I don't know if this is as much a problem for other hair types, but I find that if I leave my hair down, it very quickly gets messy and 'piecey' if you know what I mean.  It's particularly bad with my ends  :-/  It's really annoying cos if I leave my hair down I want it to look brilliant and I also feel a bit like I'm an ambassador for long hair, so if it looks bad, it'll make peoples' opinions of long hair drop *ramble*.  Do other straighties have this problem?  Is there a way of combatting it? It would be so nice to actually wear my hair down once in a while  :-X

I found that once I got beyond waist length, it became harder for ome to wear my hair down for very long.  It tangles and looks unkemp, so I wear it down only for short times or special occasions.

I have straight coloured black hair and I know what you´re talking about.I have several friends who have very long hair and they always have it loose.I read somewhere that if you always wear a ponytail or a bun, your hair gets flattened at the top and sides(because the hairstyle forces it this way) and that your hair gets "programmed" to lay in a natural beautiful fashion when it´s loose (without getting messy). I have to say that that is the way for me. Although it´s nice to get the hair out of it´s way...it gets easier to deal with it after having it loose for several days.

I always have the tree comb from body shop in my purse and comb it whenever I need a break or when it starts to look a bit messy.

Hugs

Guilty as charged. Being straight, fine and thin, my hair has had this problem since birth. Isn't it ironic that the type of hair that's easiest to tangle is also the most fragile, and therefore more difficult to remove said tangles? God's sense of humour, I suppose.

Anyway, like most of the long haired ladies here, I usually wear my hair braided or in some other sort of contained style. At least when I can. I do wear it down often, however, and when the inevitable tangles happen or it starts to get that piecey look, I just comb it out very carefully with one of my seamless combs.

As far as combatting the problem, I have noticed that cones, leave-in conditioners, extra conditioning and oil all help. But even with all of that, nature still wins in the end if I don't "keep on it." C'est la vie...