new thread
Now that summer's approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, I have three
choices to keep from melting from the summer heat: 1) cut my hair a
lot shorter; 2) keep on running my fan, air conditioning and
electricity bill; or 3) use a hair accessory that keeps my hair off my
back.
I was wondering if there is a hair accessory that will keep my hair
off my back without pulling hair off my scalp and without looking too
feminine. A large hairclaw is ideal, except it looks too feminine. A
ponytail or braid doesn't keep my hair off my back, and they "pull"
too much.
Try a baseball cap with the hair pulled through the gap above the band in the rear.. This will pull the hair up a bit and keep it off of your neck.. I live in the southeast where the humidity is awful and this helps me..
RVE..
ICQ# 9162854
Hi Richard,
I think Rasamus suggestion is ok.
I was thinking about guys and hair claws a few days ago and wondered why more guys didn't use them to pull their hair back from the sides and top back (as in a ponytail) leaving the back loose - I believe it may not pull on the hair as much. A dark color like black and a non-fanciful claw I am sure would look okay on guys.
However, what you would be suggesting is more for a up-do sort of thing and I am less certain about that look.
Have you just considered bunning it with a scrunchie?
Cath
What is a scunchie?
I have sholder length hair which i usually wear in a ponytail
because in England that is about the limit a guy can go to
before people start staring!
Last year While i was in france i plucked
up the courage to use clips to pull my fringe of my face and
it was great. I loved the way the my hair looked and experimented
some more. I went into a shop and bought a kind of thick clip
that allowed me to twist my hair and then fix it on to the rear
of my head.
Europe is different to the rest of the world its like you can be
yourself and nobody cares!!
I would love to wear my hair in a french plait but i have no idea
how.
Do you have detailed steps?
How about hair net?
So...you never wear your hair in a ponytail? I find that a LITTLE hard to believe. Besides, having long hair on your back is never a problem for any longhair people, it's one of the perks. If it's really THAT hot where you live, you should just wear your hair in a ponytail. Losing a few strands of hair is inevitably no matter how you wear it!!!!!!
So... maybe you should just wear a hair net, yeah, that's it. Or roll your long hair into a large baret a la Monica Lewinsky
I have curly hair that now is just at the length it falls all over my shoulders. Having my hair loose I've found provides the same warmth as wearing a whole additional layer of clothing because my hair blankets my shoulders and all around my neck, an area where the body generates, and loses, a lot of heat. This is great in the wintertime, but of course, not so great in the summer.
Though I don't care much for the looks of a ponytail compared to having my hair loose, I've found tying my hair into one on hot days does help cool me down a lot! As an engineer who once took a heat-transfer course, I know why. It's because my hair is so compressible - loose it covers a huge area and envelops many air pockets, too, which makes it a great blanket! On the other hand, while it is tied in a tail it loses most of its air pockets and it covers a small area indeed.
What you want to do Richard to stay cool, is minimize the amount of area of your back that is in contact with your hair. If your hair is a lot longer than mine, I can understand that a pony tie alone won't do the trick, because the hair will spread out below the tie and cover a lot of your back. To counteract that, you want your ponytail to be as narrow as possible.
Don't knock braids, because they are one way to make your hair narrow all the way down. Another method you might try is to put pony ties around your hair every few inches down its tail. Either way you will minimize the surface area of your back in contact with your hair, and that should minimize any insulating effect of the hair.
This approach should reduce the insulating effect of your hair by at least 90%, because it will reduce the area of the back it touches by that much. So forget cutting!
Bill
Ditto, regardless of if my hair is inside or OUTSIDE my shirt :)
When my hair was shoulder length, summer heat wasn't much more of a
problem compared to when I had short hair. Once my hair reached mid-
back, that's when summer heat became a much more noticable problem.
Thanks for the advice. Adding extra hairbands seems to add extra pull
on my scalp. Haven't tried terrycloth bands though, just those coated
rubberbands.
And no, Bill, I'm not a barber!
Thanks all for your comments.
A baseball cap looks like an ok idea, but I don't think it will get my
hair off my back (my hair's down to my elbows). I have worn my hair
in a bun before, but like with ponytails, it pulls too tight. I'm not
so sure about a hairnet (don't work in a fast food restaurant, and it
might still look too feminine). And since I don't watch much news, I
really don't know what Monica Lewinski does with her hair.
As for J., read what I said about ponytails more carefully. Long hair
is nice, but when it's 90 degrees F outside and your back is sweating
because of loose hair on your back, you will appreciate being able to
get your hair off your back. Tightly pulling your hair back alot
causes more than the loss of just a few hairs. Take a look at the
temples of girls who wear their hair in tight ponytails, buns or
braids alot.
Now if only there was a way for me to gently clip my hair up without
looking too feminine...
You don't have to wear your ponytail TIGHTLY. You can wear a neutral colored terry-clothed band. It'll feel comfortable. As far as the 90 degrees...I really don't hear other longhairs complaining that their back sweats alot and therefore interferes with their hair. Remember, you wear your hair OUTSIDE of your shirt.
And lastly, I haven't really looked at girls who wear their hair in TIGHT ponytails, buns or braids nor do I really care what happens to them. Once again, the trick is: DON'T WEAR YOUR PONYTAIL TOO TIGHT.
consider pinning your hair up and wearing it inside a hat. beyond that i might suggest tying a ponytail at 3-4 inch intervals down its entire length, but that would be the same as a braid.
THANK YOU!! You read my mind
Gentlemen, the answer to you dilemma is at hand. Please keep
a watch over at the Hair Boutique site, they will very soon
be offering exclusive hair jewelry that was specially designed
to deal with these very hair problems. I myself have knee
length hair and for years struggled to find hairwear that
would stay secure but not tear. With the closed circle band
you have to drag the hair through to insert and drag the band
back out to release which can be very destructive.
Hair Boutiques special ties are an open band with a soft suede center that you simply wrap around the hair and slip one bead over the other. They can be placed at the exact spot you want without drawing through the whole length of your hair. Catch a wild hair, just release the bead and try again, no hairs lost!
The introductory selection will include some handsome amber ties that are just perfect for guys, nicely butch but still eyecatching. Watch for them!
All the men in my family have long hair, including my three boys
who have hair well past their waist and the oldest is only 9!
My husband is not an accessories kind of guy and he wears the
psychadelic fimo ceramics every day at work. They are discreet
but quite fashionable. You'll love them!
As a last note, using several ties at intervals down the back
is a really super way to corral the hair for summer and they can
be placed close enough together so that wayward ends don't
stick out like can happen with a braid by days end.
Please forgive my intrusion here but these posts about the
hairwear were so timely I just had to let you know about the
new product!
And guys, long hair is not feminine, no matter how you wear
it, it's the man underneath that matters!
Keep those locks long, nothing is sexier no matter what
your persuasion!
Best wishes to you all,
Dawn
What's the URL for this site?
I'm sorry Albert, I should have included that in the original post!
You'll find The Hair Boutique at
http://www.hiredguns.com
Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Dawn
An idea would be to part your hair and to bind these on both sides like pigtails! If you want, you can braid these and show after that like a "red" indian!
Let then the hair hanging down to your belly!
Ghenghis Khan II
How humid is it where you live?
It often gets up to 110 in the summer around here, but with very
low humidity, I braid my hair loosely before I go outside and I'm set.
The trick is not to pull your hair too tightly. Again, if you have fairly low humidity, you can braid your hair loosely and then duck your head in a cool shower for a minute or too and let your hair work as an evaporative cooler. I'd like to see a shorthair get the same results. =)
Does anyone have suggestions for combatting UV rays? (besides wearing a hat or scarf)
--REW
I wear my shoulder blade length hair in a ponytail very high on the back of my head during most of the summer. It keeps all but the tip of my ponytail off of my back. I have worn it like this for the past 3 summers. I use a terry cloth ponytail holder and don't have to much problem with it pulling my hair too tight (or out). When I first started to wear it like this, I was a little concerned that a high ponytail might appear too feminine....but since it was my girlfriends idea, I did it. (I have more courage to try things when it's her idea) I have not gotten any negative feedback about the style and don't think much about it anymore. I think any style looks better than sweaty, messy, long hair.
And of course, there's the classic summer trick for those of us with
shoulder-length hair: Ask your barber to shave your head underneath on
the sides and back. The longer hair from the top of your head will
cover the shaved portions and you'll stay cooler in the summer heat.
My hair is about halfway down my back -- the longest piece I've measured that's fallen out so far is 25 and 1/2 inches. My girlfriend has been extremely supportive when I try new styles. I've found that with the right attitude, it doesn't matter how feminine it looks. If you walk with confidence, people will notice that first, not the hair. In this age of political correctness, people are afraid to say anything about it often times. It usually becomes something of a joke, and as long as you can be candid about your style yourself, you'll do fine.
I'm personally a huge fan of pigtails (I don't have a digital camera yet so I can't post any pictures yet). One of my favorite styles is to secure the hair high above and slightly behind the ear on either side. I use regular ponytail holders or those little clear bead things that you wrap around the hair. (I haven't been brave enough to use scuncis yet.) Sometimes I braid them, sometimes I just leave them alone. (My hair has a natural curl at the bottom, which is cool.)
Another one of my favorite styles is to french braid both sides. Two years ago I thought it was too "little girlish" to wear in public, but I even wear that style to work upon occasion now. (I work in a corporate-casual environment as a computer consultant.) Most of the time, however, a simple french braid is fine for work. I think that long hair is much more versatile than any bob cut for both masculine and feminie styles. I highly recommend learning how to braid as well.
One more thing -- when I grew my hair, I got a lot more interest from females, both romantically and friendly. I have an imposing figure (6'3", 220lbs) and wearing more feminine hair styles has made me more noticeable and more approachable, I think. (A lot less threatening.) At first I thought it was just the hair that did it, but I realized that the confidence underlying it was much more important to women and the hair was just all that much more attractive.
TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR HAIR -- nobody likes ratty ends or unwashed hair. Treat it well, and it will treat you well. As long as your hair doesn't interfere with your business, it's illegal to discriminate between women's and men's hair length, I think. And your personal life will be better than ever.