Help with hair for karate?

[florenonite]

I know there have been threads on hairstyles for working out in the past, and I've read through quite a few of them, but nothing seems to be working for karate. I can't wear a ponytail because (a) it falls out, (b) I risk hitting someone in the face with it and (c) it starts to stick to my neck when I sweat. (b) and (c) apply equally to braids. I've tried Periwinkle's shower bun, but that invariably starts falling out midway through the warm-up. I can't wear any hair toys or even pins because I'm paranoid about falling on my hair and impaling myself on them ;) A segmented ponytail (caterpillar) would probably give me the same problems as braids.

I'm at my wits' end; every class I seem to need to stop to redo my hair multiple times. This has been plaguing me since I started back up with karate in July. Pre-LHC, I did a messy bun, but given the tangles I get from that I know it can't be healthy.

[Niftytiffs]

How about something like a crochet bun case over a simple bun? If I put my hair into a ponytail with a scrunchy then twist it on its self into a bun it doesnt need any pins to hold it. One of these covers would then make sure everything was held in place!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CROCHET-DANCEWEAR-HAIR-BUN-CASE-NET-ISTD-RAD-ALL-COLOUR_W0QQitemZ260486143610QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ Ladies_Dancewear_LE?hash=item3ca62f1e7a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Hope this helps!

Tiffers

[Heidi_234]

How about -
a "messy" bun done from braided hair? I mean, braid your hair, then do sort of a cinnabun and secure with scrunchie.
Tucked under french braid?
Sock bun? It's a military style after all, I'm sure they know what hair styles work :p

[above_rubies]

Ok, hmm you've got me thinking with that one. So many restrictions, Haha! You could put it in a high ponytail, braid that ponytail then put another elastic over the base of the braid, twist and only partly pull the braid through so it forms a shorter loop. If the braid comes apart too easily you could try wrapping it with ribbon.

[JamieLeigh]

What if you started the segmented ponytail high on your head like a French braid? It would still be at your neck, but a nape pony is not as sticky and wrap-around as a higher-up pony. All the loose hair would be down lower.

[florenonite]

How about something like a crochet bun case over a simple bun? If I put my hair into a ponytail with a scrunchy then twist it on its self into a bun it doesnt need any pins to hold it. One of these covers would then make sure everything was held in place!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CROCHET-DANCEWEAR-HAIR-BUN-CASE-NET-ISTD-RAD-ALL-COLOUR_W0QQitemZ260486143610QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ Ladies_Dancewear_LE?hash=item3ca62f1e7a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Hope this helps!

Tiffers

I've done scrunchie buns that just fall out within five minutes, so I don't know if the bun cover would really stop that.


How about -
a "messy" bun done from braided hair? I mean, braid your hair, then do sort of a cinnabun and secure with scrunchie.
Tucked under french braid?
Sock bun? It's a military style after all, I'm sure they know what hair styles work :p

The braided bun might work. I've never managed a tucked under French braid without poking myself with my hair, though, and I can't do a sock bun to save my life :p


Ok, hmm you've got me thinking with that one. So many restrictions, Haha! You could put it in a high ponytail, braid that ponytail then put another elastic over the base of the braid, twist and only partly pull the braid through so it forms a shorter loop. If the braid comes apart too easily you could try wrapping it with ribbon.

Hmm, I might try that. It should keep all my hair on top of my head and out of the way.

[above_rubies]

Here is a video that torrinpaige did for a wrapped braid on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/torrinpaige#p/u/1/bLnBEVd0gOg
French braids on either side would work and then the braids looped shorter with elastics. Or a ponytail tied into a sort of small snood.

[florenonite]

What if you started the segmented ponytail high on your head like a French braid? It would still be at your neck, but a nape pony is not as sticky and wrap-around as a higher-up pony. All the loose hair would be down lower.

My worry with that is that I would manage to hit someone with it. It would be a good foot long, which makes it a prime weapon :p

[Heidi_234]

What?! Head over to youtube and learn the secrets of the sock bun - it's one of the most photogenic ones, not to mention that it's hairstick free and hence good for sports. Off you go. :p ;)

[florenonite]

What?! Head over to youtube and learn the secrets of the sock bun - it's one of the most photogenic ones, not to mention that it's hairstick free and hence good for sports. Off you go. :p ;)

I've watched many videos of it, but it just doesn't seem to work. My hair hates me; it won't do Gibson tucks or French twists, either. And it pulls at my scalp when I do cinnabuns. It's evil, I tell you, evil! :p

[GoddesJourney]

Okay, in all the thirteen years or so of martial arts, the best thing for me past around APL was one braid at the nape of the neck. Tuck the hair tie into the little crook just above your collarbone under your sports bra. Nothing has ever worked better than this for forms, sparring, grappling, name it. If you can get a tucked French or Dutch braid to stay, that's also great. Double French braids work great for a lot of people too. I share your same distaste for loose ponytails sticking to my neck. Buns don't work for me either. Try the single braid in your bra strap. It works.

[JCFantasy23]

You could also try an upside down french braid. The hair is in a braided bun at the top of your head and can be secure if done right. I havent mastered it yet, despite wanting to though (sigh) I know they use it a lot for ballet and vigorous dancing.

[florenonite]

Okay, in all the thirteen years or so of martial arts, the best thing for me past around APL was one braid at the nape of the neck. Tuck the hair tie into the little crook just above your collarbone under your sports bra. Nothing has ever worked better than this for forms, sparring, grappling, name it. If you can get a tucked French or Dutch braid to stay, that's also great. Double French braids work great for a lot of people too. I share your same distaste for loose ponytails sticking to my neck. Buns don't work for me either. Try the single braid in your bra strap. It works.

Do you not find you have problems with sweating? I've worn ordinary braids before but unless my hair is slightly damp to begin with I can't stand it because my hair makes the back of my neck horribly sweaty.


You could also try an upside down french braid. The hair is in a braided bun at the top of your head and can be secure if done right. I havent mastered it yet, despite wanting to though (sigh) I know they use it a lot for ballet and vigorous dancing.

I like the idea of an upside-down French braid, I just don't know how to secure the bun. Ordinarily I'd do a hairstick, but that would never work for karate. Scrunchie, maybe?

[Merlin]

I've done scrunchie buns that just fall out within five minutes, so I don't know if the bun cover would really stop that.

They work fine for ballet dancers, so it should be able to cope with your more minimal level of spinning?


My worry with that is that I would manage to hit someone with it. It would be a good foot long, which makes it a prime weapon :p

And? Seriously though if there is nothing in the rules for sport karate which forbids it then it gives you an advantage -the same way there is nothing in the rules for fencing with actually says you can't aim for your opponent's groin - friend of mine always said that the fear factor in her opponents gave her the edge... And if you're doing it for self defence then hey, it's whatever works!

[Flynn]

My experience is kendo, so this is likely to not be all that helpful.

I find that a segmented ponytail with very short segments was much stiffer than a braid, and doesn't give me the same problems with it whipping around and stuff. (Not that I have very many problems with a braid.) The longhaired guy in the group wears a ponytail at the nape of his neck with one segment of about 4 cm. His hair is sort of midback length. The other girls wear low ponys or braids, except for one who... well, for kendo, when you're in armour, you have a scarf on your head for a little extra padding, to stop the armour rubbing, and to keep the dye off you. She wears one scarf over her whole head, which then wraps all the way down her hair, and then she puts the other little scarf over that. Her hair is straightened, and I think she does it that way to stop it from kinking.

ETA: If the collar of your uniform is as stiff as mine is, I definitely wouldn't tuck it down the back! I think it'd saw my hair off by the end of a session! XD

Then again, kendo uniforms are far more... not tight, what's the word I want? Structured? Something like that... where karate uniforms are looser and freer.

[florenonite]

They work fine for ballet dancers, so it should be able to cope with your more minimal level of spinning?

I'm more concerned with the bouncing :p When we spar we generally bounce up and down, and everything I've tried, even if it stays for other stuff, falls out when I start sparring.

Besides, ballet dancers presumably use pins, which I don't want to do.



And? Seriously though if there is nothing in the rules for sport karate which forbids it then it gives you an advantage -the same way there is nothing in the rules for fencing with actually says you can't aim for your opponent's groin - friend of mine always said that the fear factor in her opponents gave her the edge... And if you're doing it for self defence then hey, it's whatever works!

But I like the people in my class! I don't want to hurt the people I'm training with, then I don't have anyone to play with :p

[Merlin]

But I like the people in my class! I don't want to hurt the people I'm training with, then I don't have anyone to play with :p

Oh, they'll get over it, it's not like you're going to hurt them much....:p

[florenonite]

Oh, they'll get over it, it's not like you're going to hurt them much....:p

Heh, maybe I'll get the guy who "accidentally" punched me in the wrist with his bony fingers first ;) There's still a bruise and it was over a fortnight ago!

[Pegasus Marsters]

Okay, I have a suggestion.

Gather the top half of your hair as if doing a half up. Ponytail that bit. Then gather a third of the hair that's loose, add it to the ponytail, and ponytail it again with another elastic. Gather half of what's left and repeat, then gather all the hair and ponytail it. Then either braid or put into a segmented pony from there. This should keep it tight against your head and neck so even if you spin fast it's not too whippy.

[florenonite]

Okay, I have a suggestion.

Gather the top half of your hair as if doing a half up. Ponytail that bit. Then gather a third of the hair that's loose, add it to the ponytail, and ponytail it again with another elastic. Gather half of what's left and repeat, then gather all the hair and ponytail it. Then either braid or put into a segmented pony from there. This should keep it tight against your head and neck so even if you spin fast it's not too whippy.

Like Jasmine hair! I used to do this all the time when I was wee because I wanted hair like Jasmine's :p

I might try it with the final ponytail an inch or so above my neck, so that my hair's not directly against my neck but still contained.

[Lemur_Catta]

Hi! I practice Taekwondo, and my hair is slightly shorter than yours. I usually do well with a Dutch braid or two braids (english braids or dutch braids, they stay the same on me), but in Taekwondo there is not the same physical contacts (as we mainly kick and we don't punch much) so it would be very unlikely that my braid actually hit someone, unless it is really close.
I still have to try a cinnamon bun secured by pins and covered with a bun cover - it worked wonderfully through my day, but I still have to try it to practice. My concern is that my instructor would not like the cover, as it is black and my hair is red - he said we should wear as less things as possible - but I am going to try today, so I will tell you. The point is that you have to buy a cover with an elastic on the hem, so that it will catch your hair, and at the same time act as a scrunchie (even if your hair is secured with pins underneath, they will not come out because even if they loosen, they will be held in place by the net)

Edit: I tried the bun tonight, and it stayed! It was a bit loose after a while, but thanks to the net it stayed, and it was also very comfortable.

[gnegirl]

I used to use a high ponytail pulled through my headgear. My hair was about shoulder blade length at the time.

[Zombiekins]

I ran in to the same problems as you several years ago when I wanted to incorporate an MMA-type aspect to my workouts. At the time I could only do simple braids so my friend and I were stuck only doing standup otherwise my hair would get ripped out, stuck under my body, or caught in one of our hands. It was awful.

Since then I've been steadily improving on braids and I have to say that multiple "cornrow"-like braids work great for getting all those little hairs and bangs off the face. I do three, one down the middle of my head, and one on either side, braided all the way down into their separate completed braids. Then I take and braid those three together. It shortens things up quite a bit! Yes, it'll still be a bit scratchy on the neck at times, but you can always try to then secure that fused braid by folding and securing with a scrunchie. The braid bumps should keep that pesky elastic in there. Have you tried using Goody Stay Put Hair Elastics (http://www.goody.com/Products/Accessories/Ponytail_Holders/Sport/Sport.aspx)? They're for sporty chicks and they do hold like a rock without seemingly being damaging (unless you start yanking them out at the end).

The reason for cornrow (or a dutch-french dealie) is because straight french braiding on myself tends to leave wide loops that fingers get into and rip out hairs. I've found the other method to keep my hair more flat and less likely to be pulled. While I haven't experimented with it further, you could probably do lots of those braids on your head and then braid them together at the end and shorter your hair further. Yep, it's pretty time consuming, so I like to do it in the evening or a slow day and just let them stay in my hair until they're too frayed to be functional (usually a day).

Good luck, I know how frustrating it is to try and be physically active with long hair. It was part of the reason I cut my hair back from classic, there was simply no way for me to get it back and keep it out of the way at the time. Only one time did I attempt "sewing" double braids to my head with ribbon and it too me three hours! It was awful and in hindsight certainly wasn't all that much safer. Too many loops for fingers to get caught in.

[JCFantasy23]

I like the idea of an upside-down French braid, I just don't know how to secure the bun. Ordinarily I'd do a hairstick, but that would never work for karate. Scrunchie, maybe?

I think they used pins in the pictures I saw. I think just about anything, a scrunchie or hair friendly elastic should work well too.

[Amara]

I wear a figure 8 with hair scroos. I got my hair scroos from ebay. They're marvelous. they WON'T fall out - and if I get my figure 8 bun done right it doesn't pull. I usually do one way up on the top of my head.

[Pegasus Marsters]

Like Jasmine hair! I used to do this all the time when I was wee because I wanted hair like Jasmine's :p

I might try it with the final ponytail an inch or so above my neck, so that my hair's not directly against my neck but still contained.

That was pretty much what I was thinking, yes. I wore my hair like that when I was wee cuz it worked even when my hair wasn't that long.

[teela1978]

I used to do heidi braids a lot for dancing... I usually used pins, but those little mini clippie things work good too.

[Altocumulus]

I just do an English braid at the nape. I guess by the time I'm sweaty enough for it to annoy me, I'm too distracted by the sweat running down my face and into my eyes to notice my sweaty neck. ;) I did find that it had a tendency to wrap around my neck, but that seems to have stopped now that I've cut back to hip.

Good luck - I hope you find a solution!

[myotislucifugus]

A friend of mine practices Judo with hip length hair and putting it up with a scrunchy bun works for her

[teela1978]

Just a thought... When you do a scrunchie bun, do you pull the last loop (of the scrunchie/hair tie) over top of the bun? If I have a hairtie with the right tension, that holds very well for hours... but it has to be the right hairtie, too tight is uncomfortable and too loose won't hold longer than 10-20 minutes (less with jumping around).

[GoddesJourney]

[quote=florenonite;812748]Do you not find you have problems with sweating? I've worn ordinary braids before but unless my hair is slightly damp to begin with I can't stand it because my hair makes the back of my neck horribly sweaty. quote]

The braid goes down the side of your neck. I guess during those times my hair was always in a braid, so I didn't think about it. I always braided it right out of the shower so it was amazing. Also, I guess I was used to sweating a lot during training, so a little sweat on an already sweaty neck didn't bother me.

[Quixii]

What I do for gymnastics practice is take all my hair, ponytail it, braid the ponytail, then tie the braid into a knot, then I wrap the ends around the knot, and secure with a scrunchie. I used to have to repeatedly redo my braided bun or ponytail, and now I usually get through a whole workout without having to fix it.
For competitions, I've been doing the Amish Hairstyle that was posted a while ago, and it works really well for me. :D

I'm not sure if your hair is long enough for those, though. ^^;;

[Runzel]

I haven't tried it myself, but the amish hairstyle (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=30688&page=13) is one that I plan to do if ever I am in a similar hair dilema. It's braids that are wrapped around each other on the head and hold without pins or sticks--just ribbon--and is known to easily stay in for days. I'm not seeing Eloa's picture of it anymore, which was most helpful to me, but Zephine gives some good instructions and there are other pictures later in the thread of different people's variations of it.

[kiana]

how about putting it in a plait and then tuck it in the back of your gi when u are sparring??this is what i do and it works for me u do have to keep tucking it back in though every now and then

[Katze]

we have very similar hair and I have done martial arts for years (am now bellydancing instead) and I feel your pain! Do you have lots of layers, too? That makes things worse, i find!

When I was last doing martial arts I would either wait and train with 'dirty' hair I would put into one braid down the side of my head, or a French braid, OR - and this may sound too simple - I would twist and clip it up with a Ficcare. Even in kung fu, where we were jumping and turning around a lot, the Ficcare (I use mostly mediums) STAYED.

I never tried to get my hair immobile, just to get it out of the way. A braid might move but it did not fall in my face or get in the way of hand to hand combat.

[florenonite]

I haven't tried it myself, but the amish hairstyle (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=30688&page=13) is one that I plan to do if ever I am in a similar hair dilema. It's braids that are wrapped around each other on the head and hold without pins or sticks--just ribbon--and is known to easily stay in for days. I'm not seeing Eloa's picture of it anymore, which was most helpful to me, but Zephine gives some good instructions and there are other pictures later in the thread of different people's variations of it.

Ooh, I've been meaning to try that one. I think it would be good for karate.


we have very similar hair and I have done martial arts for years (am now bellydancing instead) and I feel your pain! Do you have lots of layers, too? That makes things worse, i find!

When I was last doing martial arts I would either wait and train with 'dirty' hair I would put into one braid down the side of my head, or a French braid, OR - and this may sound too simple - I would twist and clip it up with a Ficcare. Even in kung fu, where we were jumping and turning around a lot, the Ficcare (I use mostly mediums) STAYED.

I never tried to get my hair immobile, just to get it out of the way. A braid might move but it did not fall in my face or get in the way of hand to hand combat.

Yeah, I've got layers starting at APL, which make braids difficult because layers start escaping. I don't mind how it looks, but I don't like them scratching ><

I think I've worked out what I'll try for class this afternoon. I'll do an upside-down French braid and end it in a ponytail. Then I'll do a scrunchie bun with that hair. This way, I figure, even if the bun starts to fall out I've still got my hair in a high ponytail rather than it falling down and getting in the way.

I'll report back on how it works and if it doesn't work I'll try something else.