Best cut for clown hair and a fat face?

[RonaldMcDonaldio]

I currently have just past shoulder length hair - looks nice and it's great for tying up out of the way, so low maintenance from a day to day perspective. But owing to how thick and pouffy it is, it's high maintenance from a washing and conditioning point of view - it's quite coarse and strong, curly, with a very rough cuticle, so it's wild and frizzy and has to be beaten into submission with product and heat after washing to look presentable. This takes some time, and I have quite a lot of breakage which is understandable.

We are about to embark on a life changing move, which will involve living in a campervan for a while. The hot water tank just doesn't hold enough water for me to wash and condition my clown wig, so I am thinking of cutting it all off.

Here are 3 pictures. The first is as it is now, washed and rough dried by a hairdresser - the second is washed and left to air dry with product on it, before someone recommends the curly girl method. Honestly, don't, I tried it and looked like worzel gummidge for months until I gave up.

The last is a shorter cut I had about 10 years ago, which I really liked. It will take a bit of faffing about every morning but nothing too serious, and at least washing and drying it won't take a pint of conditioner and product and an hour of sweating.

For context, I am 47, a little bit fat with a chubby chin, but I have good skin, light green eyes to go with my dark hair, few wrinkles and colour all my greys.

What d'you reckon, yay ou nay?

That short cut looks great. Do that. Or even an I Cladius close crop.

Picture 2 is GORGEOUS and I forbid you to cut your hair.

If that is how it dries naturally with a blob of product then I think you’re crazy to cut it!

I’m very jealous.

Ooh no I daren't do a pixie or a crop - had one many many years and about 4 stone ago . My head would look like a pea on a beach ball.

Atalune are you quite mad, it looks terrible! But thank you, that's very kind. DH nearly laughed himself into a hernia when I was walking around like that, called me Kevin Keegan.

As you can see the pics are a few years apart, it wasn't quite as long when I was trying the curl girl method!

Honestly- it’s lush!

But ok- go for the swisher flicky Bob.

When you wash your hair, have you tried putting some product in it wet, then twisting it into a low bun at the nape of your neck? Then in the morning you might have waves rather than curls?

The short cut is lovely. And you DO NOT have clown hair (it’s beautiful) ot anything like a fat face!

The lower layers are less frizzy and will go into nice waves, but the top layer is so dry and frizzy - I just have to put smoothing product on it and use straighteners, which obviously makes it even drier!

Thank you Lady, but I assure you I adopt a chin-forward pose in selfies to hide the double chin.

Photos 2 and 3 look fantastic. Definitely wear it curly!

As for cutting it - well you will get rid off a lot of the damaged ends so why not do it and use it as an opportunity to grow it back healthier without using heat so much?

The short one is lovely!!

Stopfighting it, thats why it gets so dry and frizzy.
Be gentle and stop with the heat.
The shorter layers may work well, and then use friendly shampoos and conditioners and add a dab of product scrunch and air dry. Takes a lot less time and effort.

Oh no its lovely take a break from the heat, wrap it in silk bonnet or scarf at night and put it up instead of using heat for the period you are 8n the camoervan..it will give it time to recover.
Have you tried:
Keratin treatment?
Cantu prodoucts?
Argan oil?

Photo 2 my fave, then 3. Strangely don't like the hairdresser pic. Looks gorgeous with curls

I love the curly hair!

If you're going to be in a camper van can't you just find the right product to have your hair curly (and up in a loose bun/ponytail). The problems your having with breakage could surely be solved by washing/conditioning, then leaving it to dry naturally with serum/leave in conditioner ?

The short cut is also lovely but does look high maintenance for travelling

First, only brush your hair in the shower with conditioner in. Never when dry.
Second, put some curly products in your hair while wet.
Third, scrunch with a t shirt not a towel.
Forth, put your hair in a t shirt turben like you would normally do with a towel.
Leave it to dry for a while, take the t shirt off and allow to air dry further.
My friend has curly hair and does the above and it's great.

I really like the second pic. I find the third a bit dated. I have a very short chin length bob so it's not that, I think you need to straighten it every day if you get this style to make it sleek and blunt.

Wow. Shucks, I wish I'd put pictures up of it ages ago!

Eeh, it really doesn't look great curly. The curl is very inconsistent - quite nice curls in the underlayers, entirely haphazard waves in the side layers (some uniform, others completely unrelated to one another), and wiry, harsh and dry layers on the top. I must have spent hundreds on oils, curl products, serums, leave-in conditioners, shampoos, gels, creams, masks, silk bonnets, silk pillowcases, curl clips...I found Faith in Nature aloe vera conditioner brilliant (still use it), but everything else was bobbins. Nothing worked, nothing made it look good and I stayed away from silicone, sulphates and heat for months.

I've had no fewer than 4 keratin treatments, love them but the last one only lasted 4 weeks. £180 for 4 weeks isn't long enough for me!

That short one is beautiful!

I love the shorter cut. If you wanted to let it dry naturally you could add a few curls through the top with a wand too.

Ooh I had a curling wand once. Got myself a nice burn to my face because I'm an idiot, haha!

I've never known how to wear the top, I have a widows peak and a powerful cow lick - left to its own devices the front pieces will dry back and flat above my forehead like the golden arches. The only way to pull them up and forward is to straighten from the root.

I would dearly love a wash and wear style, sadly I just don't think it's meant to be. I have asked many many hairdressers, they make positive noises but once they've washed my hair and seen how it air dries, their enthusiasm fades.

My late mother had fine, wispy, fragile hair. I've only ever known my father as bald, but when I saw a picture of him in the 60's with a cloud of thick, bushy, wiry, pouffy hair, it all made sense...

I agree with everyone saying the shorter style/3rd photo. I too do not like the straightened version.

Two and three are both fab!

Hmm that first one was just prior to having a keratin treatment - the salon wanted a before and after. It was rough dried with a fierce blowdryer, it's surprisingly smooth there actually - if I rough dry it it's more like a hedge. I did wear it more wavy for a while, and an old boss said he could always tell from across the office if I was at my desk, because my hair stuck out either side of my monitor "like sheep's wool".

The second one is a "joke" picture I took to prove to some mates what it looked like undone. They cackled. It's funny really isn't it - my DH didn't like it curly either, but he bit his tongue and said nothing for the 7 months or so I religiously followed the curly girl method because its my hair and I can do what I want with it!

The minute I gave up in a fit of pique, washed it with sulphates, filled it full of all the silicones I could find and straightened it to a smooth swishy mane, he heaved a sigh of relief and admitted he thought it looked a mess curly.

I'd like to not have to smooth it so much - i don't mind a bit of faffing to style it, but it is rather damaged so it would be good to rest it. I need a really good cut for curly hair I think.

No.2 is lovely.

Have you been to a salon that specialises in coarse/curly/kinky hair? Any big city will have one. I would go there for a consultation.

Okay, my hair is very similar. The things that have really made a difference is buying products meant for black/ Afro hair- particularly the Keratin shampoo and conditioner, and the curl styling cream. You can get them from Superdrug these days or even on the internet.
Brazilian Keratin conditioning mask from Amazon is just as good as a salon treatment and I use it as a every day conditioner.

Atalune I never found one nearby back then - maybe I'll have another look!

Goddess I found that products for afro hair were a bit heavy for mine, especially castor oil based things for some reason. Olive oil was always okay, never a miracle though.

There are products that work on the lower layers but nothing ever makes the sides or top look nice. It's just separated and wiry, curls in multiple directions with curls of different sizes and doesn't coil, no matter what I try. I keep seeing women with beautiful lustrous uniform curls and wish mine didn't look so much like a nylon wig. Or that there was something I could DO for the top bit.