Hair Products

[GymWithoutEnd]

I've seen a few posts about hair styles in the archived messages, but I'm wondering if some of you might share with me the actual products you use to keep hair in place.

My daughters have fine, black, straight, Asian hair and it is beautifully shiny, but does not stay up unless I wet it and apply gel, spray, etc.

I know some products must be better for this sort of thing than others. What do you use? Where do you find it?

 

[mumoftwogymnasts]

Hmmm, not in the US, so I am thinking you probably have different hair products than us.

My daughter has straight long hair and she has an awful lot of it. I can never do her hair, even on a non gym day, without first spritzing it with water. For gym, well without product and hairspray she looks a wreck within about 30 mins.

For competition hair what I have found works well is -
I always style her hair wet ( I find it easiest and quicker to do it after a quick shower rather than spritzing it down with water).
I add the strongest hold gel I can possibly find, and lots of it.
Style the hair, spritz with water to smooth down any flyaways. run some gloss serum over the front and sides.
Spray with a colossal amount of hairspray.
Spray again with glitter hairspray.

The gel I like is this one by Taft. In Aus it is available at most supermarkets, pharmacies and hair and beauty stores. The trick is lots of gel.
I generally use hair serum by Garnier.
If you are styling the hair really wet, remember to allow for the fact that hair "shrinks" as it dries. One comp poor dd had a high ponytail, divided into 12 little plaits which were then tucked under and a ribbon tied around, not a hairdo that is easily adjusted after it is done... all was good until her hair dried and it was then so so tight! She had a headache all session poor thing

For training, dd comes straight from school, she generally has a small amount of mousse in her hair in the morning for her school hair do and some hairspray. Her hair is always messy at training, but as long as it is out of her eyes and not a safety issue the coaches don't mind.

 

[Danica76]

My DD has fine, straight hair that tangles like crazy. She also has one of those shorter, inverted bob haircuts, though it is growing out and is about an inch past her chin now.

For competition, I wet her hair with a spray bottle. I also prefer to style her hair "dirty" as it holds better. No washing on the morning of competition. After I wet it, I spray a TON of spray gel - I use Garnier curl shaping spray gel (which seems to hold well) and comb it through. I then braid her hair in 4 sections and connect them in the back into 2 sections. I then spray a TON of Freeze It Hairspray (Amazon.com: Freeze It Mega Freeze Hair Spray, 24 Hour Hold, 7 OZ: Beauty) on the sections I have braided and I use a fine tooth comb while it is still wet from the hairspray to comb back her baby hairs and generally get the hair smooth. I also curl the back part of her hair with a curling iron and spray the Freeze It before I curl and after to set it.

This hairspray has held her hair through both competitions beautifully. Granted it is like glue, but her hair has not budged and the curls even hold all day. Still looks great even after forward rolls on floor. I buy it at the local dollar store for about $3 a can.

Hope this helps!

 

[veganmami]

Aussie products work pretty well for us. We use their gel and freezing hair spray. My dd has naturally curly hair, so I'm not sure how it would work with your little one's hair. Regardless, wet hair with lots of product is generally the way to go.

 

[sportsmom22]

I use the least expensive gel that I can buy at walmart. My dd has super fine, thin hair. I pull it into four small sections across the front, putting gel on each section as I go. The next section, I do three and then end with 2 pig tails. I use LOTS of gel. I finish with the freeze it 24 hr hold hair spray. I curl each pig tail and put aussie scrunch it spray on the curls. It doesn't move--even when I take the bands out!

 

[CoachGoofy]

I'm half Asian & absolutely loathe hair gel stuff.

I always drenched my head. Like, totally drenched. And then I did it all intricate so there was more support for it...french braids, spider web, for practice 2 mini french braids about halfway back to pigtail buns (I still do that one). A lot of people say to do it dirty & it'll stay better, but in my anecdotal experience it...doesn't.

 

[B&M's mom]

I've seen a few posts about hair styles in the archived messages, but I'm wondering if some of you might share with me the actual products you use to keep hair in place.

My daughters have fine, black, straight, Asian hair and it is beautifully shiny, but does not stay up unless I wet it and apply gel, spray, etc.

I know some products must be better for this sort of thing than others. What do you use? Where do you find it?

Both of my daughters are Asian so I know what you are describing. What works for us is buying the strongest gel product that I can stand the smell of. We've used many different varieties but make sure that it's the extra hold type. I comb that through their hair and style it. Then I spray it with extra hold hair spray. Right now, we're using Aussie brand. By the time the gel dries, they have "helmet hair." (Had to laugh, they are reading this over my shoulder and when I was typing the comment about their hair drying, the 11 year old chimed in with "helmet hair" before I had had a chance to type it). I do add a few strategically placed black barrettes just in case. But both have come through meets with no stray hairs out of place. One's a level 4 and the other a level 9 so there's a lot of tumbling going on. Good luck!

 

[Kiwi]

I use Garnier Fructis Hard Spray Gel - works like a gel but you just spray it in as it is liquid, it's brilliant. But recently it ran out and I don't know if it is still available. (Same thing happened with the Anti-Frizz serum which I loved for preventing knots in DD's hair, can't seem to find it anywhere any more. Always seems to happens with products I like, they stop making them!)

 

[GymWithoutEnd]

B and M's mom...... I know what you mean about the strongest gel you can stand the smell of! My husband gave me some gel he found in his cabinet and it was men's gel, but I thought it wouldn't matter. Oh heavens to Betsy...... the smell of that stuff was horrible. My little girls smelled like old men! I threw the gel in the trash. that's why I decided to ask what brands people liked.

thanks for ALL the answers and helpful suggestions. I'm going to pick up some new products after Christmas.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

I use Garnier Fructis Hard Spray Gel - works like a gel but you just spray it in as it is liquid, it's brilliant. But recently it ran out and I don't know if it is still available. (Same thing happened with the Anti-Frizz serum which I loved for preventing knots in DD's hair, can't seem to find it anywhere any more. Always seems to happens with products I like, they stop making them!)

still available in the UK but is sold as a mens product ? Maybe you should look in the gents section ?

 

[Where's the beach?]

After much trial and error on my older DD with the same kind of hair, I finally found something that works.

We use Got 2 be Glued hairspray and Got 2 be Glued
mousse. Start with dirty hair, spray with a water bottle, use lots of mousse, style, put in some Vidal Sassoon Sure Grip Clix hair clips, and spray well.

It will hold for days, but when it comes time for washing, shampoo well at least twice to get it all out.

 

[GymWithoutEnd]

thanks for sharing the products you use. surely I will be able to find just what I need after the holiday traffic dies down. I'm not heading out today!

 

[gymmutti]

I've got to Asian daughters - one with fine hair and one with coarser hair. I can't use gels - they aren't strong enough to last without her hair drooping by the end of a meet. I have to curl her hair using the Aussie Instant freeze hairspray. Like others, her hair has to be dirty so if the meet is on Saturday, she'll wash her hair Thursday night and on Friday she just washes her body. Hair is put in rollers on Friday night using the hairspray to wet it and then I roll up using foam rollers and perm paper (which is a lifesaver in preventing tangles when I unroll it). In the morning before we leave for the meet I spray her hair again with curlers in and then give it a burst of heat from the hair dryer. I keep her hair in the rollers overnight and all the way up to the meet. After unrolling the curls I will spray her hair one more time. It will last all the way through the meet and after. Now washing it afterward is a whole other story!