Parents Point Deductions for Hair Length

[Deleted member D3987]

I don't know if there's a USAG rule about hair length deductions but after my daughter's first meet last year , where her long ponytail got wrapped around the high bar and she had to come off the bars and count a fall, there was a "mother's rule about hair length"...i told my daughter that I was not paying $100 entry fees for meets (where she could get her hair tangled on apparatus because her hair is mid back length) unless she wore her hair in a bun....she didn't like it at first but now she even wears her hair in a bun for practice....problem solved...

She did have the option of cutting her hair to a manageable length but she declined that...

of course for safety. that can certainly happen. WOW "mid back" length.

 

[wgymmom]

I've heard of that but never seen it in action. DD has long hair and it's always braided and hasn't received any deductions due to the length of her braid. Her hair is mid-back too.

Since meet season is over, she did just get a trim so she won't be whacked in the face doing the full turn jump.

 

[2G1B]

through our meet season my 7 yo DD had her hair to her lower back. Her bun was pretty big. she finally decided to get a cut about a month ago and got 4 inches cut off. It is now a few inches past the bottoms of her shoulder blades. When I took her to practice after the haircut I told her to stop and let me pull her hair up. She said, "Why??? It is short now! I don't need to pull it back anymore."

Last year for competitions I did two french braids and then I tied those in knots so it was kind of like 2 buns at the nape of her neck; but the rest of the braids came out of them, so I took those and tied them together. It ended up that she had twisted braids going across the nape of her neck. This year the new gym required a bun, so that is what we did. But since she has such thick hair and it was so long, I did a bunch of little braids and wrapped them around each other. It kind of made the bun spread out.

 

[pt coach]

We have a gym rule requiring buns...I am a failure at meet hair. My daughter has resorted to showing me youtube videos to try to help...they make me want to run away screaming. We are on year 3 and I am not getting any better. It is a good meet by my definition if the bun survives the session!

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

there was a post a while ago where someone swore that their state had a rule that the colored streaks that are somewhat popular would be a deduction. So, is that not true either?

And for the attire thing... we are at a new gym this year and one of the boys' coaches said that if the boys do something like put their pants on backwards (at the mock meet I think that at least 3 or 4 boys did this) that it would be a deduction for attire. Is that true?

Our gym has a rule that the girls cannot have "unnatural" hair color. The Princess Leia buns have the added benefit of hiding the fact that the last 4" of dds brown hair is bright cherry red... We were completely prepared to cut it off if we needed to but after checking her meet hair during a practice meet, her coach told us she was fine as long as it was tucked under in the bun and hidden. I don't know if it's a rule because of deductions or if it's just a preference and rule for our gym. I'm used to it because ballet is the same way, we have stipulations on whether we can cut their hair etc, so I just go with whatever the rules are.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Our gym has a rule that the girls cannot have "unnatural" hair color. The Princess Leia buns have the added benefit of hiding the fact that the last 4" of dds brown hair is bright cherry red... We were completely prepared to cut it off if we needed to but after checking her meet hair during a practice meet, her coach told us she was fine as long as it was tucked under in the bun and hidden. I don't know if it's a rule because of deductions or if it's just a preference and rule for our gym. I'm used to it because ballet is the same way, we have stipulations on whether we can cut their hair etc, so I just go with whatever the rules are.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Meet hair

 

[gymmama999]

My DD has very long, thick hair, at our club they are not permitted to wear buns/braids at competitions or at practice. She puts her hair in a high pony for practice and in a high pony slicked back for competitions and I curl it with a curling rod. It is very time consuming, usually 45 minutes but it makes it much shorter and it looks very pretty. A lot of the younger girls are now curling their pony tails as well.

 

[kayjaybe]

We have a gym rule requiring buns...I am a failure at meet hair. My daughter has resorted to showing me youtube videos to try to help...they make me want to run away screaming. We are on year 3 and I am not getting any better. It is a good meet by my definition if the bun survives the session!

I so feel you here. I just can't do hair. A basic braid, sure. But even a French braid is beyond what my fingers can manage.

Luckily, dd has been pretty resourceful in learning hairstyles herself and doing her own hair before a meet.

 

[wgymmom]

We have a gym rule requiring buns...I am a failure at meet hair. My daughter has resorted to showing me youtube videos to try to help...they make me want to run away screaming. We are on year 3 and I am not getting any better. It is a good meet by my definition if the bun survives the session!

This is why I'm glad DD is insistent on a nice, basic braid.

 

[Kiwi]

Two side buns ('Princess Leia') is a great style. I used to plait the hair first and do two plait buns. It looks neat, doesn't flap around, stays out of the way and you don't roll on them in a backward roll.

 

[2G1B]

I love the 2 bun look. I do it for school a lot with both of my girls; but it isn't one of the hairstyles that either of their gyms have ever wanted the girls to have.

My DD has very long, thick hair, at our club they are not permitted to wear buns/braids at competitions or at practice. She puts her hair in a high pony for practice and in a high pony slicked back for competitions and I curl it with a curling rod. It is very time consuming, usually 45 minutes but it makes it much shorter and it looks very pretty. A lot of the younger girls are now curling their pony tails as well.

If we had stayed at our old gym the coach for the level that my older DD would be doesn't let the girls do buns. She insists on curly pony tails. It was one more reason I was glad we swapped gyms. Neither of my girls have hair that will hold a curl for more than an hour. Not with hair mousse. Not with those expensive curling irons that claim they will curl any hair. It would not have happened with either of my girls' hair. So I would have been left with the option of not doing the hairstyle, having too long of a pony for both of my girls, or having to drastically cut their hair so that at least the pony tails would be short enough to be safe.

 

[Seeker]

I find that so strange that they're not allowed to have buns. We don't have any hair policy at all at our gym...just has to be up and neat. But they're free to do whatever they want with it, so long as it stays up.

 

[Bajanswife]

DD wears just a ponytail, or sometimes she braids the ponytail. Her hair is practically midway down her back. But it is very thin and light, and we put so much gunk in it to keep it off her face (it is so fine and flyaway), it has never been an issue at a meet. It's not heavy enough to whip her hard in the face, and in fact it doesn't move much because of all we put in it. I have enough trouble with my other DD's bun for her ballet exams or end of year show (I usually beg someone else to do it ), there's no way I would want to deal with a bun for my gymnast!

 

[bookworm]

She insists on curly pony tails. Neither of my girls have hair that will hold a curl for more than an hour. Not with hair mousse. Not with those expensive curling irons that claim they will curl any hair. It would not have happened with either of my girls' hair. So I would have been left with the option of not doing the hairstyle, having too long of a pony for both of my girls, or having to drastically cut their hair so that at least the pony tails would be short enough to be safe.

My girls had similar type hair and for a time period, their old gym was into curly pony tails too and we managed to get them to happen with perm rods , and I mean a lot of them...for one daughter's pony I would use 75-80 rods (I used the smaller ones and wrapped small amounts of hair around each, sprayed hair with hair spray and then put the blow dryer on it) and leave the rods in over night and voila, curly ponytail...I will tell you it was a VERY labor intensive process that would usually take me at least 2-3 hours to do but the curly ponies did look fabulous....

 

[MaryA]

I have always put my DD's hair up in a bun, but for some reason, this year it just won't stay up. I don't know what the deal is. I don't know if her hair has changed or if I fried my "bun-making" brain cells, or what? At her last meet, I even had a hair net over the bun and somehow it still came out. I think maybe I'm going to do the braids-up-in-loops thing that someone else mentioned. I did that for a meet a few years back and it worked well. I like the look of the bun better, but only if it stays in! DD has a teammate whose mom is a hair stylist and she has offered to do her hair. I'm a little afraid about showing up at the meet with her hair not yet done because I am NOT fast, but I'm starting to think that may be our best option.

 

[gomommygo]

My daughter has long hair and during her first meet in which she had to do a front handspring over vault a judge told our coach that if my daughter didn't secure her hair differently ( dd had a high ponytail) she would have to take a deduction because it was getting in her eyes and could be dangerous. He whipped it in a messy bun and we were good. Ever since we've put in a bun. My daughter doesn't want to get it cut because she enjoys styling it differently when not in the gym.

 

[wnl256]

My DD has very long, thick hair, at our club they are not permitted to wear buns/braids at competitions or at practice. She puts her hair in a high pony for practice and in a high pony slicked back for competitions and I curl it with a curling rod. It is very time consuming, usually 45 minutes but it makes it much shorter and it looks very pretty. A lot of the younger girls are now curling their pony tails as well.

I don't get the "no buns" thing. Our coaches required buns of the compulsory girls with long enough hair. In optionals they have relaxed the requirements a bit.

So for years we would put DDs hair in to a bun for competitions. This spring she asked to have it curled in a pony tail. With the curling it is short enough to stay out of the way. So far it has not been a problem, and she far prefers it to the bun. It only takes about 20 minutes to get it ready with a curling iron, which is just slightly longer than it took with a bun. And it seems to stay well enough during the meet.

The disadvantage is that I can't do curls. I can make a decent bun, but I'm clueless with curls. So if we are on the road without mom, it will have to be a bun.

 

[Seeker]

The disadvantage is that I can't do curls. I can make a decent bun, but I'm clueless with curls. So if we are on the road without mom, it will have to be a bun.

Put curlers in her hair overnight and they usually stay really well. My daughters hair is LONG and very straight and they will even stay in her hair. I put the well slicked pony tail in and then put the curlers in dry hair with some spray gel. The pony can be re-slicked really easily in the morning and the curlers stay fine. Just take them out in the morning and you're good to go.

 

[wnl256]

Put curlers in her hair overnight and they usually stay really well. My daughters hair is LONG and very straight and they will even stay in her hair. I put the well slicked pony tail in and then put the curlers in dry hair with some spray gel. The pony can be re-slicked really easily in the morning and the curlers stay fine. Just take them out in the morning and you're good to go.

My wife tried overnight curls the first time, but without gel in the hair. DDs curls in the morning weren't that great, so they redid them with an iron. Gel would probably make a difference. Let's hope I never have to find out.