help the witch with the 21 inch hair!

[patreeka]

hey all! i'm brand new to the community. ok, well, i lied. i lurked for a tiny bit and i am oh-so-jealous of all you long hairs! nice to meet you all. :D

so, long story short, i've been growing out chin-length hair for almost two years now. my hair doesn't grow very fast, due to absolutely KILLING my hair. i'm surprised i still have some! but i've dyed my hair maybe twice? in the last two years. i'm very impressed with myself. :D for the past few months i've used heat on my hair ONCE, and that's because my sister's graduation came up and i couldn't let it look anything less than perfect. :D

so, usually my hairs up in a bun, down, or in two pigtail braids. my goal is about 29-29 inches, but i plan on making it ass-length! :-p

i'm not very talented when it comes to fun styles, except for English braids. i'm very good at them. i can't french, dutch, or chinese braid, but i'm willing to learn!

so, any of you ladies have any cute, fun 21 inch non-heat hairstyles that poor lil' me can do?? i'm stuck. and i'm getting BORED! i'm up for anything. so show me whatcha got! :D


and pictures just for fun:

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r374/blackball1565/z_patreeka-2.jpg
i just took this a few minutes ago. my hair is just washed and no product or the usual leave-in conditioner, so sorry for the frizziness!

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r374/blackball1565/z_patreeka173-1.jpg
and to put a face to the hair. :D


thanks A BILLION LOTS in advance. :D

[Elphie]

Welcome! I think my hair was about your length when I first started trying braids. I used this site quite a bit to get the hang of things.

http://www.dreamweaverbraiding.com/Braiding_Tips.htm

[misstwist]

Have you been to the articles section? http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=category&categoryid=1

[patreeka]

i haven't! i'm new to the site, so i have no idea where anything is, haha. thank you both very much!

[chelssix]

I also say braids!
Or try the Cheater's Bun. You can find it in the articles section.

[rags]

You need to look at angel in diguise's article in the articles section. My hair is just about your length. I do: French braids (you really need to learn how to do those - they're great!), topsy tails, gibson tuck (verry easy), cinnabun, lazy wrap bun, orchid bun, single english braid, and half -ups. You can use the search function to find things on these, and the articles section is great. You tube videos are fantastic to learn new styles.

[patreeka]

i wear my hair in a cinnabon ALOT, but i dont think i'm doing it right. i mean, i get the spiraly-snakey look, but it doesn't look as "polished" as i want it to be. i do half-ups alot, too. but like i said, i'm not really "hair savvy" so any instrutional videos or pictures or something would be fantastic!

[Roseate]

My hair is just about your length. I do: ...cinnabun, lazy wrap bun, orchid bun...

You can do all those NOW? These are the benefits of being a i. My monster hair will have to be about a foot longer before it will even think about wrapping around itself that many times. :radar:

i hair: small in size but can do a lot of tricks!

[Longlocks3]

Many people who write articles here(and some who don't) have amazing youtube videos to help out. I know I can read an article 15 times and still not be able to do a new thing to it but once I watch the videos it's a snap! Good luck.

[enfys]

hey all! i'm brand new to the community. ok, well, i lied. i lurked for a tiny bit and i am oh-so-jealous of all you long hairs! nice to meet you all.

so, long story short, i've been growing out chin-length hair for almost two years now. my hair doesn't grow very fast, due to absolutely KILLING my hair. i'm surprised i still have some! but i've dyed my hair maybe twice? in the last two years. i'm very impressed with myself. :D for the past few months i've used heat on my hair ONCE, and that's because my sister's graduation came up and i couldn't let it look anything less than perfect. :D

so, usually my hairs up in a bun, down, or in two pigtail braids. my goal is about 29-29 inches, but i plan on making it ass-length! :-p

i'm not very talented when it comes to fun styles, except for English braids. i'm very good at them. i can't french, dutch, or chinese braid, but i'm willing to learn!

so, any of you ladies have any cute, fun 21 inch non-heat hairstyles that poor lil' me can do?? i'm stuck. and i'm getting BORED! i'm up for anything. so show me whatcha got!



What's a Chinese braid? I've never heard of that, but I'm interested.

I can't help you much with styles but I wanted to say hi and that just by looking for protective updos you're putting yourself on a good path for growth.

[Fencai]

welcome to the boards!!!
We have a great articles section, and a lot of creative people around here!
Many of our users also post videos on youtube and you can find links in the articles section for some of them!

[patreeka]

oh, i guess i meant chinese BUN. hahah. shows how much i know, right?

and thanks for all the welcomes! :D :cheese:

[WelshLocks]

Welcome!
Normally new members introduce themselves in the ,"New?Start Here!" thread, but that's alright. :)
Your hair is very pretty and I can tell it's going to look really nice when you hit your goal length. When I was at your length I couldn't do much(sorry but it's true) that's not to say you CAN'T. Go look under the articles under "hair styling" there are plenty of good ideas that can be modified for shorter hair. Happy growing!

[patreeka]

thank you!

it sucks i can't find much to do..oh well, i will in time!

[Nevermore]

Sock bun! Add a fake-hair-in-fun-colors scrunchie for a bit of fun.

[getoffmyskittle]

Hi patreeka!

You have pretty hair, and a pretty face to match. :)

The Articles section (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php) here (it's in the top bar, along with Home, User CP, FAQ, Members List etc) can help you out a lot with ideas for hairstyles.

I'd definitely recommend learning how to French and Dutch braid. A lot of styles are based on those. You're at the perfect length (IMO) for double braiding. I'm not one for doing a lot of buns, so I can't really help you there; I have a couple staples but they are for much longer hair. You could probably also do the French Twist. And I'm a big fan of the Gibson Tuck, but I discovered it just as my hair was getting too long for it... you'd be able to do it for a long time! :D

Just use the search function here or look in the articles, and you should be able to find instructions for all of these.

Anyway, at your length, I wore a lot of ponytails. They're a good fallback.

[Cassi]

Before finding this forum I watched a lot of you tube videos on different braids and buns. I learned the sock bun and braided chinese bun there. I also learned some I can do on others but not on myself from just searching the net like XO braids and I even ended up buying a book on how to do different braids. The "articles" section here (link at the top of this page) has some fabulous hair styles as well. Happy hair fun! Blessed Be you hair! :D

[patreeka]

thank you, getoffmyskittle and Cassi! you're too sweet. :D

i will definatly do my research on youtube!

[wackyredtangles]

I second youtube. There's something about seeing things visually. Isabelle (sp?) demonstrates braids very well, but Im sure there are lots of them.

Once you learn braids the possibilities are endless. You can do a half up with a french/dutch braid, do a half up with your hair parted and two braids, then bun the rest, leave it down, do a tuck, whatever.

[lambhair]

Welcome! I'm fairly new here too and I love this place...there is so much to learn and everyone is great about sharing experiances and ideas.
I second everyone that has recommended youtube, its easy to spend hours there watching tutorials...you can find just about any hairstyle there, from simple to jaw-droppingly complex. If you are good at english braids, then it won't be long before you branch out to other kinds. I have been messing around with braids for years and just learned how to dutch braid last summer so there is always something new to learn!
Good luck on your hair journey!

[patreeka]

i am HORRBILE when it comes to just trying to do it myself with a typed tutorial. i'm an "artist" (i say it loosely because i do a little of everything) so to learn it visually is definatly the way to go for me. thanks again! :D

[rags]

You can do all those NOW? These are the benefits of being a i. My monster hair will have to be about a foot longer before it will even think about wrapping around itself that many times. :radar:

i hair: small in size but can do a lot of tricks!

Hee, hee, I may steal that for a quote! That's the only benefit of my thin hair! I've been able to do a cinnabun since just below shoulder. (Granted, I do have to pin the ends on the lazy wrap)

And I third or fourth or whatever you tube. It's great for visual learners!

[Gypsygirl]

No ideas...but I wanted to say that you're very pretty! :)

[patreeka]

aw, thank you very much!

[Xandergrammy]

I just wanted to say "welcome" and that you're adorable. I think braids would look great on you!

[dreamsofnorns]

French braids are really easy once you get the hang of them... You are very beautiful!

[slz]

Welcome ! As of hair I think your questions have been answered, I'll add that you might want to use proper capitalization to (in addition to being a rule on this board) make your posts more easily readable.

[torrilin]

You've got layers. The fact that it doesn't look like hell on you suggests to me that your hair isn't 1a/1b but a solid 1b... I have no hint of a body wave, and all layers do on me is make my hair look sadder and flatter and they make it just horrible to work with. There's no "there" there for the layers to help. The fact that you feel like heat styling helps your hair look it's best is also suggestive, since that's an easy way to make wavy hair look super straight when it is up.

I'm also a little dubious about that M... the backlit photo suggests you may have some strands that are F. Too many see through halo hairs!

It's probably a good idea to pick up some hair toys and learn how to use them. Not just obviously pretty ones! Some plain cloth covered hair elastics, finding bobby pins that will actually stay in your hair, and maybe trying some stuff like a hair screws, a hair fork, or combs. I find combs are a real lifesaver, since my hair is very slippery and barrettes won't stay. Combs are the only way I can get a "pulled back" look that holds. Most kinds of pins fall out on me too.

Once you've got tools that work, you can probably do stuff like a Gibson tuck, French twist, French braid, a "messy" version of a figure 8 bun, the short version of a braided crown etc. Just remember a lot of the tutorials are done by folks with much wavier or coarser hair, so where they can get away with no hairpins on some styles... you probably can't. Learning to pin things so they stay definitely takes practice!

And start looking at the ways your hair naturally "rebels" from updos. Sometimes it's not what you meant, but is still attractive. And some styles of "rebellion" aren't rebellion at all... it's your hair telling you it's more suited to another style. My hair is super-slippery, and a French twist just won't hold. But French braids are awesome on me :). They stay well, and they show off my incredibly confused hair color. It ends up looking like I deliberately highlighted my hair just for that style, to make every braid bump POP. Nope!

[Angeletti]

Hello and welcome : ) Like everyone else was saying, buns and other styles are always something you can try. Having straight hair I like to switch it up every now and again by adding curls, I've found wearing sponge like soft curlers on damp hair work awesome so maybe you could try doing something like that.

Here were the results I got, and mind you my hair never usually curls and stays in due to being fine and straight, so this seems to be the best way I have found. If you don't like as much curl then you could try braiding your hair when wet and that usually turns out nice as well.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a203/genazollner/a-1.jpg

[Nae]

Yep, you may be able to get by with a french twist, peacock twist, gibson tuck or a sock bun at this length. Welcome to the boards by the way!