Fine Long Hair

Does anybody know of someone with baby-fine hair that is long and actually looks good?

My hair is shoulder length right now, but I really want to grow it longer. It is not thin, but on the thinner side of normal for thickness. It is also straight.

Any pictures of fine long hair? Thanks!

I''ve got a German friend who has fine long hair... it''s 46 inches long and GORGEOUS. AND she looks like a fairy tale princess. No pics though...

Anais

Wow! How did she ever get it that long? How does she take care of it?

Me.

I believe AnneMarie's secrets are:
(1) wearing hair contained in updos, braids, etc.. most of the time
(2) not using a blow dryer/fryer
(3) no chemicals e.g. artificial color or perms

Best of luck and happy growing! :)
Anais

ETA: eKatherine! of course! ::smacks forehead::

ekatharine. Your hair is beautiful! It must be thick as well as fine?

My hair is medium-thick. My ponytail is about 3" around.

I think I could only make 2 3/4" even with my bangs in there.

Dear Lisa,

Some bad news: if there is one rule it is that really fine hair does not look great when long. The weight will remove all volume at the roots, making it look like you have even less hair. When the hair is draped on the scalp, it get oily very quickly, making it look even less appetising.

Look for a good hairdresser that can advise you and always remember: he's human too. He'll never be able to give you a Fawcett-look and whatever magic he pulls out of his hat, ask for a style you can easily recreate. Prepare to hear not a cheerful message. And leave the salon to think about the options he put forward. Even take a second consult elsewhere, keeping in mind the human factor and the possibilty to reproduce it.

On the bright side: colouring your hair makes it a tiny bit thicker! It opens the 'pores' to put the colour in and never is able to reclose them completely. It makes your hair a bit more fragile, but if you left the "long hair" idea, you won't notice.

Good luck!

I disagree... UP Lisa, go take a gander at Flaming Bunny's photos and you'll see that fine hair can look beautiful if worn long. Don't let lack of volume discourage you.

[QUOTE=HD_EU] Dear Lisa,

Some bad news: if there is one rule it is that really fine hair does not look great when long.[/QUOTE]
HAHAHAHAHA!

i dont think my hair will look nice when it is long.

[QUOTE=eKatherine] My hair is medium-thick. My ponytail is about 3" around.
[/QUOTE]

With medium thick hair it is easy to say "hahahaha" .... ever seen/treated really fine long hair? And not just when they leave a salon ... but the day(s) after too. It is the choice of the client to go for long or another length, no matter what the advice was. And as it is wrong to "always suggest short/bob/...." like some do, it is equally wrong to always promote long hair, no matter what. Not every face is the same, not everybody makes the best of their features by having long hair. The hairstyle is a personal thing, not 'one fits all'. So ask yourself if you are giving neutral advice or just want to promote long hair, no matter how a person wil look like with it and how difficult it will be to style.

Have I ever seen or treated fine hair? I guess you're trying to say that I haven't. So why don't you go ahead and tell me about my hair, which you seem to feel you know more about than I do.

[QUOTE=HD_EU] [QUOTE=eKatherine] My hair is medium-thick. My ponytail is about 3" around.
[/QUOTE]

With medium thick hair it is easy to say "hahahaha" .... ever seen/treated really fine long hair? And not just when they leave a salon ... but the day(s) after too. It is the choice of the client to go for long or another length, no matter what the advice was. And as it is wrong to "always suggest short/bob/...." like some do, it is equally wrong to always promote long hair, no matter what. Not every face is the same, not everybody makes the best of their features by having long hair. The hairstyle is a personal thing, not 'one fits all'. So ask yourself if you are giving neutral advice or just want to promote long hair, no matter how a person wil look like with it and how difficult it will be to style.

Awesome, and well said! I have very fine hair, although a lot of it, but it just doesn't look good long! Especially because I have a long face and long hair does absolutely nothing for my features. I've been struggling for years to accept that on me, shorter is better. Now that I have, my life is much, much easier.

[/QUOTE]

I have to agree. Unless you have curly fine hair or thick fine hair (and a three inch ponytail is pretty thick--mine wouldn't even be an inch) then long hair just looks greasy and stringy. Mine has never been much past my shoulders because it just looked bad when it got longer than that. My daughter has very fine hair too but hers is a bit thicker and she can wear it to maybe mid back before it looks bad. The thinness is what causes problems. It just sticks to your head and is pretty unattractive. And layers aren't really a fine hair option. It is better to keep it a bit shorter but to each his own. I do have friends who have very long, very thin hair. I do not think it looks good at all.

I have long fine hair and get mixed remarks on it. Well, no, that's not true, 99% of the feedback i get is wonderful, i've only had one girl ever tell me she didn't like my hair because it was fine.

I think the products you use and how often you change them (as well as how you style your hair) make a huge difference.

Never say never :-)

I agree that if hair is too thin it doesn't look good probably past shoulder length. I am hoping that at as much as 3" if my bangs were in there, that mine won't look too bad. My hair is pretty thick in the back. It's the sides that are thin. If it does look bad, I will cut it shorter. As a teenager I had it at BSL. Looking back at old pictures, I don't think it looked bad. Back then I didn't have bangs, and I think I look better with them.

[QUOTE=eKatherine][QUOTE=HD_EU] Dear Lisa,

Some bad news: if there is one rule it is that really fine hair does not look great when long.[/QUOTE]
HAHAHAHAHA![/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=HD_EU][QUOTE=eKatherine] My hair is medium-thick. My ponytail is about 3" around.
[/QUOTE]

With medium thick hair it is easy to say "hahahaha" .... ever seen/treated really fine long hair? And not just when they leave a salon ... but the day(s) after too. It is the choice of the client to go for long or another length, no matter what the advice was. And as it is wrong to "always suggest short/bob/...." like some do, it is equally wrong to always promote long hair, no matter what. Not every face is the same, not everybody makes the best of their features by having long hair. The hairstyle is a personal thing, not 'one fits all'. So ask yourself if you are giving neutral advice or just want to promote long hair, no matter how a person wil look like with it and how difficult it will be to style. [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=eKatherine]Have I ever seen or treated fine hair? I guess you're trying to say that I haven't. So why don't you go ahead and tell me about my hair, which you seem to feel you know more about than I do.[/QUOTE]

ahahHAHAhAHAHHAHAHAHAhAHahahAhaHA

I have very fine hair, not thin but very fine.  For years I didn't try to grow it because hairdressers told me I "just couldn't, it was too fine."  Meanwhile they kept telling me they'd cut only an inch off my hair and then it would be way more.  My hair seems to grow slowly too.

Finally (duh) I figured out the golden rule of growing out your hair:  Never go to a hairdresser.  OK, there may be hairdressers sympathetic to below-shoulder hair but it's very hard to find one.  I never have.  And they'll all tell you your hair won't look good because it's too fine, if they want to cut it short. Heck, with a short cut my hair just looks wispy and my head looks too small.

End of rant . . . anyway, the secret to getting it to halfway down my back was to abandon hairdressers entirely.  I bought a book called _Haircutting for Dummies_. Despite the title it's an excellent book.  For my very infrequent trims to even the length,  I have my husband follow the directions and pictures. 

I don't think my hair will ever reach my ankles, but the point is:  Everyone told me it was so fine and grew so slowly it would never get at all long, and it did.  I just had to quit cutting it and refrain from abusing it.  And wait for several years.

OK, volume, how to get volume.  I'm still working on that one.  Some tips:  Forget volumizing products, none have worked for me. 

To keep the hair from lying flat on the head, a great trick is:  As soon as you finish washing your hair, spray it with spray gel.  Pull all your hair into a ponytail at the back or top of your head, and fasten with a covered elastic.  Do not part your hair, even if you normally wear a part. Pull it straight back from the forehead. This dries the roots upward and gives the hair a good lift. Note, no blow drying is required.

To get some wave into your hair with no effort, put it into the pony tail, as above.  Let it dry partway, otherwise drying will take forever. Then twist the hair around as tight as you can, coil it into a bun (this is two separate steps), and pin the bun to the top of your head with bobby pins. If the bun is at the top of your head, not the back, you can sleep on it.  You can also put the hair in the ponytail, then braid it tightly, then coil it into the bun.  Or you can make two tight braids coming out from the ponytail, loop them around to the top of your head, and fasten them with bobby pins. 

My problem is, I can get waves or curls, but the first time I comb or brush my hair, I get a sort of halo.  Fluffy body but no curls. I didn't get this when I had a perm.

I'm about to try permanent color on my hair, so if that gives volume as someone said, all the better.

 

Fran

 

 

 

I should add that, a perm will add a _lot_ of both volume and curl to your hair.  You'll look like it's about three times as thick.  Perms are out of style, so hairdressers aren't very enthused about giving them.  A perm does not destroy your hair if you (a) don't perm more than a couple of times a year (b) you don't use permanent color over it (semipermanent was OK for me) and (c) you condition your hair.

Fran

thanks. i have not been to a salon in a long time because i had to learn the hard way that they know nothing about caring for thin hair. and yes i was also told my hair was not able to grow long and if it did it would not look good. so most of my life it has been short. then about a year or so ago, i just let it go to see what it would do and low and behold, it is now half way down my back and has never been more beautiful. i will NEVER have short hair again.  thanks for the support.

i will not color or perm my hair. i have just grown out a horrible perm that what do you know i got from a salon. yeah it looked a lot thicker but resembled a poodle. . so it is straight and i love it. i would advice against perms. they damaged thin hair sooo badly. did i mention that afterwards, chunks of my hair broke off and fell out. but it is back to normal and all the hair i lost is back and even with the rest of my hair as well.

I had my hair permed for years and it never looked like a poodle (after the first wash) or broke off. That's the sign of a really bad perm, and yes some stylists give really bad perms.  Go _somewhere else_ if you ever want another perm.

Generally hairdressers seem to be good at either chemical work (coloring and perms) _or_ cuts.  At the fancy salons they have separate people to do cuts and chemical work, and that is the place to go if your stylist is no good at chemical work. 

Additionally, I've noticed that they cut less off if you have cuts and perms done by different people.  They always tell you they have to cut it "because the ends are damged." But the shorter your hair is, the less time it takes for them to curl it, and that's why six inches get whacked off for "trimming the ends." A stylist who doesn't have to roll it up personally is less concerned.

Sorry your perm was a nightmare,

Fran