Why Long Hair?

One of the roughest things you do to your hair every day is brush it… especially if you deal with a lot of tangles. There is little gentle about the way many people brush their hair.

First of all, do your best to never brush your hair when it’s wet. This is when it is most easily damaged. It stretches easily when wet, but also breaks easily. If you can avoid using a hair dryer, which dries out your hair in more ways than just getting the water out, do so. It takes a little time to let it dry naturally, but if you can do it so much the better for your hair. (There is more where this came from … )

How often do you see older women with really long hair? Not often, right? It seems like by their late 30s or early 40s most women have given up on longer hair and go for the shorter cuts.

Admittedly, not all women’s hair looks good long as they get older. Some do suffer from thinning hair, which may not look good long. Coloring treatments can damage hair, and damaged hair just doesn’t cope too well long either.

However, I have seen older women with long, beautiful hair. Even pure grey or white. (There is more where this came from … )

Any kind of hair can suffer from static. You know how your hair can just cling to everything, getting in the way and just doesn’t cooperate when it gets staticy. The trick is knowing what to do about it.

You could wet down your hair, but wet hair is more easily damaged than dry hair, so that’s not too good an idea.

A better idea is to add some moisture to the air. Start up a humidifier well before you need to start styling your hair. Hair gets staticy when there is too little moisture in the air. (There is more where this came from … )

One of my minor vices is watching What Not to Wear. I’m far from fashionable myself, but it can be interesting to see what they say about what people wear. However, the hair styling section can make me wince whenever they’re dealing with longer hair.

If you look around, you know that extremely long hair isn’t exactly the most popular style. It certainly isn’t popular with stylists. After all, long hair doesn’t require much cutting.

I don’t tend to agree with the assessment they always use that long hair tends to make you look older or isn’t flattering. Just watching how they move the long hair around in it’s most unflattering modes. You could easily get shorter hair to do the same. I don’t think it always looks thinner or whatever else they may say. Sometimes, yes, but not on every single woman. (There is more where this came from … )

Swimming is great exercise. However, all the chlorine that keeps the water sanitary is really bad for your hair.

A quick rinse is a good idea before you go swimming. Not only does it rinse off any dirt, keeping it from getting into the pool, but if you use fresh water it lets your hair absorb that first, rather than the chlorinated water.

After your swim you should at the very least repeat the clean water rinse. A clarifying shampoo will help get the chlorine out. (There is more where this came from … )

I’ve recently discovered how delightful hairsticks can be for putting up my hair. No elastic to pull my hair, and they hold really well.

The challenge, however, can be in keeping the hairsticks from pulling painfully tight. For many styles, a single hairstick will hold the whole thing up. A second can tighten things up even further, but that can be the problem. Too tight means you might break or strain your hair; not exactly good when you’re going for length. (There is more where this came from … )

If you have long hair, you have probably heard of Locks of Love, a charity which accepts donations of hair for wigs. You may have even been told by friends and relatives that you should cut your hair and give it to them. But is this really a good idea?

Locks of Love’s publicity certainly makes it sound good. You hear about wigs being made for children with cancer. However, most recipients actually have permanent hair loss caused by alopecia areata. Obviously very sad too, but I suspect cancer is mentioned because it pulls more at the heart strings.

I’ve also found some question about what they really do with all the hair that has been donated. Their site states that they receive 2000 donations of hair through the mail every week, and make 1000 hairpieces. It’s not quite clear to me if the number of hairpieces is total since they opened or annual production.

So where is the rest of the hair going? (There is more where this came from … )