If I am trying to keep my hair at long lengths- and healthy, which is better?:  Should hair be down all the time?  Or should hair be up most of the time??  Or should I alternate with hair up some days and down others?????  

Well, my hair's not super long but I think mostly up is better than down for the ends.  There are certain fabrics that stress the hair when it is down-anything the hair sticks to.
Still, you have to be gentle with what you use to put your hair up.  No metal, hairfriendly elastics, no metal barrets etc will help.

Good Luck, I'm sure the others here will have much more advice for you!

Most of the time I wear my hair up.  Keeping it up makes sure it stays safely out of places it likes to get into but shouldn't.  Like car doors, office chairs, fans, seatbelts, my waistband, purse straps, the front door...if you can think of it someone probably got their hair stuck in it at one point.   I live in terror of the day my hair is just long enough to fall right into the toilet (it's getting there..).  I am learning to keep it around my shoulder to the front and wear my coat over it in the winter.

If I did not keep my hair up I would lose a lot more to random weirdness like my cat, who thinks it is super-tasty and that I need a trim, but just on that lock of hair.  I love to take it down at the end of the day and have it still be soft, tangle-free and smelling like roses.  

Wearing my hair down is special to me and I think carefully about where I will be, what I am wearing, what I will be doing, what the weather is like, whether I need to take a lot of things with me, etc. before I make the decision.  If I want the length to show but for it to still be safely contained I will put it in a single braid and let that hang down.  

lol @ Sasha's cat  ;D That's cute.

I've been wondering this same thing, because it may be possible that wearing my hair up all the time has caused mucho breakage. I may be wrong about this, of course.

Would a single braid be better? Oy vey, I wish I had a hair servant to braid mine for me every morning...that would be just heavenly!  :D

BTW, Sasha, what do you use to make your hair smell like roses? I am so envious!  ;)

Hi Angel Spun!

I think my cat is pretty cute even when she is eating my hair. ;)  I spritz my hair with rosewater and it's wonderful!  I buy it at Whole Foods market and started because of suggestions I read here.  I use it to dampen my hair to help put it up,to tame the flyaways and just because it smells fabulous!

In general, updos and braided styles are considered protective. If hair is in good condition, wearing it down every now and then shouldn't cause troubles. Coarse hair seems to tolerate wearing down more than fine hair. But as long hair that is left loose tangles easily gets caught in things and rubs against fabrics, chair backs etc, and needs to be detangled and handled more, it inevitably causes more stress to hair than an updo would. Especially ends are fragile, and they can be protected well with updos.
  Updos can be damaging too though, if hair is pulled too tightly or if you secure it with bad hairtoys (for example: elastics that have metal parts, hairtoys with sharp edges or seams etc). Many think that it's beneficial to wear different styles that are secured differently so that one spot isn't getting all the damage from possibly damaging toys etc. Angel Spun, could something like this be contributing to breakage you're experiencing?
   Another thing is, that it seems that many people find that living with very long hair is easier if it's kept up most of the time.

My hair isn't super long, but I wear it almost always contained in an updo or braid. The few times I've worn it down I've felt that the hair is everywhere. As my hair type is fine, I doubt that if I wore it down constantly, I would be able to reach my goal.

thats such a good question.

i usually wear mine in a bun daily and have good results with it. it is easy, simple and classic.

One thing to remember if you keep your hair up all the time -- don't pull the buns or braids too tightly.

I think the up-do and down-do times should be well balanced, perhaps with the scales leaning towards the "protected" do's time (not necessarily up-dos).
I *think* hair and scalp need to breathe too and be free and wild some of the time.
Last year I kept my hair up 85% of the time and although it got safely longer, surely it would have gotten longer nevertheless. But I noticed a thinning on top. Noone else can tell, but I know and that's the important part. And I think part of the blame is that I kept my hair up all that time (something I didn't do before in my life).
Of course, I don't have super-long hair...

Anyway, imho balance is the key.