Hi guys, I just had a question regarding those little hairs on the back of your neck that grow slow and weirdly, and aren't really a part of one's "mane." My hairline on the back goes pretty far down below ear level, with lots of these hairs (I was guessing this is more common with my Jewish genetics, but maybe I'm completely wrong on that).
So now with my shaggy haircut it's not a big deal because they're covered. But when my hair gets long enough to tie up, which I estimate to be between November and January, I'll DEFINITELY need to do something about it, since they'll be showing, and they just don't go along with the look that I feel is good. So is it alright to shave them with a beard trimmer or something? Or some other method? Every few days?
Well we all get them, some worse than others, these little neck hairs have a really short terminal length and really don't go anywhere.
Its a matter of personal preference what you do with them, shave them off, leave them, just be careful when shaving that you don't trim off any genuine hair (very easy to do). Infact most of the time I've seen it done by stylists they tend to go a bit mad and undercut the bottom most layers of your hair (nightmare!)
Personally I dunno what I'm going to do with mine, I only really noticed it on Sunday when I first wore my hair in a ponytail. I guess they look neater buzzed, but I dunno if I'd trust myself or anyone else to buzz them.
I dislike the look of a buzzed line at the nape of the neck that I all-too-frequently see, so it took me a while(and a lot of experimenting) to see what worked best for me. I didn't touch those hairs for over two years h o p i n g that they might grow long enough to tie (but knowing in the back of my mind that they wouldn't). I find the best thing for me is to tie everything that I can back and clip it out of the way. Then, using hairdressing scissors I cut into the short and fuzzies so that they are quite short and lie naturally, but are not buzzed off and at no point is there stubble. I find that if I do this every few months or so it looks just fine. Good luck! =D
I'm only 1/64 hebrew, but I get this too, down to nearly my shoulders. I shave them with regular razor once or twice a week.
I have the same problem every time I grow my hair out as well! I've had long (shoulder length or longer) hair 3 times in my life (going on the fourth and final/forever hopefully) and I'm half french so I guess that's where mine comes from! =-D
Anyways, my hair is both dark AND thick and I gotta say that besides the long floofy in-between stage, those long-yet-not-long-enough scraggly neck-hairs are the WORST part of having long hair. Like you, I am fine as long as my hair is down, but when I tie it up in a tail the back of my neck is covered with with an "undercoat" of ugly hair.
Unfortunately, I don't have a good solution either. I have tried just trimming the edges where the nasty stuff where it tries to creep around my neck to meet my beard but it only helps a little. I have tried shaving it a little with a beard trimmer to lighten it up some, but like someone else said its hard to decide where the real hair ends and the "scruff" begins.
I've seen some men, and many women, whose neck hair DOES seem to be longer, or at least finer and not so ugly, and looks much nicer under a pony tail but I'm not one of the lucky ones.
Don't know if there is any good way to fix this at all? I have though about shaving off the part I dont like and then maybe using one of those soy "shave minimizing" creams that's supposed to slow hair growth somehow. But I don't think that will work very well.
I'd love to hear if anyone has found a good fix for this myself...
I just twirl them around my finger and cut them with beard trimming scissors every 3 months or so. If they're short enough they just kinda blend in. But, when I let them get real long they curl up into a ball and always seem to tangle.
I shave 2 or even 3 times a weeek. Its no big deal when shaving anyway.
I think it looks far cleaner that a forest of strays.
I would say yes.........but not really a need to do this every few days unless you want to as these hairs don't seem to grow all that fast.
Only my opinion, but a nice "clean-cut" look when having your hair in a Ponytail has a certain polish to it. (I remove these useless hairs myself about every two weeks.)
I actually shaved my neck last February, but I decided I don't want to do it again, so the neck hair is growing back out.
I don't mind because the neck hair actually goes into the hair tie.
- Brian
I'd like to know, is there any way to have them permanently killed off so they never re appear again? I realize this may be a problem as my hair gets long enough for a tail.
What people do with neck hairs is individual and largely depends on the thickness of growth and contrast between skin color and hair color. I used to shave mine but recently switched to using a beard trimmer with no guard. The following link takes you to my February 2004 Extra Bonus pictures page. Scroll down to "Before and After". This section shows my neck hair scraggly and shaved in a side-by-side comparison:
February 2004 Extra Bonus Pictures
BTW, when you start looking for neck hair it is *amazing* (to me anyway) how many people have it!
Damn, I must be lucky - mine grow at the same length as the rest of my hair, and don't descent much below my hairline at all. They're just thinner, softer hairs - my hairline has a definite finishing point. Never thought about it before, but hopefully they'll just continue to grow the same length and I can tuck them into a pontytail when my hair's long enough.
wolfeyes