Why Long Hair?

When you read about caring for long hair, you’ll generally hear that a boar bristle hairbrush is the best choice. This is certainly true. Boar bristle hairbrushes are far more gentle to your hair. However, they can also be much harder to use because they are so very gentle.

Boar bristle brushes have a great reputation for polishing and caring for hair. They do a great job of distributing the natural oils in your hair. When I use a boar bristle brush I can really feel the difference. However, if I have a lot of knots for some reason, boar bristle just isn’t that great at getting out the difficult knots.

At the moment I’m trying out a combination boar bristle and ball tip brush. I tried the plain boar bristle and simply found it too frustrating. I just switched to the new brush and I love it! It gives much of the feel of the plain boar bristle brush while fighting knots like my old brush. I found mine at Target, but there’s no sign of it on their website.

I’m not giving up on plain boar bristle. I know the one I bought was a cheap one. A more expensive one simply is not in the budget at the moment. A high quality one can cost more than $40, and I’m not quite at the point where I feel free to spend that kind of money on my hair.

If they don’t cut their hair in pregnancy, many women cut their hair shorter after the baby is born. The reason, as always, is that it’s easier to deal with.

If you think about it, though, long hair may not require that much extra effort when compared to short hair. You’ll spend less time getting it cut at the salon, which can be nice when you have to fit that in around your children’s schedules. Brushing your hair only takes a little longer for well-maintaned long hair than it does for shorter hair.

Pulling the hair back in a ponytail is easy and practical for any hair that is long enough for that style. I’ve always been fond of braiding my hair when I need a lot of control. (There is more where this came from … )

Many women start to think about cutting their long hair when they get pregnant. Why? It’s practically traditional, I suppose. It certainly isn’t necessary.

Pregnancy is wonderful for your hair. Hair falls out less during the pregnancy, so it will look fuller.

There are some times that you do have to take extra care of your hair during pregnancy. When I delivered my kids, it was important to have my hair braided because I knew I’d be spending hours and hours in bed, and the knots would be miserable to undo. With my second I wasn’t able to do this, as I went to a regular OB appointment and ended up at the hospital for an urgent C-section. Had to have my sister help me get the knots out since I wasn’t up for getting the knots out myself the next day. (There is more where this came from … )

One of the challenges of having long hair is coping with it when you have to take a long trip. My hair, which rarely tangles badly most times, knots up something fierce on a long trip if I don’t take precautions. So what do I do?

It’s pretty simple really… I braid it!

A braid keeps it out of the way and certainly prevents tangles. Of course, I also make sure to use something hair-friendly to keep the braid in. No point ruining then ends of my hair for sheer lack of proper care.

The fun part is that then you have lovely, wavy hair when you undo it at the end. You can release your hair at the end of the trip,give it a quick brushing, and look like you spent time working on it before you started. I love looking good at the end of a grueling trip. It makes me feel better about the whole thing.

Those trips in which I haven’t braided my hair I’ve always regretted it on arrival. My hair will look terrible, and fixing it is difficult and time consuming. A braid may look a little frazzled by the end, but undoing the braid and brushing the hair takes much less time than if it had not been braided.

Long hair can be troublesome to style at times. There’s just so much to work with! However, that can also be an advantage.

While I do recommend avoiding the use of curling irons and such on long hair, as it causes damage, occasional use is fine. However, if it’s just a slight wave you need, wash and braid your hair, letting it dry in the braid. This takes hours, of course, and you may need to consider doing more than one braid if you prefer smaller waves, but is much easier on your hair than curling it.

Then again, you could just braid your hair and leave it in. French braids look good, but there are all kinds of ways to braid your hair, and they don’t have to take long.

A top knot is another hair style that you can either leave in or use to add volume to your hair without using a hair dryer. Yes, long hair styling can take some extra planning. However, for the health and beauty of my hair, I think it’s worth it.

Get some great hair accessories. One of my personal favorites is a mother of pearl ponytail holder I use when I put in a topsy tail. Finding good hair accessories isn’t easy, however, Amazon has a great selection of hair accessories.

Long hair can be a bit of a bear sometimes to keep clean, or so some seem to think. Really it isn’t that hard.

For the longest time, I piled all my hair up on my head to wash it, but I have since found out that that is not only unnecessary but not that great for my hair. A better way to wash it most days is to lean over so that your head is at about waist level, and just wash the hair nearest your scalp. The stuff going all the way down your back really doesn’t need washing that often… once a week or so, unless you get something in it. The shampoo going down it as you rinse is quite adequate the rest of the time.

You don’t really have to wash it daily either, unless you have that much trouble with an oily scalp. Mine does best being washed every other day. (There is more where this came from … )

Long hair is not something that just happens. It takes time.

I was one of the lucky ones. When I decided to grow my hair out long, it only took about two years. It went from shoulder length to buttock length in that time. That’s pretty fast.

The length of my hair is pretty stable now. I get it trimmed professionally for very special occasions (I think my sister’s wedding a year and a half ago was the most recent), but otherwise just trim off split ends.

There’s a trick to growing long hair, and I don’t just mean keeping scissors away from it. There are quite a few things you quite simply must not do to your hair when you want it to grow long and strong. Trust me, you will need the strong in order to get long hair. (There is more where this came from … )