WAG Meet Hair Requirements

[Becauseisaid]

Does your gym/coach have requirements for how hair to be styled for a meet? Are all girls required to have the same style?

 

[Short Balding Guy]

Hair style - no. Different hair lengths, thickness, and the plethora of variables have me requiring our gymnasts to have "meet hair" that is snuggly back from face, neat/tidy in appearance and that will stay in place for the rigors of the meet. I do have hair spray in my coaches kit bag. If hair is out of place, I use liberal hair spray. Almost a helmet head. The athletes police themselves well as my helmet heads are a legend in our gym. (really not as bad as the girls make them out to be.) Our coaches are good about recognizing the hair braiding and special effort of many of the girls. We do have a season end award to the athlete with the special hair called the "Styling Award." We give a couple at our end of year banquet.

Glitter, a little goes a long way. Our L3-5 gym parents get pre-season prep of Meets. In the hair part of the prep - we have some pics as examples of too much and just enough.

Being bald affords me a real appreciation of the prions given to those with hair. Or at least full hair - comb overs not worthy to be part of ANY discussion.

Best, SBG -

 

[LucyTRA]

We don't have a specific hairstyle but comp rules say it must be off the face. I'm quite good at comp hair and have increasing numbers queuing for the Lucy treatment at competitions, and not just from my own club! I'm told that our old WO used to be really fast and talented so she did everybody's hair the same. That would have driven me crazy - I only like to train/compete with my hair in a french braid/s so I'm glad we don't do that anymore!

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Hey LucyTRA, you don't feel like popping over to France this weekend to help me sort out my little Rapunzel for her first ever meet do you? She has REALLY thick REALLY long hair (just past her waist). If I put it up in a bun she would probably fall over backwards! Think I am going to have to go with a French braid with loads of hairspray (not only is her hair long and thick but also as rebellious as she is!). Seriously, this kid looks like she has been dragged through a hedge backwards within about an hour of me doing her normal plaited ponytail for school, so not sure how I'm going to come up with something that will survive the 2 hour car trip to the meet then survive her doing forward rolls etc!

 

[LucyTRA]

@GymMumInFrance My hair was to my waist before my last trim but thankfully it's not very thick. I find putting it in a bun SUPER uncomfortable for landing on my back etc, so at comps I split it in two, french braid each side (start with a tiny section right at the top/front, it controls flyaways better) and then twist the two braids together. if her hair is super unruly braid it when it's wet and put loads of gel in it (while wet), and then when it dries it should be pretty solid

 

[profmom]

Our girls are required to be in buns, I think until they are competing L9. The coaches run a formal bun clinic each year to teach new parents exactly how to do it, all the way down to the number of hair ties to use. They haven't yet started telling us to use particular brands of products . . .

Gymmum, some of our girls (including my own) have one heck of a lot of hair. If you want to try a bun, the way we do it is as follows: Pull the hair up into a high ponytail at the crown of the head, using hair gel to smooth. Use two hair ties to secure the ponytail. Then use 4-6 barrettes around the ponytail to secure the hair. Once that's done, wrap the hair around the ponytail in a bun (again using gel in the ponytail). Use two (or in extreme cases only!) three hair ties to secure the bun by looping them around the bun. Then -- here is the magic secret! -- wrap a hair net or two around the bun. Spray the heck out of it and put a scrunchie around the bun. If done right, it never fails, though it does cause headaches.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

@GymMumInFrance - I would go with two french plaits mucho hairspray and you should be fine

 

[lhmom]

DD's head coach requires buns for the compulsories unless their hair is on the short side then it's a ponytail. For the optionals, they can wear ponytails unless their hair is really long. Then it's buns for them. DD has been loving the ponytail for meets-she hated the bun!

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

One gym 4-6 did 2 French braids and 7+ had to do a ballerina bun. Sometimes we got really crazy and did French braids into a bun. But of course we could only do that with all of the coaches approval and every single person had to do it then.
And if you forgot your scrunchie you were on the bad list until someone else had an even worse hair infraction and then you got off.

 

[GymGirl's Mom]

Gym rule is: whatever hair you want as long as no part is touching the shoulders or longer- so, for many girls this rules out a ponytail. Most wear buns- but no specific hairstyle is required.

 

[rjb123]

My DD's coaches require one high pony or bun in the back. Not the side, not two, not too low.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

No specific style required, just secure and off their face. I prefer to do 2 ballet buns a la princess Leia on my gymmie, she has thick hair to the middle of her back. One bun is uncomfortable for her, ponytail too long (she does that for practice though) and intricate braiding too stressful for both of us as she is quite tender scalped and not very patient at sitting still for the process.
I did do a braid crown on her once for practice and she liked that but because of her squirming I'm not sure I could make it competition tight...

 

[mOm2gymnast<3]

our gym in my dd's level they have to wear a bun and the team scrunchie. Hair have to be oput of their faces and hairsprayed a lot! Which I hate

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Oh, dds hair is gelled, then sprayed, then glitter sprayed... It's not going anywhere!! I learned from ballet though, it needs to be secure and that requires product. Dd hates it but we have a process to apply the sprays: she takes a deep breath, dives into the bathroom with fan going, I spray as much as I can, she dives out of the room, breathes, repeat.

 

[purpleleomom]

There was a hair post awhile back where a mom did 2 French braids and then pulled them up and kind of sewed them together with an upholstery needle and ribbon. It was cute and would keep the long braids from getting stepped on or whipping her in the face.

 

[cbifoja]

Hmmm...I must be the anomaly. I LOVE doing meet hair and would be so sad if our team had a required style. Buns and ponies don't work because my child has a backward roll on the beam. So this year, I've been very challenged to come up with 8-11 hairstyles (each meet gets a different style) that have no bulges in the back.

We have a ballerina gymnast who does some amazing braids and loops with her ultra long hair. All the littles seem to really like "pineappling". But the big girls seem to fall back on the old reliable ponytail.

 

[kandkfunk]

This is the first year our girls are required to wear buns. Luckily, my DD does her own hair so she had to do all the learning. I must say that I am often amused by the varying thickness of the buns. We have some girls with tons of thick hair and some with very thin hair. The varying bun density can sometimes defeat the purpose of the girls looking the same. You get everything from a giant bun to a little nub that can barely be seen inside the scrunchie.

Overall though, I really like having a uniform hairstyle over worrying about meet hair. I hated trying to find a style that would work with my DD's somewhat thin and at times short hair. Mostly, I'm just really glad she does it herself!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

There was a hair post awhile back where a mom did 2 French braids and then pulled them up and kind of sewed them together with an upholstery needle and ribbon. It was cute and would keep the long braids from getting stepped on or whipping her in the face.

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I liked that one too, but my dd could practically skip with the resulting loop! I will try for 2 braids with mucho spray, if we both survive the process that might work!

 

[Sasha]

Single, high ballet bun required for all levels here. Bangs or short/cropped styles not allowed. I've only done it once so far for a mock meet, and I was scared to death it would fall apart, but it was perfect!

The keys to success for my gymmie (waist length silky fine hair) were: 1. About 12 Bun Pins (NOT bobby pins) 2. Fine tooth comb and Gel to slick all the flyaways, and on the ponytail before wrapping into bun (we use "Short Sexy Hair Hard-Up" spiking gel - works perfect). 3. Wrap with a hairnet before finishing with minimal glossing spray and scrunchie.