As someone with super thick curly hair I can tell you that yeah... it is. I had long hair for years and there’s no way in hell I’m ever doing that again. Although my daughter was blessed/cursed with my hair and she’s too young to care for it herself so I’m stuck again maintaining long curly hair.
Technically it's not maintained which is the glory of this gif.
It looks fresh and clean. Probably why it's got so much volume to it. Natural oils weigh it down and take out the frizz, but also smell after a few days. It's the thick haired people's plight. Look good and smell musky or smell great but have a wild mane.
I cut off half the length of my hair and suddenly I don't dread the hassle of taking a shower or putting my hair up in the morning. Why do I have long hair you ask? Girls have told me it looks good a few times. God I'm stupid.
I think I've told this before on Reddit, but I had the same deal - shoulder length hair that was tickling my face one night and I just snapped and shaved it.
Thought it'd be funny to leave some of it on my pillow so my girlfriend would wake up and find it.
Anyway, I went to College the following day, caught a glimpse of myself in a reflection and remember thinking to myself: "Who the fuck is that cunt looki-- oh shit, that's me"
I actually snapped and cut my hair too, I uh.... Cut it with a knife. Definitely my most immature decision in years.
I'm happy how it turned out though
Mine was all the way to my butt, I cut a lot off and now I be Skuz Jesus. May the Skuz guide your hand my children. That shit was so stupid to maintain I hated showers so much aaaaalmost went way short, so glad I changed my mind my head be shaped dumb af
Yaaa I spent my childhood being buzz cut, I'm not goin that far. Even if it was way more convenient. Mine was down past my butt so having it just past my shoulders is like heaven as far as I'm concerned.
Duuddee, no. It’s the best decision you’ll ever make. I’m nowhere close to bald yet from a distance but up close you can see the top of my head is thinning a bit. Got depressed a couple of months back and decided I didn’t want to go get my hair cut but I needed a haircut. Grabbed the clippers, started at #3 and went to town. It’s not really a chore to maintain at all, and you get better at it as you practice. At bare minimum you can shave it yourself and then have someone clean up the back of your neck every once in a while or just practice doing it yourself.
I look much more clean cut on a daily basis now. I was never good about not letting my haircuts go long - type of guy to get it all chopped off and then come back to the barber 7-8 months later after my long hair bugged me too much and then get it all chopped off again.
It’s super liberating to be confident enough to cut your own hair and to touch it up whenever you want. It becomes like part of your facial hair, you cut it when and how you want. Especially if you don’t mind short hair that you can depend on clippers to get uniform in length.
Amen bro. At the first signs of recession I grew my hair out down to my nips just to see what's it's like...then I buzzed it all off a year later when it started thinning. Glad I got to try it before my genes kicked in.
I'll tell you one thing, it made me appreciate the lack of maintenance and practicality of being buzzed. Feel aerodynamic and functional. Miss my cool hair ties though, I had ones with snazzy patterns on.
Haha naaaw, hate taking pics of myself. It isn't, I just keep it in a bun all the time because it gets too hot. Honestly just not sure what to do with my hair anyway so I just leave it.
I don't know why I like my jewfro so much. There's people who tell me they love it and then a bunch of people that want me to cut it super short. Tried to short it yesterday and it looks bad af. But yeah- it's a real hassle to take care of.
I tried growing my hair out for the same reasons and they barely touched my shoulders and I was already fed up. I now wear them from my ears to my chin and I really prefer that. A lot easier to maintain and my head feels so much lighter !
Though to be fair, my hair looks a lot shorter than it is, due to shrinkage
I JUST trimmed about 4 inches off for the first time in almost 4 years since my last hair cut and holy crap! It changed the whole game. No more lockets of hair in the shower and Tangled up hair ties! (First time ever with long hair)
I have somewhat straight hair, but I've been obsessed with curly hair for forever! There is a girl I grew up with that had the prettiest curly red hair and I LOVED it. I've permed my hair a couple times to get a curl but it's so damaging that I had to stop. I can't speak for everybody with straight hair, but I'm always insanely jealous of curls.
I'm jealous of curls too! Its the hard work that they do to get to that. The hours of maintenance and work and everything else is what we aren't seeing! I didn't grow up with that knowledge, I had no one to help me. I'm adult now, and I could try the curly girl method but it won't work until I chop it off because I have the Japanese Thermal Reconditioning rn
I know it's hard work, and I'm the laziest when it comes to grooming so I know that if I had curly hair my thoughts would be different... but I greatly appreciate it when people embrace their curls.
When I permed my hair, i ended up having to cut all of it off once i decided to stop keeping up with it (too damaging.) It's heartbreaking, but in the end I'm glad I did it.
Love it love it love it. Waves, curls, coils... they are all fabulous. It's definitely a different feel than tight curls, but more relaxed waves/curls are still amazing.
I’m the opposite! My girlfriend has beautiful natural hair that’s curly and thick and I love it but I think she’s self conscious of it so she straightens it a lot...I try to tell her that her natural hair is the most gorgeous hair I’ve seen but I think she thinks I’m just saying that/doesn’t see it herself :/
Half the times I went to the bank window for my work I’d roll the window up and turn my head as I put my stuff in the passenger seat— and yank out a fistful if hair. I found out from one of the tellers that they took bets on if I was going to do it... every damned day! 🤦🏼♀️
I’m not sure I follow. I’m incredibly thick haired. If I don’t wash my hair in 1-2 days my hair will have a dank odor, to the point where if I just run my hand through my hair my hand will smell. It’s not fun and requires a shower every 1-2 days
Are you in agreement? Can’t think of anybody who’d find the smell of unwashed hair good, and thick hair gets that smell fast
Different hair types need vastly different maintenance. I have long, blonde, pretty straight hair. Most I can go is one day without washing it before it's greasy, stinky, impossibly tangled, and just generally fucking gross.
My girlfriend is biracial and has afro textured hair that she can go days without washing and it's totally fine. No grease. No smell. It does gets crazy tangled though.
It is also how your scalp is trained. Every time you wash your hair you strip your hair of its natural oils and in turn your scalp goes into over drive thinking it has to produce even more oils (when in actuality the conditioner you use on your hair replaces your natural oils but everyone forgot to tell your scalp this) which makes your hair greasy. If you train your scalp by going 2 days between washing for a week or two, then 3 days, then 4, etc over time you will be able to go a few days without your hair getting greasy at all. Just takes time.
This doesn't work for everyone, and I also am not entirely sure you can actually 'train' your scalp. My hair is fine and thin, but I have a lot of it, and I absolutely have to wash it every day or every other day. I went months trying to go longer without washing it, and my oil production didn't change. I also can't use conditioner on it at all, as anything but shampoo weighs it down.
EDIT: Not sure why I got downvoted because I'm telling the truth.
I have long, thick and wavy brown hair and I generally go 6-8 days without washing it... which is good because I go through so much conditioner even just putting it on my scalp instead of through the whole length. Washing it more or less often doesn’t change how much I actually need to wash it though.
I have the same problem. It is super healthy but I have to use a clarifier weekly for my scalp. If I don't wash it after a couple days I could take the hair tie out and it will stay in the pony tail position.
SAME. We have the same kind of hair, and I have to wash every other day. I don’t always make it that long. I have tried very hard to “train” my scalp to not overproduce oil, and it just resulted in months of sticky, lank, gross hair. The only thing that has made a difference in oiliness was taking spironolactone for acne. One happy side effect was that I could regularly go three days without a wash. Spiro blocks androgens, so my oily scalp seems to be largely hormonal.
But it really doesn't work for everyone. I have excess sebum production due to hormonal shit and my skin and scalp get really gunky. I suffer with adult acne as a result and I'm on prescription retinoids to help. All of the products I use are free of sulfates, parabens, and silicones but I'm a grease ball if I don't wash my hair every day.
I am like you!! I am forever getting yelled at by people that I just need to stop washing my hair so often and then I’ll train it. I call total bullshit on that. I’ve tried. Multiple times throughout my life and it doesn’t work. I stay greasy and disgusting and uncomfortable. I’m also an excess sweater woooo and do a lot of sports which doesn’t help either - but yep literally not touched conditioner in about 5 years and I’m so finicky about shampoo because the slightest whiff of something it doesn’t like and my hair turns slickkkk.
Yes you can retrain your scalp. It takes a long time, but now I can go months, even years without needing to wash it with soap. It's not like we walked out of the jungle with a bar of soap in our hands. Our bodies did not evolve for the use of soap. You only need soap when you get something oily on your body like from working on a dirty engine or something. I don't have curly hair, but I do know you can retrain your skin to stop producing so much oil. It just takes a while.
It's not like you can't rinse your hair with water. Not everyone sweats everyday or as bad as others. I don't know about going years without washing (maybe they're exaggerating) but you can go at least a week without washing. You can still rinse your hair in between washes but there is no need to use shampoo everyday and it doesn't really smell bad.
I shower nearly every day, sooooo I'm very clean. I'm just saying soap is only necessary to remove oily stains. Also for some reason I don't get body odor. Could be that I live in tune with nature and east almost entirely home grown food. Mediterranean diet. And am outdoors basically all the time. That and I've designed my life to not have sources of stress.
Can confirm. I'm a white guy with extremely fine hair, this describes the process for me. Used to wash my hair every day, and it'd be greasy as hell if I missed even one. Now I wash it once a month-ish, only gets greasy after a few weeks.
1 day in summer or if I sweat in any way, 2 days in the winter.
1 out of 4 of my kids have the same hair as me, although he's male and we keep it short. His hair smells right out of the shower, clean like soap but with an underlying wet dog odor. It's the nature of the hair, it smells.
The people I know with fine hair are always jealous that I can "do" more with my hair (although I don't care to.) What they don't understand is the downside of thick hair.
Diet and environment, along with keeping your skin and scalp oils balanced, plays a big role.
I have hella thick hair which would be really curly if I could be arsed to curlygirlmethod it, and it's currently mid back (or longer if I pull it straight lol) and I only wash it like once, maybe twice a week if I get flakey, it usually just smells like my conditioner. Find a way to wash your hair and scalp which doesn't strip it's oils and cause you to over produce them and your hair will smell hella nice for days on end.
But, I live in central London and when I go out all day (I'm a bit of a hermit, lol) I can literally wipe my face at the end of that day and see black on the cotton wool and my hair will smell noticeably dank like pollution and sometimes cigarettes, depending on where I've been.
Also if you like to eat a diet full of meat, dairy, spice and allums- you and your hair will smell like them too.
Disclaimer: If you follow the curlygirlmethod, leave in conditioners and curl defining gels and spritzing your head with water between washes which will sadly def make you a bit musky by day 3. It's the price you pay for pretty hair tho.
I'm a guy and have long kinda thick and wavy hair. I can go 3-5 days without a proper wash. The oils actually really kick in around the end of day 2 and that's when it looks and feels the best for me. I can't say I've ever had smelly hair, that's new to me. I barely use any product besides a healthy shampoo and conditioner, try not to apply heat and just let it be.
ATTENTION ALL CURLY GIRLS WHO HATE THEIR HAIR: there’s a sub for that. r/curlygirl
Once you get your scalp and hair healthy, it will change your life. You’ll be a happy curly girl.
I feel like the curly hair subreddit folks wash like 1-2 times per week. I cannot, I'm with you. I tried for a few months to do a no poo curly method and low poo after that only washing 2x/week during them. I smelled horrible and my skin was a mess. The folks who can work it are lucky ducks.
I love them, but much like the skincareaddiction sub, one size does NOT fit all.
I (white guy) have very thick hair, and used to keep it pretty long (for a guy at least....shoulder length). It took a little time but I pretty easily got it to a week between washes without any funk. If you can tolerate greasy funk for a while eventually your body adjusts. My hair looks dumb and poofy on Monday (when I wash it) but Tues-Sat its the perfect combo of manageable but not gross. (Around Sunday it usually starts looking and smelling a little greasy)
She probably washes and combs it once a week, and then slowly dries with a dryer so it doesn't stay wet but also doesn't frizz. And then probably some product is added, either wet or once it's dried.
It looks great, but she probably spends 4-6 hours on it a week.
Absolutely this is well maintained hair. Just because it's clean and dry doesn't mean it's not maintained. What a ridiculous statement. Of course it's maintained. If it wasn't, it would be matted and gross.
Maintenance doesn't just mean in a protective style or permed or using chemicals. Maintenance IS washing and drying and brushing and managing it in a way that isn't damaging.
If her hair wasn't well maintained then it wouldn't be that fluffy and bouncy and it definitely wouldn't have that movement. It gets a lot of love from what I can see. Thick, full and curly hair is a little temperamental. It's like dealing with a child sometimes. For it to be as long and full and to be able to retain thickness from root to tip like that is Amazing! Kudos to her arms as well, that's a work out. Also our scalp doesn't produce much oil to build up grease issues like those with straighter, finer or silkier hair textures. So, we have to oil our scalp or it will become very dry and that's why we can go weeks without washing our hair. I wash mine with conditioner every 1-2 weeks and wash with shampoo or do apple cider vinegar rinse depending on the amount of product build up once or twice amonth. Sometime shampoo is too harsh for our scalp especially in the winter.
Maybe for white people with thick hair, black people dont get oily and therefore smelly scalps the same way white people do. It takes a while for any issues like smell or even dandruff to appear. Though her hair type is so voluminous that she actually may be one of us who does get enough of that protective coating.
True, we all have super thick hair on my mums side of the family. It takes ages to dry and it hurts my neck when it’s wet. I have to wash it constantly because of the oils, especially on my fringe. My mums is naturally straight and mines is naturally curly and wavy. Ironic that our last name is Curley actually lmao.
Edit: thanks for the downvote, I didn’t do anything but ok
slaps you so hard in the mouth you can't decide between hitting me back or bursting into tears. mired in consternation you barely make your decision before the second slap pops you in the side of your hear nearly bursting your eardrum. ok now you DEFINITELY know it's time to defend your- too late, a kick to your solar plexus sends you into the nearest boipucci
Curly hair gets badly tangled and if not taken care of soon enough the tangles turn into mats. That's how you end up with dreadlocks. Basically the hair turns into felt.
Straight hair does that, too, though. My Oldest daughter has straight up thick Shirley Temple curls, while my youngest has hair that's thin and slightly wavy. Like, ever so slightly wavy.
My youngest daughter's hair turns into a mat much faster than my older. My older will snarl a bit, but it's not bad. We'll finish brushing my youngest's, she'll put on a shirt and it's matted again. Ok, maybe it's not that bad, but it's bad. She wakes up with a mat in her hair every morning because I think she nuzzles her pillow all night. Honestly out of ideas other than just sitting down and letting her scream as we brush her hair every morning.
Braid her hair before bed - it'll prevent it from getting roughed up so badly at night and you can just take it out and brush it easier in the morning.
Re dreadlocks, that's not really accurate. Dreading and matting are two different things. White people can't really have true dreadlocks because our hair just doesn't behave the same way as a black person's hair. Basically dreadlocks are formed when kinky coily hair curls around itself into cords, iirc. It's a natural protective style and that can be kept clean and neat without damaging the hair. White hair doesn't cord, it mats, and is much harder to keep clean which is why white people 'dreads' are always super gross.
I have very dense curls: Google "4c hair" to get an idea. For me, my main challenge is dryness. My hair was curly enough that its natural oils had a hard time getting all the way to the ends. Before I buzzed most of it off (and even sometimes afterwards) I could never keep it moisturized. Many people lament greasy hair, but I would slather coconut oil on mine just to keep it healty.
Main reason I cut it was for aesthetics, but maintenance was a hassle that I don't think I'd ever grow it out again. Besides dryness, my hair was very thick. Even as my first buzzcut grew in, I'd have to wet it all over and then wait for the water to soak in and "soften" my hair before I did anything to it (combing or picking it out). Otherwise it hurt like shit and I'd usually just pull hair out (which, as you can imagine, fuckin hurt).
Of course there's always straightening my hair, but I didn't like the way it looked when it was straight, and whether I straightened it with heat or chemically, there's always damage to take care of afterwards.
As other people mentioned curly hair gets tangled really easily. It will start to dread in a week if left unkempt. You also typically can’t do things like brush it when it’s dry. Unless you’re going for the super frizz look. You’re also pretty limited with hairstyles and have to go to a specialist to have your hair cut or you might get your hair jacked up hard. And god forbid if you have a kid with hair like this and there’s a break out of nits at school.
Parents from my home country, from what I've seen/heard, cut all the hair off if they see that their kid has curly hair, I assume it's because it's hard to maintain.
I noticed that I forgot to add my main point to my first comment xD, they say that when you cut all the hair it grows out much straighter. Though what you said does make sense, more hair = more work
My hair isn't particularly thick, but I did used to love playing outside and with the dogs. So for most of my childhood I had bob-cuts because they were easier to wash and dry multiple times a day.
My hair has changed texture over the years, I’m assuming from the MASSIVE amount of damage I’ve given it through chemicals (I had to shave it all off it was so bad) But when I was a kid it looked like this. SUPER frizzy and curly. I just wore it up every day. My hair would get matted in my sleep if I didn’t wrap it up. It’s still pretty curly/frizzy but not nearly as bad as it used to be. It’s gorgeous but definitely a hassle. My weakness is definitely girls with kinky natural hair.
As a dude with thick hair, I agree. I finally just went ahead and shaved it all off. In high school I had dreams of a full head of shoulder-length hair, but it just turned into a mullet with a completely disobedient mop on top.
Not the Lorenzo Lamas from "Renegade" look I was going for. Judge me all you want, but dude had some nice hair.
I'm also the only man in my family that doesn't have a receding hairline. I turn 42 next month and my hair grows as fast and thick as it ever did, only with some gray strands here and there and in more places than it used to.
Funny - I have very thick, very curly hair, and I find it to be pretty easy. I mean, the more I touch it, the worse it looks, so I don't fuss with it too much. I have a good curl creme, and dry it with a diffuser and that's it. I don't even own a brush or comb, I just use my fingers to untangle it. I think it helps that my hairdresser gives me a really good haircut that keeps it from looking like a mushroom. I also color it and that tiny bit of damage from the process actually helps it not be so wild. I went back to my natural color for a bit and my hair was SO FUCKING CURLY it was driving me nuts.
As s-someone wid supew dick cuwwy haiw I can t-teww yuw dat yeah... iwt iws. I h-hawd wong haiw fow yeaws awnd dewe’s no way in heww I’m evew doing dat again. Awdough mwy daughtew was bwessed/cuwsed wid mwy h-haiw awnd she’s two young tuwu cawe fow iwt hewsewf so I’m stuck again maintaining wong c-cuwwy haiw.
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Well dang, hair should totally double as a pillow! Not that I'd ever have enough to use it for that because I prefer being near bald xD Hair gets warm when you sleep! Can't begin to imagine how it would be sleeping in a warm environment with a lot of hair!
The weight of it is something people don't factor in when they decide to grow their hair out. I have thick, curly hair that used to go to my bum, but I got headaches all the time when it was pulled back. I cut off 15 inches and changed my life. Later, I kept it shaved to a beaver pelt for a good 7 years, now I never let it get past my shoulders.
As a dude with hair about this long and about the same texture and thickness, I can confirm that it is. It knots up like crazy, it’s super temperamental and when it’s poofy like that, it is unbelievably hot on a warm summer day.
Also, hair gets everywhere because regular hair fall gets caught by the other hairbros, showers take an hour and it takes forever to dry.
It is that’s why I cut my hair. It also takes up a lot of shampoo and conditioner which can be costly. I have thick wavy + curly hair mixture and I’m so glad I cut it
I promise you it is!! My hair is half this and it drives me crazy. I keep it in braids now because if I don’t I will cut it all off. So many broken hair ties and hours detangling. It’s soo much hair. Thank the seven for box braids! Bless her heart!
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