My hair has only two modes. Please suggest a new, doable DAILY style for me?

[Jinglelocks]

Everyone has their go-to style they do for a normal school / work day. I admire the ladies and gents on here who have mastered so many different styles with their long locks. Me? I am but a padawan learner. My hair has only two modes: 1.) the unfashionable low scrunchie ponytail (and its cousin the low scrunchie bun) or 2.) the dramatic, glamorous down/unbound hair.

The difference between the two of them is pretty extreme; I feel like I have to choose between being frumpy/work-focused (the plain pony tail) or diva-licious. Some days I just don't want to wear my hair either way! There's gotta be a realistic in-between.

Important things to note: I can't seem to successfully french braid my own hair although I really want to. I can do a plain English braid but it's sort of unexciting (plus I can't get enough lift on my own hair to make it start at the top of my head which looks cooler to me than a low braid). I do have a set of wooden hair sticks that I can wrestle into an awkward asymmetrical bun thing sometimes. I am not a fan of buns.

Anyways, it occurs to me that I could just pop on here and ask my long-haired friends for suggestions. So here I am! I want to have a third easy/realistically doable daily hair option to give myself more variety.

I have straight, slippery 1a lower back/butt-length hair and bangs. Thanks to anyone who shares his/her experience!

[LisaB234]

How about a half up with a flexi-8? Or even just a half up ponytail? What about a half up braided - that gives you a higher braid and some hair down. Can you tell I'm into half-ups? A great compromise. I like a higher ponytail on myself when I do a ponytail, so you could try that.

[Aerin]

I actually start my french braids by gathering my hair like I'm doing a half up. Split whatever you grab into three and then start french braiding. It helps get it to exactly where I'd like the french braid to start.

Otherwise-I'd try learning a french twist. It took me several youtube videos to figure out what I was supposed to do but regardless of how neat it is it always seems to end up classy. Might help at least.

[sunshine-locks]

What about low pigtails? They're adorable :D

[Kelikea]

You could do a slightly higher pony tail and then braid it. But I like to do a low side pony, like right behind/below my ear and then braid. You can either pony the bangs in, leave them out, or wear a headband to hold them in place. Oh, or braid them into the pony:) I have lots of pictures of other styles in my album. My hair doesn't do well down all day at work, so most of these styles have been worn to work!

[Zesty]

Side braids can be a lot more interesting and stylish than regular English braids. I also support the half-up suggestion. Keep practicing French braids, though, they're pretty and not hard once you get the hang of them. Also if you want to learn to love buns more, I find that a low, loosely done cinnamon bun is very soft and pretty -- not severe like buns can be.

[Jinglelocks]

Hey thanks for the responses!

I can do a half up, I've done those before once in a blue moon; when I braid the top part my braid is so thick and heavy that it sinks into the rest of the hair below and hides. I'll try it tomorrow morning with the smallest braid I can while still holding my hair back.

And thanks for the advice Aerin, actually hearing you explain that beginning a french braid is like doing a half up makes it feel more accessible to me. I'm watching some Youtube vids right now on how to do a French twist too.

Thanks for the suggestion Kelikea, I saw in your gallery the side braid and I bet I can do that. It'd also work well with my bangs, I think the ends of the longest part would tuck in neatly.

Thanks for the encouragement Zesty. I might give buns another try, a loose cute one could be nice. Whenever I do a bun though I instinctively pull it really tight and severe for some reason, I don't know WHY I do that.

[Kelikea]

If you figure out how to French twist, let me know! i can't seem to tuck in the twist, its too fat or something :(

[ravenreed]

My suggestion is to practice the french braid until you feel good about it. I did one every night for a sleep braid for a while. If it sucked, I was just going to sleep on it anyway. Also, try the dutch braid instead. It is a small difference but the dutch braid feels much better to me and is less likely to come apart. Here is a very good tutorial by torrinpaige (http://youtu.be/YC_unKDz_JA).

Can you stand a high pony? I find that low pony = frumpy but high pony = diva. Especially with a bit of bangs wisping about. I love to dance with a swishy high pony. Also, I get less damage when my hair is up off of my back, but I still get to feel like my hair is long.

Finally, try a braided bun. It isn't any harder than a regular bun, but visually looks much more interesting. My favorite is based on a french braid started fairly far back on the head and that seems to anchor everything so it holds really well. However, you can get the same look without a french braid, just braid as normal.

This one is a french braid underneath. It has the added bonus of making my bun look much bigger than it normally does. IIRC, this is a nautilus, but it might be a lazy wrap. I can't quite tell.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=1988&pictureid=60845

[julliams]

My fav go-to style these days is a side bun. You can adorn it with a flower or fancy hair clip and it looks pretty slick, or leave some of the ends out for a more messy look. I have some pics of updos in one of my albums if you want to take a look.

[highlightedmess]

Everyone has their go-to style they do for a normal school / work day. I admire the ladies and gents on here who have mastered so many different styles with their long locks. Me? I am but a padawan learner. My hair has only two modes: 1.) the unfashionable low scrunchie ponytail (and its cousin the low scrunchie bun) or 2.) the dramatic, glamorous down/unbound hair.

The difference between the two of them is pretty extreme; I feel like I have to choose between being frumpy/work-focused (the plain pony tail) or diva-licious. Some days I just don't want to wear my hair either way! There's gotta be a realistic in-between.

Important things to note: I can't seem to successfully french braid my own hair although I really want to. I can do a plain English braid but it's sort of unexciting (plus I can't get enough lift on my own hair to make it start at the top of my head which looks cooler to me than a low braid). I do have a set of wooden hair sticks that I can wrestle into an awkward asymmetrical bun thing sometimes. I am not a fan of buns.

Anyways, it occurs to me that I could just pop on here and ask my long-haired friends for suggestions. So here I am! I want to have a third easy/realistically doable daily hair option to give myself more variety.

I have straight, slippery 1a lower back/butt-length hair and bangs. Thanks to anyone who shares his/her experience!

You aren't alone, I'm in the same boat! I either wear my hair down, in a low ponytail or in a mid-high ponytail.

I never learned to braid my hair, and although I've watched some tutorials since joining I don't seem to be able to do it. My hair doesn't separate and stay in the 3 sections very well. It sticks together when separating and then once separated it doesn't stay in sections when handling it. :(

[QMacrocarpa]

I second the idea of practicing a challenging braid as a sleep style, that's how I eventually achieved proficiency with the 4-strand box braid.

The "Faux French braid" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kOyGD_KOoA) is about as easy as a regular braid but might look a bit more interesting.

For an "up" variation, you can coil it into a bun and secure with spin pins or your preference, or try something like the Ficcare braid, demo'd here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgGcIbr488o), useful diagram here (http://www.prismnet.com/~cortese/hair/styling.html) (about 1/3 of the way down the page). If you don't have a Ficcare-type clip or a Flexi-8, you can do it with an elastic slide (http://www.flickr.com/photos/34370229@N07/6561233847/), a horizontal hairstick/pencil with an elastic looped around the ends to sandwich the hair in place.

[Madora]

Perhaps this might interest you. It is comfy and distributes the weight of your hair comfortably:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPHEzUr5bWQ

[bumblebums]

Here are a bunch of styles for long thick hair.

http://www.prismnet.com/~cortese/hair/styling.html

The last one in particular, http://www.prismnet.com/~cortese/hair/styling.html#pinless , is one of the easiest buns in the world to make. It holds with a single hair stick and is super-comfortable.

[naturegirl321]

How about the lazy wrap bun?

[torrilin]

In your position, I'd buy 4 regular sized Goody Spin Pins, a rat tail comb or the moral equivalent for doing parts, and a pack of ponytail holders.

The "faux French braid" tutorial suggested upthread is by Torrin Paige, and it's a slightly tidier way of doing a plain English braid. If you watch Torrin's French braid video after it, you'll see that a French braid uses the exact same part structure. Torrin also has a lace braid video that adds another detail to how to braid. If you look at braiding as a set of skills that build on each other, it will be a lot easier to do pretty braided styles. Thus, the ponytail holders. Gotta have a good supply for practicing braids.

Chances are your scrunchie bun is a cinnamon bun. This is what most people think of as a plain bun. Hypnotica (4ypn0tica on Youtube) is a member here, and has several good tutorials on ways to dress up a cinnamon bun. The first one I'd try since you're looking for dressy is the flipped cinnamon bun. She tends to hold her buns in place with hair sticks or hair forks, but the spin pins will do the job and are easy to find in most places. Again, there's a bunch of ways to keep building on a cinnamon bun.

Just keep looking for ways to build on stuff you already know how to do. It'll make you feel much less clueless.

[torrilin]

I never learned to braid my hair, and although I've watched some tutorials since joining I don't seem to be able to do it. My hair doesn't separate and stay in the 3 sections very well. It sticks together when separating and then once separated it doesn't stay in sections when handling it. :(

Most people's hair does that. It's normal.

I *really* encourage you to watch Torrin's simplest braid videos, because she takes the basics seriously and you can see how often she stops to wrangle the sections to keep things tidy. It's ok, and you're not a failure if you have to stop and rearrange things.

Depending on how your hair works, it may be easier to learn to braid wet or damp hair. My hair sticks together much more when wet, so much so that I have to soak it with conditioner to be able to finger comb it wet. This makes it easier to keep my braid sections separated into neat chunks. (tho for more complex braids, my hair is so inclined to stick together wet that it gets counterproductive)

Another thing that will likely help is braiding on a doll or mannequin head. It isn't the same as braiding on your own head, but if you don't know how to braid at all... this is where I'd start. Pretty much all my first braids were done on My Little Ponies! I could braid their hair very well by age 8, but I couldn't reliably do a plain English braid on myself until age 16 or so. Didn't learn to French braid on a doll until I was 12 or so, and I didn't transfer the knowledge over to myself until I was 24. Don't feel bad or stupid if it takes a long time and a lot of practice to get it.

[slz]

May I suggest that whatever you do, you try it with accent(s) braid(s) in addition : voila, instant new hairdo (except that it's just the same :D) . And small accent braids can be left on for several days before needing unbraiding.

[katsrevenge]

Ah, you remind me of me not too long ago! All I can say is practice, practice practice. It took me a month or so of french braiding my hair each night (before bed) before I was happy with the result.

I'm still working on more then a few basic buns. Sometimes when I have a spare minute I'll find a how-to and just practice. They aren't always the greatest results but if I find one I like.. I keep at it. Like, a simple braided wrapped chop stick bun. All it is is a english braid with a chopstick at the base..and then you wrap the braid around it. I finally got it a little while ago! I try to take pics and link the how-to in my up-do folder if you are interested.

[mzBANGBANG]

I know you said you aren't very good at french braiding, but I have to share one of my absolute favorite hairstyles that always gets tons of compliments.

http://www.lovemaegan.com/2011/04/pretty-side-french-braid-low-updo-hair.html

It's a side french braid, tucked in, with the bangs curled. I would put my bangs in a bun while I braided my hair and they usually turned out fine (though I know some LHCers are fine with heat on the front of their hair because it just gets trimmed anyway). The nice thing about this is your braid can be loose and messy since you're just tucking your hair into it anyway, and it still looks elegant. Once mastered, it only takes 5 minutes. Saved plenty of days for me. :)

[Jean Stuart]

My suggestion is to practice the french braid until you feel good about it. I did one every night for a sleep braid for a while. If it sucked, I was just going to sleep on it anyway. Also, try the dutch braid instead. It is a small difference but the dutch braid feels much better to me and is less likely to come apart. Here is a very good tutorial by torrinpaige (http://youtu.be/YC_unKDz_JA).

Can you stand a high pony? I find that low pony = frumpy but high pony = diva. Especially with a bit of bangs wisping about. I love to dance with a swishy high pony. Also, I get less damage when my hair is up off of my back, but I still get to feel like my hair is long.

Finally, try a braided bun. It isn't any harder than a regular bun, but visually looks much more interesting. My favorite is based on a french braid started fairly far back on the head and that seems to anchor everything so it holds really well. However, you can get the same look without a french braid, just braid as normal.

This one is a french braid underneath. It has the added bonus of making my bun look much bigger than it normally does. IIRC, this is a nautilus, but it might be a lazy wrap. I can't quite tell.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=1988&pictureid=60845


WOW! that bun is AMAZING!. I love it.

[eezepeeze]

How about a lazy twist or peacock twist held with a jaw clip? That's easy and quick for everyday. If you get a big enough jaw clip, you will also be able to do a mock French twist and hold the whole thing with a clip.

How about learning to rope braid? Rope braids can make any hair do look fancy?

How about a wrapped pony? Use a regualr hair elastic (not a scruchie) and pony tail your hair where ever you like. Then take a small piece from underneath the pony tail and wrap it round and round the elastic to hid it. Secure the strand under the pony with a couple bobby pins. This creates a very sophisticated look for not much effort.

I really suggest you check out some YouTube videos. Try 4ypnotica, TorrinPaige, Habioku, LaDollyVita, and Lilithedarkmoon. They have great videos and I have learned a lot from them. I never even heard of all the different kinds of braids until I started watching them.

Have fun!

[BeautifulSoup]

I second a side braid, they're really easy because you can actually see what you're doing. You can try an ordinary English braid, rope braid or fish braid.

[ravenreed]

Thanks! I always get nice comments when I do a braided bun and they are disgustingly easy to do. I love easy hairstyles that look complicated. :D


WOW! that bun is AMAZING!. I love it.

[Druid of Alba]

You could bring it all over one shoulder, and do a fishbone braid, they look really nice, they always catch my attention. And side braids look really good too, they're a bit more exciting than braids straight down the back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuHte-LtMm4

[Kyla]

My vote is for side braids. :) Also, some interesting sticks or forks might offset the severity of the bun.

[Jinglelocks]

Everyone thank you so much for the suggestions and encouragement. I practiced doing a french braid on my hair tonight and it's terrible looking but I feel empowered... I suspect if I keep doing this every night I will get really good at it! I really benefitted from the encouragement from you guys to do my best at french braiding so thank you. Torrinpaige's videos are really helpful.

Still working on the french twist. Doing a side bun with accent braid tomorrow! I am saving up for a ficcare because I saw some neat pictures of styles here. I'm making a bookmark section on my browser for hair tutorials and links now, so thank everyone who linked me to a neat hair resource.

[lacefrost]

All of these suggestions PLUS hairtoys. Even if it's just a pretty hair pin with a flower on it. It really makes a difference.