Long hair all down my back ‘n’ stuff. Photo by Lee Corkett.

Ok, that title is a lie. I totally care about my long hair. It’s longer than ever and last night I realized that the very end of my hair is now all the way down to the bottom of my butt. My terminal length has increased by several inches and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it keeps going! If I could, I’d be one of those ladies with hair down to the ground. The other day I saw a woman with beautiful black hair that hung to the middle of her calves. She tossed it around her neck like a scarf and it was still longer than mine. I was so jealous you guys!

Anyway, I thought I would share a bit of how I care for my hair, for two reasons… Maybe some of you are trying to grow yours out and want to see if any of what I do helps you. The other reason is that a lot of people have this idea that long hair is so much work, and I want to tell you that it is so low-maintenance.

Note: My hair is slightly wavy, about average to slightly better than average thickness and fullness. If you have curly hair, fine hair, thin hair, or really thick and full hair, you may find that you need to do things differently than I do. Because my only experience is with my own head, I sadly can’t really advise you on how to handle your hair, I can just suggest that you make good use of Google and Pinterest, and ask your stylist for advice!

Color: This is the one difficult/annoying part of my hair care routine. I dye my hair using Caca Rouge from Lush. I’m actually sitting here right now with a big pile of henna on my head. Lush used to apply it in-store for you, but they don’t anymore. I am definitely going to need to get help next time, it’s just way too difficult and messy to touch my color up all by myself. Although it can be a pain to maintain, I really love my permanent red color and the henna is good for my hair.

Shampoo: I wash my hair every other day with Cynthia Sylvia Stout shampoo from Lush. I was surprised to find that I liked a shampoo with beer in it, since I don’t really like the smell of beer, but the other scents balance it out and its a good shampoo for red hair. On alternate days, I wear my hair up in the shower.

Conditioner: Once or twice a week I use Veganese by Lush (can you tell I like Lush products? I swear I’m not getting a kickback). I’m about to switch to a different one though, because I liked the scent better. We’ll see how it works out.

Brushing: I just switched to one of those plastic detangling brushes with the two different lengths of bristles. I’ve been using it for a couple months and it seems to work really well. I literally only brush my hair after I shower, or if I’ve been wearing it down and its a little tangled.

Drying: I do not ever use a blow dryer. I blot my hair with a towel after I shower and then I let it air dry. Of course, I live in the desert, I can get away with that. It also means I can’t shower right before bed, because there’s few things grosser than a damp pillow and a long wet braid of hair wrapping itself around your neck.

Bed time: Speaking of bed, I always, always always always braid my hair before bed! ALWAYS. I feel like it’s the best thing you can do for your long hair, since it keeps it from tangling if you toss and turn.

Daily styles: I usually wear my hair up in a simple bun secured by a chopstick or bobby pins. For classes where I think I might have to lie on my back or something, I go for a pony tail. I’ll often braid the ponytail so I don’t end up eating my own hair when I do turns. Of course, then the braid wraps around my neck. I will also sometimes wear it down with a cloth headband to hold it back (I don’t like the solid horseshoe shaped headbands, they give me headaches).

Performance styles: It really depends on the costume, my mood, and if I’m going to be dancing in close proximity to my troupemates (I’d like to apologize again to anyone I’ve hit in the face with my hair). As seen above, I often like to wear it down with a decorative headband and flowers or other adornments. I’m also a fan of doing a bun with lots of hair sticks and flowers. Sometimes I’ll do a high ponytail with either a decorative ponytail cover or more flowers. I own a lot of flowers, OK? I rarely do braids for performing because they tend to get raggedy pretty fast on me.

Cut and Style: I go in for trims when my ends get gross, and my stylist will put some layers in. Sometimes I get shorter layers in front, like super long bangs, and I’ll occasionally leave them out when I pull my hair back.

Product: I’ll use a bit of hairspray if I’m having trouble with fly-aways. I have a “beach hair” spray that I got from ipsy and sometimes I use that if I feel like it. And I’ll use dry shampoo if I’m getting greasy and want to wait to shower until after dance class. Otherwise I don’t really use anything else on my hair.

See? So low maintenance! I really wish I knew what specific thing or combination of things is helping my hair grow so well so I could share it with all of my friends.