help needed: hair-related gift for dd

[EmilyGF]

DD14 has very thick, straight, waist-length hair. 

I'd like to give her some sort of gift for helping her put her hair up. She isn't into looks very much and doesn't spend much time on her hair, but would probably like something that is sturdy, sort of cute, easy to use, and different than just a ponytail or braids.

It has to be strong. Her hair weighs a lot!

Thanks, Emily

[Ali in OR]

One of my dds asked for cloth headbands or bandanas--found some cute ones at Claire's. Also got a few more of their velvety scrunchies that 4 females in this household love. The other dd with thicker hair wanted good barrettes--she found a few of mine from the 80's that work better than what we can find locally. I did find some Goody barrettes on Amazon that I got for her. They aren't as big as mine that hold all of the front of your hair back in one barrette, but I think they'll work for her thick hair if she pulls the front back into two halves with 2 barrettes.

[bibiche]

A roll up bun thingie? I think I’ve seen them under “magic bun maker.”

[Tap]

Maybe order some barrettes designed for thick hair. I know there are a few companies out there, this is one that came up when I Googled.

Franceluxe Look under the  barrette and clip tab, and then click volume barrettes

Edited December 12, 2020 by Tap

[forty-two]

They're pricey, but Ficcare clips are really excellent for long, thick hair - they are extremely strong and very pretty.  Maximas are my favorites - I have nearly a dozen, mostly in large and medium, but one small.  My sister isn't a hair person, but even she has made really good use of the one medium I got her a decade ago - it clips right to her bag when she travels, so whenever she wants her hair off her neck, it's available.

Medium is a good all-around size for thick hair: it is good for both clipping back the top part of your hair and also for clipping up all your hair in styles where it just needs to hold one circumference of hair (as opposed to several twists of hair folded on themselves), such as bun styles where you don't need to hold the entire thing, but just a few of the outer coils; or making a ponytail by doing the first coil of a bun and letting the rest hang down; or just using it as a ponytail holder for a low ponytail.  It's also good for twisting it up and clipping in on the back of your head, letting the rest hang down over it like a ponytail, though with a medium on long, thick hair it has to be redone every few hours, but since it's a casual 'do that is so amazingly simple to do, it hasn't been a problem for us.

Large is good for when your hair is too thick to be held even in a ponytail by a medium and you want to use it to hold all your hair up, or if you want to use it to hold something like a French twist, where the hair is folded back on itself and the clip is doing almost all the work of holding it (unlike buns, where the style itself is holding up a lot of the weight).  Although fyi, it takes me *two* larges to hold my thigh length medium thick hair in a French twist, but I'm not that good at French twists either.

~*~

The other clips I use (which are less expensive) are Lilla Rose hair clips.  Most of mine are XLs, and I usually use them to hold up buns.  I've successfully used a large and even a small (that I got accidentally) to hold buns, but XL is my preferred size. 

~*~

ETA: Been experimenting on my girls.  My oldest has thick hair that's past her waist, and the medium Ficcare Maximas was slipping out from the twist-up-and-clip-and-let-hang-down because it was a bit too *big* (and that style puts a *huge* amount of weight on the clip, too - gravity is really not in your favor).  Trying again with a casual fake French twist (twist the hair, fold the twist over about a third down, put a finger at the fold and twist a few times, clip up on the head, with the remaining ends hanging down) - the medium clip is holding two coils of hair now, and seems happier for it; oldest dd says it feels much better.

My middle wanted in one the fun (her hair is a little less thick and little shorter than oldest's), so I took out my XL Lilla Rose and tried to see what I could do there.  The XL was too big for a fake French twist (with just two coils of hair to hold) so I tried a real French twist (added in another two coils of hair); it was still a bit too big, but seeing how long it will hold; 15min later, so far, so good.

The XL holds my thigh length hair in a bun on top of my head very well, going through all the bun.  For my oldest, whose hair is thicker than mine, an XL alone will hold a bun in general, but to hold a bun for dance it takes an XL plus two smallish claw clips keep it up.  An XL doesn't hold her entire bun across the middle like it does for me; I have to clip just the top third, and dance is pretty hard on it.

Edited December 12, 2020 by forty-two

[Carol in Cal.]

I like Lila Rose also.  They have a pinch test on their website that helps you figure out what size to buy.  For example, even though I have long hair that looks abundant because it is wavy, it is thin.  So my best sizes are small to medium to hold all my hair, and extra small to small to pin up just half of it.  I also absolutely LOVE their U-pins.  Two of these holds my hair firmly in a bun even for jogging.  And they are festive!  

[gardenmom5]

What is her hair's texture? ime: that's a bigger deal than how much hair there is.

When my hair was that long, there were few things that could keep it up. I found a four-tine hair pin, in a set of two (no longer available) that worked great.  easy, fast, unobtrusive - adjustable to the length of my hair.  I have previously used large octopus clips - but they have a limit to how much hair they will hold.  And they're not exactly attractive.   I've also used custom lathe-turned wood hairsticks, but my hair would always turn and fall out.   (dd could use a single pencil, and her hair was past her bottom, and super dense.  not fair. - for both of us, if we went to our favorite hairstylist - she always added time because our hair is so dense it would simply take a lot longer than for someone with "normal" thickness hair.

I like these hair pins - plan on two.  These are super heavy-duty.  there are a number of similar pins on amazon  that are cheaper - and they're flimsy.

Youtube also has a bunch of tutorials on styles, many quick and easy, for super long hair.   braids, diy updos, etc.

eta: I'm trying to convey there is a difference between thickness and density.  Thickness is the size of the hair shaft, and density is how many hairs per square cm.  dd got both: dh's thick hair shafts, and my density.

Edited December 12, 2020 by gardenmom5

[gardenmom5]

4 hours ago, Tap said:

Maybe order some barrettes designed for thick hair. I know there are a few companies out there, this is one that came up when I Googled.

Franceluxe Look under the  barrette and clip tab, and then click volume barrettes

I've yet to find one that would work on me - and I've forked out.  They can do a half-up, half-down and that's it.

[forty-two]

32 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

eta: I'm trying to convey there is a difference between thickness and density.  Thickness is the size of the hair shaft, and density is how many hairs per square cm.  dd got both: dh's thick hair shafts, and my density.

True, they aren't the same thing.  All of us (me, my dds, my sis) have thin individual strands, but we all have quite a lot of them, my oldest and my sister having a *whole*  lot of them.  (My sis and I have straight hair, my girls' hair used to be curly but length/age has caused it to become straight (or at least to appear straight.) 

[Alicia64]

Wow. Her hair sounds beautiful.

W.

[plansrme]

I third Lilla Rose flexi flip thingies. If you get the right size, they hold very well.