Hullo All!  :D This is my very first post, and really pleased to have stumbled upon this website by complete mistake! I have quite-long hair that reaches to my waist, which is very thick, and a strawberry-blonde colour.

My horror story with my hair was when I was 9 years old....and I ask "have you ever done this"....not that you'd ever want too!!!
It had always been my goal as a little girl to grow my hair so I could sit on it...I saw this girl in town with very long hair, and up till that point, mine had always been short. So by 9 years old, I had grown my hair down to my waist, with the dream of one day being able to sit on it.
Well....I was in the kitchen one morning, before school, and I stood too close to our gas-stove....and before I knew what was happening, my hair which was hanging loose down my back, caught on fire!!! I was very lucky that my Mum was in the room at the time, because my hair caught light soooo fast, that I didn't realise what was happening. My Mum managed to smother out the flames, so I wasn't burnt, but I'm afraid my hair was another story!  :'( I had to have it cut short into a bob, because it was in such bad condition after that as you can imagine!
By the time I was 11 I managed to grow it back down to my waist, and in my teens years my hair length has been going up and down....now at 19, its waist-length and I'm happy to say in good condition, and I'd like it to stay this long too.
Has anyone else ever set their hair on fire or done something as dreadful as this? hehe I bet you're all thinking I'm a right 'nana to have set my hair alight!!!  ;D

yowzers. at least your hair grew back. ::)

Hello Carrie-Leia, welcome to the boards!  No, fortunately I can say that I have never set my hair alight (thank goodness!), in fact I have never been able to grow my hair long enough for such a thing to happen.  My hair never seems to grow much past BSL (bra strap length), I'm trying my hardest, though!  We would love for you to formally introduce youself in the "New Member Introductions" to learn more about you, your hair sounds absolutely lovely, especially the color.  Great to have you!

to formally introduce youself in the "New Member Introductions"

Ahhhh I've found it now! :) thanks!

Yikes!  How lucky your mom was near to help you put it out.  I have not caught my hair on fire, but my mom, at her 14th birthday party leaned over her cake too close and singed off both her eyebrows.  Peeuuu-burning hair really stinks!!  (So I've been told)

YIKES!! :o

Glad your mother was nearby to keep the damage to a minimum.  I know I'm always careful with my hair when putting wood on the campfire, as I fear it will drop into the fire and catch!

Needless to say, I'm extremely careful now around the gas cooker and other such fires!!! I'd be mortified to do it again....actually, thats a bit of an understatement if you catch your hair on fire isn't it???! hehehhe

Another "you know your hair is long when...."  but of the negative variety!
Glad your mother was nearby.

How scary for you!  I have a gas stove too, and I am completely paranoid about setting my hair on fire.  But then, I also have a history of nearly catching my skirts and/or sleeves on fire at every single SCA event I have ever attended.  Usually I put my hair up before cooking.

My dad opened up the woodstove too fast one night and the fire whooshed out and singed off his eyebrows and the front of his hair.  We were sitting around and watching him when it happened and it was pretty frightening.  

I've never set my hair on fire, but I *have* seen someone else's catch ablaze.  A young man in my science class was lighting a bunsen burner.  He leaned his head over the burner and there must have been a gas surge to the burner and *POOF!*  He had a bald streak going through his hair.

Aww your poor hair

I can relate. When I was ohh 14 or so i suppose. I was in high school. Anyway, i was having a horrible day, sliced my finger open on heavy duty aluminum foil (so bad i gained a phobia of foil), Made myself a sundae to feel better and found a strange huge piece of plastic in my ice cream after i had put it in my mouth. almost sliced through my nail with a chef knife....what else could go wrong all while trying to prepare dinner...

Why not straighten my natural hair. So, i grabbed a bit at the front of my hair and using my old ol natural hot hair comb (that you leave on the open fire) I pulled my hair down to my nose only to see it disappear?!? where did it go? my HAIR!!!! I had sienged it off almost to the roots. I was lift with a lil tuft of burnt orange hair.

sigh, apparently, i had let the comb get to hot. That was the last time i used a hot comb.

ummabbaas

Oh my goodness what a terrible day ummabbaas!!!! Its weird that ya can get days like that, where like *everything* goes wrong!!! Did you have to cut your hair after that?

[font=Arial][/font] personally i have never had that happen to me, but when i was in 6th grade i want to say i had a friend who had waist length hair. it took her forever to get it there and she was very proud of it. well one day she was at home her and her brother were fighting as usual and she wasnt paying attention and accidently leaned right into a burning candle! the next day after seeing it long i was shocked and suprised to see her with a bob cut. she wasnt very happy either. however she kept it that way for a while. i guess she grew used to it. (pardon the pun) lol. after a while though she longed for her long hair and started growing it out again. i havnt spoken to her in years but i saw her once when i was in high school and her hair was long again. so dont feel bad; it happens sometimes.

I have never set my hair on fire to the extent that it flamed, or I had to cut it.  But I have gotten too close to a heat source (candle, camp fire, electric heater, gas stove, etc.) and heard that pffft! which is your hair burning.  

The last time was when I was trying to teach my daughter how to light our gas oven in Egypt. It was one of the old "suicide" ovens, where you could turn on the gas but there wasn't an automatic pilot light.  There was an igniter, but it was broken.  So lighting the oven involving getting on your hands and knees on the floor and opening a flap and sticking a match in.  Well, we made the mistake of turning on the gas too soon and when we lit it, WHOOSH!  Pffft!  Instant layering around our faces.

I don't recommend the technique however.