Howdy--Looking to Maintain Long Hair

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I clean for a living, so it's a lot of "crawling" and walking around. I find that silk and satin scarves works, as long as I tie them tightly around my bun I also place it low on the forehead when I tie it, so that it can "slide back" into the "right" position. Otherwise I would have to keep pull it forward during the day.

Ahhh, that makes sense. I'm outdoors a lot it's rare for us not to have a windy day here, including a lot of windstorms and duststorms. I enjoy the wind, but only to a point : P The next time I wear a silk scarf, I'll try the low placement and see if that helps!

[TatsuOni]

Ahhh, that makes sense. I'm outdoors a lot it's rare for us not to have a windy day here, including a lot of windstorms and duststorms. I enjoy the wind, but only to a point : P The next time I wear a silk scarf, I'll try the low placement and see if that helps!

I hope that it does, since silk is so kind to the hair

[enting]

Thank you for the hello! I'm trying the rinse-out oil thing for at least one more wash, but will give the aloe mixture a go later on. Do you spritz it or pat on more like a straight oil? Here people go aloe-wild all summer--drinking it, adding it to sunblock, just cutting the leaves in half and wiping them over their skin! You can get fresh aloe in any grocery store. I would hope a desert plant would do well in the desert air ( :



I wasn't certain how well people would receive posting headscarf pictures on a hair forum, but I so rarely have my head uncovered that it wouldn't be representative to leave them out. I do sometimes find when I'm taking off my scarf at the end of the day that it has velcro-ed onto the baby hairs right on my front hairline, and if I don't notice quickly enough I'll wind up snapping a few off. I've been reading some of the headcovering threads I was able to find (they are definitely not merged, lol) and think it might be a good idea to wear a soft but tight-woven scarf as the first layer under other fabrics, or get a hijab-style cotton underbonnet. I'm definitely better at varying my scarfdos than my hairdos, though!

I use storebought gel and I just sort of smush it around with an equal amount of oil in my hands and then wipe it into my hair, especially my ends. The tricky thing with aloe is that it's a humectant and if the air is too dry it could suck the moisture out of your hair and into the air. Aloe plants have that barrier of the outside of the leaf to help prevent that from happening. On the other hand, a layer of oil could work similarly as a barrier.

If I could keep track of all the different scarf threads I might flag them for a mod to merge, but gosh that's a job and a half to find them all.

Hair velcroing into scarves sounds less than pleasant! I don't think I've had that, but my hair is a little bit less curly than yours. A tighter weave underscarf does sound like a good idea to combat that. A few years back I was introduced to wearing a velvet stretch headband under scarves and I've never looked back, it's so much better for my hair and for keeping scarves of all textures on. It's also really gentle on the hairline hairs.

[shelomit]

I use storebought gel and I just sort of smush it around with an equal amount of oil in my hands and then wipe it into my hair, especially my ends. The tricky thing with aloe is that it's a humectant and if the air is too dry it could suck the moisture out of your hair and into the air. Aloe plants have that barrier of the outside of the leaf to help prevent that from happening. On the other hand, a layer of oil could work similarly as a barrier.

We are truly super-dry out here--the first thing most people do when visiting is get a nosebleed and slough off three layers of skin! But if the oil treatment still feels this heavy after the next repetition I'll definitely try the aloe vera method.

If I could keep track of all the different scarf threads I might flag them for a mod to merge, but gosh that's a job and a half to find them all.

I think I've done three different searches and found about fifteen different threads so far ; )

Hair velcroing into scarves sounds less than pleasant! I don't think I've had that, but my hair is a little bit less curly than yours. A tighter weave underscarf does sound like a good idea to combat that. A few years back I was introduced to wearing a velvet stretch headband under scarves and I've never looked back, it's so much better for my hair and for keeping scarves of all textures on. It's also really gentle on the hairline hairs.

Yeah, it doesn't help that my hair is curliest when it's shortest, so those baby hairs are both thin and extra-sproingy. Lots of people have recommended the velvet headbands from Wrapunzel to me for "structural integrity of headscarf" reasons. Is that the type you use? If you've found it's kind to your hair I'll probably bite the bullet and order one. . .

[enting]

Yeah, it doesn't help that my hair is curliest when it's shortest, so those baby hairs are both thin and extra-sproingy. Lots of people have recommended the velvet headbands from Wrapunzel to me for "structural integrity of headscarf" reasons. Is that the type you use? If you've found it's kind to your hair I'll probably bite the bullet and order one. . .

I have a super cheap one (currency conversion tells me it's about 5usd) from a local scarf shop that's probably hand made by someone. Mine just has a piece of elastic in the back rather than any adjustable closures. I used to have one that had a velcro closure in back, but, well, you can imagine how happy that velcro made both my hair and my scarves. Not very. I see Wrapunzel now has one without velcro also! I think it's essentially the same thing as what I have. Bear in mind that what my hair likes, yours may not, but if you're wearing scarves every or nearly every day, I find it almost indispensable.

[shelomit]

I have a super cheap one (currency conversion tells me it's about 5usd) from a local scarf shop that's probably hand made by someone. Mine just has a piece of elastic in the back rather than any adjustable closures. I used to have one that had a velcro closure in back, but, well, you can imagine how happy that velcro made both my hair and my scarves. Not very. I see Wrapunzel now has one without velcro also! I think it's essentially the same thing as what I have. Bear in mind that what my hair likes, yours may not, but if you're wearing scarves every or nearly every day, I find it almost indispensable.

I'm reasonably handy at sewing, so I certainly make something that simple myself ( : I'll look up some pictures of the Wrapunzel ones and give it a go!

[enting]

I'm reasonably handy at sewing, so I certainly make something that simple myself ( : I'll look up some pictures of the Wrapunzel ones and give it a go!

Sounds like a plan! I can sew, but I just didn't want to bother. I'd also have to find stretch velvet that isn't crushed, so that the nap is all going in one direction. My original velcro ones were literally a long rectangle of stretch velvet folded in half and overlocked, with patches of velcro sewed to the ends. My elastic no velcro ones are the same except they're now made a little bit tapered in the back to come down to the width of the elastic. I can also take pictures of mine if that would help.

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Sounds like a plan! I can sew, but I just didn't want to bother. I'd also have to find stretch velvet that isn't crushed, so that the nap is all going in one direction. My original velcro ones were literally a long rectangle of stretch velvet folded in half and overlocked, with patches of velcro sewed to the ends. My elastic no velcro ones are the same except they're now made a little bit tapered in the back to come down to the width of the elastic. I can also take pictures of mine if that would help.

A photo or two would be very helpful, thanks! I take it the elastic is fully enclosed in the fabric, like a waistband? It would also be great if you could estimate about how wide the strip of elastic is--I think the only elastic I have on hand will probably be too narrow to be comfortable. Driving into town next week, so I can pick up some wider stuff then if that would be helpful.

[enting]

A photo or two would be very helpful, thanks! I take it the elastic is fully enclosed in the fabric, like a waistband? It would also be great if you could estimate about how wide the strip of elastic is--I think the only elastic I have on hand will probably be too narrow to be comfortable. Driving into town next week, so I can pick up some wider stuff then if that would be helpful.

It's actually just a small length of elastic about an inch and a bit long that's sewed into the ends of the velvet. One of the ones I have has a wider piece of elastic, the other has a narrower. The wider is more comfortable in my opinion, but the narrower hides better when wrapping a scarf like a wide headband. The stretch velvet fabric has some give in and of itself. But I'll see about taking pictures for you, hopefully with a ruler next to it, too.

[shelomit]

Okay, rinse-out oil-report--

I put a longer version of this in a blog post, but the takeaway is that the rinse-out oil treatment did wonders for my frizz last week. . . while also driving my scalp batty. I'm very pleased with the efficacy so I tweaked it yesterday. This time I applied before putting on my first round of conditioner, reduced the amount of oil (ten drops), washed my hands really thoroughly after applying to try to avoid transferring any of the oil to my scalp later in the wash process, and used more shampoo than I usually do. (I think this will definitely have to be a pre-shampoo treatment if it's going to work for me.) So far, so good. The frizz reduction is dramatic enough that I'm willing to keep experimenting for a while. Maybe a different oil would get along better with my scalp? I would rather have a "never the twain shall meet" approach, but brushing necessarily spreads things around a bit.