I think a thread chock fill o the cream o the crop advices would be neat. YOu know anything from vitamins to shampoos and ingreidnts to oils and stuff.

Very Nice French Braids Morguebabe.......

Except for the partline, being off a little....the braiding looks very good. Especially if you did it yourself.

Do you sometimes wear it out like that? Or just practicing for this picture?

When I'm messing around with my wife's hair I will sometimes do that style...but she'll never, ever go out like that!

Best advice:
Learn to love and work with the hair type you really have.
If I want curls and no grey and poofy big hair then I'm more likely to use chemicals, frying, blowing, harsh methods on my hair.
Learn to work with what I have and make it look fabulous - but within the hairtype that I have.

Very Nice French Braids Morguebabe.......

Except for the partline, being off a little....the braiding looks very good. Especially if you did it yourself.

Do you sometimes wear it out like that? Or just practicing for this picture?

When I'm messing around with my wife's hair I will sometimes do that style...but she'll never, ever go out like that!

my friend did - she braids my hair all the time for me - I cant do it (shes legally blind) I always wear my hair out like that when she does it _ I love that style - I didnt realize how big that pictures was - I need to shrink it.

1. Learn to love your hair type
2. Braid it before you sleep
3. CWC or CO - wodners
4. Find an oil that works well for your hair.

It all breaks down into this for me:

*Shampoo less.
*Condition more.
*Bannish the blowdryer. (At least airdry as long as possible and use the cool setting when necessary.)
*Be gentle, gentle, gentle. (Includes using hair friendly tools and toys.)

The details beyond that are all an experiment. And dittos to what thinkfirst said. :D

Don't assume that fancy packaging and high prices mean a good quality product. Research ingredients to find what is worth paying for and what is not.
Do what works for your hair!! Nevermind the "oh that's so much hair how do you take care of it. You would look better with short hair and you wouldn't have to spend as much time on it either." type of comments.

For me it was making 'twists' in my hair.
I have naturally curly hair, but the twists make nice even and deep waves in my hair that I love.

I was told I have hair like that of a mermaid. :D

Suzanne

AlmondHoney - that's a wonderful compliment! can you describe your twist technique? do you just twist while drying and leave it? or secure the ends?

.
.
*Don't tangle hair while washing, work with the direction of your hair.

*Don't brush when wet

*Any "permanent" hair treatment = "permanent" damage (I can't believe I permed my hair for so many years :rolleyes: blech)

*Be patient

Finding out about cones has really helped me.Since I stopped using them my spilt ends are much better.Sleep bonnets too. I actually can't sleep with my hair down now because I am so worried I will damage it as I sleep like a bezerk washing machine :x

OK, I didn't even read the replies, but this is it, without a doubt:

"If you really want long hair, don't cut it"

A stylist at a Supercuts told me this. Unfortunately I took her advice, so I haven't been back to see if I could get any more gems out of her :D

I have to go along the same lines as Thinkfirst.

Love your hair... or learn to love it.

Hair is at it's best when you don't try to make it something it's not. For years I'd use "body building" shampoos, and they dried my hair out and made it weak, and ultimately I had *less* body than I do now! My hair is so much thicker and healthier now that I treat it the best that I can and keep it healthy. I don't try to make my hair do anything it wouldn't do naturally now.

"If you really want long hair, don't cut it"

A stylist at a Supercuts told me this.

That's pretty ironic, huh? :D

For me, I've received so many wonderful pieces of advice over the last year or so (since I discovered long hair boards) that I don't even know where to begin! The most recent advice was from this board, from Feye (by way of the LHC grapevine) who suggested misting hair with distilled water. It really is incredible how this has improved the condition of my hair.

I also agree with thinkfirst and Impatient26, that it's best to just let your hair be what it wants to be: be natural, in other words.

Great thread, morguebabe! (And I have to ask, though it's prolly been asked about a hundred times before: how did you get your nickname?)

Jules xx

The advice that really saved me was to take an emery board and file the seams off my comb.
PS Tresses did you get a new pic?

I agree with Thinkie, Cowgal, and Impatient...learn to love your hair. It seems so obvious yet so many of us fight our hair and just when you give up on the fight and let your hair do it's own thing, you truly discover how beautiful, healthy, shiny it can really be.

:arrow: Best advice so far:

:arrow: How to read products so
I don't end up with a product graveyard.

:arrow: No heat styling or chemical services

:arrow: Pay attention to what people with
my hair type are using and doing with
their hair

Well this is what has helped me over the last 2 1/2 years.

Pre shampoo treating hair with Extra Virgin Olive OIl

Using Monoi on ends

Leaning how to detangle and wearing hair up to bed

A healthy inside = a healthy outside, moderate streching, a good vitamin routine. I love Country Life Maxi Hair Maximized and their Super Biotin. Puritans Pride is the best source for all other vitamins. There 1000mcg biotin kicks butt :D

Scalp massaging

Wearing hair up at least 85% of the time.

Great thread :D

I've learned sooo much over the years. I completely have a different approach to my hair than I used to, when I was just following what beauty magazines told me to do with my hair. So here it goes:

Learning about what ingredients were in my products and figuring out what ingredients worked with my hair and what didnt. It's amazing how much better my hair is after cutting out SLS, SLES, and cones.

CO-ing and CWC

Actually taking the time needed to properly and gently detangle my hair rather than just ripping a comb through it.

Not brushing so much, and when I do, making sure that my hair is completely tangle free by using a fine-toothed seamless comb.

Oiling rather than using a silicone serum.

Heat caps are freakin awesome for deep treatments

Washing hair as little as possible.

Quitting smoking!!! I must admit I'm still in the process of cutting back (I'm down to about 8 a day compared to smoking a little over a pack a day *hangs head in shame*). You can't expect your hair to look its best when your health isn't at it's best, and smoking just sucks anyway. I've decided than once I go a whole month without even one drag off a cig, I'm gonna treat myself to a Louise Marie Longhair horn comb!(now thats an incentive). My goal is to get one by my birthday (11/21)

* Be gentle.
* Be accepting.
* Be forgiving.
* Brush less.
* Comb more.
* Use a leave-in.
* Do my own trims.
* Don't fret about shedding.
* Secure my hair at bedtime.
* Wash less often.
* TRY UP-DOS!!!!!!! :D

- Don't rub your hair when towel-drying (I learned the wrong way as a child, so I carried that bad habit most of my life! So much less breakage, shedding, and frizz, when I stopped.)

- Avoid shampoos with harsh detergents (you mean it's not normal to be scratching your head all the time? :rolleyes: )

:arrow: Don't brush wet

:arrow: Detangle gently

:arrow: Don't scrub with towel

:arrow: Wash gently (no piling it atop my head and lathering the heck out of it.....D'oh!) And that would include CO washing and CWC washing.

:arrow: Hair-friendly accessories. That starts with no-seam combs (Kent, Horn, Ric's Wood), good brushes (Denman and MP BBB) and hair-toys that are either seamless or really well post-processed

:arrow: Come here daily and make friends with some really smart people (and a few smart-alec people)

:arrow: Learn to accept (still struggling with that one) what I've got for hair. That means accepting the wave/curl, accepting that it's never gonna be thick on the ends (that one hurts) and learning styling techniques that WORK with what I've got. Years ago, a hairstylist told me (when I asked her "what's the hardest cut you've ever had to do?") that the hardest thing is when a woman with very thin hair or very straight hair comes in and shows her a pic in the magazine of some thick-tressed beauty with tons of natural curl and says "Cut my hair like THAT!" There's no chance in China that the customer is EVER gonna have hair like the model, and how do you tell 'em that without hurting their feelings? Learning to accept what you've been given is one great key to happiness in all of life. Accepting means that you quit FIGHTING it or trying to CHANGE it. And it sometimes ain't easy.

OK, that's all I've got for now. Nice thread, Ann!

:D Wash hair once per week

:D Brush hair nightly with a properly built boar-bristle brush like a Mason Pearson

:D "Sweet almond oil + cocoa butter" as a pre-shampoo and as a leave-in

:D Kiehls

AlmondHoney - that's a wonderful compliment! can you describe your twist technique? do you just twist while drying and leave it? or secure the ends?

I just take 2 strands of hair and twist them around each other.
I put in anywhere between 12 -18 of them. I don't really need to secure the ends but when I do, I use the small snarl free bands.
I put them in while wet/damp and leave them to dry.
Then I just gently seperate them. Perfect hair everyday! ;)

Definitely for me it was to stop using shampoo on my length. I use only conditioner and I never get frizz anymore.

:arrow: Shampooing less
:arrow: Using a seam-free comb
:arrow: Using jojoba oil