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Yup, it is getting that time of year again. Forecast is calling for it to start getting into the 90's by next weekend! Gotta love Virginia during the summer.
Unfortunatly, this is something I have to deal with every year and the one thing I don't like about having all this hair. It is the friggan HEAT! Of course, during the winter, having that hair is quite an advantage, especially as I am quite the avid skiier.
picture of the back of my head
I am curious as to how you other folks on here, especially those that live in the warmer climates, deal with the heat with the long hair. I guess putting it in a pony tail will help a bit (and I have done that).
The joys of having thick, long hair!
Currently in OZ, it is phasing into winter and the temperature is getting very cool.
I wear a jumper each day and my ponytail keeps my neck warm :)
In the summer, it also tends to get very hot here, as you can imagine of Australia. Over the summer period i was very active outdoors and swimming at the beach, riding my bike etc. My hair was getting to pony length back then so i usually just tied my curly hair in a ponytail(just managed to make one back then) and wear a hat. Don't overexpose your hair to the sun, just as you wouldn't for your skin.Maybe some braids will tame your thick hair and keep perspiration and sweat from building up on your scalp, so your hair can 'breathe' a bit. I would like to hear what others say about this topic.
I figured the ol' pony tail is the trick to deal with the hair in the heat. I do try to be careful in the sun, although, admittedly, I kinda like how my hair tends to lighten a shade or two during the summer.
Anyway, one of these days, I'll make it down there to Australia.
I just try to keep mine out of my face and off the back of my neck - I've been tying it up in a pony tail, and sometimes if I'm desperate, I'll stuff it all under a hat for a while. :)
Dude, 90 isn't anything. This year Dallas was in the 90s in February, and has been in the 100s several times already! :P The heat isn't too bad once you get used to it though.
I do several things to adjust to the heat when summer comes around. The thing that I find helps the most is joggin in, believe it or not, the heat of the day. This will be tough at first, but after a while your body adjusts, (and as an added bonus you get thinner and tanner).
Adjusting to the heat is critical for me, as I am in marching band at school. We have 7 hour practices druing August and I get to hold the 45 lbs. quad drums!
Anyways, don't let the heat get to you! True, it might be cooler with short hair, but long hair is soooooo worth it. Keep it growing!
Living in the desert and working outdoors, I’ve learned to deal with the heat as best as possible...
Whole body wise; loose, light-coloured clothing is the norm (There are shirts made from bamboo fabric, which are great !). For the head, I wear a pony-tail. A bandanna under an open-weave straw hat is great for gardening and that sort of thing. Plain bandanna or ball cap for running to the hardware store. On the job, I must wear a hard-hat, so again a bandana and usually something covering the neck. Sweat bands help a great deal. The link below has a great deal of good information for dealing with summer heat and a couple of interesting cooling bandanas and cooling pads to be worn under hats. Obviously, none of this is very stylish, but fortunately, I do not make my money on my looks ! HA! Temperatures here reach 120+F with surface temperatures much, much higher, so fashion goes way out of the window !
Good Question. Thanks for bringing it up.
WWT
Cool-DannaWhere I live in the Summer it quite often exceeds 100 degrees. I call it the "Desert Sun." Several Summers ago one day hit 118 degrees!
I dislike extreme heat also, but with alot of long hair in a Ponytail it is STILL very comfortable and my scalp doesn't really feel all that hot...........only the hair. To wear a hat in the Summer would be unbearable for myself. This would cause alot of excess sweat to be held in. Our Summers are perhaps so much dryer than where you live. The "humid" is the real killer.
One thing for sure, the Native Americans survive quite well with wonderful long hair in the Desert. And I have never witnessed a one trying to protect it or complaining. Perhaps it is their "Hair Type?" It sure is long and does not appear damaged in the slighest.
Well, here in the strange and exotic city called San Francisco, we have an odd summer phenomena that made Mark Twain once say, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." And... he WASN'T just trying to be funny!
I'm originally from the Chicago, IL area, --- as well as lived in NYC for 3 years --- so I know what you mean by hot, humid summers! But when I moved to No. California in '77, nothing quite prepared me for the planet of San Francisco, CA... I couldn't for the life of me figure out why most of the fall, winter & spring were wonderful; while July & August I had to wear my winter coat!!!
In other words... I live in an ideal climate for longhairs, because our famous fog rolling off the cold ocean current keeps us air-conditioned (whether we like it in the 50s & 60s all the time, or not)! But, if I drive about an hour or even less inland... then gradually I'll get out of the marine influence and into the hot, dry heat coming from California's inland Central Valley (where Sacramento, Fresno, & Bakersfield regularly bake at 100+ degrees).
It's so bad here, in fact, that you can tell the tourists easily apart from the locals: the tourists are all huddled together waiting for the cable cars, shivering & blue, wearing their stupid Hawaiian shirts & Bermuda shorts (because they didn't read the advise about SF weather BEFORE coming out here). The locals, on the other hand, know enough to bundle up when stepping outside in July!
Maybe that's a bit unfair, --- or just call it "good fortune"! But, in either case, while you're whining about how hot Virginia is... I'll be whining about feeling "cheated" out of experiencing the summer joys of wanting to jump into a lake or swimming pool, just to col off!
- Ken in SF
Well I live Macon, GA otherwise called Maconga. 99 degrees with 95% humidity IS summer here. It is when long hair is the hardest thing for me to live with. I came close to a chop last summer and now it's much longer so send me good vibes guys that I can make it through another summer in the armpit of the South! My question is sweat....I pour it out and it collects within6-8"s of my ponytailholder. That can get stinky and nasty riding a tractor, working the dogs, or just fishing in the shade. Then it's shampoo everyday to get out the smell more damage vicous. Any suggestions on how to deal with the sweat problem? In other months I only shampoo like twice a week. Summer it's every day or you get the funk. Like today my Sister in law came over, after I had been working our dogs I was sweaty! I had taken the PT holder out and was air drying my hair holding it up off my neck and back, she comes over to hug me I drop the hair down and her nose is righ about in the 12-16" drench zone and she actually said "Dude what is in your hair!?" I said sweat, and she said she hadn't smelled anything that funky since high school gym lockers. She's subtile like that, I love her! But the hair is soaked with sweat and all in one spot. so what is the solution...... I am here to soak in wisdom and dispatch it sparingly when I can. Eat A Peach For Peace! RedTail Wolf
Interesting comments.
Just to clarify, I am not so much as "whining about the heat", but just curious how the rest of you deal with it, especially with the long hair.
I've been living in Virginia for 13 years now, so I am pretty much used to the hot, humid summers (not unsual for it to hit 100 degrees through July and August - with 120 degree heat index due to humidity).
Being of a northern descent (there is possible Viking bloodlines in the family), I tend to handle the cold much better than the heat myself. I'll be out skiing on a cold morning and people will be bitching about how cold it is, and I am just as comfortable as on a warm breezy spring day (of course, having good cold-weather gear helps).
Seeing the comments pretty much comfirm what I pretty much learned in survival training and such. The loose, light clothing, drinking plenty of water/fluids, try to avoid being in the direct sunlight as much as possible, and so forth. The more interesting part was with regards to the hair itself, i.e., what to do about all the sweat in it and such. Probably more frequent washings is the only thing one can do with regards to that.
I personally don't care much for hats and the like, so I very rarely, if ever, wear them. I guess I also go along with the same line of why bother growing all this hair if I am just going to cover it up with a hat. I do sometimes wear a headband to keep sweat and hair out of my face though, especially when doing something extraneous such as hiking, mowing the lawn, etc.
A good point has been brought up with the Native Americans in the desert south-west. I would guess that hair-type does play a part in this. I notice that people that generally come from the warmer climates seem to have a darker color, coarser hair type, vs people (such as my lineage) that comes from the colder north, tend to have really thick, but very fine, lighter color hair type (my own hair is like that).
Thanks for the comments - was pretty interesting to see what people say on here.
