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Hello! My 14-year-old son has decided to grow his hair long, which I think will look really cute. He is a serious (full-time) dance student (jazz, hip hop, ballet) and our delimma is keeping his hair out of his face during dance classes and keeping it neat looking. Already he is getting sarcastic comments from instructors about how he needs to cut his hair. What did you do when you were growing out your layers to keep them out of your face? His hair is beautiful, very thick and wavy. I will very much appreciate any suggestions. I have long hair myself, and used girly barrettes when I grew mine out, but I don't know if that would look too silly on a guy. MANY MANY thanks in advance!
Here is what I would recommend:
Gel...especially SPRAY on gel. L'Oreal has a new Studio CURL SPRAY GEL. It's for "curls without the frizz."
I don't have very curly hair but it works fine on ANY kind hair.
Along with the gel you could use "bobby" pins strategically placed and well hidden.
It just takes a few of them with the gel to control the hair.
Good luck
Thanks, Luckskind, I'm glad you recommended a particular brand of gel for me to try, and I think using bobby pins strategically placed is very clever. Great ideas that I will have fun experimenting with on my son this week; thanks so much!
I suggest using either a head band or an Alice band to keep his hair back. If necessary, you could also consider braiding his hair (cornrows) sometimes, but if you choose this route, be very careful not to pull out his hair. Another solution is to tuck his bangs behind his ears and tie back the rest of his hair or to make a half ponytail, but I get the idea his hair isn't long enough for this yet.
Ask your son what he likes, though. If he wants to wear a barrette, let him, by all means. If he wears it and acts confidently and self-assuredly, the others will get used to his hair/hair restraints and won't trouble him about it anymore.
Ballet, huh? Always wanted to try that. I'm surprised they'd trouble him about his hair there. Same with the hip-hop; lots of rappers have long hair.
Peace
Thank you for the great ideas, Fallen_angels.
I like what you say about acting confidently and self-assuredly to deflect criticism. That is so true; my son does this same thing concerning his ballet dancing because of some people's startled reactions when they find out he dances ballet (very interesting looks on their faces as their minds race with stereotypes of male ballet dancers). My son just acts so natural about it (like, don't all guys dance ballet?) that he puts people at ease about it. So now if he can just apply this to his hair restraints (like, don't all guys wear barrettes?) Ha!
But, again, thanks for the ideas; when his bangs get a little longer I will try some braids and I will get him a hairband, too.
Thanks!
Hi Dancer's Mom, --- great to hear from you!
I do a lot of partner dancing (Swing, Salsa, C&W, some Ballroom, etc.), so I had this problem to deal with myself when I was going through the infamous, "awkward stages"...
I tried all of the following: gel; hair spray; tucking my hair up under many different types of hats; wearing my bangs back in a "half-tail"; parting my hair in the center and putting a bandana around my head; and, last but not least, just wearing it loose sometimes, and simply "putting up with it" (lol)....
Out of all of the above choices, the 2nd time I grew my hair out (I've had to go through this experience TWICE), the only options above that I chose not to repeat was that of using gel or hairspray anymore, --- i HATE that stuff!!
And to this very day I still enjoy tucking my hair up under my cowboy hat when I go C&W dancing... I especially love it whenever a friend or dance partner looks worried and says, "Did you cut your hair off?" The way I answer them is to simply say nothing at all, and just remove my hat and let my hair tumble out!
- Ken in San Francisco
Hi Urban Cowboy Ken, Your response was so cute and had me laughing. I can just imagine you whipping off that cowboy hat at the opportune moment, ha! And that is great that you are a dancer yourself!
Well you gave me the idea of getting some bandanas to make headbands out of. The ballet company school is very strict about how the kids dress and wear their hair (girls are not even permitted to take class unless their hair is in a perfect bun, with every hair sprayed and pinned into place) so ballet is my main problem; they can't very well have a double-standard by letting boys have wild hair hanging in their faces like my son's currently does. I don't know if they will give my son grief about a bandana but we'll try it! I think it will look nice.
In hip hop and jazz classes they don't care at all, in fact the teachers often wear hats themselves. They care more about your dancing technique than your hair style, imagine that.
Thank you again!
Hair band worn by sportsmen is fine - look at Rafa Nadal (tennis) at Wimbledon.
Thank you, UK, you are surely right!
I must admit that I didn't know what Rafa Nadal looked like so I looked him up on the internet and sure enough, every photo of him has him wearing a headband, and it looks so good on him, so he is a really great example.
Thank you so much!
I would use a lot of leave in conditioner that would be somewhat effective in keeping hair pinned, assuming it's not a lot of hair. Conditioners are a lot better for your hair compared to gel anyways. Plus I hate the feeling of gel on my hair...
Thanks, Tai Fu,
That is a good idea; I will try your leave-in conditioner method too and I'm sure it will help relax his hard-to-control hair.
Thank you so much for your suggestion!