Why can't I do anything with my hair?

[ThursdayNextIsMyHero]

My hair is a couple of inches below my shoulders, but due to a grabby baby, it's safer (& less painful) to tie it up. I can manage a ponytail (although after a couple of hours I end up with a corona of shorter hair around my face). I'm really bored of ponytails, but when I try anything else, it falls out. I don't know whether to classify my hair as fine or normal (a hairdresser has described it as the individual hairs are fine, but there are a lot of them). It's dead straight, and doesn't hold. After hearing good things about spin pins, I got a couple. If I tie my hair up in a high ponytail just after washing it, so it is still quite wet, I can twist my hair around into a messy bun and twist in the spin pins. But, it only holds for maybe 3 hours max, and if I try and redo it, my hair is dryer, so it just doesn't work. Needless to say, if my hair is dry, it doesn't work at all. I've tried looking for ideas on you tube, but however many hair grips I put in, I can't get any "do" to stay in place. Ideally, I'd like to cut my hairshort, but that will have to wait until I can afford the regular haircuts to keep it in shape.

I'm very jealous of people like my cousin, who can just twist their hair up, stick pencil in it, and it looks good (& it stays). What can I do (other than shave it off)?

Sounds like your hair is similar to mine - very fine in texture, which makes it slippery, but very thick in the sense of there being lots of it, so it's heavy. I can't use spin pins either, they just fall straight back out of my hair. I also wear mine in a ponytail (or sometimes in a half ponytail, although I feel a bit like a schoolgirl like that) when it isn't down because it takes a long time to get anything else to hold. If you have the time, other things which I find work are:

1. Putting up as if in ponytail but don't pull hair all the way through on final tightening of the band. Use hair grips to pin the not quite pulled through hair around the band, so that it's in a sort of messy up do. Use lots of hairspray.

1. Start with a putting a small amount of hair from the nape of your neck in a sort of bun, tied up with a band. Working in sections, wrap hair around the bun and pin bit by bit, using hairspray on each section - I use inch wide sections of hair each time. I usually GHD curl or tong each section too (I only do on special occasions as it takes ages). You'll end up with masses of hairgrips but it has surprising staying power and looks great. You'll need to use section clips to keep the upper layers of your hair out of the way as you're working.

My hair is a bit longer than yours but I also find that having a bit of weight taken out of the back when I have it cut helps to stop it from being too heavy when I put it up. It can be a bit disconcerting when the hairdresser gets the thinning scissors out but if they know what they're doing it will be worth the initial panic!