Funny you should post this as I just had an experience like that today.

There have been three instances that I've asked a girl just as a friend to let me play with their hair, including today. Skip to the last paragraph if you want to just read the advice.

The first time it was at the end of hanging out with a bunch of friends. As I was about to leave I asked her if I could talk to her alone. We went into her room (it was at her place) and I asked if I could play with her hair. She said sure! Even encouraged me to touch it in certain places and in certain ways. She did ask me why I asked her in private. I told her I was embarrassed of what the others might have thought if I had asked in front of them. She said she didn't mind me doing it and anytime we hung out I could play with her hair. The next few times we hung out she let me play with her hair to my heart's content.

The second time (and this one I learned a lot from) was during a movie. I actually posted the story on this forum. Basically we were hanging out just us two and she wanted to watch a scary movie. I was going to ask to play with her hair since it looked so nice that day and when she asked why, I also used the excuse of it would distract me from the movie since horror films tend to put me on edge, so for an entire hour and a half I had free reign of playing with her hair.

The last experience was today. I went to lunch with one of my friends. Like yolo said, it helps when you're already on the topic of hair. She said how she was going to put her hair into a pony tail since it was so greasy and looked awful. I told her it didn't and that it looked great and she should leave it down. That was at the start of our hang out. She left her hair down the entire time. Then at the end when I dropped her off at home, she mentioned how again she was gonna put up her hair when she went inside. I said she didn't need to as it looked really nice and soft. Then I just asked if I could mess with it a bit. She said sure and I got to play with it for a few seconds. Had I timed it better or we been hanging out at a house rather than out to lunch I'm sure I could have played with it more, but I only asked at the end of our hang out.

On top of those stories, I have gotten to mess with several girl's hair for just a few seconds under the guise of being playful and just messing with them and they didn't mind.

So my advice: Keep it simple. Ask to play with their hair and don't try to justify it unless they ask. The first and third girl didn't think it was weird at all that I wanted to play with their hair and just let me. That seems to usually be the case. If they do question it, like my second experience, it's usually just because they don't understand why. They don't think you're creepy, that is unless you try to over explain. They are just curious and want to know why it appeals to you, so tell them it looks soft or nice and you just want to mess with it a bit. That's all.

Thanks for making this post, yolodahoboda! Hope that this helps some of you all in playing with several beautiful women's gorgeous hair! Best of luck and hope to hear other experiences as well!