Why does hair "separate" into sections..

[Nenwing]

..and how do you prevent this?

I noticed my hair would try to do this when longer, and I hated how it looked. What I mean is when it would separate into "chunks" that would try to do their own thing and just look like a scraggly mess in general. It would tend to happen below the neck. How does one get the hair not to do this, and why does some people's hair do it while others seem to have nice hair that stays put all day long in one flowing section?

[Katze]

I don't know either, because mine does this and it really bothers me. I do find, however, that dirtier hair does it sooner, oiling also makes it happen more, and if I comb my hair I can hide this stringiness for a few minutes anyway.

I often mix my leave ins with hair gel in order to prevent this.

[Isa-belle]

I would love to know, as well, and to know how to prevent this.
My hair started doing this at around hip length and it's been very frustrating.

[MsBubbles]

I would love to know, as well, and to know how to prevent this.
My hair started doing this at around hip length and it's been very frustrating.

Hip?!? LOL! Wow, mine does it at chin length :(. You have beautiful hair Isa-belle!

My unofficial verdict to the question 'how does that girl's hair all hang together?', is: fine yet voluminous hair stays together better. I think the more hair you have, the more it'll appear to hang 'together', and it's on a sliding scale related to amount of hair. Mine will always be on the thin side so I have given up the quest.:)

[florenonite]

Hip?!? LOL! Wow, mine does it at chin length :(. You have beautiful hair Isa-belle!

My unofficial verdict to the question 'how does that girl's hair all hang together?', is: fine yet voluminous hair stays together better. I think the more hair you have, the more it'll appear to hang 'together', and it's on a sliding scale related to amount of hair. Mine will always be on the thin side so I have given up the quest.:)

I've got fine hair and lots of it, and it gets stringy very easily. I think it's because I insist on using shampoo bars, even though sulphate 'poo washes my hair better, so my hair is always slightly greasy, even when "clean".

[Tangerine]

I have no advice I'm afraid but I just wanted to say that I actually love it when my hair does that and like it on other people too ... I think it looks natural and wild :D

[Heidi_234]

I, on the other hand, desperately look for a way to make the chucks... chunkier :D :lol:

[SpinDance]

I end up combing mine fairly often with either my fingers or a horn or wooden hair fork to get it to lay nicely instead of clumping up. It will clump into stringiness if it's dirty or I've put in too much oil (which I sometimes do intentionally for night braiding prior to washing). I usually end up putting it into an updo so I'll keep my hands out of it.

On the other hand, if it would clump and the clumps would curl, I'd be thrilled. I'm hoping that as I learn more here I'll be able to get actual curls. I found a lock with a real, if loose, long spiral curl this morning! Yay!

[Honestwitness]

My hair is APL and I have this problem, too. I have discovered that certain fabrics make it worse and certain fabrics make it look better, if I am wearing my hair down. I have one knit top that makes it look awful. You can see it in my "Hair Weaknesses" album. I believe there must be lots of microscopic fibers sticking out of the knit fabric that grab onto my hair strands like velcro. As I move my head from side to side throughout the day, these little fibers work to "spin" my hair strands into little corkscrews that repel each other.

On the other hand, I have a jacket (it's the flowery one in purples, turquoises, and pinks) that has a very smooth, slick surface. My hair hangs very nicely when I wear it. You can see photos in my "Hair Progress" album.

[Presto]

Curlies have good advice on how to get MORE clumps. :lol: I think combing/brushing is the only fix for clumps, any handling of curly hair causes frizz, which is basically hair getting out of those clumps.

I think vinegar rinses, or anything that helps prevent static will help along this line, whether the clumps are caused by tangling or static, the smoother you can get the hair the fewer clumps you will have. I think 'cones help with this?

[adiapalic]

Brushing with a BBB makes my hair smooth together in one cascade, and gives my hair more volume, and appears thicker and fluffier. It generally stays this way for a few hours, but sections together a little after a while.

Combing sometimes makes my hair sort of attract and clump to each other, running together into individually sectioned waves. This especially happens more naturally when it dries without brushing, is a few days without wash, and/or has some extra coconut oil in it.

I like either look, but I think I prefer the natural chunky waves :)

[JCFantasy23]

My hair used to do that all the time, mainly as a teen, and I would have to brush it often to make it look soft and decent again. Otherwise it would separate and I thought it looked horrid. It stopped on its own though so I have no idea.

[Nenwing]

Hmm, so vinegar rinses (would this be apple cider vinegar?) helps prevent static?? That would help, static is a culprit.

BBB=boar hair bristle brush?

Honestwitness, that is a good point too, I bet certain fabrics help, while others could make the hair have some resistance, therefore separating. I love your pics and didn't find the one of your hair doing that, they all look great! :)

[MsBubbles]

I have no advice I'm afraid but I just wanted to say that I actually love it when my hair does that and like it on other people too ... I think it looks natural and wild :D

I love this!

Thanks for planting that seed in my head, Tangerine.

[GlassEyes]

Probably means your hair is wavier than you think.

Wavy hair has a tendency to 'chunk' like curly hair as it moves up the wavy spectrum, and straight hair tends to form 'strings' if anything. If your hair is forming chunky pieces, try not combing it when it's wet, or after it dries. Might find out you're a wavy in disguise. or a curly, if you're already wavy.

[RocketDog]

No advice on how NOT to clump... my hair does it naturally because of its curly texture, and actually looks worse when I try to keep it from clumping. Curlies *want* defined curls!

[Nenwing]

Well, maybe I should ask how to encourage "clumpiness" so that it waves?
What does hair need to go from 'kind of wavy' to 'more wavy'?

[intothemist1999]

When I've seen it done deliberately and stylishly it looks really good. I think it's usually on thicker hair than I have. My hair does it and it just looks messy.

[Quixii]

Yeah, curlies and some wurlies are pretty much stuck with those clumps, and probably desire them. :lol:
I didn't realize straight (or straightish) hair would do that too, though. ...I honestly can't even picture it.

[Heavenly Locks]

The cleaner mine is (and straighter) the less stringy it is. It's just another variable of hair I think.

[Isa-belle]

Hip?!? LOL! Wow, mine does it at chin length :(. You have beautiful hair Isa-belle!

My unofficial verdict to the question 'how does that girl's hair all hang together?', is: fine yet voluminous hair stays together better. I think the more hair you have, the more it'll appear to hang 'together', and it's on a sliding scale related to amount of hair. Mine will always be on the thin side so I have given up the quest.:)
Thank you so much MsBubbles :smooch:
The thing is, the hair in my pictures is almost always freshly brushed. It doesn't stay that way for long. It used to when my hair was shorter, down to waist length. Then it started doing these clumps I hate. This is one of the reasons why I don't wear my hair down for long periods of time - I hate, hate the clumps that occur after something like 30 minutes.
As much as I would love growing my hair to classic, I'm often on the verge of cutting it shorter just to get rid of this. :(

I have do voluminous hair - the individual strands are fine to medium but I have lots of it.

The BBB definitely helps, too, but I don't like how flat it makes my hair look (it breaks my waves). :shrug:


My hair is APL and I have this problem, too. I have discovered that certain fabrics make it worse and certain fabrics make it look better, if I am wearing my hair down. I have one knit top that makes it look awful. You can see it in my "Hair Weaknesses" album. I believe there must be lots of microscopic fibers sticking out of the knit fabric that grab onto my hair strands like velcro. As I move my head from side to side throughout the day, these little fibers work to "spin" my hair strands into little corkscrews that repel each other.

On the other hand, I have a jacket (it's the flowery one in purples, turquoises, and pinks) that has a very smooth, slick surface. My hair hangs very nicely when I wear it. You can see photos in my "Hair Progress" album.
That is probably a very good point :) Only silk blouses from now on! :lol::p

[nyemelis]

The BBB definitely helps, too, but I don't like how flat it makes my hair look (it breaks my waves). :shrug:


Same here. It's always trade-off time--the brushing makes my hair greasier faster, and flatter...but it does smoothen out the ends and sections of hair together. Momentarily anyway.

[janiejones]

My hair usually does this "separating", but I've found for whatever reason, it only does it on the very back of my hair where I really can't see it without the aid of two mirrors and I never know what it is up to....My best solution....don't look at the back of my hair!

[MsBubbles]

Yeah, curlies and some wurlies are pretty much stuck with those clumps, and probably desire them. :lol:
I didn't realize straight (or straightish) hair would do that too, though. ...I honestly can't even picture it.

Well here's one (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=3316&pictureid=51434) for starters! And believe me, it's by no means the worst shot of my hair like that - this one actually looks pretty good. I used to have one up in my album but I took it back off again.

Nylon/synthetic tops work best with my hair. Silk doesn't help me.

[Tangerine]

I love this!

Thanks for planting that seed in my head, Tangerine.

You're welcome :D

[bigdreamer]

I have this happening on lots of areas of my head. For me, it is due to underlayer cowlicks forcing large sections of the hair closest to my scalp to grow in a certain direction, which I can see if I lift the canopy hair. Over the day time, the canopy starts to "cling" or "move" with the underlayer and starts to create separate sections. I hate it.

I'm hoping if I can get past shoulders I can keep it behind my back easier and eventually "train" it to grow in the same direction (backwards), but I'm sure it will take a very long time.

[Anje]

I don't know why it does it, but I think it's something that really plagues 1cs and 2as. It seems like the more curl/wave hair has, the more it separates into chunks. We've got enough wave to get the chunks and strings, but not enough for it to look wavy when it does this!

I know that's not much help, but I can tell you that it often looks better if you try to accentuate the wave more. Plomping your hair and all that stuff.... Or you can do my magical trick to deal with stringiness: put it in a bun!

[Isa-belle]

I don't know why it does it, but I think it's something that really plagues 1cs and 2as. It seems like the more curl/wave hair has, the more it separates into chunks. We've got enough wave to get the chunks and strings, but not enough for it to look wavy when it does this!
That makes a lot of sense Anje... This describes my own problem exactly. Thank you!


I know that's not much help, but I can tell you that it often looks better if you try to accentuate the wave more. Plomping your hair and all that stuff.... Or you can do my magical trick to deal with stringiness: put it in a bun!What do you mean by plomping the hair?
Oh, and yeah: bunning is also my solution #1 to stop worrying about stringiness ;)

[viking_quest]

I only have a few clumps which clump into spiral curls but I comb constantly and (just recently) brush so all of the hair separates so it looks like a curtain instead of fringe.

[Anje]

Plomping (maybe it's plopping?) is a method you sometimes see described where you basically let your hair dry in a pile, rather than hanging loose. One method is to just lower your wet hair onto a T-shirt, then somehow bundle that around your head so that the hair dries in that compressed shape. Piling it on your pillow while you sleep and it dries works too, but my usual, semi-accidental method is just to let it dry loose in my sleeping bonnet (tres sexy!). I get much stronger waves in the morning.

[Heidi_234]

Plomping (maybe it's plopping?) is a method you sometimes see described where you basically let your hair dry in a pile, rather than hanging loose. One method is to just lower your wet hair onto a T-shirt, then somehow bundle that around your head so that the hair dries in that compressed shape. Piling it on your pillow while you sleep and it dries works too, but my usual, semi-accidental method is just to let it dry loose in my sleeping bonnet (tres sexy!). I get much stronger waves in the morning.
It's plopping.
And here's a visual aid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K_E_JN5dkw). :flower:

[rhubarbarin]

Okay, I have to confess I don't understand this thread.

The only hair I have ever seen, straight, wavy, curly, that doesn't hang in 'chunks' or defined sections is on tv, or has been combed/brushed in the last 5 minutes.

As far as I was ever aware, this is the nature of human hair. ???

[florenonite]

Okay, I have to confess I don't understand this thread.

The only hair I have ever seen, straight, wavy, curly, that doesn't hang in 'chunks' or defined sections is on tv, or has been combed/brushed in the last 5 minutes.

As far as I was ever aware, this is the nature of human hair. ???

I know a lot of straighties whose hair, while not a single sheet by any means, is far less stringy than mine. Their hair probably looks like a lot of the pictures I post here, even if it's not been brushed recently. These pictures, of course, show my hair at its best, and I often get more defined sections that I don't like because it does look stringy.

[MsBubbles]

Okay, I have to confess I don't understand this thread.

The only hair I have ever seen, straight, wavy, curly, that doesn't hang in 'chunks' or defined sections is on tv, or has been combed/brushed in the last 5 minutes.

As far as I was ever aware, this is the nature of human hair. ???

I have seen many people with BSL or longer length hair that hung together like a smooth sheet for hours. All of them had straight hair. Now that I think about it, some of them blowdried their hair straight every day (the ones that were my friends). The common factor with these lucky ladies was that they had a lot of hair - not necessarily coarse hair, but a lot of it. (I have thought about this a lot!).

[Syaoransbear]

I thought hair separated when it was healthy. That's usually how I spot healthy hair in the first place. Most of the people I know that have hair hanging as one blow dry/straighten/dye/abuse their hair.

I thought it was because a healthy cuticle will fit like a puzzle piece right next to the cuticle of the hair beside it if the cuticle is nice and flat, but if the cuticle is damaged it will be raised, so the damaged cuticle of one hair won't 'fit' with the hairs around it. If all the hairs are doing that, it ends up making one 'sheet' of hair instead of pieces that fit with each other.

I dunno :shrug:

[freznow]

For me, it depends on what I wash with. I used to get it a lot when I used ACV rinses - no idea why that made my hair stringy. Now, with eggs for washing and catnip for conditioning, I tend not to have that problem.

On the plus side, fine-straight-stringy hair is a common type for fairies and elves, methinks. And it doesn't look half bad when you're rocking the braid or bun waves.

[florenonite]

For me, it depends on what I wash with. I used to get it a lot when I used ACV rinses - no idea why that made my hair stringy. Now, with eggs for washing and catnip for conditioning, I tend not to have that problem.

On the plus side, fine-straight-stringy hair is a common type for fairies and elves, methinks. And it doesn't look half bad when you're rocking the braid or bun waves.

ACV rinses made my hair stringy, too; I think it was because they made it greasy. I don't think I was using too much, either, it was no more than 1T in a pint of water.

[amoulixes]

This used to bother me too, but the longer my hair gets, the more I like it. The reason for this is that (as one poster mentioned) somehow I developed waves that look much better in "chunks." Now I just need to learn to handle the frizz...The hardest day for me is the day I wash my hair because it doesn't tend to chunk nicely. The second day though? I'm lovin' the chunks! Ha, that sounds so strange! Embrace the chunks!

[MsBubbles]

I thought hair separated when it was healthy. That's usually how I spot healthy hair in the first place. Most of the people I know that have hair hanging as one blow dry/straighten/dye/abuse their hair.

I thought it was because a healthy cuticle will fit like a puzzle piece right next to the cuticle of the hair beside it if the cuticle is nice and flat, but if the cuticle is damaged it will be raised, so the damaged cuticle of one hair won't 'fit' with the hairs around it. If all the hairs are doing that, it ends up making one 'sheet' of hair instead of pieces that fit with each other.

I dunno :shrug:

What you're describing doesn't describe what I'm thinking of. I'm not talking about matted hair. I'm talking about individuals hairs that are fine and silky and when they swing, they all swing together. Hah that sounds funny. :p. They all slide individually but together, creating the image of a smooth, flowing veil. This is very healthy-looking hair. I have never seen dyed/abused hair hanging together in the way I have described. So I guess in return, I don't understand what you mean, either! (not saying you're wrong, just trying to explain what I meant)

ETA: The friends of mine who blow dried their hair - their hair was still healthy-looking. It was BSL max and trimmed.

[Paliele]

My hair definitely does the chunky thing. I think that may be one reason the "real world" doesn't see super-long hair as a positive--when it's down it clumps together, and they assume it's "ratty" or "unkempt". When in reality, it's just what hair does. My solution is to put mine up!

[intothemist1999]

I don't know why it does it, but I think it's something that really plagues 1cs and 2as. It seems like the more curl/wave hair has, the more it separates into chunks. We've got enough wave to get the chunks and strings, but not enough for it to look wavy when it does this!

I think you must be right! Over the years I got perms, hoping for the more chunky, curly look. However, it never worked...they didn't chunk up nicely and just looked frizzy. Nothing I could do (products, mainly) helped it.