Hair is holding me back

[Dianyla]

But the thing that is really making me nervous is trying to figure out what to do with my hair. I have a very hilly 9-mile ride to work, and I sweat a lot. Do you wet your hair in the sink then blow dry? I have short hair and have to dress professionally.

Some kind of absorbent handkerchief/buff/headsweats type of headwrap helps a lot with absorbing sweat. Could you possibly go for more of a hair gel/product hairstyle that will disguise it a little bit? I do think that sweat/oil excess is much more noticeable on shorter hair. If hair is long enough to be smoothly brushed back into an elegant french twist or bun it looks just fine, sweat and all.

[CommuterChick]

Some kind of absorbent handkerchief/buff/headsweats type of headwrap helps a lot with absorbing sweat. Could you possibly go for more of a hair gel/product hairstyle that will disguise it a little bit? I do think that sweat/oil excess is much more noticeable on shorter hair. If hair is long enough to be smoothly brushed back into an elegant french twist or bun it looks just fine, sweat and all.

One suggestion I haven't seen is a spritz bottle. I have long thick hair and in this cooler weather usually all I need to do is spritz it a lot, scrunch it with my hands, and I am good to go. I keep supplies at work - a comb, some hair pins - but with short hair you're in great shape! I check my email for anything urgent before changing, and my clients (both inhouse and external) are always impressed/jealous that I am riding to work. In hot weather I'll either do the full shower or if short on time I'll stick my head in a sink -- I keep a towel at work. A pack towel, the kind that dries fast, works well for this.

On the food front I stoke up before I go, then tea and almonds when I arrive, but I'm a morning piglet.

Bike commuting -- best health benefit I know.

Marcy in Colorado

[pooks]

I do think that sweat/oil excess is much more noticeable on shorter hair. If hair is long enough to be smoothly brushed back into an elegant french twist or bun it looks just fine, sweat and all.

I think a lot depends on the texture of your hair. My hair is very fine and straight and I have an oily scalp. If I don't shampoo every day by the middle of the second day it looks so dirty and limp because the hair near the scalp is so oily. Wearing a helmet made it worse. I have started keeping it very short since I started cycling this summer, and have discovered that the shorter it is, the better it looks. On a few days when emergencies called me out of the house before I got shampooed, I was able to use a little mousse, do a little bit of fluffy-spiking and it looked okay -- something that I could never get away with when it was longer.

When my hair was really long (past my shoulders) if I tried pulling it back on the second day, it still looked dirty. Oily roots are nasty looking, alas. So sometimes it's not just sweat that's the problem. Sweat dries, but oil doesn't.

Anyway, for this thread's purpose -- I've discovered that I'm loving short-short hair. I have it highlighted so that it has a more interesting "texture" when you look at it, and have gotten a lot of compliments on it.