WAG Meet Hair Requirements

[Becauseisaid]

Middle of the season and it has now been decided that all the girls need to have the same hairstyle for meets.

There are 2 problems with that:
1) 2 of the girls have short hair. My child is one.
2) Not all the parents know how to do the hairstyles we are testing (buns and French braids).

I guess I just don't get the point of REQUIRING a specific hairstyle. Off the face and secure? Sure. But I don't believe that hair uniformity will affect scores.

 

[feather79]

All our girls have to wear buns...unless their hair is too short .

 

[gwenmom]

Buns for all at out gym. Makes it very hard to tell the girls apart at meets.

 

[HoldThePhone]

I see the upper levels in our gym have varying hairstyles, we were told to do 2 buns, one on each side. Our girls have a backward roll, so it does help for that, but there are plenty of other things we could do that would be fine too. I don't get having a required hairstyle, but whatever. One girl still didn't do it, just did one bun off to the side, and one girl has really short hair, so hers was different too.

 

[COz]

GymMumInFrance, after the two braids what are you going to do with the rest of the hair?
Mine (who doesn't compete yet) has waist length but fine hair. She trains with 2 braids that I start near the front and take around the sides of her head until they reach a mid- (not high) ponytail height. I then plait the side bits together with the leftover bits at the back. Take the resulting plait and loop it up and use several hair bands to keep it in place then put a scrunchie on top of it all.
If Rapunzel has thicker hair you could do the plaited loops in either 2 or 3 sections at the back.

More ballet tips for buns (some already covered above):
Comb gel through WET hair before you braid or put it in a bun.
Use a nit comb!! Then you don't get the comb marks from the gel and wet hair.
Hair net if doing a bun, double it up.
Hairspray the heck out of everything.
Gel for flyways.

The gel makes all the difference and the nit comb is sheer brilliance, can't get any finer than that!

 

[LMV]

At the gym our daughters attend, as long as their hair is:
-neat and clean
-not distracting, detracting, or offensive
-not impeding vision AND
-able to survive the meet session without touch ups or needless playing with it
they are fine.

 

[Sasha]

Our coaches told the parents they want the single ballet bun for all because "..the neatness, uniformity, and simplicity gives the impression to the judges that our girls and gym are serious and professional. You always want to start with a good impression with the people who will be giving out scores. It can make a difference. " So basically our coaches believe that the uniformity sends a certain kind of message that they want to establish the moment the girls walk out. I guess I get that. Kind of like when men and women in a military uniform all have the same neat haircut in their neat uniform - it does give the air of competence, respect, and seriousness. The 'cutesy' hairdos with the glitter and ribbons and bouncy pieces are super adorable, but I think our gym sees those as more like 'cheer' hairstyles, and I get why a gym might want to establish a 'rigorous' look for competition's sake. Anyway, that is one gym's explanation of 'why the same.'

 

[Dr Maleficent]

well, tried just a simple French plait this morning as she has gym at school today and I wanted to see how long it would take. It didn't take too long, and looked pretty. So far so good. Then she wanted to see it - total meltdown. This is a kid who aged 18 months screamed like she had been scalded if I put her in clothes she didn't like, and if that didn't work she would be sick over them, which was pretty effective. She is insisting she wants a ponytail, even though I have explained it will be messy in 2.5 seconds, or her usual plait for school (which I get away with by telling her it protects against nits), which similarly won't hold up. I have never come across another kid this stubborn (no, of course she doesn't get it from her mum). sigh. Tempted to sneak into her room in the middle of the night and cut it to a reasonable length so I can put it in a darn bun - she actually likes those.

 

[COz]

Oh goodness. Good luck! When do they become teenagers again?

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Oh goodness. Good luck! When do they become teenagers again?

Based on my experience with a 9 year old and a 6 year old, around 2 years old? I am watching their growing-up process with horrified fascination. I keep telling myself that teenagery behaviour now means angelic-ness later, right? Please? Incidentally the other day I overheard dd (6) ask her brother (9) "what is a teenager?" He replied "someone with stinky feet who is always in a bad mood"!! Forewarned is forearmed, I always say!

 

[flippingtogether]

Thankfully our gym has no requirements other than neat and off the face. I feel like I am the only gym mom with no hair styling/braiding ability (and I have to admit I have no interest in learning to do hair, either) ..... my DD goes for a low pony, with gel and spray for wisps. Team color scrunchie. It looks fine - not fancy - which works for all of us.
(Am I the only mom with no hair talent or interest??)

 

[seoulmama]

Thankfully our gym has no requirements other than neat and off the face. I feel like I am the only gym mom with no hair styling/braiding ability (and I have to admit I have no interest in learning to do hair, either) ..... my DD goes for a low pony, with gel and spray for wisps. Team color scrunchie. It looks fine - not fancy - which works for all of us.
(Am I the only mom with no hair talent or interest??)

You are not alone! I have NO ability to do hair and every time I try something "fancy" (like a braid!) dd and I end up fighting! We have it down to something she can do herself and I just help with the gel/hairspray/combing-dd take a piece from the top, in the middle that she braids then it all goes back in a ponytail. It *almost* looks like a french braid! Most of the other girls on her team of 11 have moms who can rock out awesome hair-she has to suffer with me!

Our gym has no hair requirement-if we did, I would be doomed!

 

[Bajanswife]

No hair requirement here either except no glitter or fancy ribbons allowed - our coach hates all that stuff! She likes her team looking like athletes not performers - personal preference on her part. Works for me - I am hopeless at hair. DD wears a simple ponytail with lots of gel in the front to keep the fine bits from coming loose. Sometimes a teammate (or her sister) puts the ponytail in a braid for her as well, especially now her hair is half-way down her back. Luckily it is not thick so the pony/braid is not too heavy.

 

[seoulmama]

@Bajanswife Having been to a meet in Atlantic City, NJ that was being held right next to a cheerleading convention, I can safely say that a bit of glitter and ribbon does not a performer make. I might have thought what your coach thought until I saw all that cheerleading hair-those girls have some SERIOUS hair going on! Just the thought of all the curlers it must take to get hair *that* curly made me feel faint!

 

[kandkfunk]

Thankfully our gym has no requirements other than neat and off the face. I feel like I am the only gym mom with no hair styling/braiding ability (and I have to admit I have no interest in learning to do hair, either) ..... my DD goes for a low pony, with gel and spray for wisps. Team color scrunchie. It looks fine - not fancy - which works for all of us.
(Am I the only mom with no hair talent or interest??)

You are definitely not alone. That's why my DD has been doing her own meet hair for years. she does a much better job than I ever could hope to do. But she's really into that sort of thing.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

this is one we did this morning, and its lasted all day without any gel or hairspray (P&F is allergic) and has now gone to gym.

 

[wgymmom]

No requirement other than up and out of the face. DD likes a plain and simple braid with lots of hairspray and a little glitter. I undersprayed her once this year and after her floor routine, it looked like she'd been through a wind tunnel! I am just not capable of an intricate and cute style. I also think DD would spaz if she couldn't have her usual style.

 

[Tally Ho]

Our old team hairstyle was quite hard work for all us parents,a lot of sewing ribbon into hair, not sure how clearly you can see it on the picture, but it was ribbons sewn into hair into a fish tail braid looped up so you couldn't see the end of the braid! thankfully now even though we all have matching hair it's buns, or braids

 

[Iwannabemargo]

ooh fishtails are so hard to get neat, I have real trouble with them

 

[MBJ974]

Last year we were at our in-house meet before the season started and one of the judges took the time to point out to the coaches which hairstyle she preferred (we didn't have a hairstyle requirement at that point) and why...It was the bun placed at the crown of the head. She said that when the hair is pulled up off of the neck, it makes your neck appear longer. Longer necks = pleasing to the eye. Like that of an elegant ballet dancer.