o.k. though; most of the time I let my hair do its thing because it's going into a bun at some point during the day anyway.

[vamq]

I used to have type 1a/1b hair when I had earlength hair, and at that moment, that was fine with me.
My hair is now a lot more wavy, but also really unpredictable. If I wash and go to bed, I can wake up with 1a/1b type hair, or it might happen that I wake up with wavy hair with a few loose spiral curls in it.(2b?) I don't like my 1a or 1b hair, because I feel quite insecure about the thickness of my hair. That sounds odd, since I have ii/iii hair, but when it's 1b-ish, it just feels like it's a lot less. And when I have waves, it also looks like it's a lot more. Strangely enough, that's more important for me than the length, because I know I have long hair. I just never feel like I have thick hair, or a lot of hair, because I always compare myself to friends of me, one of them with 3a/F/ii(?) hair, and one of them with natural black 2b/M/C/iii+ hair..I know it's not a fair comparison, but I still do it..

So when I'm planning on wearing my hair down, I'm sure to braid my hair the night before, or to use some other technique to give me waves. :)

[rose_in_bloom]

Yes, I always do braid waves if I'm going to wear my hair down. My hair is just so thin that it looks like there's nothing there unless I have waves.

[marajade]

I have had long hair since I was 10 or so... And through all these years, I have always felt the need to braid it or twist it at night to wear it down the next day. I have braided, bunned, used hotdog rollers, everything you can think of--just so it looks good down IMO. Otherwise, my fine dishwater hair looks "scraggly" to me, especially at the ends. Even after years of good care (almost an obsession--even before I joined LHC), it has never been to the point of looking spectacular straight.

This may be my own harsh opinion of myself, but has anone else felt this way?


WOW! That's a little different than what I am used to! You straighties have now idea what we wavies go through to have hair straight enough to wear down, LOL! :laugh:


Yeah, ditto to what Mary said. I often think I need to straighten my wavy hair so I can wear it down. It can be messy otherwise.

Actually my hair is quite wavy/wurly- so I usually braid at night because my canopy and crown area is a little less so, and I feel like making is consistent makes it look a lot better. I achieve this by doing 4-6 small braids or a tight french braid. This way my canopy/crown area gets crimped/wavy. It will get wavy on its own some of the time, just depends on the humidity. For me, I think of braiding overnight as a way of plopping. :cheese:

[Phalaenopsis]

That's so strange, 'cause I hate braidwaves when I wear my hair loose. I only like waves when I intended to have them.

Apparently a lot of the straighties want some wave in their hair when they have it down. I can't understand that. Straight hair can be very pretty. But my hair never gets stringy like you girls say. Only greasy, but then it's time to wash :p

[Unnamed]

I used to. Mainly in the hip to fingertip range. Even if braid waves started pulling right out it was better than straight. Even falling out (and unevenly falling out, where there's just a bump or two on one side and not much of anything on the other), that was better than 1a straightness! It also made things look thicker (and made the taper look not quite as nasty), and with waves clumping at the ends is a bit more acceptable I feel (my braid waves end up around the 2b or 2c range, depending on how it got braided).

From past shoulder to about BSL it was mostly fine straight (except for band concerts in high school, etc--then it got tortured with a curling iron so it'd have a wee bit of body...fell out before I'd be back home, but at least it was there for a bit!). But then in that range my hair got washed every day in the morning, so it was kinda hard to get waves!

Now it's fine straight if it's in a pony. I still like it a bit better with braid waves if it's completely down, though; but I think it's 'okay' down straight, too. I think! I don't have to fiddle with it as much for pictures, either (ie no more combing at the last second to make sure the ends are all in the same general location), and so most of my siggies of late have even had it straight, instead of braid waves.

[rags]

I don't feel like I "need" to, but I surely do like it better when I do! I am listed as a 1b/c, but I always pull a comb through my hair when it's wet, and then I go straight to 1a. At 1a/F/i, if you aren't brushing it every ten seconds, it looks stringy. Very, very stringy, very very quickly! Hence, braid waves or it goes up most of the time.

[catfish]

I agree, I feel the need to make my hair as curly as it will go in order to wear it down. left to it's own devises my hair always looks so messy to me, and not in a good way;) so I like it very wavy or curly if I can. I used to perm my hair for this very reason but I now want long hair more than work free curls, so I am instead all about using rollers and braids to achieve what I perceive to be good 'down' hair.:o

[Ponytale]

Wow-- this was enlightening because I did not think about the fact I read the same thing from the Curlies (in the opposite direction). I am trying it straight today, but already I am fighting the impulse to go grab a hair stick.

[LaurelSpring]

This is me also. I have straight hair and I feel like it looks straggly if I dont do something to it. If I am going to wear it down I want waves. I was actually thinking of trying the straight thing tonight. Its been awhile since I attempted it.

[Heidi_234]

I wish I had straight hair I could wear down. :p (That's why I'm growing it long :lol:)
Doesn't waves/curls get messed up easily on you guys?

[rags]

Heidi, if I sleep with wet hair in braids to get braid waves (that is absolutely the only way I can get wave/curl, to sleep in it wet) it doesn't. In the past I have tried hot rollers, curling irons, etc. - they would be gone within the hour. Braids it is!

[Heidi_234]

Heidi, if I sleep with wet hair in braids to get braid waves (that is absolutely the only way I can get wave/curl, to sleep in it wet) it doesn't. In the past I have tried hot rollers, curling irons, etc. - they would be gone within the hour. Braids it is!
The thing is, that wavy/curly hair worn down becomes frizzy fuzzy at some point, I guess straight hair just won't do it... :shrug:

[rags]

No, mine usually doesn't the first day. Now, after I sleep on it - well, we won't talk about that! Fuzz city!

[dearladydisdain]

I like my hair straight most of the time but it may be because my hair is pretty thick. I'd love to have wavy hair but I can never get the effect I want so I take what I can get. :p

[enfys]

I don't wave my hair to wear it down, but I can't just wear it down and straight. I will pin the front back.

I suppose it's the same complex, but manifested in a different way. I worry that straight hair worn as-is will make it look all flat and rubbish.

[GlennaGirl]

Anyone else feel like they *need* to wave their straight hair to wear it down?

No. But I do feel like I need to do something with the front. I usually do a half-up, but not quite half, KWIM? And I leave wispies of bangs down.

I love long, straight hair but I don't like mine on the top just "down" because it really does lie very flat. Additionally, the light quality of my hair makes it "foof" all around my face every time I turn my head and that drives me crazy; another reason I like to put some of the front back and control it a little.

[flapjack]

Whenever I wear my hair down, it's usually completely straight and I rarely want it any other way. Sometimes I like my braid waves, but usually I want it straight as much as possible.


I don't like half up hairdos on myself, either. I just wear it all down entirely or with a headband on the days I want to wear it down.

[dukkelisa]

I have stick straight hair. I spent most of my life hating it, wishing for natural curly hair. I laugh now thinking about all the wasted time and effort and frustration trying to make my hair do what it was not meant to do. I always wear braids at night and that gives me braid waves as my "natural" hair body. But it doesn't last long.

I hardly ever wear it down, especially in public so I don't worry too much about how it looks anymore. It is almost tailbone length and the weight of it is annoying to wear down, especially if I bend over...it all slides around my body and gets in the way. So I learned my lesson on never wearing it down while shopping! A few times I have thought that it would be nice to have at least a little bit of curl at the ends on the occasions that's it's down, but the longer it gets, the less I have the desire to change it. I have accepted my hair as is....enjoying it for what it is and not to please anyone else. Both my husband and my mother both think I should cut it. Too bad. I tell them they should grow theirs. We're at an impasse. lol