To layer or not to layer? that is the question.

Im not sure weather I want to layer my hair or not. since school will be starting soon I want to try something new. my friends always say I should get layers, but I don’t know. my hair is about 2 inches below my sholder. brown. straight and thick (sorta). I always wear my hair in a pony tail (always, ask anyone who knows me if they have ever seen me with my hair down, they’ll say only on certain occasions, or by force) I dont have bangs; all one length (not planning on getting bangs; dont want to). one thing I hate is like loose hair or loose pony tails, I like things to be neat and simple (as in easy to care of and not a hassel or annoying) I dont like having a lot of hair in my face hence I put it in a pony tail. its not so much the layering, but its the pony tail thing. if I get layers will I be able to put all (or at least most) of my hair in a pony tail? no problems? and no questions? asked (I can take a bit of hassel, but would preffer little effort) I mean how short would the dhortest layer be anyway? can someone please help me, and kinda explain the whole layers thing because I have never done anything like this before. I’ve always had the samething done. HELP!