Hair Poll

[ClockworkOrange]

I'm 54-staring-down-the-barrel-of-55, and it seems like the older I get, the shorter my hair gets. Yikes--by the time I'm 60, I'll be bald.

.................. And I love it! It's straight straight straight, but after I wash it and let it dry a little, I apply some stuff my hairdresser sold me: Redken Rough Paste. It's sort of like toothpaste you put in your hair, and it lets you spike it or piece it or whatever you want and it's repositionable. After a ride, I take off my helmet, towel dry my hair, then fluff it with my fingers, eh voila! Decent-looking hair. Sure I'm still a major sweat machine, but my hair looks good.

I'm with you on this, apart from I'm 57 - staring down-the-barrel of 58!!! As I am getting older I am getting dafter, now have short spikey hair, with blonde highlights. Important I have it cut every 5 weeks, otherwise it gets the droops.

Hmmmmm, babyfine hair sounds cute BUT IT'S A PAIN!

Fortunately, I now use KMS Hair Play Molding Paste, which my hairdresser recommended and I find it really good, although quite expensive here in the UK, am going to give Redken a try.

Sally

[short cut sally]

indi, i stopped into work today to get something and one of the girls (whom we get mistaken a lot for each other) came to me to show me her new hair do. It is so great. The front has a few strands of bangs, and then its choppy to past the ears and it also is long infront of the ears and then starts to get shorter, the back is about 1 -1 1/2 long and is just all over. The whole hair cut is piecy/choppy and she had some highlights done, her hair is dk. brown. LOVED IT. unfortunetly, i am trying to get my hair to grow out for a little bit, or else i would be in line to have that same cut. Mine is a mishmosh of lengths and ends at the shoulders. I used to have choppy hair that i curled out all over and used lots of product..loved that too, did okay under the helmet. This hair at present, as soon as the helmet is off, hair clip!
ps. love the alpacas! one of the guys i work with raises/breeds and shows alpacas. he goes to shows all over. havent' been to his farm yet. we are making a bike trip out of it, one way, then DH will pick my friend and I up.

[Dianyla]

How do all you fellow women cyclists wear your hair? Short? Long? Medium?
Where was the option for freakishly long? Mine is down to my ankles, very thick, coarse and wavy.

Ponytails, braids, clips?
If I have an extra 15 minutes in the morning I'll put my hair into a single low braid. However, the braid is still too long to let hang loose. If I have a jersey with a back pocket I'll stuff the braid into the pocket. Or, I'll put one or two Viking style knots in to shorten the braid up.

Usually, though, I'm in a hurry so I make a hasty loose bun at the nape that hangs low enough to not interfere with a helmet. It looks like this.

Damage from helmets?
I always use a Buff under my helmet. It prevents damage to wispies, absorbs sweat, and keeps things tidy. Also, having multiple buffs so I can use a clean one every other day helps reduce helmet-induced acne since it's much faster to just don a new buff than to wash the helmet foam pads that touch my forehead.

[northstar]

Well, my hair is shorter than it's been in the past. Very easy. But long enough to get into pigtails for running or riding. I've had long, long hair and short short hair, and this seems to be my happy medium.

Edited to add: Sorry for the big pic!

[PinkBike]

indigoiis, you look absolutely adorable with short hair!!

i wear mine long so i look less mannish. its very thick and very wavy and a total pain. plus i'm growing out the bangs so they're always in my eyes.
one of these days i'll just get tired of it and go in and have it all chopped off. that's my dream but i currently am not ready!

i went to one of those hairstylist sites and had a blast playing with different haircuts. i think when finally i do it, i'll probably go with a suze orman-type cut.

[Python]

I had my hair very short until 18 months ago when I got fed up with it. It grows quite fast and is now bra-strap length. I usually tie it back in a ponytail when riding the bike and keep it tucked under a buff (keeps the sun off my ears - the itch like mad if I get the sun on them). For work I prefer my hair either tied back or in a French Roll or bun (not the edible type )

Like having long hair because you get pretty hair slides and things you can't use on short hair.

The only other thing I do is dye my hair - have been quite grey for some time now (I'm 50)

[Tuckervill]

My hair is between my shoulders and my bra strap. It's layered, but still long enough to get in a pony tail.

What I've changed recently is going from wearing bangs (for over 20 years) to not wearing bangs--or they're really long so they go back behind my ears. I don't know if they're technically still bangs. But if I let them grow to the same length as the rest I'd look like a hippie chick from the '70s (which is just how I wore my hair in the '70s). It's not attractive on me without the long bangs. Makes my face look too round, as do short bangs as I've gotten older. I should just come out and admit to myself that my face is quite round! lol.

As I've gone past 40, and closer to 50, my formerly straight hair is getting curlier and curlier. Not curly enough to *wear* curly, and only in the BACK. bah! So I have a straight iron. It's been too hot to wear my hair down for about 3 weeks now--can't remember if I like my haircut or not.

So the pony tail goes in below the helmet, and then I take a couple of extra bands and put them an inch and half apart down the pony tail to keep it from splaying on my neck and back when I ride. It doesn't look too attractive with some of the ends sticking out, but neither does the mixed up ponytail.

Karen

[RolliePollie]

According to my trusty yardstick, my hair is 18 inches long. I just got 3" cut off last week I hadn't had my hair cut in over 4 months...my hair gets "scissor trauma" and misbehaves very badly for several weeks after a haircut. I am naturally blonde and have very thick, straight hair. It's almost impossible to get a good haircut.

I put my hair in two braids when I ride. It's great...they hang down in front of my shoulders most of the time or the fly back behind me if I'm going fast. I can't stand just doing a ponytail in back because it's so dang hot on my neck. Plus I think I look like a boy in my helmet if all my hair is pulled back out of sight.

It also seems that people think I'm very young when they see the two braids. Nothin' wrong with that!

[Velobambina]

I'd love to wear my hair short. When I was younger and my face fuller, I could pull it off. With age, my face has gotten thinner and unfortunately, short hair would not be flattering. I have a square jaw & high forehead. More importantly, I can't be bothered styling/drying/fussing with my hair. I'm a wash-comb-and-go kinda gal. My hair is wavy but fine.

I've added partial highlights to my single-process hair color to help camoflague the grey more between trips to the stylist. The result is a more expensive color bill, so I've decided to limit myself to just a couple haircuts a year. It's just below the shoulder right now.

On the bike, I braid it and wear a buff. Last year, I had a chin length, layered bob. I've found that wearing a buff, cap style, will accommodate any hair length in terms of keeping it out of your face.

[lph]

Medium length (below shoulders), fine, curly. I'd like to have really short hair, but the one time I tried I didn't like the look of it and I'd feel I'd have to cut it all the time.

On me long hair is low-maintenance in that the curls don't need much fuss to look reasonably ok, and dry, so I only wash it once a week or so. The length keeps it wavy, not crinkly-curly. And I don't have to cut it until the snaggy tips start driving me nuts. Most important, I can get it all into a ponytail and it doesn't get into my eyes. I wear a Buff - actually half a Buff, I cut one in half and it's a perfect headband - under my helmet too to catch sweat and stray wisps.

[indigoiis]

All the talk about the stuff we put in our hair brings to mind the movie "There's something about Mary." That was a great scene.

Incidentally, that was a nice haircut, too.

So, anyway, I made the appointment for Friday at four. This is the look I will be going for...



Although I don't really look like her, my hair does.

But then, last night, I said to Mister Indy, Listen, I'm Cutting My Hair. He looked a little wistful. I don't think guys like short hair on girls. Whatever. It does grow rather fast, so, if I hate it, I'll grow it.

I also have gray which resembles highlights if I don't dye, and I am trying to get away from dyeing it so much... don't like putting all that crap on my skin and into the water table!

Am i just going through a phase?

[lph]

I'm with you on the dye problem. I'm naturally dark-blonde going on grey. I don't really mind being grey, but it makes my hair look very matte, and every now and then I'd do a home colour-rinse or something to look a bit glossier...

A few years ago I figured I was worth (and could afford, not least) a real salon colour job on my hair, medium warm brown. It looked gorgeous and compliments were flying, so I settled for doing it properly a few times a year. I hadn't counted on the professional hair colour never washing out, and that brown hair dye turns YELLOW in the sun.

I'd like to cut down on the dyeing and just BE grey part of the year, but how do you start when your hair is shoulder length and permanently dyed?

signed,
-duh.

[Bad JuJu]

I'd like to cut down on the dyeing and just BE grey part of the year, but how do you start when your hair is shoulder length and permanently dyed?

I just kicked the hair dye habit at the beginning of this year. I got my not-very-long hair cut even shorter then just let the dyed part grow out, getting regular haircuts to clip away at it. It's pretty much all my own color now, which is a gradually greying dark-blonde-to-light-brown. I don't mind my grey hair now that it's starting to look better, but when I first started greying it was patchy and watery and just yucky. Now it's kind of silvery--I like that.

[GLC1968]

I'd like to cut down on the dyeing and just BE grey part of the year, but how do you start when your hair is shoulder length and permanently dyed?

I'd just cut mine super short again...

I cannot wait until I can get away with gray hair (and not just look weird). My hair is dark brown and in my youth, it would bleach into these gorgeous blonde and red highlights (by the sun). Unfortunately I've been coloring to cover grey for 18 years now and that just wipes out all sun effects. I'm now about 50% grey if I were to let it go natural. At what age is this ok? I mean...I have real respect for Taylor Hicks, but even at 39, I'm just not sure I could pull it off...you know?

If you are naturally grey...at what age did you let it BE your hair color?

[HappyAnika]

But then, last night, I said to Mister Indy, Listen, I'm Cutting My Hair. He looked a little wistful. I don't think guys like short hair on girls. Whatever. It does grow rather fast, so, if I hate it, I'll grow it.

When my hair was down to my bum, I had 14 inches cut off all at once and donated it. Before I went to do it, I thought my DH was going to cry, he was so sad I was cutting it. He got over it in about 2 days. Me, on the other hand, I did cry. She was only supposed to take off 10" and I was mortified for weeks at how short it was. But it grew out quickly and a better, layered cut (from someone else) made it look cute instead of ghastly.

As far as the dye thing, again, I'm 31, and I have a ridiculous amount of gray. I LOVE my natural color, dark brown with pretty natural golden and red highlights. To keep as much of my natural color, but cover up the gray, my stylist uses 3 different dyes, one of them a permanent low light on the gray, and the cost is exorbitant. I've taken a break from dying for the pregnancy, and my hair looks like crap. I can't wait to get it colored again. I didn't realize how much the gray was advancing and I am not ready to let it take over at 31.