Small hair trouble...

Hi Eowyn, I had really curly hair until I was about 5 years old, then it became straight. My mother thought it was just because it was so long (the curl was being pulled down by the weight of my hair), but she was wrong. When I cut my hair short for the first time, it was still straight.

Your description of the waves in your hair sounds similar to mine. My hair very wavy sometimes -- especially in hot, humid conditions. I get curls all around my hairline -- especially the under-part of my hair -- near the nape of my neck. The waves under my hair are often there in moderate weather too. I think it's just because of body heat -- that's where my hair is warmest and most likely to get damp. On the surface, though, my hair looks totally straight. My hair gets really wavy at the gym too -- heat and humidity again.

How was its texture when it was longer?

Being as it's shoulder-length now, the shortest strands are the underneath layer. Those being wavy, I'm guessing your hair is naturally wavy, and that the longer strands on the "outside" are straighter due to the weight of the strands. Just a guess, that's all I can do without seeing a pic of it -- and that is not a solicitation for you to post a pic, even though I'm sure many of us would like to have a look-see.

Yeah, I think that all hair has them. You always have new growth coming in, so no matter how healthy your hair is, it's going to have some manner of flyaways. I guess that texture has something to do with how noticeable they are. I'm a 2b with a bit of 3a mixed in for fun, and if anything, most girls with wavy/curly hair like mine have more flyaways than I do, so I guess that that's a good sign of sorts.

It's probably just normal. Lighting is important. I didn't know I had so many until I went on vacation and stayed at a hotel that had a big mirror wall in the elevator and spotlights right over your head! I was glad when I left because I lost the "my hair looks so bad" feeling I got in there every day!

Wearing your hair up is good for it, you will get less tangles than wearing it down. Provided, that is, you are using hair safe things to hold it up. If you use the unsafe kind, it can be causing some damage, but your hair grows 6 inches a year, so after 2 years, any damage you had from that should be a foot from the top of your head.

One cause of flyaways is your hair type. Is it at all wavy?

For the *longest* time I was convinced that my hair was frizzy and flyaway because it was damaged and unhealthy. I thought I had basically straight hair. Then I figured out my hair was quite wavy/curly and all my new growth was coming in all curly - which accounted for my frizz. Because it's so very long, I've got alot of different degrees of wavyness in my hair ranging between 1b & 2b in there and because of that it always has some amount of frizz.

There isn't much I can do short of using some product in my hair to avoid the frizz. Usually I just let it do what it wants and it's much happier that way. One thing that helps is allowing some natural oil build up and use a BBB to smooth it through. But, since my hair is so long I usually have it up, so the only place the frizz is noticeable is my scalp, and especially so on fresh-washed days.

It's annoying and not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but I accept the frizz in trade off for healthy hair.

Hey there!
Well, for the most part my hair is pretty good, its just I get a lot of those flyaways, like those little wiery hairs that just stick out a little and make my head look like I put my finger in a low setting light socket! Its not very bad, but its just I get those little things pretty much down the length of my hair, and Im not sure how to get them to lie flat? Is this a normal hair thing to have? Do you people with really long nice hair get this too? I just seem to get it a lot, and its aggrivating, so I end up throwing my hair up in a ponytail anyways. Its not very long (about shoulder length), so Im trying to make it in good condition so when it DOES get long its really nice. Thank you for your help!