Over at Girls ❤ Guns, an article about hairstyles for the shooting range. (h/t to Caleb)

Now, speaking as a man with long hair, I’d step back and generalize this not as an article for ladies, but an article for people with long hair. I mean, if you’re a women with short hair, the article really doesn’t apply to you. That said, social constraints are such that women get different options for styling long hair than men do, so of course the article has a few options that could be considered “for the ladies” (sorry, but I look stupid with my hair in a bun).

The main point: if you have long hair, it should be tied and pulled back, out of the way. However you do it, the point is to keep your hair from interfering. One implication in this is the hair-style should be secure, because hair falling out while you’ve got a gun in your hands isn’t good. If you’re in an intensive training class, you don’t need a hair-style failure thus distraction to have to fix it. As well, if you’re a newbie, your gut reaction may be to brush the hair out of the way… and how does that gun in your hand move while you’re brushing hair away! Could be dangerous. If your hair-style fails while you have a gun in your hand, ignore the hair, finish the drill, safely put the gun away (unload and bench it, holster it, whatever is appropriate), THEN fix your hair. This is a side-reason why a ball-cap is good to wear, because in a pinch it can keep hair up and out of the way (e.g. loose fliers restrained under the cap, long hair pulled through the hole in the back as a makeshift ponytail).

Me? I prefer to have my hair in a braid. Pony tails are OK, but a braid is more secure. Furthermore, when the wind blows, a pony tail can blow the tail hairs up into your face, whereas the braid stays down and out of the way. Here’s a picture on how I wear my hair. I’m the guy, second from the right, in the blue/gray shirt and blue cap… and braided hair:

This article has more pictures.

That said, it’s good to train with your hair down once in a while. Why? Well, if you always wear your hair up or only ever shoot in situations where you can control your hair (e.g. you’re only a recreational shooter at the range and will never use a gun to defend your life at home or on the street), then it doesn’t really matter. But if you could be in a situation where your hair is down and you’d have to shoot (e.g. you like to wear your hair down, you carry a gun for self-defense), you should practice with your hair down. It doesn’t have to be live fire (yes, that could be dangerous), but certainly you can and should dry fire. For instance, I found that if my hair is down and I haven’t been to the barber for a trim in a while, my hair can get in the way of drawing and/or presenting my gun from the holster. It’s good to know these things.