What protective hairdo is good for very layered hair?

[pinklemonade]

Hello LHC! I'm quite ignorant regarding hairdos because I practically Always wear my hair down. It's not that I don't want to wear my hair up in a cute way, but I can't, because of the thousands of layers I have! My hair is about waist length so you'd think I could do many things, but I have extremely short layers scattered around. So, I can't bun and I can't braid. I try to braid my hair at night but they look funny because I can only braid a teeny bit without every hair sticking out.
Do you have any suggestions? I do like half-do's but I guess that's not really protective right? As for pony tails, my hair is heavy so I always feel my hair tie tugs at my hair so that's not a solution either.
What I do these days, is I put all of my hair on one side (in front of me) that way I feel it's somewhat 'safe' than on my back.Would love to hear of any ideas! :)

[Sarahmoon]

I'm not sure if this would work, but since you're going to sleep with it anyway and don't have to go out and look fancy, you could braid it with the hairs sticking out, and then wrap the braid with a thin scarf maybe?

[loralie]

I'm only at APL but I sleep in a topknot (bun on the top of your head) and I have crazy layers (shortest are chin length) I find that with short layers putting the bun higher usually contains them.

I smooth my hair back, then smooth it up so I have all the ends together in a "pony" spraying out the top of my head (yes, attractive! :D). Then I twist tightly with my right hand clockwise (if you're a lefty, counterclockwise) so that the ends get twisted in, and the twist forms against my head. I keep twisting and wrapping until the longest ends are wrapped around the bun, and use a scrunchie to hold the whole thing together. Yeah, some layers do fall out in my sleep but for the most part it stays put!

Maybe that will help? I just hate sleeping in braids and my hair gets rubbed around too much if I braid or leave it down.

[ptnicole]

I have very layered APL hair as well and find that the bun on top of my head at night or a french braid works very well. I might try a scarf to contain some of those shorter layers.

[restourceful]

I have layers from shoulder length to waist. I can do a french braid and if I do it wet it doesn't get too sticky outy. Cinnabuns, figure-8s, gibraltar buns, bee-butt buns all work well for me, as well as pencil buns and one-stick buns. The higher up you do them, the less sticky-outy they are. But I don't mind a few sticky-outies as long as my hair is all up. And Beets's lacrosse braid was a good one for a braid with no sticky-outy parts.

Take a look at my blog. I have a list with links of buns and braids I can currently do, and the ones I want to attempt as my length increases.

[pinklemonade]

Thank you ladies!:)
Sarahmoon, thank you for the good idea! I'm not sure how I would look with a scarf though...but I guess I have to sacrifice my looks once in a while! :p

Loralie, thank you for the tips (and great mental image!:p). I will give that a try. I'm just worried about the little layers/hairs poking out and rubbing against pillow/bed but I could use a sikl scarf of something!

Ptnicole, I haven't thought about a French braid, too bad I have ridiculously short layers on the back of my head :(

[pinklemonade]

Restourceful, I can see from your picture that your layers are lovely; mine are just all over the place (very short ones too) and they're also quite splitty/with a tendency to break so that's why it's difficult for me to find a decent protective hairdo. Thank you for your advice, I'm definitely gonna check out your blog now!

[loralie]

Yeah definitely a little silk scarf, put it over the bun and put a scrunchie over that!

When I sleep with deep conditioning treatments I just put a sandwich baggie over the bun and an elastic/scrunchie over it.

Layers are such a pain but since I started taking better care of my canopy they're growing and getting much better! Hope you get your hairdo situation figured out! ;)

[Capybara]

Have you tried a Chinese bun? I'd imagine that this would actually be easier with layers, although I'm no expert .. :p

[pinklemonade]

Thank you Loralie for the supportive words! :)Can't wait till I get ridof all my layers grrr!

Capybara, no I haven't heard of a Chinese bun, will def. check it out- thank you for the suggestion! :)

[Capybara]

You're welcome :flower: Let us know how it goes!