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View Full Version : Tackling sideburns/temple hair and nape hair



Shastrix
October 7th, 2009, 09:42 AM
This is probably more of a question for the guys, but how does one manage sideburns with long hair? I wear my side burns in line with the bottom of the hollow of my ear (if that makes sense). Fortunately, my facial hair is the same colour as my head hair so the transition is seamless, but the side burns grow much more quickly than the hair at my temples which grows really, really slowly.

At the moment the temple hair tends to stick out awkwardly perpendicular to my head because it doesn’t fit behind my ears (this is only a minor irritation when I’m wearing my glasses as it can be tucked away, but looks ridiculous when wearing contacts). Should I trim this hair short and include it in my side burns or be patient and see if it will grow long enough to stay behind my ears? - though I doubt it will ever be ponytail-able.

What I have been doing up until now is classifying anything below the crease where the top of my ear meets my face as "side burn" and shaving it short but leaving anything above that to grow - hence the silly sticky out bits. I suppose women would also have the same troubles with temple hair, though without the sideburn complication...

On a related theme, what on earth am I supposed to do with the wispy hairs at the nape? Again, the hair is growing, if slowly, and will probably be brush-able up and out of the way eventually, but in the mean time it ruins the smart look of a ponytail. I am reluctant to trim or shave the hair as I would inevitably remove some of the longer hairs and over time would probably end up with a reverse-receding hair line.

When looking around at women wearing their hair up they don’t seem to have as much wispy nape hair. That either means this is a "man-thing"; there is a good method to avoiding the problem; or that they have had long hair much longer and therefore the hairs are long enough to be styled. Is a suitable solution just to lacquer them in gel or hair spray until something can be done with them?

:confused:

Yozhik
October 7th, 2009, 09:57 AM
Hey Shastrix!

My boyfriend has little facial hair, so when he grew his hair out, there wasn't a problem with defining sideburn hair -- he just let it grow out to close to the bottom of his ears and when it got long enough, he tucked it behind. As for temple and nape hair, you could either think of clipping it with barrettes or pins, or, if you want to look a bit more masculine, use one of those exercise headbands :) Either that, or use a bandana or beanie

Good luck :D

Gumball
October 7th, 2009, 10:27 AM
I hair hair with short terminal length all along my hairline. I used to loathe it, but now I just admit it's a part of me and it will do whatever it does. My nape hair I also used to trim to keep neat, but then it just grew back out anyway so now I don't trim it anymore.

As for the sideburns, I figure mine start around the point just above my tragus and in line with the outer corners of my eyes. I keep them leveled off in line with where my earlobes connect back into my head. I trim them whenever I feel they are getting scruffy enough to stick out more than I'd prefer a la an older type of fashion. Easy and quick to do, so it's not that big of a deal for me. I maintain the bottom of them after I shave since it's a quick bit of maintenance.

linda g
October 7th, 2009, 10:29 AM
I'm female, and I have the nape hair issue. I have recently wondering if I should do something about that... especially now that you've categorized it as a "man-thing"!:eek:

GoddesJourney
October 7th, 2009, 10:39 AM
For the most part, the little patch of hair right in front of my ears is the length of the rest of my hair. Patience, yours will probably grow out, too. As for sticking straight out, your glasses might actually be the culprit. Sometimes you can get semipermanent bends from pressure. Your glasses probably create a fold in your hair that you only notice when the glasses are off. I used to wear a clip in my hair on the left side to clip back some shorter hairs. Eventually, I realized that the clip was not only bending my hair and making it stick out even more, but damaging it so it would never pass that length.

As for nape hair, patience. Same thing, try to find out if you're damaging it somehow. It's not a "guy thing". This problem varies from person to person depending on lifestyle, length, and unfortunately genetics.

Gel, yes. Try it.

GlassEyes
October 7th, 2009, 11:25 AM
I cut mine off. I'm ignoring the nape hair for now, to see if it's just damaged and trying to grow, but my sideburns I trim, and cut off all the fuzzy hair that grows from my temples down. It's become such a nuisance, I don't care if it's going to grow anymore. xD;

Shastrix
October 7th, 2009, 11:45 AM
As for sticking straight out, your glasses might actually be the culprit. Sometimes you can get semipermanent bends from pressure. Your glasses probably create a fold in your hair that you only notice when the glasses are off.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head there. I usually wear my hair down for the first day or two after washing it and often wear my glasses (I find the hair too irritating in my face and eyes otherwise when it is loose). When it starts to look a little greasy I put it up in a ponytail and take the opportunity to wear contacts, therefore revealing the kinks resulting from two previous days of wearing glasses.

I will have to start wearing contact lenses whilst my hair is drying and being more careful not to trap any hair when putting my glasses on. :)

As an unrelated aside - OMG women must have arms of steel! I have just started learning how to braid my own hair (I know how to braid others' from having a twin sister) using a suitably man-techy method involving a television and a laptop camera... and my arms feel like they are going to fall off from the effort of it all! :disgust:

Anje
October 7th, 2009, 01:06 PM
I'm no help with the sideburns, but I'm another woman with nape hair. Mine is a bit curlier than the rest of the hair and never seems to grow long enough to stay in a bun or braid for long, though it grows long enough to tangle into nasty little knots.

I've given up -- when it gets long enough to get knotty, I cut it to about 2" long, which is long enough not to look grown out from a shaved neck, but short enough to look tidy. I'll let it grow if it won't knot up on me, but that doesn't look likely.

Tanuki
October 7th, 2009, 07:55 PM
I'm still looking for tricks as my sideburns are compressed by the sides of my glasses and turn into wings that stick out unless i gel them back