I've always liked my hair long. I did do a choppy layered short cut at one point which was nice but..

I like   :

a) framing effect of long hair
b) styling possibilities
c) swinging my hair around and feeling very girly

I dislike  :

a) wind blowing hair all over waywardly
b) chewing bubble gum and snagging a hair in my gum by accident he he he... it's happened!
c) going to turn my head and finding that I can't b/c I'm sitting back on it
d) greasiness

Right now my hair is bangs in the front and long to the middle of my shoulder blades in back.

I have long curly hair, which poofs out very easily.
http://i.imgur.com/bgx3J.jpg
EDIT: I didn't realize how large that was. Gotta click the link instead, I didn't feel like making a thumbnail.

I was attempting to grow it out even before I opened up and finally accepted that I was never male, but my mom always forced me to cut it until I discovered how to take care if it properly. I had always just brushed it out dry with the wrong brush and ended up with a jewfro.

I love the compliments I always get for it. Almost every girl I meet loves it and wishes they had my hair. I've spent a few hours relaxing with a girl I just met running her hands through my hair like a comb.
I love the way it feels on my head and around my face, and the way it drapes down over my shoulders. I love how beautifully it flies when I'm banging my head to some Metallica or Society's Plague. I love how it straightens out when water has weighed it down enough, and then curls right up into little ringlets as it dries.

I haven't even figured out how to really do anything fun and stylish with it yet. I haven't let anyone touch it since I had it cut up in 2004. I just throw on Metallica's Whiplash in the morning. I shampoo it once a month, sometimes less, but it gets really frizzy and the curls just don't want to work for weeks after.

I hate the wind and I hate fans.
I hate foods that don't require me to lift my chin to consume them (grapes and popcorn are the best)
I hate seat belts. I have to somehow figure out a way to drape my hair over the seatbelt and hope it doesn't get caught when I'm trying to look towards my blind spot, or behind me as I back up.
I hate trying to brush it out in the morning. A handful of conditioner (non-silicone based) to lubricate the hair and I'm still getting knots and tangles.
I hate the sheer amount of money and effort it takes just to make it not horrible.
I hate that the hair alone doesn't net me more ma'am's.
I hate how it snags on the 5 O'Clock sandpaper.
I hate looking to the side and nearly ripping my scalp off because I was sitting on my hair.
I hate the constant fear I live in, darting eyes left and right to make sure nobody's trying to hide scissors or clippers.


Despite all the hates, I wouldn't trade my hair for anything.


Well almost anything... I'm broken and I want to be fixed NOW! :|

for girls having problems taking care of their hair...long hair is harder to take care of and you have to take care of it -- otherwise you will end up with greasy/knoty/split end/etc. hair that makes you look worse than with short hair.
from personal experience, the trick really is to regulate the amount of grease/oil on your hair. the oil is produced by the root of your hair naturally, and given time it will eventually cover the entire strand of hair by spreading itself over the cuticles. this process works when your hair is short, but over a greater length your scalp will be full of grease before the oil ever reach the end. so you end up with greasy scalp and dry/split ends.
the solution is to shampoo your hair regularly at the scalp and apply conditions at the lower end of your hair. of course you'd have to figure out the type of shampoo and condition that works for you via trial and error!

**used to have hair down to hips. **

I really liked my long hair and wore it super long for about 5 or 6 years (in boy mode as well).  Recently I got it cut short and spiky/funky and really am enjoying the easy maintenance and style.  I do miss the long hair and wonder if I made a mistake from time to time...

Ditto on the hate - wind, hair in mouth.  I also have pretty thin / fine hair so having it be sooo long was just too much weight and i never found a long-long style that made sense for me.

Loved how it made me look and feeling it on my shoulders and back was nice.    Also I liked having "options" on what to do with it (braid, pony, piggy, up, bun, etc...) but usually after brushing it I just pulled it back into a ponytail - easy and quick no fuss.  But boring too...

Short is nice for a change for now.  It can always grow back.

Cheers
-Raya

I have shoulder length hair and love it. It was longer but I was the victim of a gastly hair cut a year ago when a stylist essentially went nuts with my hair and gave me a mullet. Hideous. I wore a hat to cover it up and didn't want to leave the house for weeks unless I absolutely had to. Now, it is getting back to where I want it even though it is a pain for all the reasons mentioned by the others here.

My issue is that my wife says women over 50 shouldn't wear long hair and if I let my hair get any longer, I risk looking like a bizarre spectacle. I dunno, I see older women with long hair and they don't seem like they are being bizarre.

Maggie

Quote from: MaggieB on August 26, 2010, 07:09:17 PM
I have shoulder length hair and love it. It was longer but I was the victim of a gastly hair cut a year ago when a stylist essentially went nuts with my hair and gave me a mullet. Hideous. I wore a hat to cover it up and didn't want to leave the house for weeks unless I absolutely had to. Now, it is getting back to where I want it even though it is a pain for all the reasons mentioned by the others here.

My issue is that my wife says women over 50 shouldn't wear long hair and if I let my hair get any longer, I risk looking like a bizarre spectacle. I dunno, I see older women with long hair and they don't seem like they are being bizarre.

Maggie

I see it all the time.

I keep mine at long bob length and love it on windy days when the wind fluffs it up around my head and sweeps it across my cheeks.
I would so love to have a head of thick GG hair so I coull pile it up and perm and really style it but its just straight

I love my long hair, but I hate that it's dry and gets frizzy without washing it every morning. I have thyroid issues, and that is part of the problem.

Products that work well one day don't seem to work another day, so I'm always searching for a solution.

It's not straight either, it's wavy, and that's both good and bad.

Thank you everyone for your replies 

I love my long hair but worry that some day I'll have to wear a wig... There are a few gals at my apt.s that wear wigs... The only one that really bothers me is this lady who shakes her head and her wig turns half way or completely around covering half or all her face and then we all pretend not to notice while she fixes it

I've had very poor experiences with wigs.    They get hot and the hair doesn't move naturally in a breeze and they're difficult to exercise in.  They also tend to look like wigs because of the size of my head.

I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have hair loss issues to the point of ever having to wear one.

Long hair is always beautiful. The natural feel outweighs the pro/cons talk. You could wake up everyday and let it go and it would still look better than shorter styles. lol... well... if you learned how to keep your hair out from under you while you sleep.

Or learned not to roll onto your s.o.'s long hair...

Quote from: Dee_pntx on October 10, 2010, 12:47:59 PM
At night I put on a loose pony holder, twist the tail 2-3 times then take a very large bobby pin and pin the twisted tail to the top of my head.  It keeps it from getting all tangled / knotted up at night.

It's really annoying when you're laying on your hair and you try to move you head and you can't without sitting up first.

I tried that, yet the pin usually breaks.

My hair is long enough to just scoop up over the pillow. When I turn at night, I'm usually awake enough to scoop my hair the other direction.

Guess it is habit after a few years.

I've been putting my hair into pigtails when I go to bed, so it's not tangled in the morning.

A silk pillowcase supposedly helps when trying to avoid tangles, I think I read that in a hairstyling book.

Well I actually never wake up with tangled hair. Ill tell you what I do, but then again im not saying its right or even good, all I know is i dont have that problem.

First off, people wash their hair WAY too much/often. YOu should only wwash your hair 2 times per week. And use a conditioning shampoo. Shampoo strips your hair of the natural oils and other stuff that it NEEDS to be healthy. Second of all use a GOOD conditioner. ALso, sounds loike your hair is dry. Go to the local CVS/Rite Aid or whatever it is called. Look for something called Hair Mayonaise, this is a deep conditioner, there is also one that is like an olive oil gooey stuff. Also, Bed Head conditioners are EXCELLENT!!! thats about it. Now remember, i do NOT claim to be anywhere close to right, its is just my himble opinion

Thx for the recommendations, Superkitty, it always irks me when I go look at conditioners for dry hair, and I read the ingredients, and I see ALCOHOL listed....that just drys your hair more!

I have done a hot oil thingy, and it didn't do much, I also have a jar of olive oil mayo that I occassionaly use, but it really doesn't do much. Now I'm only washing like once a week, the rest of the week I wet it, towel dry and apply a leave in conditioner.

Quote from: NikkiJ on October 15, 2010, 11:25:53 AM
Thx for the recommendations, Superkitty, it always irks me when I go look at conditioners for dry hair, and I read the ingredients, and I see ALCOHOL listed....that just drys your hair more!

I have done a hot oil thingy, and it didn't do much, I also have a jar of olive oil mayo that I occassionaly use, but it really doesn't do much. Now I'm only washing like once a week, the rest of the week I wet it, towel dry and apply a leave in conditioner.

get the organic hair mayonaise the olive cholestorol is bunk. Also, use only warm, NOT hot water in the shower, and HEAT from blow dryer and straightener is really bad. everything I have told you is literally ALL i know about hair. really have no idea how to do anything witrh it, warshing it, conditioning it, putting a towel around it, taking the towel off 30 minutes later, and gently running a brush through it,,,,and where is falls it falls!!! lol

Currently have medium-long hair. I'm a fan..  mostly.


Pros:
~It suits me.
~I love the possibilities.
~I feel more feminine because of it.
~I adore the feel of it, particularly on my neck and cheeks.
~I have less anxiety and feel more 'secure' because of it (weird but true).

Cons:
~Knots & tangles suck.
~Humidity sucks (I live in Florida yo - weep for me).
~Reading is beyond annoying without real hair clips or pins (ears don't suffice).
~Strands of hair coming off in the shower & getting frakkin' stuck on your hands/body (Arrg!!).

I'm a cisgendered male, but I have long hair, so I feel like I can reply to this.

I like it 'cause it looks better on me than short hair does. I look like a complete moron with short hair.

But I hate that on windy days, it blows all in front of my face and I can hardly see and I feel kind of stupid with all of my hair in my face like that.

So it's getting windy in the Fall ... so I've found a new hate .... Hair blowing all over and getting stuck to my lip gloss.  How annoying!