Hi all!

I'm a newbie here (and a long-hair wannabe -- hopefully eventually will be).

The question I have is how to handle long hair when sleeping.  The consensus seems to be that most people wear their hair up or restrained somehow at night.  So, with respect to this, I have a few questions:

1. If you wear a high ponytail, how do you secure it so you don't wake up with a big dent from the ponytail holder?

2. If you braid it (and I love the thought of waves in the morning), how many braids?  If just one, doesn't that leave a big flat area in portions of your head that were further from the braid originally?

3. If you bun it (someone said somewhere that they bun their hair to help straighten it), how do you secure the bun?  Hairpins?  Scrunchie?  Isn't it uncomfortable?

4. If you set it (rollers, rags, socks (!), etc.), how do you do this so that you don't end up with fish-hook ends in the morning?  How do you set it so that it isn't agonizingly painful all night long (I have horrible memories of pink curlers at night as a kid...)?  And to whomever can actually answer this question, how do you set your hair on socks?  That sounds nice and soft, though perhaps not very sexy (not that rollers or rags would be either).

Anyway, sorry for inundating everyone on my first post.  I must confess I've been lurking here for a while, pining for long hair.  But hopefully if I have info and a good game plan I can join the exclusive club -- I'm about a year away from elbow-length hair, and hopefully I'll have the sticktoitiveness to keep it for life!

Thanks!

Hey sweetie  Welcome to HB! Of course you will be a longhair if you set your mind to it. You've asked some tough questions. I do braids, socks, and Bubba Tails.

Braids: It does leave a non-wavy portion of your hair. Of course, you could also french braid and that will get you waves that are higher up near your roots. This also creates discomfort. Sleeping on your back with a french braid is like sleeping with your head lengthwise on a log. I'm sure a French would work best for people who sleep on their side.

Socks: I will do a sock curl and edit this post with photos later.

Bubba Tail: VERY comfy but leaves some minor creases. A Bubba Tail is what Princess Jasmine does.

I'm sure others will pitch in with their nightly dos

Anais

Hmm Anais, I never thought of wearing it in a Bubba Tail during sleep!  I think I'll try that tonight.

Anyway, welcome to the board farmerburgess! To answer your questions...:

1. I wish I knew the answer to that!

2. Usually I just do 2 standard braids, but if I feel like being really curly in the morning I'll go for about 6. It does leave a "flat" area, but IMHO it doesn't look all that bad.  And if you don't like it you can always put it up for the day and not have to worry about it.

3. If I bun it it's usually as low a bun as I can manage to do, otherwise I wake up with a terrible neck ache.  And I use a small metal-free ("hair friendly") elastic hairband to secure it.

4. I find the socks to be pretty comfy at night.  Fish-hook ends, as far as I know, are just a chance you'll have to take.  But if I get them I curl them under with a small roundbrush and after the curls have settled a little (for me it takes about an hour) they look fabulous!

HTH

Here is the link to Visual Sock Curling Instructions:

http://freespaces.com/anaissatin/sockcurling/howtosockcurl.html - Click here !

Wow!  Thanks for all the replies.

I like the thought of draping my hair over the mattress, as ponytail holders sometimes give me a headache (ignoring the "dent" issue).  But it sure seems like it would be a rat's nest in the morning since I sleep like a whirling dervish.

Anais, did you create that link just for me?  That was really sweet.  Now all I need is enough hair to do more than pull a sock over.

Thanks, everyone!

farmerburgess wrote:  But it sure seems like it would be a rat's nest in the morning since I sleep like a whirling dervish. Anais, did you create that link just for me?  That was really sweet.  Now all I need is enough hair to do more than pull a sock over.

A Bubba Tail is what Princess Jasmine has. It's just putting hair ties (preferably scrunchies) along the length.

HTH

Anais

Hi, great questions!  I am kind of new here too, but for quex #1, I use a satin scrunchy for the high ponytail, it is so high on my head that I don't roll on it so it stays put, and the satin is so hair-friendly that there is no dent.  Besides protecting from pulling during the night, the overnight updo gives my hair a bit more volume the next day.

Welcome Farmerburgess! I hope you get the long hair you want!

I have no suggestions for you though, I aim for comfort when I sleep. I´ll either toss it over the bedside, if it´s wet, or wear it in a braid behind one ear. But then I always wear it up during the day.

I think you will find that as your hair grows, some techniques that worked fine one inch ago, suddenly does not work anymore. It´s a constant work to find new ways to handle your growing hair. And on this board there is always help to be had!

Thanks for the advice and the good wishes!

I definitely understand when hair techniques that used to work do so no longer.  It seems that happens every month now in the "larval lengths".  Grumble.  Life will be so much easier when all my layers can be pulled back into a ponytail.

Speaking of which, where can one find such luxuries as satin scrunchies and so on?  My local supermarket is a bit sparse in the hair toys section, and I don't think there's a beauty supply store around here for miles.  What about Claire's (or something similar)?  Or do you all order online from Hairboutique (and there's some mighty nifty stuff there!)?

And while I'm picking your collective brains, do you have any advice for someone with constantly aching hands?  It is so hard for me to hold a brush for more than a few minutes, much less actually braid my hair and keep any tension in it.  I guess I could suck it up and take some painkillers, but maybe some advice would help better.  Is it easier on the hands to braid / set hair when slightly damp or dry?

Thanks for the shopping advice.  We do have a Claire's within a reasonable driving distance, so maybe I'll browse around there a bit.

As for the hands, I don't really know -- and the dr doesn't have much valuable input either.  But I think it would be worth the aches to have decent braids, so damp hair it is.  Thanks!

Hey Burgess

I have carpal tunnel (but I love messageboards too much) and braiding is a real b!*^%. Wet hair is definitely easier to manipulate, but it also gets "caught" on your fingers a lot more. I find that dry hair can be braided faster, but a wet braid frizzes and I have to rebraid again after it's dry. 

My solution is shea butter, which gets me braiding quick and smooth, and it doesn't have to be redone as often as wet braids. This minimizes braiding time and saves a lot of pain.

Hope this helps

p.s. Thanks Susan!

Anais

ETA LisaJaney sells satin scrunchies. http://tlc-pads.com/services.htm - This is her site  . She's a wonderful lady with a really big heart.