scalp > SL > MBL > TBL > FTL > KNEE > KNEE+
Nope, there is very little protective gear worn; some people do not wear any.
Brain injury, even "mild" where your brain just sloshes around inside your skull, is cumulative and irreversible
scalp > SL > MBL > TBL > FTL > KNEE > KNEE+
My hair is very slippery. If you don't want anything complicated, I would just use some product to make it less slippery. Hair gel comes to mind but I'm sure people can recommend all sorts of things. I use velvet or other textured fabric scrunchies but any strong hair tie would do. Goop up your hair with product. Tie a looped ponytail, then use a second hair tie two inches down the length, a third one... etc. until the end. There is no way they would all fall off. And you can wash off the hair products after. In your case I think your safety is more important than worrying about a bit of damage. If all your hair ties are matched and dark colored, it wouldn't look dorky at all.
We never do full contact strikes to the head on each other. Generally, most of the moves are practiced with restraint, as it is aimed towards permanently removing your opponent from combat as quickly and efficiently as possible, we would end up blind or with broken bones, dislocating joints, punctured organs and so forth otherwise. I am trying to avoid wearing anything sharp or hard in my hair mainly due to the amount of grappling involved (easy for anything in my hair to get grabbed, caught on a person's sleeve, compressed against my head, stepped on etc.) and the fact that I am still very bad at falling and rolling properly, though we still use mats at my level at least.
My skin has yet to meet a hair gel that it gets along with, but the looped ponytail with multiple scrunchies is a good idea. How does velvet compare to silk or nylon for grip? If I could find some kind of hair ties/scrunchies that would work without breaking my hair all over the place, that would be great. At the moment I have been practicing braiding, which works well, though I still need my sister's help to not have it looking a lopsided mess.
Have you actually tried out silk yet? I’ve found real silk to have surprisingly good grip, unlike satin (often marketed as “silky”), which slides all over the place. But YMMV. Velvet seems like it would be pretty grippy. I’ve never tried invisibobbles (those ones that look like old coiled phone cords), but those might provide less damage with more grip for you, since coils kind of mesh into your hair.
Braids are nice because you can vary how close to the end you tie them off, which prevents all the stress being centered at the same point over and over. Still in danger of being yanked, but harder to catch than loose tresses. I love an English braid for sport myself. Just watch out—if you’re at waist length, it might whack you in the face if you whip around quickly.
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