Thick Hair!!!!

[tutucute]

1st time poster who has enjoyed sitting in background reading posts with interest .... so hope my post is not too stupid! :-O

 

Help. My DD has fairly thick hair (armpit length). Sometimes has it in french roll for class. Her teacher recently mentioned that she was keeping her head held slightly off and asked her how long her hair was. Not that long with it being armpit length, they decided it may be because it was thick. She allowed her to keep it in bun. Seems teacher now suggesting 'thinning' it at hairdressers????? Has anyone else come across this issue before? Never been mentioned before up until now. Used to be fairly fine hair when it was all the way down her back ... hardly used to be cut. As soon as we started cutting it for yr7 it's become thick :'(

[dramascientist]

Welcome to the forum tutucute. What a strange thing to suggest, I have never heard of this before. My Dniece has very thick her and wears it in a bun and as long as it is up it doesnt seem to bother her. Still maybe others will have heard of this?

[Anna C]

Hello tutucute and welcome! :-)

 

My dd has thick, straight, shiny hair and it's definitely easier to style for ballet when it's longer. The most important lesson we've learned is never to layer her hair at the back, because with layers it really misbehaves when trying to get it into a tidy bun.

 

She does have the ends trimmed but longer is definitely easier with very thick hair.

 

I must admit it's never affected the way my dd holds her head though! What made the teacher think that was the reason, do you know?

 

Edited to add: posting at the same time as dramascientist :-)

[Balletmumfor2]

I'm not sure how she can surmise its down to her hair. My youngest dd has very thick hair which is longer than her waist. She is currently growing it so she can eventually have it cut to make a wig for someone with cancer. There is apparently a charity which does this. My eldest did have a problem with her head position which was only pointed out recently at 6th form vocational. She was asked if she ever suffered from headaches at the end of a long class and was told her head position was too high. 3 weeks later after conscious effort her headaches are gone and her whole posture is improved. I think it would be very difficult to state a head position was down to hair!

[Lisa O`Brien]

Can`t help with your query i`m afraid,but just wanted to say welcome.

[Pas de Quatre]

DD has very thick curly hair and usually has it halfway down her back.  She finds it goes up into a bun easily, but for normal classes uses thicker "sleep" nets rather than fine ones.  However, it wouldn't go easily into a French roll, even when straightened.  So perhaps this is the problem - by its very nature a French roll is not symmetrical.  Perhaps there is too much hair on one side which makes your DD hold her head oddly to compensate, tutucute. 

[2dancersmum]

It may be that she is holding her head slightly wrongly with the French role but not sure thickness of hair would make a difference. Having said that both my DDs would struggle to get hair in that style.

 

Elder DD has long wavy hair - very very thick. Hairdresser is an ex-dancer herself and she did use to 'thin' DDs hair which made it a lot more manageable - its not as drastic as it sounds. It made DDs hair a lot easier day to day as it tended to go a bit bush-like and certainly easier to style and put in a bun. Now she has layers which work well too - but you have to keep the shortest layers long enough to easily go into a ponytail for the bun to stay neat.

 

Younger DDs hair sounds more like the posters - it was quite fine until about year 7 and is now very thick. Same hairdresser saidher hair was not as suitable for 'thinning' as it would tangle more. Her hair is more than half way down her back and to lessen the bulk she has layers but the shortest are perhaps just below shoulder length.

 

I would suggest that next time you go to a hairdresser you talk to them about styles your DD commonly wears for her dance and ask advice. They might have an option for her without losing any length.

[sarahw]

Welcome! Someone who knows about these things told me very long hair can cause headaches and affect posture. Maybe an assymetrical style is 'pulling' her to one side?

 

Why don't you speak to teacher directly?

[Anjuli_Bai]

I always had thick hair that was long enough to sit on.  I always wore it in a bun.  I made the bun in two parts by twisting the upper part around the lower part.  That made the bun not only very secure but spread the weight out.

 

If this sounds iike something you might be interested in....I'll explain it in more detail.  

[HAIRBELLES]

Hi Tutucute

Very thick hair can be razored to thin the hair out without losing the length. As someone has already suggested have a chat with your hairdresser .

[angel]

My DD has very thick, very long hair and finds that straightening it helps lessen the volume.

[All4dancers]

My dd has waist length, thick curly hair. It doesn't seem to affect her posture when up in a bun, but I doubt it would work in a roll. Last year when she had to have it loose for a solo part in the end of year production, one of her teachers remarked that it wasn't stage hair!

[Lema]

Not sure if this helps but my dd normally has crossover plaits for her ballet class but one day recently she went straight from a festival where she had a side bun for a troupe, her ballet teacher said it was ok for me to not change her hair as we were pushed for time....anyway during the lesson the teacher kept telling my daughter she wasn't holding her head level but after telling her a few times the teacher approached dd and realised that it was not her head being uneven but an illusion from having an off centre bun....therefor I'm wondering whether having a French twist is giving her the appearance of holding her head off centre as with my daughter?? Just a thought ????

[Dance*is*life]

I too think it's the off centre roll that's the problem not the heavy hair.  Our older students make wonderful buns by making several plaits out of the pony tail and twisting them into the bun, pinning each one carefully.  Plaits condense the hair and the buns are not very large even when they have a lot of hair. It does take time, but the result is very impressive!

[taxi4ballet]

There's something called a cinnamon bun which is handy for long thick hair, and looks really pretty when done as well. I think there are demonstrations on how to do them on youtube.

[Nutcracker-x]

I too think it's the off centre roll that's the problem not the heavy hair. Our older students make wonderful buns by making several plaits out of the pony tail and twisting them into the bun, pinning each one carefully. Plaits condense the hair and the buns are not very large even when they have a lot of hair. It does take time, but the result is very impressive!

I tried this for class today and I has extremely thick hair and it worked really well as well as looking extremely pretty x