How to Secure Slippery Hair for Contact Martial Arts?

[Outmoded]

I've found flaxseed gel to give pretty good grip (though I made it with coconut water instead of regular water, so that might have affected my results). It gives great slip while wet, but on my dry hair it became grippy.

Thanks, I have not tried flaxseed gel yet, I shall duly add it to my list of things to try.

[Outmoded]

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.

I actually have not, good to know, I was eyeing some silk scrunchies but had decided against buying them based on my assumptions... I think I will go ahead and purchase them after all. I'll try velvet next if they do not work out.

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.

My hair is not yet long enough to really be whipping about, but I suppose when it is, I can just tuck it down my back beneath the collar of my uniform... it is a rather pathetic braid anyhow (no one can tell how thin and broken my hair is normally because it has so much body, but when compressed into a braid, well, it looks more like an emaciated rat's tail, heh).

[Pouncequick]

The vortex bun was (I think) invented by a professional ballet dancer that had to secure her hair closely to her head and not hit people. There are a lot of great yt tutorials out there. Is your hair long enough for that one? Or is it not something you’re looking for?

The vortex bun is amazing for dance but wouldn't be safe for martial arts. I've done both and the pins will hurt terribly when you get thrown to the mat. For ballet where I am not expecting to whack my head against things it is amazing. The marine bun might work if you could do it with no pins. I have very slick hair and usually need at least two. That one is also pretty amazing for dance.

Braiding is definitely your best bet. I secure my braids with embroidery thread a lot of the time. It works really well and since I can buy colors that closely match my hair and braid the thread in for several stitches so it almost never comes undone. Also the loose thread ends can be used to tie the end of my braid back to the top and make a folded braid. I usually use two dutch/french braids for high energy sports to keep as many flyaways as possible out of my face which I transform into a single braid for the length. Since I wear sports bras, I will also just pull the bra on over my braid and pull the gi on over that if a folded braid isn't working. It isn't perfect but nobody is grabbing my braid tail and I'm not hitting people with it.

Until you get the hang of braiding, I used to do judo with just a folded ponytail. You make a normal ponytail but don't pull the ends all the way through on the last pass. I usually stopped pulling the ends through when they are the same length as the loop and that stayed pretty well. This worked okay from APL to about WL for me. You can also do a caterpillar braid. Instead of braiding you secure hair ties at even distances down your hair as if you wanted to tie rushes together. It keeps the hair as contained as a braid and I find it's a bit less flexible so it whips around less. I usually needed at least four hair ties to keep my hair pretty contained.