If anyone else struggles with sleeping on long hair

[Cataboo]

I have hair that can get a knot in it when I'm sitting stationary not leaning against anything. It's fine, is curly, and is long - it and I mostly have reached a happy compromise.

Alright - things that I've found that helps.

Braid your hair when you go to sleep, ride a bike, a convertible, kayak, or are around a lot of wind. A couple of years ago, I went kayaking in a salt marsh for about 14 hours with my hair in a bun... the repeated wet/dry salt water cycles combined with the sun, the wind, and me spraying bug spray made my bun fuse into a knot... I spent a week trying to get it out, with all the mothers at work telling me, oh yeah, we can help you get that out, we're mothers... Nope. finally my Mom drove up 'cause she couldn't believe I couldn't get a knot at, she fussed with it for a few seconds and cut off about a foot and a half of hair.

Make sure the air in your house is not too dry, it makes things worse.

There are spray in conditioners that you can spray your hair with before you sleep in the braid - shikai makes a nice one.

Use daily shampoos... they have much less harsh detergents... Any shampoo with sodium laureth sulfate in it will not be as harsh as shampoos with sodium lauryl sulfate in them. A good daily shampoo will have neither.

I alternate which shampoo & conditioner I'm using daily - so I don't get build up.

Deep condition your hair every so often - revlon makes one for color treated hair, I can look up the name of it when I get home (My mom gets free samples of it, and I use it even though I don't have color treated hair), also burts bees makes a really nice avocado one... Or you can make your own using olive oil, eggs, and avocado (recipes should be easily found online)

The best conditioners/and or shampoos I've found are - nexxus humectress, bedhead by tigi ... self absorbed... I also like the brunette goddess by bedhead /tigi. Every so often, I'll use some pantene pro v.

I don't use anything hot on my hair and I just let it air dry... I'm not sure what to tell you about using hot tools on your hair to style it other than to moisturize it more.

Do not brush your hair when wet... your hair is more fragile when wet and it's more prone to breakage. So you can comb it when wet, but do it very gently and support your roots. I brush my hair before I get into the shower, wash & dry it, and that's it. Combing it/brushing it when wet doesn't help, and brushing it after it is dry just makes it tangle. Don't bunch your hair up on your head and swish it around when you shampoo it or anything like that.

I'm not sure what kind of coloring you're doing to your hair - but consider using henna colors, they'll moisturize your hair while coloring it and are a lot gentler.

[Zen]

Deep condition your hair every so often ...you can make your own using olive oil, eggs, and avocado (recipes should be easily found online)

And whatever is leftover makes a great salad dressing

If there's an avacado in my house i'm sure not putting it on my head

[Tuckervill]

Yeah, what I was thinking of was satin pillow cases. Those are from the days when women "set" their hair once a WEEK.



Karen

[Cataboo]

Yeah, what I was thinking of was satin pillow cases. Those are from the days when women "set" their hair once a WEEK.



Karen

There's still a bunch of those women... My Mom owns a beauty shop, she's got a ton of old ladies who come once or twice a week to get their hair set, then hairsprayed into a hard helmet...

Most of them roll up a towel into a pillow and put that under their neck to support it so that their hair doesn't actually touch the bed/pillow or get flattened.

[Eden]

Better than a less harsh shampoo is a less harsh shampoo and using it little as possible.... I resisted for years - I have dry curly hair, but I still thought my hair would be oily and unruly if I did not wash it every day. Turned out to be far from reality. Now that I only wash it a few times/week it stays in so much better shape - no more split ends! It used to split so bad one hair would have 5 or 6 splits up the hair shaft. I still shower every day, and I condition every day, but I only shampoo when it truly needs it and I try to keep the shampoo off the ends as much as possible. I can't use a super heavy conditioner... or it does look oily quickly, but without so much shampoo I don't need to. I also don't ever rub with a towel or use heat on my hair - turns into a big poof if I do.

[Dianyla]

My experience has been that once your hair gets long enough it just hangs off the bed and stays there by it's own weight.

For mid-lengths of hair (say between shoulder and buttlength) you can just make a loose comfortable braid to sleep in.

[Jolt]

Wow, I guess I should consider myself lucky that my hair (mid back length) doesn't seem to tangle that much. If it did I'd probably end up cutting it short again (and getting mistaken for a boy...). I wonder what it is that makes some people's hair more prone to getting into knots than others.

[Cataboo]

And whatever is leftover makes a great salad dressing

If there's an avacado in my house i'm sure not putting it on my head

I don't like avocado's, so I only use them for my hair