short hair - how does it work?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I had an attractive blonde woman chop off my locks earlier today and now my hair is pretty short .. but at the back it sticks up like wiry cat fur... it's been about 6-7 years since I've had short hair so I am totally clueless as to how I can get around this.

i believe there are waxes and gels? what's the difference between the two? I'm keeping my hat on for the rest of the day, and will quite likely be keeping it on for the next couple of weeks but this makes my head fierce sweaty so if there's another way I'd be delighted to hear it.

Karl Hungus

I hate to break it to you man, but your hair is going to stick up like there's no tomorrow, and there's nothing you can do, as I found out for myself a couple of years back.

When the hair has been hanging long, under it's own weight, you shorten it, and bam! It sticks up like a spring. When mine was growning again, it was sticking out in all kinds of stupid places, and no amount of gels and waxes helped. This effect didn't go away either, it just kept sticking out.

Why in the name of god did you get it chopped in the first place? You should've at least consulted me first.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

looking for a job and the first thing the first guy in the first place I tried said to me was 'you gotta get a hair cut dude'. And I was getting kind of annoyed with it in recent months.. split ends, fringe curling up , getting in my eyes.. I'm happy enough with short hair.. just not the short hair I currently have.

your post has depressed the **** out of me karl

Tar.Aldarion

With hair length comes responsibility.
Use wax.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

but if I use wax, and wear a hat.. won't it just stick up again but this time it will be fortified with waxy goodness?

Tar.Aldarion

You must use powerful wax, that keeps it down, possibly carry it around with you.
Do you have to wear a hat? Why not wear nothing? At the least people won't notice the hair.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

my head is so cold..

Faith

If you were to keep your hat on all day long, you shouldn't need any products. Wax is probably your best bet for keeping those sticky-upy bits down. I have no idea what the difference between wax and gels is, though. I think gel is more for styling.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

since I've already made a topic...

http://frink.nuigalway.ie/~mordeth/hair/DSCF0216.JPG

http://frink.nuigalway.ie/~mordeth/hair/DSCF0214.JPG


was it a mistake? you decide. bare in mind you hold my self esteem in your hands

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i hate you

-edit

how in the hell did my reply to irish grumpy end up on top of his post?

GrumPy

I'm not gonna lie to ya buddy.

Rb

Though you may have parted your hair in the middle when it was long, Mordeth, don't do it with short hair, it looks a tad silly and retro tbh.

Get yourself some hair gel, its better than wax imo as it doesn't leave it wet and greasy, but dries and holds it as you've shaped it. Then sort out your fringe, I'm not too sure what to do with it as its longer than my own, but a lot of guys with that length fringe would gel it up or something. Personally, I'd cut the top shorter, the back and sides are fine, you'll be able to do more with it if its shorter on the top.

Even just letting your fringe lie naturally would be better than mid-parting it and flattening it out tbh.

Theres some good products out there if you go have a look in the supermarkets, Dax Wax is shíte imo, personally like the shockwaves and Garnier fructus stuff.

Anyway, try out a few different styles, you're bound to find one you like.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

the part is there because I've had long hair that's parted that way for the past six years, the hairdresser said it would stay that way for a while until it sorted itself naturally.. maybe if I got a ****load of gel I'd be able to correct it but I think I'll be better served just waiting.

i'll certainly give gel a shot for the rest of my hair.. but I just bought a tub of vo5 wax this evening so I'm gona wait until I have all that used up.. smells weird though.

still, now that I have short hair I'm going to have to keep visiting the hairdresser every couple of months or so, bit of a lifestyle change from once in six years, so once the part has taken care of itself I may experiment with different cuts and whatnot. muchos spankos for the advice though.

tuxy

Should have gone with blade 0. You Wouldn't have trouble with it sticking up then.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

or any of the wax/gel issues. but still.. no.

Faith

Mordeth wrote:

the part is there because I've had long hair that's parted that way for the past six years, the hairdresser said it would stay that way for a while until it sorted itself naturally.. maybe if I got a ****load of gel I'd be able to correct it but I think I'll be better served just waiting.

I got my hair cut into a side parting 6 years ago. I'm still waiting for it to fall naturally into that, rather than a centre parting!

I like the cut, but defo move away from the centre parting. You should definitely try spiking it up, but it's possible the fringe would be too long. Bringing it upwards disguises the centre parting too.

You could go with a Jake Gyllenhaal style:



or

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

hrm.. yeah, I'm way better looking than that guy.

this is actually why I preferred long hair, get up wash it and tie it back.. none of this styling nonsense. I just can't do it

I'll experiment with a few diff things over the next few weeks I guess... when I'm sure my parents aren't in the house. My father will be delighted to learn that I'll be spending more time doing my hair now that I've cut it

OfflerCrocGod

Mordeth wrote:

so if there's another way I'd be delighted to hear it.

Buy a razor from Argos, Clip in a blade 1 or 0, cut hair. Problem gone. Trust me shaving it all off is just so easy and you NEVER have to care about the mane ever again it's a relief

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

alright, so a few minuts and some waxy fingers later I came up with this

http://frink.nuigalway.ie/~mordeth/hair/DSCF0219.JPG

http://frink.nuigalway.ie/~mordeth/hair/DSCF0220.JPG

lol, I'm screwed.. should never have cut my hair

Faith

I like it more back like that.

You'll find a style that suits you and that you're comfortable with soon, just keep experimenting!

Think of the time you'll save in the shower now.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

and I won't get yelled at for blocking the plug hole, it's a whole new world!

Rb

Faith wrote:

I like it more back like that.

You'll find a style that suits you and that you're comfortable with soon, just keep experimenting!

Think of the time you'll save in the shower now.

Yeah I agree, much better back than parted.

Mordeth, you could always try the "bed-head" look too, basically you get a clump of hairgel, and then get a towel and use it as though you're trying to dry it in a hurry. Never works for me but my hairs not straight.

Keep experimenting anyway, definately takes time. I never had really long hair, but it was significantly longer than it is now and after getting it cut, it took me a while to figure out what I liked.

BTW: Don't use too much wax, the less the better. Not only does it stop you having greasy looking hair but if you're in warm weather, under hot lights, sweating at all etc. it can sort of melt onto your forehead, not only giving you a shiny forehead, but it can bring out spots pretty quick.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

well my mother was quite happy with the pictures, but then she's kind of supposed to be

nesf

Hmmm, possibly get a blade 1 or 2 back and sides and get a hairdresser to trim the top down with a scissors. It's very low maintenance but it's tidy and all you need to do is get a trim every so often (depends on your rate of hair growth).

As for shaving it completely, em, depends on the kind of job you are going for to be brutally honest.

Karl Hungus

Mordeth wrote:

the part is there because I've had long hair that's parted that way for the past six years, the hairdresser said it would stay that way for a while until it sorted itself naturally.. maybe if I got a ****load of gel I'd be able to correct it but I think I'll be better served just waiting.

Heh, you'll have a very, very long wait ahead of you so.

The problem with this situation here is, you're getting advice from people who've simply never experienced going from very long hair, to suddenly short. It's a whole different story right there than simply having short hair. So the advice about not using too much gel is all well and good if you've had short hair all your life, but in your situation, it's useless.

I'll give you an example. Take a look at my picture here. Just look at how much it's springing out! That's a good 2 and a half years since I shaved my head, and it hadn't settled down. No amount of waiting helped it settle, nor any amount of hair products either, and I absolutely despised with every fibre of my being the sensation of a stubbley head, so shaving it was completely out of the question.

You're in a unique position, you don't have short hair like everyone else has short hair, you've got hair that's used to being long for 6-7 years. That level of uncontrolability that I've demonstrated in the above pic is what awaits you. It's an untamable beast.

My solution? It's long again now, and looks far better because of it.

I don't know, maybe if I had more patience it would've eventually settled down in another year, or maybe if I put more effort into various haircare products, maybe some kind of chemical straightener could've done the trick? Who knows, if it can make afro hair straight, it could probably have made my then short hair settle down... But it was far, far too much of a nightmare.

If you want to try something though, here's what to do:

Ignore regular gels and waxes.

They're no good. The only use any of them were to me was keeping my hair back when it was going through that awkward inbetween stage, and now when I want to look really sleek and keep all those stray hairs together when tying my hair back.

Sticking things back with wax and gels aren't going to work, becaues your hair's just going to want to stick right up again. So what you'll want is a good strong sculpting mousse, because that'll give your hair a lot of volume, so that it'll be more consistant and even all around, though it'll still be sticking out. That'll be the best thing to fill out that parting.

If you really want to gel it back like normal short hair people would, what you're going to need is fish glue.

Fish glue is what a lot of punks would use to accomplish those huge gravity defying mohawks, like so:



That's probably the only thing going to be strong enough.

Hope all that helps.

coffee_cake

My hair used to be waist long and then I got it cut very short... I have to wash and blow dry it to style it every day I go anywhere or it sticks out...blow drying it carefully does work very well. I also keep it cut quite short in the back otherwise it sticks out. It ends up being more trouble than long hair ever did but it does suit me better.
Oh and middle parting = bad.

Duno if a girly post will help you

Karl Hungus

bluewolf wrote:

My hair used to be waist long and then I got it cut very short... I have to wash and blow dry it to style it every day I go anywhere or it sticks out...blow drying it carefully does work very well. I also keep it cut quite short in the back otherwise it sticks out. It ends up being more trouble than long hair ever did but it does suit me better.
Oh and middle parting = bad.

Duno if a girly post will help you

Speaking from experience, you sound like you know what you're talking about and you'd be 10 times more help to mordypants than most of the people posting in this thread so far. Blow drying it could be an excellent idea, but I'm not sure if Mordeth's hair is long enough for blow drying to have any real effect on it. His looks short enough that if he just rubbed a towel quickly, it'd be dry.

Still, worth a shot, and definetly worth keeping in mind for when it grows out a little.

coffee_cake

It's not just blow drying - it has to be blow drying with brush styling. For the shortest parts at the back, I've noticed my hairdresser uses a very thin round brush and curls it under what little hair is there; the result is that the hair will curl inward and not stick out. If the hair is too short for that, brushing it downwards carefully should also work.
My hair is more gradually layered down than mordeth's. If I was him, judging by the second photo, I'd get the very bottom of the hair leaning onto his neck trimmed off. That part of my hair is what always annoys me most and nevermind the rest of the hair, that's what has to be kept very short or no matter what it'll stick out.
I wish I had a recent pic of my hair to compare...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v660/blueywolf/002.jpg That's from a year or two ago, not quite the same as my current style but might be an indication...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

yeah, the hair at the very bottom of the back is sticking out alot.. looks pretty silly.. I'll read your replies again later, just been to the optician and the drops they gave me dilated my pupils so I can't focus on anything nearby.. can make out a few words here or there in your posts if I max out the font

still, thanks for caring people. It means alot.

nadir

Mordeth wrote:

since I've already made a topic...

http://frink.nuigalway.ie/~mordeth/hair/DSCF0216.JPG

http://frink.nuigalway.ie/~mordeth/hair/DSCF0214.JPG


was it a mistake? you decide. bare in mind you hold my self esteem in your hands

HOLY SHEEEEIIITTTTTT

hrm,

tbh my girlfriend cut my hair too, so it's quite short, I am thinking about getting a visual kei style haircut though, which would be interesting, but high maintenance id imagine.
Still though, lets do it. I think I'll grow long hair again though, at least once im my life. deep down inside I want to be like dragonforce, hammerfall etc.

also: mordie : galway lan is on this weekend. I'm still poondering going, you interested?

Sangre

Its a weird haircut imo. Short on the ends but still quite a bit of length on top(except fringe) and the middle. As in the hair at the end is much shorther than the rest of it. This makes it much harder to style and it'll stick out more.

Tbh, I'd go for a blade 5/6 back and sides and trim top. Make it a lot easier to manage in these first few, troubling weeks.

Was there anything who were trying to achieve with this haricut. Did it you want it cut in a certain way or did you just want short hair?

By the way Karl I think this springiness you speak of has nothing to do with what kind of hair you'd before. Some hair just has a tendency to stick out a certain lengths, especially if the hair isn't very thick. You're hair would probably look like that, at that length, no matter what hair length you used to have.