Tips for keeping away from the flat iron?

[toodramatik]

Hey all.

ATM my hair is really, realy short. The front layers are up to my ears. The top at the back is about 2 inches long (2 inches is the strand length), and the rest of the back strands are 1 inch long.

It's growing fast... I think :S These are some comparison shots.

June 14th, day of the cut
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5900/lgim0220t.th.jpg (http://img24.imageshack.us/i/lgim0220t.jpg/)

A few days ago
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/4180/lgim0233d.th.jpg (http://img24.imageshack.us/i/lgim0233d.jpg/)

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Anyway, it's a really hard style to keep looking good and I've been racking my brain for ways. I'm currently thinking of pinning the longer layers and just rocking a headband to keep the hair off my face. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

I really don't want to flat iron :(. I might continue to use the product I'm using (it's called Muk.. i guess its a pomade?)... do you guys think that's too damaging though?

[free_hug]

May i share this with you: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=23521

Though maybe you have seen it already.... i personally found it extremely helpful, it's on how to wait out growing out really short hair you can't put up.

Basically, one of the possible conclusions is using pomade and doing just a little damage may not be that evil - since you must wear it for a year or so without a major cut and still feel good about your hair to be able to grow it :)

[KiwiLiz]

How about blow drying on the cool setting? It wouldn't take long on your length, it would be a softer look, but maybe there's moose or something that would make it spikier (if that's what you want)

Or, you could flat iron with a heat protection spray (they do work!) and try to stretch out the number of days between ironing, it takes a little while to adjust -dry shampoo helps with this.

:)

[manderly]

You know, we've had similar discussions about this before. When your hair is at an awkward stage that you can't really work into something that you're happy with (and isn't the whole point to be HAPPY with your hair?), then I feel that it's ok to use damaging products and heat and whatnot to accomplish decent hair.

Once your hair gets to a different stage that you can rock more naturally, then so be it. Considering you only have a small amount of hair that you'll be damaging (it's not like I'm telling you to flat iron 3 feet of hair), you'll slowly trim that off in no time. :)

The article linked does have great ideas, but I wouldn't be too concerned about doing what's necessary here and there to keep yourself happy and presentable. :flower:

[toodramatik]

TY so much for the advice and the link. it was really useful.

I've settled on straightening the bangs (bangs grow super fast anyway and theyre so much longer than the rest), and using pomade on the back. I actually went and bought a few pretty headbands so that should fix the top along with bobby pins :).. I just dont want to do too much damage because last time it was a pixie was in seventh grade. It grew to waist in just two years. So I'm hoping i still have... whatever it is that made it grow so fast haha

[demitasse]

At that length, I would just use the flat iron too. I'm growing out bangs at BSL and I still resort to the flat iron. When your hair gets to a length where you don't need it anymore, you can start S&D-ing out the But there are ways you can minimize the damage.

If the straightener has multiple settings, figure out the lowest possible setting you can use that will still be effective. Mine has 25 heat settings and I started at "1" and worked my way up. Two quick swipes on the "10" setting without holding it gets the job done. I used to crank it all the way up to the hottest setting automatically. And make sure the hair you do put through the iron is totally 100% dry. If there's any moisture, you're cooking your hair.

[shadowclaw]

I had bangs all my life until the end of seventh grade, when I decided I didn't want them anymore. They were plain straight-across bangs, though. Yours look more side-swept or something. I'll just call them good-looking stylish bangs. Mine were hideous.

Anyway, for the first few months, before I could get them behind my ears, I parted them and used hair clips to keep them out of my eyes and from going all over the place. I often wore bandanas over them, too. It helped that the rest of my hair was longer than yours (it was about chin-length), so I could clip the bangs in such a way that they blended in with the rest of my hair. I do recommend bandanas, though. Headbands didn't work for me until my bangs were long enough to stick behind my ears, because they would poke up behind the headband. A bandana can be used to hide your whole head or just part of it, depending on how it's folded, so they were quite helpful in hiding my growing-out bangs.

[EtherealOde]

You know, we've had similar discussions about this before. When your hair is at an awkward stage that you can't really work into something that you're happy with (and isn't the whole point to be HAPPY with your hair?), then I feel that it's ok to use damaging products and heat and whatnot to accomplish decent hair.

Once your hair gets to a different stage that you can rock more naturally, then so be it. Considering you only have a small amount of hair that you'll be damaging (it's not like I'm telling you to flat iron 3 feet of hair), you'll slowly trim that off in no time. :)

The article linked does have great ideas, but I wouldn't be too concerned about doing what's necessary here and there to keep yourself happy and presentable. :flower:

I agree with this totally. Your hair is short now but over time you will need many little trims as your hair grows out. All the ends that you might be damaging now are going to be the part that gets trimmed off, and I bet that in 2 years the hair you have now will be either totally gone or almost totally gone from trimming. Don't fret over trying to make your hair look good, just try not to excessively damage your hair(make sure you use heat protectant, no backcombing, etc) and you will be fine.

http://dragcave.net/image/VAvo.gif (http://dragcave.net/view/VAvo)http://dragcave.net/image/mX8C.gif (http://dragcave.net/view/mX8C)http://dragcave.net/image/cbt1.gif (http://dragcave.net/view/cbt1)