For those of you who made the decision to start wearing your hair up ...

[foreverangel987]

Was it hard at first if you had previously worn it down most of the time? I was thinking of joining the challenge to wear it up for a month but am nervous that I might not be able to do it...I feel more self conscious when it is up Does anyone have any advice or personal experiences with this ?

[Gumball]

I grew my hair out so I eventually could wear it up, so when the time came that I could put it up more often than not, that's just what I did. Now it's up >90% of the time, and I feel just snazzy about it. Really the best part was finding something I not only was comfortable with doing, but wasn't too difficult, sat well, didn't hurt after a lot of use, and that I felt looked good. It's about finding what works the best for you specifically, and there's a bit of a challenge in the beginning for that. Play around to see what works.

[Tiina]

I only started wearing my hair up when I joined LHC a month or so ago. Before that I always had a regular braid, ponytail or I kept my hair down. I'm only starting to get into updos but the more I learn, the more I realise that most of them work on a few basic tricks which are not that hard to learn. There are a lot of instructions in the articles section but I find it easiest to learn from youtube videos where you can actually see how things are done. It's just fun to learn things and my vanity likes to stroke itself whenever I manage to make something pretty. :)

[Roseate]

I don't know if I would have done a challenge right when I started.

For me, I just kept messing around with updos at home in front of the mirror until I got confident enough to go out. It helped that I often got compliments on my updos; that really encouraged me to learn more.

Everyone's different, but if I had forced myself to do it every day before I was ready I don't think I'd have been happy. But don't worry, keep trying different styles, learn different braids and such, and you'll find some that you really like and that you don't feel awkward in!

Maybe set a more modest goal, like wear it up twice a week or something? That might get you started without being such a big change.

[AZDesertRose]

I wear mine up most of the time too, largely because I live in Florida and it's too darn hot to leave this thick heavy mess down all the time. :) To me, part of the fun of long hair is being able to do snazzy updos and fancy braids and stuff. Think of it as something fun. And take Tiina's advice and go check out YouTube for tutorials on updos. I'm rather fond of Torrin Paige's stuff; she gives easy to follow directions and I enjoy her way of teaching.

[Lemur_Catta]

No, actually, it felt more comfortable. When I didn't know all the updos I know now, my hair got stuck in my purse strap, under my armpits, it fell on my face while I was writing...It wasn't as long as it is now, but it was still annoying, and the only things I could do was a ponytail or an English braid.
Now, I still wear my hair down if I am going out with friends or with my boyfriend, but it is much easier to keep my hair under control in other occasions :)
What made the transition easier, also, was having face framing layers and bangs. That way, I didn't feel (and looked) "bald". Now, my layers have grown and I can almost put them up with the rest of my hair, and my bangs will soon be my new layers :) I couldn't go without them, though sometimes I do when I work out, but in that case looking bald is my last concern!

[little_acorn]

Why not have a trial run of a week? That way you can see if it will work for you or not.

Just a thought :flower:

I wear my hair up >90% of the time, though I used to wear it down a lot more. Now I just feel woerd if its down LOL

[Ravenne]

I wore mine down pretty much every day for most of my life. Then I started wearing ponytails a lot when I started college. When it came to transition to buns/hairsticks and braids, it wasn't that big of a shock because I was already accustomed to having my hair up off my neck and out of my face. In fact I couldn't wait for my bangs to grow out so they'd go back into a ponytail and bun (finally hit that goal!! Now if only they'd go back into an english braid...) so I could put it all back and not worry with it all day. I agree with previous suggestions of just doing it for a week or 2-3 days a week to ease into it if you don't feel comfortable at first. I'm sure you'll look great in a snazzy infinity bun or intricate french braid, though. No worries. =D

[foreverangel987]

Thanks everyone! :) I think I will start with trying to wear it up 2-3 times a week and I'm going to go look at some of the youtube videos right now. I saved some of the easier looking updos from the articles section and might try one tonight when I go out with the boyfriend I'm curious to see what his reaction will be.

[JenniferNoel]

I wore my hair up for the monthly challenge (but I never got around to posting, I wore the same (mean word) up-do almost every day, haste makes waste I know, but it was so easy as I varied my outfit to counteract the "hair-less" feeling of wearing it up every day.

[Carolyn]

I kind of eased into it doing updo's 2-3 times a week. I have the kind of hair that can only be worn down on the day it's washed and I wanted to stretch out washings from 1-2 days to 3-4 days apart. An updo was my only choice other than a single braid. The more I wore it up in a bun the more I got to like it. Now I wear my hair down maybe once every 2 weeks.

[jeanniet]

I like having my hair up because I don't have to worry so much about it getting damaged. My area tends to be windy, and the wind just causes so many problems if my hair is loose. It took me a little while to get used to having my hair up most of the time, but now I enjoy it, especially now that the weather is warmer. When it was shorter, it would really bug me when it was hot and hanging on the back of my neck. I do wear it down more often in the house as long as I'm not doing something where it'll get in the way.

Just try keeping it up for a week or so, and see if you start feeling more comfortable with it.

[tinti]

I'm wearing my hair up a lot, so I decided to go for the challange. It's a bit hard, I mean, I miss the hair over my shoulders a lot, except today, when I decided to let it loose to celebrate bsl lenght. But I guess I can get used to it, I allready wore my hair up 50-70% of the time, så 100% shouldn't be too hard.

[HintOfMint]

By the time I decided to wear my hair up all the time, I had moved home (thanks recession!) and all of my friends simply weren't in the area, so I didn't have much in the way of a social life. I also put a moratorium on dating. I think I look the most attractive when my hair is down, so I really wasn't in a place where looking attractive was important to me. (I realize that there are many women who look their best when their hair is up. I am not one of those women.)
It was easy at the time to make that transition, and by now it has become a habit and I have grown to like how I look with my hair up.

Although every once in a while I wonder, if I ever start to date again, if my hair routine will change, and I will be tempted to wear it down far more often than is good for it?

[Fairlight63]

I have worn my hair up so long that it feels weird when I wear it down. I don't like to have it down if it is windy, it gets tangly. In the car, it gets stuck in the seat belt, etc.

Plus my DH will find out just how long my hair is getting & bug me to cut it (he don't like long hair):( So I wear it up most of the time.

[cobblersmaid]

I had started to wear it up more without even noticing. As it got closer to TB the first time, it was in the way. When I decided to wear it up most of the time, it wasn't too big a leap. Now I hate to wear it down...

[Kelli Kat]

I started wearing my hair up back in February when I first started coming here regularly. Before that I always wore it down. I got used to it being up really fast. Now I feel weird when its down.

[Capybara]

If you're not ready for a challenge yet, that's okay :) Why not start with learning up-do's that you are comfortable wearing, and go from there? It may help to wear your hair up for part of the day (say, when you are at home) to begin, then gradually transition to wearing it up more as it becomes more natural.

I say, baby steps. You will be much more motivated if the goals you set for yourself are attainable - leave the month-long challenge for when you are ready :blossom:

[foreverangel987]

Ahh I am not sure how to do it for tonight any suggestions?

[foreverangel987]

ps my current goal is BSL and my hair is midway down my back...

[kdaniels8811]

I have too many hair toys NOT to wear it up!

[jasper]

err, I was self conscious about how it looked down. That pretty much balanced and cancelled out the self conscious feeling of wearing it up when I hadn't before. So I just decided to go for it and use hair sticks like no one else I know while I was at it.

[Jessica Trapp]

I wear mine up most of the time. It takes less than 2 minutes to do and I never have to mess with it. I guess mostly I'm just lazy. :silly:

[Masara]

I don't like having my hair in my face, so all my life my hair has either been very short or long enough to put up.
I started wearing my hair up in public when it was nearly shoulder length. I had meant to wait a little longer but an alram clock disfunction changed that.
I'm a teacher, so I knew that I was going to be scruntinised by 150 teenagers; that made my first day with my hair up quite stressful. (although they were all very nice about it) Once it was done, I didn't want to go back and I haven't worn my hair down in public since (now three years)

At the time, my repertoire was very limited. All I could manage was a sort of beginning of a cinnabun, held with a Ficcare. I knew how to French braid, but my hair was too short. I gradually gained the length and knowledge to do other updos.

[Melisande]

Foreverangel, I made the switch from "always open" to "up nearly all the time" some years ago, and here are my tips ;-)

Invest in some seriously gorgeous hairtoys that make you feel special.

Think about earrings. Lovely earrings come to the fore much more when not covered by hair. Let them frame your face.

Think about eye make up and especially brows. This is very important. Your eyes pop more when your hair is out of your face. Make the best use of it.

Think about your posture. When you no longer hide behind your hair, you have to keep your head upright. It makes your neck look longer. I feel I hold myself better since I have an exposed neck.

See it as an opportunity to experiment with the way you present yourself to the world. You're not entering a convent, i.e., you are not making an irrevocable commitment to never wearing your hair down. You just enlarge the tool box of options and get to play around a bit.

Wearing my hair up has been very beneficial for my hair. Although it makes me look stricter and older, I like the look. So does my husband.

And many updos are extremely flattering. I have never seen a woman who didn't look good in a French twist.

[Nera]

I absolutely love wearing my hair down, but I have recently decided to wear my hair up more often.
I have a lot of hair that is almost waistlength now, get's stuck between everything. It even clings on people passing by and such.

With this weather, wearing my hair down feels like wearing a black blanket on your head all the time.

I still don't love updos more than wearing my hair down, but I started trying new things. I wear my hair in a bun, but leave some locks out or braid a lock in the font and then tuck it in.
I hope this makes sense without pictures, but my point is; you can try many things with updos.

And if you feel unconfortable you can always wear it down. There are plenty of people on the boards (just like me) who prefere wearing it down.

Good luck with this!

[Amelia]

Never did for the challenge thread, but I've been hearing my hair up for a year now. I started because it was Summer, my hair is thick and terribly hot- it's like having a blanket on your back.

After joining LHC i started to have more up-dos as an option :) it never bother me, on the contrary! Gave me freedom and a cool neck ;)

[Medievalmaniac]

Melisande's post is an excellent one, with a lot of fantastic tips. I definitely do all of those things - paying attention to my earrings and eyebrows, etc. more these days.

In my case, I have been throwing my hair back in a claw clip since the birth of my first daughter - no time to style!! I briefly had this torrid affair with the Meredith Grey hairstyle from Grey's Anatomy between daughters - but it was way too much upkeep. In the past year, I have been introduced to hair toys beyond the claw = and I am a total addict. It has really, really changed the way I see my updos - now it isn't just to get my hair out of the way - it's to show off my pretties, just as much!!!

Invest in pretties off the swap board to start - they're convenient and nearly always less expensive than they would be new. Wearing the hairsticks and such changes your attitude about your updos a lot - you'll do them more often, because you bought these things to do them with and you like them and want to wear them! :)

Nowadays, it's weird for me to not wear my hair up. And everyone always takes a gander at the back of my head to see if there's something new and exciting in there! lol My students are hilarious about it: "Mrs Medievalmaniac - is that one NEW?" :D

[naereid]

It was very hard. I felt vunerable and kept worrying about my updos being ugly. But then after a couple of weeks it started feeling so good that I couldn't STAND having my hair down! :p That phase lasted for a couple of months. Now I like having it down again, and I can choose depending on the mood.

So basically, it's just something that takes a bit of getting used to. :)

[Desideira]

I cant get used to to wear updos.

I love to see them on otehr people but soemhow I feel to exposed and altohught my hair is not very long it gives me a ahdace

Its a problem form me becasue i wear it down all the time, but I am sure ti casue mroe splitends

Maybe somene will advise me what could I do?

[Pumpkin]

Foreverangel, I made the switch from "always open" to "up nearly all the time" some years ago, and here are my tips ;-)

Invest in some seriously gorgeous hairtoys that make you feel special.

Think about earrings. Lovely earrings come to the fore much more when not covered by hair. Let them frame your face.

Think about eye make up and especially brows. This is very important. Your eyes pop more when your hair is out of your face. Make the best use of it.

Think about your posture. When you no longer hide behind your hair, you have to keep your head upright. It makes your neck look longer. I feel I hold myself better since I have an exposed neck.

See it as an opportunity to experiment with the way you present yourself to the world. You're not entering a convent, i.e., you are not making an irrevocable commitment to never wearing your hair down. You just enlarge the tool box of options and get to play around a bit.

Wearing my hair up has been very beneficial for my hair. Although it makes me look stricter and older, I like the look. So does my husband.

And many updos are extremely flattering. I have never seen a woman who didn't look good in a French twist.



I could not have said it better myself!! I too wear my hair up about 95% of the time now since joining LHC. I too find that playing with eye makeup and earrings really sets off my face when I wear my hair up. And, I am protecting my hair as it grows!!

[embee]

After my divorce I couldn't afford haircuts so my hair grew longer. It became quite shaggy and unatractive so I pulled it back into a low pony. It was hot so I put it up. I felt ugly with it up, but there was no $$ for haircuts and trims... big circle.

Then my hair grew quite long and wearing it up was essential or it got horribly in the way.

I became accustomed to wearing it up and now like the way it looks. When it's down I feel smothered and rather witchy (not in a good sense). Not to mention hot. Maybe if I were 40 years younger I'd feel better about wearing my hair down? ;)

I think summer is a great time to start wearing an updo, it's comfy. :)

[adiapalic]

I wrote a thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=49185) recently about my personal experience with this.

I hope that helps :flower: :)

[foreverangel987]

I wrote a thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=49185) recently about my personal experience with this.

I hope that helps :flower: :)

Thank you sooo much that helped a lot! I just went and read your whole post :) That updo was gorgeous by the way I cannot wait until my hair is anywhere near that length. I don't know if I could ever have the skill to do an updo like that though...

[Nightshade]

I started wearing mine up about the time it was waist length and I'd figured out a few updos. I felt really self-conscious about it at first just because it was a wildly different look on me. Now it's up about 90% of the time.

I still wear it down when I go out, but because it's up for the other 90% (for things like work, yardwork, etc), it's much much nicer when it is down :)

[foreverangel987]

Foreverangel, I made the switch from "always open" to "up nearly all the time" some years ago, and here are my tips ;-)

Invest in some seriously gorgeous hairtoys that make you feel special.

Think about earrings. Lovely earrings come to the fore much more when not covered by hair. Let them frame your face.

Think about eye make up and especially brows. This is very important. Your eyes pop more when your hair is out of your face. Make the best use of it.

Think about your posture. When you no longer hide behind your hair, you have to keep your head upright. It makes your neck look longer. I feel I hold myself better since I have an exposed neck.

See it as an opportunity to experiment with the way you present yourself to the world. You're not entering a convent, i.e., you are not making an irrevocable commitment to never wearing your hair down. You just enlarge the tool box of options and get to play around a bit.

Wearing my hair up has been very beneficial for my hair. Although it makes me look stricter and older, I like the look. So does my husband.

And many updos are extremely flattering. I have never seen a woman who didn't look good in a French twist.

Thank you for the tips Melisande, I was thinking along the lines of concentrating more on makeup, but the thought of earrings hadn't even occurred to me.

And I'll have to work on the french twist and some of your other suggestions I know I have problems in areas like posture...I'm actually starting to look forward to this change more now :)

[Alcenaia]

When I have my hair in updos, it feels like a neat secret. I like to set goals for myself like, "I'll wear my hair up every day for this class, then on the last day I'll wear it down in celebration." That might be fun for you, to set a special day instead of a number of days.

And I second everybody that has said to invest in pretty hairtoys and some dangly earrings. :D

[whoanellie]

I'm beeing toying with the idea of joining that thread for at least a couple of months. I still have a few inches to go to hit APL, and I've noticed myself getting increasingly antsy about my hair length. I think that if I committed for a few months, I might surprise myself with the growth. I'm going on a trip to Ireland towards the end of September (:happydance:), and wondering if I could make it until my trip...

Wearing my hair up doesn't bother me in terms of feeling exposed (except for feeling like it's exposing my hairline which I think is kind of ugh). But I do recall that one of the reasons I cut my hair several years ago when it was at about the length I'm at now is I thought it looked blah in a ponytail, looked blah down, but it wasn't really long enough to do anything else with. But I know a few more styles now, I like my hair better than I did then (though still not crazy about my ponytail) and think I could handle it.

For those who are in the challenge... does up mean literally UP? I read through a few pages and saw some references to French braids or English braids, and so I was thinking of those more as styles with your hair down. But maybe up just means not loose, for the purposes of the challenge?

[dropinthebucket]

I'm not finding it hard to wear hair up at all - it's actually really fab to just throw it up and not worry about whether i've washed my hair and it "looks nice"! but, i may have to stop putting it up because it seems really damaging to my hair ... i've got that really slippery, fine hair that wiggles itself loose out of anything, and gets wrapped around clips and such. it even loosens itself from braids and straggles out everywhere, so i have to keep re-braiding and it just seems like way more handling than my hair ever had while it was down. too bad, too ... it's just so easy to throw it up and walk out the door!

[Amata]

I started wearing my hair up in a ponytail in college, because I was walking to classes and it was way too hot to leave down. That was 15 years ago, and I've become so used to having it up that it feels strange to have it down:) My standard updo is a cinnamon bun with a hairstick or claw clip to hold it.

I think that having one go-to updo will make the transition easier. If you have a style you know you can do, you can feel confident and beautiful. Start out slow - one day a week, or just weekends - and work your way up. And if it's not for you, that's okay! There's no hair police...at least not in my town.

[Medievalmaniac]

When I have my hair in updos, it feels like a neat secret. I like to set goals for myself like, "I'll wear my hair up every day for this class, then on the last day I'll wear it down in celebration." That might be fun for you, to set a special day instead of a number of days.

And I second everybody that has said to invest in pretty hairtoys and some dangly earrings. :D

This is a fantastic idea! I love the thought of the "wow" factor this would give everyone else in the room who have watched you wear it up every other day. Fun!!!:D

[Henrietta]

I used to wear it down before wear hair up challenge, because I like the way I look like with my hair down. But... try to find a "group" of updos, that will wrork for you. Personally, I doscovered that I look the best (in my opinion;)) in updos with some hair on the sides, like Edwardian updo. So you can still show off with your hair and feel good with hair up:)

[slythwolf]

I'm actually used to wearing my hair up most of the time; when it was TBL the first time I worked in retail and it just was not practical to wear it down. I mainly joined the challenge to give myself the impetus to learn more of the hairstyles in the articles, but I have been slacking a bit on that.

[restourceful]

It was just a natural progression after joining LHC for me. I had worn the plain old ponytail for years on the days I didn't wear it down. Can you say boring? So when I began to see all the incredible updos around the board I wanted to try them all. I wear it up everyday except wash days when I don't damp style for curls. Right now it's just too hot to wear it down at all. The only time it's down right now is for progress pictures.:cheese:

[Boudicca]

I only started to wear my hair up after I joined this board. It was a simple twist with a hairstick for months, then I managed to do a Chinese braided bun, then a braided bun, and now wierd twisty buns of my own devising :)

It takes a while to get used to, as well as some practice - but you will see a massive difference. My hair was waist length for years. When I started wearing, it up it grew about six inches - maybe more. Plus, it gets much less tangled when you wear it up.