Growing

[ladysprite]

It's been almost a year since I cut my hair, and I still love having it short. But part of the fun of short hair is experimenting and playing around with it. And I've played around with rag curls (epic disaster) and color (amazing) and curling irons (still don't really know what to do with them), and so it's about time to start playing around with letting it grow.

And what I'm realizing is that, for people with incredibly thin, fine, bone-straight hair, there is absolutely no graceful way to go from a short pixie to a bob. Like, none at all.

I know, get it cut in layers. I know, get it cut shaggy. I know, get it trimmed regularly by a professional. Believe me, I'm doing my very best. It's just that I've hit what I'm guessing is the hair equivalent of the miserably gawky pre-teen phase. The longest layer, at the top, is maybe 5" long - just long enough to hit my eyes but not long enough to pin to one side, and because it's so thin and light it looks feathery whether I want it to or not. Just long enough to cover the tops of my ears awkwardly, not long enough to push behind them. Too long to play peekaboo with a headband, but short enough that if I try to tuck it back with said headband the ends stick straight up.

And, again because my hair is so fine, any attempt to put any sort of product in it at this length just weights it down and makes it look sticky and dirty. When it's shorter I can use styling gunk to get it to do what I want (which is usually 'look cute and tousled, but in a cool way'); now it's long enough that I can't get any lift - there's too much weight from the length, so I just wind up with gunky floppy hair. That feathers across my forehead and hides the top half of my ears.

I feel like an ugly duckling, and I'm about to cut this experiment short. Literally. If I can ever carve an hour out of my schedule to get to my hairdresser. Maybe when winter rolls around and I can hide under a hat I'll try again, but for now I think I'm out of patience with this mop....

Comments

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I think it is to solve this problem that cornrows and artificial braids came into being.

Good luck finding a solution, and remember, you are always much more adorable, even with awkward hair, than you can possibly imagine.

*hugs*

[mamatiger.livejournal.com]

This is why my hair is currently about down to my butt. I don't have the patience to cope with trying to style fine straight hair! :)

The only thing I can think of that adds volume without being heavy is mousse? And bending over so your hair hangs down when you dry it. That's all I've got, advicewise. Just breathe and don't make rash decisions. Get the advice of an actual professional hairdresser, they deal with this exact situation every day, I'm sure.

Leslie, still battling the barrettes that slide out of my hair as fast as I can put them in....

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

So one of the awesome things about short hair is that there *are* no rash decisions. My current plan, barring whim or changing my mind, is to go back to my medium-length pixie cut this Friday; that's taking off maybe 2-3" and 6 weeks of growth. If I regret it, it'll be right back to where it is now in another six weeks. But even if I went nuts and shaved my head to bare scalp, it'd be back to something cute in a month or less.

Minimal hair means minimal time to return to status quo. :)

[phi]

I am also experiencing the sad mushroom hair of growing out a short cut. I have a tolerable not-quite-ear-length bob right now, that I'm keeping tamed mostly with bobby pins and volumizing spray. I think our hair is pretty much the same texture: fine, wispy, prone to fly-aways, and unable to tolerate most hair products. Volumizing spray works on me like styling mousse or extra-hold hair spray works on other people. Have you tried it?

Re:

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried volumizing spray yet, but I was just at Lush yesterday and picked up a new product (called, obnoxiously, Mr Dandy's Hair Candy). I'm giving it until Friday to work miracles, but so far it seems like the best stuff I've played with since going short....

My Richard Shindell anecdote

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

So, once when I went to see Richard Shindell he was trying to grow out his hair and he told this story. His hair was getting mopish and he decided to go to a barbershop to see if the barber could do something to improve the situation. He went in, waited, and then explained his goal to the barber. After some consideration the barber provided this advice.

"You don't need a cut, son, what you need is a hat."

At this point in the story, he pulled on the bill of his baseball cap, and laughed.

"I do appreciate this sort of advice. He was a barber... he didn't own a hat shop." He laughed again. "What you need is a hat."

Anyway, that is one of my favorite anecdotes. You look great in hats, so maybe you should look for some fun bonnets until you can bob.