Ask a long haired natural

[~~HoneyComb~~]

What styles did you wear to get past APL and beyond?

When I grew my hair out beyond APL, I wore flat-twist outs throughout, all with pony puffs. The fingercurls in my avatar was done with my APL hair, and it's the last time I'll do them on hair longer than shoulder length. After a few days it's a matted horrible mess



Did you wear protective styles or did you wear your hair out?

Flat-twists were my main protective style. I've tried to do double strand twists on several occassions and they never turn out right. I've done them on dry hair, wet hair, damp hair--with product, without product--doesn't matter, my hair hates twist, but flat twists give my hair fullness, the only drawback is that I have to retwist daily, but once I have my parts in place, the process only takes 15-20 mins each night.

My answers in red.

 

[dynamic1]

1. Is it difficult to deal with long (APL and longer) natural hair?
Yes, my first go round was waist length and managing different textures (especially where they meet) was very challenging. I cut a style to shoulder/collar stretched but I am approaching lengths that are more challenging again. A few things that would make it easier but I am hard headed. 1. Wash and detangle in 6- 8 sections. 2. Keep it stretched most of the time (I have not straightened in 2 years and I do not enjoy wearing 2 strand twist. This is my biggest challenge). 3. Find products that keep your hair as tangle free as possible. i.e. mild cleansers, water-soluble cones and quats (if any at all), limit drying ingredients. Some products are temporary fixes (silicone laden and certain gels) but over time, they cause issues that require harsh surfactants.

2. Do you go through a ton of products?

Yes, primarily when I am lazy. When I section and distribute products, I use less.

3. If you are military or know a long haired napp in the military, how do you (or they) stay within regulation? I'm Air Force and for women the bulk of the hairstyle cannot exceed 3 inches(an example, I wore buns when my hair was long so my bun is not allowed to stick out further than 3 inches from my head). My ultimate goal is WL and my hair is thick so im not sure if it would even be possible for me to keep WL hair.
I am not in the military but doing a bun on dry, stretched wsl, hair would certainly yield > 3+ inches. If you do a wet braid and bun, you may fair better. However, there are perils with this approach as well. Your hair wants to shrink as it dries and this tension can cause damage as it attempts to contract. I always adjusted my bun accordingly when it was drying to relieve some of the tension. However, it did get bigger with each adjustment.

Answers in purple.

 

[MissMeWithThatIsh]

The first time I relaxed was because I was young and dumb and my logic was "Hmm, the boys make fun of me because my hair is nappy, so if i get a perm they will stop and want to ask me out"....next year, silky, swangy hair...still got no play lol. After a year and a half of relaxing I grew up a bit and decided I didnt care what ppl thought and I was too unique to be looking like everybody else and i got my last relaxer July '05. fast forward to spring time of '06 and im going back and forth about my hair for prom...I did NOT want those scraggly relaxed ends hanging on to my fro and looking ridiculous so exactly 1 week before prom i did my own BC and loved it....fast forward again to May '08, i was reading horror stories on NP about negativity towards napps in the military so i scared myself into getting a relaxer in basic training because i did not want my white male T.I ripping me a new a**hole because I had a halo of frizzy hair sticking up from my supposed to be perfect bun. i kept on relaxing because i did not want to lose all my progress but i knew I would eventually go natural again but planned for a 2 year transition. between overprocessing and being scared to even comb my hair for fear of breakage was too much for me..even Aphogee 2 step couldnt help so at that point i said screw it, the health of my hair is way more important than my vanity about length, so March '09 i got my final relaxer and was anxious to be natural again....5 months later while watching big chops on YT i just grabbed the scissors to cut a section to see how it would look...liked the result and an hour later i was all natural again lol.




Deep down I always knew my natural hair was all i ever wanted, i was never ashamed of it i just put other people's opinions ahead of my own but i know in my heart that i love my natural hair entirely too much to ever make that mistake again.

For serious though, when we were at the July 4 party, I looked at your NG and I was like, "This woman doesn't need a relaxer, her texture is nice!!!" but I didn't know you were on here.

 

[Fhrizzball]

I know this depends on different textures but at what length stretched equated to SL unstretched because that's my primary goal.

Those that still are able to wng, puffs, or afros at such long length how is that possible?

How has your texture changed with the added length?

Do you wear more PS or out styles now that your hair is long?

 

[JustKiya]

I know this depends on different textures but at what length stretched equated to SL unstretched because that's my primary goal.

I've been shoulder length un stretched for - a while. A good little while. And, I don't think that it's going to get longer than that for at least another year.

Those that still are able to wng, puffs, or afros at such long length how is that possible?

Shrinkage is a beast. I haven't been able to do afros for a while, but that's largely because I'm not fond of how I look with a fro. I don't w&g, either, but puffs are easy. Just let it shrink.

How has your texture changed with the added length?

Not really, no. It seems more willing to 'stay' now, though.

Do you wear more PS or out styles now that your hair is long?

I wear more out styles now. My twist-outs actually look somewhat 'decent' to me now. Even style, that's a once a quarter kind of thing. I wear my twists down, more, too.

 

[anon123]

1. Is it difficult to deal with long (APL and longer) natural hair?

I don't think my hair is harder to deal with at bsl then it is a bit shorter. But I find my hair generally difficult at almost any length. I think the only way my hair would be "easy" is if it were really short, like 3" or shorter.

As it gets longer, it's easier for me to style. Basically once it got long enough to put in a ponytail or bun, styling time decreased significantly. I don't do twists hardly at all anymore. I never liked them that much anyway, so I'm glad I don't have to spend all that time twisting.

2. Do you go through a ton of products?

No. It seems like I use less product than most other naturals. I don't find more product to be helpful.

3. If you are military or know a long haired napp in the military, how do you (or they) stay within regulation? I'm Air Force and for women the bulk of the hairstyle cannot exceed 3 inches(an example, I wore buns when my hair was long so my bun is not allowed to stick out further than 3 inches from my head). My ultimate goal is WL and my hair is thick so im not sure if it would even be possible for me to keep WL hair.

I'm not in the military. But even when my hair was mid-back (wasn't for long, and just cut back to bsl), I could get a small bun. My best bet for that was to do the bun either on flat ironed hair or on a twist out. But blow dried hair was okay, too. The best bun for that for me was the coil bun:
http://public.fotki.com/mwedzi/2009-july-december/coilbun.html
This is the video tutorial for the bun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCnM6wO06t0

The good thing about that bun is, as your hair gets longer, the bun gets wider. But it doesn't stick out any further. So if you are worried about the bun sticking out more than 3 inches, you won't have to worry with that bun.

Do any of you (long haired naturals) use protective styles or did you to get to where you are now? I love wearing twists but with 3 kids (my 2 youngest are 3 and the other 8 mos) it's hard to spend hours on my hair. So lately I've been doing w-n-g's and pony/puffs.

Now my favorite protective styles are buns and banded ponytails. I did twists more often when my hair was too short to bun. The only non-protective style I could wear regularly without much trouble was a small twist out.

BKT?
Behemouth Kitten Tails?

 

[Lynnerie]

Mwedzi I love your ponytail in your siggy. Your hair is the truth!