Athletes with long hair are sometimes at a disadvantage to their short haired teammates. Longer hair can have the tendency to get tangled up, caught in your face or mouth, and make it more difficult to play. While some might argue that wearing a helmet makes it easier to deal with longer hair, when you are removing your helmet while you are not on the field, it can almost make it unbearably messy.
Here are some of my favorite hairstyles and tips for dealing with a helmet and longer hair.
Freewheelin’:
Freewheelin’ is letting your hair do what you will. This means no product, no hair ties, and no worries. You shove it under your helmet, let it pop out where it may, and just deal with the consequences. While I don’t recommend freewheelin’, for some people they don’t have the time or inclination to deal with the other methods of taking care of their hair. After a game living with your hair in the wild and rugged plains, it is recommended that you slowly and carefully brush out the snarls and tangles, starting from the bottom of your hair and slowly work your way toward the scalp.
Ponytail:
While a ponytail may seem like the most reasonable way to deal with long hair, it can also lead to its own set of problems. If not set with some hair spray, or combed back tight enough, you may have pieces of the ponytail get removed when you take off your helmet. While it can be very easy for many people to just quickly redo their ponytail, if you want to be relatively ready for your post game interview, then product is a must.
Additionally, you have to be careful to make sure your ponytail isn’t too high. A high ponytail gets slammed against your head with the helmet and is just painful. At the same time, though, you need to make sure that you’re not making your ponytail too tight. Creating that much tension on your head, especially while you are running into other players is not recommended. Ponytail headaches are not a fun experience. They’re like crying migraines. The worst.
Pigtails:
Like a ponytail, pigtails depend entirely upon placement. For this article, pigtails are defined as two separate tied chunks of hair. If the hair is tied high upon the head, you run into the same smooshing issue that you have with a ponytail. However, if the pigtails are tied lower, they can be moderately effective at keeping the hair under control.
Issues with the pigtails reside in the fact that you cannot be assured that they will not fly all over the helmet and face area of a player, and in fact, if the hair is long enough to rest near the shoulders, the pigtails themselves could also be grabbed and pulled while getting tackled. This is not only an illegal move in the game of football, but a painful one. Rapunzel took years to build up her head strength to have each hair pulled and climbed upon, NSFL players do not do the same exercises (correct me if I’m wrong).
Braids:
A single braid down the back of the head is the most effective at keeping the hair contained. A tightly woven braid is effective at keeping most stray strands of hair held away from the face, and a braid can be worn high or low, (obviously, low preferred to prevent scalp smooshing).
French braids or Dutch braids are even more ideal at holding the hair back, particularly when a player removes the helmet. The tightly integrated braids keep them flat among the head, and are incredibly effective at keeping the hair away from the face whenever necessary. A worry about the French braid lies in braiding too tightly, but again, a looser braid should also have the same amount of control.
In conclusion, it is my recommendation that players wear a braid or French braid while playing. However, I would also recommend the league look into and conduct research surrounding the use of ponytail helmets, which may be effective in allowing more stylistic choices while on the field.
Something like this would be superb.
Here are some of my favorite hairstyles and tips for dealing with a helmet and longer hair.
Freewheelin’:
Freewheelin’ is letting your hair do what you will. This means no product, no hair ties, and no worries. You shove it under your helmet, let it pop out where it may, and just deal with the consequences. While I don’t recommend freewheelin’, for some people they don’t have the time or inclination to deal with the other methods of taking care of their hair. After a game living with your hair in the wild and rugged plains, it is recommended that you slowly and carefully brush out the snarls and tangles, starting from the bottom of your hair and slowly work your way toward the scalp.
Ponytail:
While a ponytail may seem like the most reasonable way to deal with long hair, it can also lead to its own set of problems. If not set with some hair spray, or combed back tight enough, you may have pieces of the ponytail get removed when you take off your helmet. While it can be very easy for many people to just quickly redo their ponytail, if you want to be relatively ready for your post game interview, then product is a must.
Additionally, you have to be careful to make sure your ponytail isn’t too high. A high ponytail gets slammed against your head with the helmet and is just painful. At the same time, though, you need to make sure that you’re not making your ponytail too tight. Creating that much tension on your head, especially while you are running into other players is not recommended. Ponytail headaches are not a fun experience. They’re like crying migraines. The worst.
Pigtails:
Like a ponytail, pigtails depend entirely upon placement. For this article, pigtails are defined as two separate tied chunks of hair. If the hair is tied high upon the head, you run into the same smooshing issue that you have with a ponytail. However, if the pigtails are tied lower, they can be moderately effective at keeping the hair under control.
Issues with the pigtails reside in the fact that you cannot be assured that they will not fly all over the helmet and face area of a player, and in fact, if the hair is long enough to rest near the shoulders, the pigtails themselves could also be grabbed and pulled while getting tackled. This is not only an illegal move in the game of football, but a painful one. Rapunzel took years to build up her head strength to have each hair pulled and climbed upon, NSFL players do not do the same exercises (correct me if I’m wrong).
Braids:
A single braid down the back of the head is the most effective at keeping the hair contained. A tightly woven braid is effective at keeping most stray strands of hair held away from the face, and a braid can be worn high or low, (obviously, low preferred to prevent scalp smooshing).
French braids or Dutch braids are even more ideal at holding the hair back, particularly when a player removes the helmet. The tightly integrated braids keep them flat among the head, and are incredibly effective at keeping the hair away from the face whenever necessary. A worry about the French braid lies in braiding too tightly, but again, a looser braid should also have the same amount of control.
In conclusion, it is my recommendation that players wear a braid or French braid while playing. However, I would also recommend the league look into and conduct research surrounding the use of ponytail helmets, which may be effective in allowing more stylistic choices while on the field.
Something like this would be superb.