I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions, but I wanted to say welcome to LL!    Oh, I just thought of something. You might want to check out the style gallery at the Long Hair Loom.

Hi Elly, wonderful to have you here.  Your hair sounds fabulous!  I think that Leia (another board member-she hasn't posted in a while) has similar hair to yours, from her pictures it looks very long and thick.  I know she has a few styles posted with instructions, the one that stands out to me is "Leia's Swirly Bun", with some practice maybe you could wear that.  You can find that in this room "casual styles", it's titled as Sharing a style: Leia's Swirly Bun. Another idea that comes to mind is a series of connected "topsy tails"...I'll explain, although you may have already seen this.  Start up high on your head, pull just a section of your hair back and secure with an elastic.  Slide the elastic away from your head a little bit, make a split in the hair between the elastic and your head & flip the pony tail thru it making a twist.  Then repeat this as many times as you want down the rest of your hair, pulling just small sections back at a time, each time being sure to incorporate the remainder of hair from the previous flip.  It will kind of resemble a french braid.  You can even spice up your normal every-day braid by gathering your hair in a low pony tail, doing the hair flip which will create two twists (one on either side) and then braid the tail, OR...instead of braiding the tail, put another elastic midway down the tail, split it and flip it (flipping it more than once creates tighter twists), creating another set of twists, and again at the bottom.  Oh, I'm probably just confusing you by now!  I hope this makes SOME sense to you and helps to give you some ideas!  

Thankyou very much!     I checked out the sites that you recommended - Leia's Swirly Bun, and also the Style Gallery which I've been cruising around (thanks for them btw, I hadn't noticed them yet, lol) and since then I've been experimenting with my hair a bit, which I don't usually do, and just with testing things out and fiddling around with the things that I've seen, I've actually found lots of hairstyles that just... worked!  And they looked good too and were comortable and easy!    I was so happy.  I went to my last day of school before the summer hol's with my hair swept up in a loose braided bun which I wrapped a denim scrunchie around (that some friends of mine gave me a year ago but I'd never found an appealing way to wear) and a nice big butterfly clip.  And I was surprised at how much of difference the new do made to my confidence, I felt really good! lol.  Hair really does make a big difference.

So anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for the tips and ideas    , and for being so friendly and nice, I shall have to come back and test a few more things tomorrow eh.

Hi Elly!  Your hair sounds wonderful.  I hope mine is that long soon.  I can understand about hairstyle boredom.  I usually leave mine down because it tangles when I braid it, although with all the practice you've had, I guess you wouldn't have this problem   I agree with Sallie that hairsticks might be something to try.  I can do a bun fairly easily with them, although I haven't mastered anything more complicated yet.  I also have a friend whose hair is about the same length as yours, who likes to divide her hair into 2 parts, twist each part, and then twist the 2 around each other.  Actually, her mother helps her with this one, but I think you could probably manage it yourself.  Good luck, and happy experimenting!

I too have been having the hair-blah's lately.  My hair is also down to the middle of my bum, very thick, and very straight.  I have been contemplating getting fringe (bangs) or trimming my hair back to mid-back length, but I don't think that is going to completely salve my boredom. 

My hair right now is too tangle-prone to wear it down, otherwise that's how I would wear it, so right now I do a lot of buns.  I have a few different, easy buns (I'm not the styling type) that I will do, depending on what kind of mood I am in.

Figure 8 (or infinity) Bun:  We mostly all know this one.  Wrap your hair in a bun, then pull a side of the bun coil up toward the top of your head (to form the figure 8) then put a hair stick through it.
If you have enough hair, like I do, I like to start a bun, and as soon as I have the base of the bun established, I pull the coil out to create the figure 8 and then stick it, leaving a longer piece flowing out of the side and down to my shoulder.  It's very elegant looking and takes about 2 seconds to do!

"Fountain" Bun:  I sort of made this up myself, but there are tons of other variations on it everywhere.
I make a regular bun, but instead of tucking the ends, I stop the bun at the top (pulling the ends straight up) and then clip the tail end, very close to the bun, to my head.  This makes a bun with a fountain of hair falling down around it.  It gives a sort of short hair appearance in the front as well, which is fun for us long haired girls.  You can do this will different lengths of fountain.  Sometimes I do a really short fountain, and leave the ends to spike up, or sometimes I make the tail long and it will fall and cover my bun almost completely.

Sock & Braid Bun:  This one takes a few more minutes, but looks awesome, and will hold for practically ever.  I swear I could run a marathon in this bun and it would never move an inch.
Make a pony tail, and then do the basic sock bun (put a rolled up sock over the bun, arrange hair back over the sock, secure with pony-tail holder) Then, with the hair that is coming out of the sock-bun (if you have long hair, you will still have a LOT of hair left to do something with) I gently gather it, and pull it all to the side and braid it, then I wrap the braid around my bun (which goes a little more than one time) tuck the end under and secure it with hair pins (I use Amish hair pins).  This makes a gorgeous bun, and really accentuates the amount of hair that you have.  It's really an enormous bun, and people just stare at it in awe and ask you "is that real!?"

I have tried those ones from TV.  You are right, they don't work.  But the African Butterfly is the genuine product and it comes with a warranty.  I figured I couldn't go wrong, and it was definetly worth it.  I just love my clip.