Long styled hair

[Tangles]

Sorry I am posting so much today :rolleyes:

I have a pretty lazy week with school and am trying to distract myself from a bunch of things I should probably get started on.

Anyway, I've been thinking. How do you girls feel when you see ladies with beautiful BSL or even waist length hair that is STYLED?

I live in a pretty upscale area and I have seen a fair amount of women sporting BSL hair that is obviously cut in layers with immaculately placed "tendrils", blown dry and maybe even highlighted and very smooth with no signs of damage. I have to admit it is a beautiful look though obviously requires loads of cones and upkeep/trims etc.

I guess the question I have for you is: do you ever envy the women who have their long hair cake and eat it too (ie heat style?)

I wouldn't want my hair like that all the time but it would be nice to feel I could do a full blow dry once a week.

[Rustella]

This is what I used to have. Well, not at first. For years I did not blowdry to save it from damage. I either wore it in a huge bun or it was frizzy. Sometimes I could let it airdry with gel and then shake it out and it would be ok. Then for some reason I started styling it. I get really oily so I wash daily, and was drying it daily. Yes, it took lots of cones (didn't know what they were just knew that stuff in a bottle made my hair behave). It also took lots and lots of TIME. Blowdrying BSL to waist length hair took quite some time. However, I loved how it looked. My hair was the topic of conversation quite a bit more when I was styling it, even though it was the same length. To keep it from getting too damaged I would wear it up at least once per week if not more. I also would not blowdry it all the way, or would only do the ends so they would be styled. I never colored it or permed it, and only used the hairdryer to style it. It looked great, and I was very happy with it. I got it that way by taking care of it and not blowdrying every day, and by avoiding blowdrying for years in fact. It still stayed pretty healthy after I started styling it. I also liked the way it made me feel when it was styled; I felt pretty.

This time (its short again and growing out) I'll be doing more updos once it gets long enough. I'll have to wait and see if I/how much I pull out the blowdryer when it is long again.

[camara]

Well...honestly, the styles you describe make me green with envy sometimes. When I was at school, there were some girls with bsl-ish hair, and it was just lying there, a perfect shiny blanket, no tangles, no stubborn hairs sticking out, following every movement of its owner as one piece...

That kind of shampoo-commercial hair is just not going to happen on my head, because my hair is doing its own thing. Once in a while, when its moisturized just right, when I brushed just enough but not to much, and when the stars are aligned right or something, my hair will look like that. Usually this will occur right before I am about to put my night braid in, so only my cats will see it then. :shrug:

Although I love my hair just as it is, unruly waves and all, I can understand you there.

Camara

[Alaskanheart]

I think it looks really nice, but is alot of upkeep.Let me explain. A hairdresser I knew a few years ago and was going to often had waist length hair, it was obviously bleached , but looked very healthy.When I asked her how did she keep her hair so long and still able to bleach without damaging it, she confessed that she did have alot of damage and pretty severe breakage, but she was able to conceal it with the use of a flat iron, and if she wanted to go wavy or curly she just straight ironed before she used the curling iron.She also told me that it took her at least an hour everyday to do her hair.She told me too, that she wish she never processed or started flat ironing so much, because it ruined her hair, and that she was thinking of chooping it into a chin bob.

So do I think they can have their cake and eat it too?I guess some of them can, if they dont mind the damage or how much time it takes to conceal the damage.

Of course the hairdressers example is an extreme case of bleach and flat ironing, which are two of the three fastest ways to damage hair, the third being perming, in my opinion anyway.

I guess if someones hair is resiliant to the blowdryer, and some highlights here and there, then hair can be long and styled just fine.My hair isnt as resiliant to that anymore, so I woudnt be able to pull it off everyday without alot of damage.

[maskedrose]

Yeah, sometimes I wish that my hair would look like that on a regular basis...but that's simply not going to happen :) Not only do I not have time, but my hair just doesn't want to stay in such a contrived style. When I used to straighten fairly regularily it would poof and frizz at the slightest hint of moisture in the air, which kind of ruined the look, if you know what I mean. So, now I just embrace my natural texture, which looks pretty good down most of the time, as long as I get my jojoba oil/Aloe gel ratio just right. For reeaallly special occasions I will curl it with the curling iron to get a more "polished" style, but that's not to terribly often.

[florenonite]

I envy those who don't get any breakage even if they abuse their hair, because my hair's fine and therefore somewhat vulnerable to damage (though it's not as bad as it could be).

I don't envy them the time it takes to do their hair in the morning, though. Blow-drying, flat-ironing, sometimes curling on top of that, oh my! With me, either I wash or mist and stick it up in an updo (usually a cinnabun).

[Islandgrrl]

It's funny you should ask that. Back when my hair was knee length, it was still the same hair I have now in terms of texture and such. And people used to go NUTS over it saying "oh, I wish my hair could look like that." And it was truly a product of benign neglect. So I always thought I had this amazing hair and never envied anyone.

But back when I was in High School (ages ago, I know)...I still had the same hair and I did envy those girls with the long, smooth, shiny hair. My hair was, of course, a product of benign neglect, because try as I might I could never make it do anything other than what it wanted to do. I could curl it and it would look great for 20 minutes, then go back to straight, somewhat frizzy hair. So I quit bothering about it because it was just frustrating (I was totally in the dark about "product") and too darned much work! But I secretly always wanted that smooth, straight, silky hair those other girls had.

Until I realized (with the help of my mom's hairdresser who thought my hair rocked).....they brushed their hair constantly. I mean all day long. They used hair spray. Loads of it. And they had to blow dry their hair. Every day. And their hair was thin and fine. So I learned to appreciate my mane for every cool thing that it is and not worry about every cool thing that it isn't and never can be!

My mantra.... I love my hair!!! Even though today I realize that my hair is just hair and only moderately fabulous!

[Blueglass]

Is it possible that some of the women you speak of have extensions? Or that if you looked closer, they might hane damage you don't notice?

[CurlyNinja]

To me, that look is really plastic. I think there was a time when I would have given anything to have my hair look like that, but it was a different period in my life. I prefer a more natural style now, and while my hair does have layers, it's basically just to help show off the curl.

I don't know...I guess the long-and-styled look is much worse to me than the short-and-styled one, which I actually rather like. (It's spunky, and I am all for spunk.) Long-and-styled makes me think of glossy magazines and music videos, and while I can appreciate its appeal in those settings, I don't want it on my own head. To me, hair should reflect real life.

[Morticia]

I think that people assume that my hair is blowdried and flatironed. But, it's just genetics. All through the 80s, I did all sorts of things (perms, hot rollers, curling irons, aerosol hairspray, blowdrying while spraying aerosol hairspray) to try to make it big and frizzy looking. I think the style pendulum will probably swing back to curly at some point.

[Tangles]

CurlyNinja: I share your dislike of the glossy, music video style hair. I guess if I had an example of what I mean, by polished styled hair, it would be more like Emmy Rossum's hair. You know, smooth and romantic but not TOO slick.

[aisling]

Sorry I am posting so much today :rolleyes:

I have a pretty lazy week with school and am trying to distract myself from a bunch of things I should probably get started on.

Anyway, I've been thinking. How do you girls feel when you see ladies with beautiful BSL or even waist length hair that is STYLED?



Do you actually mean that long hair not blowdried or layered is then unstyled? I can't really agree on that!

[Riot Crrl]

I had to google Emmy Rossum, I didn't know who it is. I found some professional shoots like this (http://www.collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Emmy_Rossum/emmy_rossum_final_cover_cd.jpg), where yeah, that's all ironed and all. But then I found some candid red carpet shots like this (http://images.askmen.com/galleries/singer/emmy-rossum/pictures/emmy-rossum-picture-1.jpg). That's about how styled my hair pretty often looks. Check it out, she even has top frizz.

[CurlyNinja]

CurlyNinja: I share your dislike of the glossy, music video style hair. I guess if I had an example of what I mean, by polished styled hair, it would be more like Emmy Rossum's hair. You know, smooth and romantic but not TOO slick.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, exactly, as RiotCrrl mentioned...could you point us to a picture maybe?

[Juliet's Silk]

Well I guess I'm boring but my only thought when I encounter someone with heavily styled hair (regardless of length) is: "Wow... that must have taken much time to do".
I can appreciate "styled" hair but I never feel envy or regret or anything. It's not for me, like cleanly shaven legs everyday is not for me for example. :shrug:
I'm not "made up". It's not my style. If it was my style, I would have stayed with the cute bob cut (and be even trendy today :lol:). But I'm more the flowery-fairy-nature-girl with wild hair. To each their own.

Oh and Tangles - if you're referring to Emmy Rossum's hair in "Phantom of the Opera" - as far as I know, that was made with extensions.

[ilovelonghair]

I style my hair without a blowfrier/curler/flat iron. If I want curls I dry it naturally, or make a braid and twist the ends around the braid to give me nice curls. If I want it straight I dry it in a bun.

[savi]

I consider putting hair up in a bun or braid 'styled'. ;)

But flatironed and blowdried, I've never envied it. Sure I did wish when I was younger that mine was straighter and behaved better, but still no. It could have something to do with the fact that around here most people have straight hair, and hair styled within an inch of it's life is not so common.

And I've always been scared of heat styling. :D I'll do loads of things, straighten, curl but always without heat.

[Finoriel]

How do I feel when I see such styles... The first things which come to my mind:
- they have to spend lots of time in the bathroom
- I don´t want to know how much they spend on products
- how their hair may look without their maintenance program
- it´s obviously not raining or windy this day
:shrug:
It´s just not my cup of tea to spend hours in the bathroom, to be dependent on heat styling tools or other styling products and to fear the weather could destroy hours of work in one second ;) It´s not that I would miss those types of styling in any way, thinking of "have their long hair cake and eat it too". That´s why I have hair in the length I have, because it does not require those kinds of maintenance and I can actually do something else with it. I consider braids or buns to be styles, too. Styles I like more than the upscaled ones you described :gabigrin: I´m definitely not living on a red carpet.
To each their own :) and this is not for me, so no envy about those styles here.

[Iylivarae]

My sister has hair like that. But she always takes a comb with her, combs and brushes every hour at least, otherwise it also tangles. It is stick straight...

My hair will never be like that, even if I blowfryed my hair for two hours each day, I'd still have a halo of short, frizzy hair (yes, I did that!). Also, I personally hate letting my hair down, it is just so annoying... so... no "styling" needet. It is pretty nice to be able to make a hairstyle in 5 minutes, without the need of any tools or chemicals.

No, I am absolutely not envious about their hair...

[Sana]

I used to flat iron & style my longer than bsl length hair last year. I have to say i recvd tons of compliments on how shiny & long & pretty my hair looked:rolleyes: Instant gratification i guess:D But then if you would see how damaged my hair was you would have screamed. I was a horror show @ home when I didn't iron. Also I had to do it whether I had time or not. Sometimes I had a bath at night & waited till 1 or 2 to iron so that I could wake early in the morning & rush to work all made up. I finally decided to end it last nov & went for a super short cut...I hated it but I had to do it to take of the damged hair. Now I have almost bsl. I don't do any styling other than a little bit of gel sometimes & it looks so peaceful & shiny. Ofcourse I don't get so many compliments but am glad the show is over:D I love me for what I am & love my hair for what it is:cool:

[Periwinkle]

I know a lot of people who do that to their hair, but I also know that they spend hours doing it and that it looks terrible when they take it out. I'm not envious any more.

[Altocumulus]

I guess the question I have for you is: do you ever envy the women who have their long hair cake and eat it too (ie heat style?)

Nope...I used to want straight, sleek hair (good thing they didn't have flat irons when I was in high school or I would have fried my hair off!) but now I like my natural hair.

ETA that I still like straight, sleek hair...I've just realized that I can't have it.

[tiny_teesha]

there is someone with 4 foot long hair that blow dries her hair i think it is daily- well every time she washes it. She does some things to her her that i am amazed it still is alive! My point is, some hair can take it (the coaser hair usually) where as fine hair just can't, some love cones others don't.
my hair didn't behave with any hair products ever, it did like head and sholders though, so if i ever go back to cones i would use this!
But, again...you could make yourself a rule, like only use the cold option, on 90% dry hair, and only blw dry once a week (this works out better if you are WO or NW, as you only do it once and never wash your hair or dont wash it often which means you blow dry it less as it stays styled)
I know someone at school would straighten her hair once and week and wash it once a week.

I personally like my hair wavy, but as soon as it is dry it would be nice for it to have the behaviour of traightened hair (i only straightened my hair baout 3 times, only 1 time properly) so i guess i just whip it up in an updo anyway! :)

Its your hair, see what you can get away with without seeing damage, then you know you are doing it right.

[Nynaeve]

Meh.
I guess I could envy their hair, but I just can't find the energy to spend on envy. haha
That and I know that despite the look of their hair, it can't be very happy in reality or in feeling, y'know?

[kitana]

That and I know that despite the look of their hair, it can't be very happy in reality or in feeling, y'know?

You would be surprised, lol. Mine is as soft as a newborn baby's hair, and shiny as a new penny. I wash once a week with a tea tree oil shampoo, then condition with a mix I came up with, wait for it to air dry, then flat iron it. Comb twice a day and coconut oil at night on the ends before bed.

Oh did I forget to say I bleach it once a month and add the pink dye to the bleach every 2 weeks? ;) Yes, I have long pink hair, lol! :D

Yeah, I am hard on my hair, but it is in better shape and healthier than most everyone I know, even those with virgin hair and no heat tools. I do take a little more time on it than most people, but as with anything, if it's worth it to you, the time doesn't matter.

[florenonite]

Long pink hair? I have to see that!

[Sarahmoon]

I never really know what "styled" means. Buns and braids and ponytails and such are styles as well, right?
If you mean heat styled and such.... Nah I never felt like spending so much time on my hair, even before I knew how damaging it is. And I prefer more original styles than the overly abundant loose layered hair.
I think sometimes "oh that person has nice looking hair" but I'm often a lot more impressed by the complex styles people here are doing.

[kitana]

Long pink hair? I have to see that!
I'll be leaving in a few mins to go to a Civil War battle reenactment, but when I get home I will make hubby-bear take pics of it for ya, lol!

[levelek]

The funny thing is that a lot of people think that long hair enjoying benign neglect, complex looking updos etc take more time than the average look.

kitana, can't wait for those pictures! :)

[nomadhome]

The only people I know who have straight, shiny hair have that naturally. The women I see and know who flat iron/blow dry etc. daily, tend to have hair that looks good from a distance but not up close-- and certainly not when you touch it. I have learned to love my natural waves the way I love nature-- not something I can wholly control, wild and unpredictable, sometimes inconvenient but still beautiful for all that.

[curlofsmoke]

I'm quite into the indie-rock scene and sometimes when I see girls with BSL hair that is layered and styled in a cool way I feel I would like that, but although I am rock chick 20% of the time, I am medieval princess chick 80% of the time, so I stay how I am. And I did once get my hair cut to BSL to try looking like this but the styling was too much time and bother so it never looked very good anyway. Shame we can't change hairstyles like we change clothes. I mean I know there are wigs, but they usually don't look good and are expensive and faffy themselves.

[rubyann]

Do I envy chemically processed and heat styled hair? No freakin' way!

What I do envy is healthy length and natural beauty. There's no way on God's green earth that I'd spend that kind of time to style my hair.