Sleeping with long hair
Long hair like mine, that is…
When my hair was even longer than this, back in the bad old days when I didn’t know how to put it up - except for one type of bun that made my scalp hurt - I used to wear it in a braid all the time. After I washed my hair and it dried enough to handle it, I would put it in a braid, and leave it that way, day and night, until the time came to wash it again.
I don’t know if this sounds boring to you. It certainly was boring for me, not the least of which because a long braid like that was definitely not stylish. But when your hair is long like that, you often have to braid or put it up in order not to get it tangled on clothes hangers while shopping, etc.
I know that a lot of longhaired ladies braid their hair to protect it while they’re sleeping. Back then I used to wake up sleeping on or tangled in the rope that was my braid, having to sit up to pull it free before I could get back to sleep. You simply cannot imagine how annoying this was to me. This was one of the main reason why I cut my hair and didn’t decide to grow it really long again until recently.
When my hair finally reached waist length and I discovered internet longhair communities and support groups, I decided that I wasn’t going to wear it to bed in a braid. At first it was alright sleeping in it loose, but as it got a couple of inches longer than my waist, it started to wrap itself around my body and neck as I tossed and turned. Now that was really hard to disentangle from myself without tearing the hair. Aaaiiieee!!!
A few times I put my hair into two braids. Nope, too time consuming when I’m ready to hit the sack and pass out. For a while I tried to bun on top of the head, but the bun tended to dislodge as my head turned on the pillow, loosening the hairpins and pulling on the scalp. Ouch!
Then I found I could put it in a braid starting at the top of my head and let the braid hang over the pillow and down toward the floor. I heard at about the same time that long hair can itself hang over the top of the pillow like that, without any braiding or ties. So I tried it and it works, for now.
In the future, as my hair grows longer, I may need to make a special rack to hang the hair over, so it doesn’t actually drag on the floor. Some sort of a headboard might do it. Hmmm, now you can imagine me sleeping with my hair draped over the top of the pillow and hanging loosely, almost reaching the floor…