Hair Anorexia

[Kwantslonghair]

Does a one else experience this? I look at my my hair and it seems thin. It is no thinner than it has ever been really. I just measured pony tail thickness and it is roughly 3 in. Last time I measured it was 2.75 but I grew out my bangs so they are included now. I thought I was waist length but I am actually an inch past that but it seems short to me. I will be at hip in 2 inches at (32 in) and TB at 35 in. All you lovely haired ladies and gents seem to have thick, luscious locks. Mine looks longer in photos than when I look in mirror. Are we our own worst critics? I recently seen a woman with a pony tail no thicker than my little finger and felt mine was thick until I saw another lady with half her hair braided and that braid was 4 times thicker than my whole head of hair.

[PolarCathy]

Wow, what can I say. I'm down to just a tad over 3" but I usually have 4"+. Shedding. Kinda traumatic. Now I feel extreme hairexia, yes, especially when I walk into this shop and see this Japanese woman with a 5"+ ponytail, if not 6". Like a coke bottle. My punytail is ridiculous in comparison. So I do the shopping as quick as I can (not that I wear a punytail anyway, it's in a bun), pay and get the hell out of that hellhole of a shop, and promise to myself to never return because she must live nearby and I don't want to bump into her anyone with a 5"+ ponytail anymore.

So hard!!

[HairFaerie]

Yup, I do it too. I look back at pictures before I cut it and think "Wow! It was actually pretty long!" I would cut it because it seemed like it wasn't long and was taking way too long to grow. (Yes, I know that logic seems very silly. It is. That's how I think, though, unfortunately.) :(
Same with thickness. At the time it seemed so thin to me and I would cut it more blunt to try to get more volume. Then I would look back at the pics and, yep, you guessed it...my hair seemed really thick in the pics!
I have a really distorted view of my own hair. It sucks.

[Kwantslonghair]

Exactly how it seems. I will continue to grow it even if all I have is 2 hairs and some air

[Vampyria]

My thickness is around 3.25 inches. I'm a bit obsessed with trimming my hair, because my ends always seem thin (I've lost some thickness too, it was around 3.5 without bangs before) and I really need volume to make my face look good. I've been stuck at a bit below shoulder for at least a year and a half. I'm really happy with it after a trim, but a week later it seems thinner to me.

I went to look at braids thread here. Mostly people with ii-iii and iii hair, and I think how my braids will newer look that way. And when I run finger through my hair it also feels really thin. I doesn't look thin in the pictures right now, and sometimes not even when I look in the mirror, but I would still trim to get thicker ends, if my hair wasn't really short as it is.

[Applegirl84]

I thought I had ridiculously thin hair and when I signed up on here I typed it as i just assuming that I was the thinnest. But when I actually measured my ponytail I was 2.5in and that wasnt even including my bangs. Still on the thin side of normal, but certainly not as thin as I imagined.

[chen bao jun]

I think being on LHC is guaranteed to make anyone think they don't have much hair.
But IRL how many people do you know with hair down to their knees that's 6 inches circumference?

[LAG93]

Me too :( my ponytail is just hardly over 3 inches without bangs, they are almost grown out though. I tried bumble and bumble thickening conditioner for the first time today (I'm currently CO). If there's such thing as a miracle product, this is definitely it! I paired it with bumble and bumble prep spray, and then chi keratin silk infusions. Maybe it was a combo of the three but I just added the two bumble and bumble products. I don't blow dry or use heat but I still like the prep spray. My hair isn't actually thicker i don't think, but it looks quite a bit fuller and more voluminous, appearing thicker. I like it, it's a bit pricey but once I'm done with this bottle I will know if its worth it in the long run! The prep spray kinda smells like classic kindergarten glue/paste, which is a bit worrisome, I don't know why anything for hair would smell like that...

[Jesabel]

I'd call that "hair dysmorphia"

[Naima]

My ponytail I was about 3.3'', beefore. But I've shed a lot in spring and then after antibiotics, I had to take, and now it's only 2.6''(( But I'm hoping to grow them back.

[jacqueline101]

I don't think my hair is any thinner when I measure it grows longer and makes it look thinner.

[Vampyria]

I think being on LHC is guaranteed to make anyone think they don't have much hair.
But IRL how many people do you know with hair down to their knees that's 6 inches circumference?

I have to agree. I don't believe I ever had more than 4 inch circumference in my life, but I was considered to have really thick hair by people IRL (when I had more than 3.5 inches). I don't know and haven't seen anyone who's hair looks like they have more than 4 inches in real life either. But when I came here, I found out that I don't actually have thick hair, it's just average.


Me too :( my ponytail is just hardly over 3 inches without bangs, they are almost grown out though. I tried bumble and bumble thickening conditioner for the first time today (I'm currently CO). If there's such thing as a miracle product, this is definitely it! I paired it with bumble and bumble prep spray, and then chi keratin silk infusions. Maybe it was a combo of the three but I just added the two bumble and bumble products. I don't blow dry or use heat but I still like the prep spray. My hair isn't actually thicker i don't think, but it looks quite a bit fuller and more voluminous, appearing thicker. I like it, it's a bit pricey but once I'm done with this bottle I will know if its worth it in the long run! The prep spray kinda smells like classic kindergarten glue/paste, which is a bit worrisome, I don't know why anything for hair would smell like that...

I don't think your hair is i/ii (what you have in your description) with more than 3 inches circumference, since 2 inches is still considered to be medium - ii thickness. I think that i/ii would be, if you would sometimes measure around 2" and other times a bit less. I don't think you can actually increase you natural thickness, if your hair is not thinner due to shedding and such.

See below:
i - thin (less than 2 inches/5 centimeters)
ii - normal (between 2-4 inches or 5-10 centimeters)
iii - thick (more than 4 inches/10 centimeters)

[furnival]

I'd call that "hair dysmorphia"
Yep, I think that's what the OP means. There were a few threads on it, if I recall:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=111798
ETA: phone isn't letting me link to more than one...

[ProverbsGirl]

I do the same thing..
I will also look at mine and think it looks bad but look over at my friends and think it looks great.
I was really hating on my hair last week, then I took some pics and turns out it looks better than I originally thought. *shrugs shoulders*

[Theobroma]

I think being on LHC is guaranteed to make anyone think they don't have much hair.
But IRL how many people do you know with hair down to their knees that's 6 inches circumference?

This, in spades. The population on LHC is significantly skewed towards above-average heads of hair in terms of length and thickness. Out in the real world it's a very different story. As an example, when I was growing up I was always the kid with the really, really thick hair. I still have the classic-length braid I chopped when I was twelve, so I have incontrovertible proof that even then my circ was only a little over three inches. Which around here is on the thin side of average. So whom do I believe? LHC, and call my hair thin, or the real world, where most of the kids my age had about half as much hair as I did and where, the last time I bought a comb, the lady in the shop looked at my hair while it was bunned and remarked "your hair must be so thick that it's difficult to get a comb through it"?

I don't know, and I don't even know why I should care too much. Thick and thin are just another pair of labels to slap onto ourselves and make ourselves feel inadequate, if we let them.

[maegalcarwen]

How to measure this thickness exactly? I am a bit confused.
Anyhow, I have these panic attacks, like when I look into the magnifier mirror to pluck my eyebrows, and I see my hairline, I am a thousand percent convinced that I am balding. I especially have it with partings too, like I always feel that the partings are too wide and there's too much skin showing. It might be because I am really pale, but dunno. I have really thick hair, like BOOM! thick, but on my scalp I always feel like it is nothing. Nowadays, it is better, but I had a huge panic in around last October, I went totally melancholic. Thank god its over.

[jasper]

I might have the opposite. I see more hair in the mirror and when I actually take a photo is when I start seeing thin hair. I think it is because a never see it completely in my mirrors and a photo from the back will show how my part starts looking like scalp cleavage and how my ends are thin.

[LAG93]

I don't think your hair is i/ii (what you have in your description) with more than 3 inches circumference, since 2 inches is still considered to be medium - ii thickness. I think that i/ii would be, if you would sometimes measure around 2" and other times a bit less. I don't think you can actually increase you natural thickness, if your hair is not thinner due to shedding and such.

See below:
i - thin (less than 2 inches/5 centimeters)
ii - normal (between 2-4 inches or 5-10 centimeters)
iii - thick (more than 4 inches/10 centimeters)

Thanks! When I joined not too long ago I had no idea what those meant so I guessed! I don't think my hair changes thickness much, it's thinner than it was when I was little, so I feel like its thin but I guess I see lots of people with thinner hair than mine, I just envy the people with thick hair more!

[Stray_mind]

My hair is normal acording to the number on the measuring tape, but i still feel like it's really thin. Especially when i braid it. Of course i had a lot of breakage and hair loss in the past few years, so i hope that i can get a bit more thickness, but it's still very frustrating. I feel for everyone here..

[Kwantslonghair]

Mine is very fine too. It's light as not a lot of weight to it

[AmyBeth]

[B]I don't know, and I don't even know why I should care too much. Thick and thin are just another pair of labels to slap onto ourselves and make ourselves feel inadequate, if we let them.

Absolutely.

[HintOfMint]

This, in spades. The population on LHC is significantly skewed towards above-average heads of hair in terms of length and thickness. Out in the real world it's a very different story. As an example, when I was growing up I was always the kid with the really, really thick hair. I still have the classic-length braid I chopped when I was twelve, so I have incontrovertible proof that even then my circ was only a little over three inches. Which around here is on the thin side of average. So whom do I believe? LHC, and call my hair thin, or the real world, where most of the kids my age had about half as much hair as I did and where, the last time I bought a comb, the lady in the shop looked at my hair while it was bunned and remarked "your hair must be so thick that it's difficult to get a comb through it"?

I don't know, and I don't even know why I should care too much. Thick and thin are just another pair of labels to slap onto ourselves and make ourselves feel inadequate, if we let them.

Very well put!

I love LHC but it's definitely why I've occasionally said to friends, "my hair really isn't that thick," and of course having said friends look at me as though I have three heads. Definitely a wake up and slap myself moment! What a silly thing to feel inadequate about.

[maegalcarwen]

Exactly:D I also have very very thick wavy hair, and they wanted to touch it all the time. I also got all the "all my hair is as thick as this small front braid of yours" comments, and the "what kind of brush brushes through this hair?" questions. But since thickness is relative, I think compering yourself to people who have the very thick hair is not really a good idea. Of course we always compare ourselves to others, but they to go for a world average/country average, not to your "dream hair" or "hair crush", because maybe there is only one person like that per 100/1000/10000 people.

[spidermom]

When I started with LHC, I would measure my ponytail and pay attention to how much is shedding out, but I never-ever do that anymore. I just gather up the fallen hair and throw it away, then get on with my life.

I cycle between thinking my hair is too long and wanting to cut it, then thinking it's not long enough and wanting it to hurry up already and grow.

[chen bao jun]

Another thing to note: we on LHC tend to be obsessive about our hair. Anytime you spend a look of time studying something and concentrating on it all the time, it starts to look more and more deficient as you see more and more of the 'flaws'. That is why so many on here recommend practicing 'benign neglect'. If you put your hair up and ignore it for a while, when you take it down it will seem luxuriant and definitely longer. When you stare at it and worry every day, it seems worse and worse and worse. Like that pimple that no one else can see but you can in the magnifying mirror and it starts to look as if its taking over your whole face eventually.
Don't compare yourself to anybody but yourself and don't do that too often. Take photos for progress but no more than once a month (every three to six months is better) and think how much you are improving as you are on here longer, even if you didn't start with actually 'damaged' hair.

[chen bao jun]

Also, not only is LHC not 'normal' in terms of there being a lot of people on here with a lot of hair, but like all internet boards, its skewed.
Who do you think posts proudly and a lot and shows off their hair? If you look at the posts, you can see that a few people post a lot compared to all the people on here (including the 'lurkers') and you can be sure that most of those who post a lot (as well as most who bother to do internet videos) are people who even for this board have thicker and longer hair. Those who feel their hair is deficient (which probably means 'average') are not seen as much, so the other 'average' people feel more and more lacking.
I don't know if that made sense.

[Kwantslonghair]

I don't feel mine is perfect. Far from it. The ones with long, thick, healthy hair are my inspiration. It is from their experience that I am learning to take better care of my own. I don't think they post to showoff, but rather to encourage us to love the hair we have by having the best we can have if that makes sense

[Vampyria]

Also, not only is LHC not 'normal' in terms of there being a lot of people on here with a lot of hair, but like all internet boards, its skewed.
Who do you think posts proudly and a lot and shows off their hair? If you look at the posts, you can see that a few people post a lot compared to all the people on here (including the 'lurkers') and you can be sure that most of those who post a lot (as well as most who bother to do internet videos) are people who even for this board have thicker and longer hair. Those who feel their hair is deficient (which probably means 'average') are not seen as much, so the other 'average' people feel more and more lacking.
I don't know if that made sense.

Makes a lot of sense. That's what I gathered from the "braids thread". A few people with ii thickness post there, but mostly there are those with ii/iii and iii thickness, and I did feel quite inadequate while lurking there.

[Vampyria]

double post

[neko_kawaii]

Makes a lot of sense. That's what I gathered from the "braids thread". A few people with ii thickness post there, but mostly there are those with ii/iii and iii thickness, and I did feel quite inadequate while lurking there.

I haven't been playing with fancy braids much because they take more time than buns, and I doubt there need to be multiple pictures of my english braids. But if the braid thread needs some ii thickness loving, I'll see what I can do!

[rosiedeam]

I can completely relate, especially since I had an accident with synthetic dread locks this summer, the woman swore if they were braided in I could just remove them and my hair would be fine, it was most certainly not! In 2 days my hair had begun to dread with the fake ones and I spent 4 hours combing out the knots and probably lost atleast 2 or 3 fistfulls of hair. It was horrid. I've been trying to regain some of my lost thickness (mostly by encourageing new hair growth) so if anyoen has tips let me know. If really is difficult though, I find since making a concious effort to grow my hair, I notice other peoples hair all the time, especially if it is thick and curly. I am always comparing my hair to beautiful thick even corse hair. Only last week I watched the Mists of Avalon (the made of TV mini series) and the character Morgan La Fae had my absolute dream hair. Even though I KNOW it was a wig, I couldn't help actively hating my thin little braid. UGH :(

[HintOfMint]

Also, not only is LHC not 'normal' in terms of there being a lot of people on here with a lot of hair, but like all internet boards, its skewed.
Who do you think posts proudly and a lot and shows off their hair? If you look at the posts, you can see that a few people post a lot compared to all the people on here (including the 'lurkers') and you can be sure that most of those who post a lot (as well as most who bother to do internet videos) are people who even for this board have thicker and longer hair. Those who feel their hair is deficient (which probably means 'average') are not seen as much, so the other 'average' people feel more and more lacking.
I don't know if that made sense.

Makes a lot of sense, it's in the same vein as the thread about celebrity extensions skewing our idea of "normal."

[spidermom]

I post a lot because I don't have any friends in real life, not because I think everybody should be looking at my great hair (which has 1000s of splits).

[Kwantslonghair]

I post a lot because I don't have any friends in real life, not because I think everybody should be looking at my great hair (which has 1000s of splits).

If I lived in your area, I would be your real life friend for sure. For that matter I can be anyway. I don't have any either at least none that I can hang out with, go shopping, lunch. That sort of thing. You were the first to welcome me here so you will always be special to me.

[Nae]

I post a lot too but that is because I am a motor mouth and i like it here. My hair.....not so great. The color is cool. I like that, but yeah, my braid at the end where I tie it off is close to only a quarter of an inch wide. I never wear it down because I don't like the ends and hope that I can protect them by wearing it up. I trim and it thickens up a little bit but it isn't great by any means. Maybe if I hang on for a few years it will thicken up enough to wear a braid.

It especially doesn't help that my daughters have hair that is easily twice as thick as mine. I help my disabled daughter with her hair regularly and her braid is super thick, that is what looks normal to me because I work with it all the time, so then when I braid mine.....well, it is slightly disappointing.

[cathair]

I post a lot because I don't have any friends in real life, not because I think everybody should be looking at my great hair (which has 1000s of splits).

Love your honesty! Same over here really.

Yes, I think I have hair anorexia *checks* being on the low end of ii. Every now and again family member likes to tell me how thin my hair looks and how I need to cut my ends blunt to help it. Sometimes I care, sometimes I don't.

Having white hair come through on really dark make makes it look thinner cause my skin is pretty white too. Sometimes I think I can see scalp or back and it turns out to be white hair.

I thought I had traction alopecia for while, because the hairs around my parting at the front are so un-densely packed. But it's been over a year since I stopped wearing ponytails and it hasn't made any difference, I haven't had a surge of baby hairs grow there. The hairs kind of stand up, so you can look between the roots and see exactly how it would look if I had a shaved head lol

LHC is double edged for me. Sometimes I see really thick and feel bad, other times I see hair similar thickness to mine with similar ends and it makes me happy. I never/very rarely see hair with ends like mine in real life.

Thank goodness mine is wavey, at least it bulks it out a bit lol

[Nanna]

Yes, I have noticed this. My own hair looks so thin and feels so short, although it's probably both thicker and longer than most people's. The more time you spend thinking about it and looking at somebody's wonderful thick mane, the more disappointed you're gonna be with your own. The problem is, I noticed the other day, that when you want to see pretty hair, then that's what you see and the rest, the shorter and/or thinner ones, you just don't take notice of.

Oh well, at least I have some hair, and I like the colour both natural and hennaed.

[Kwantslonghair]

About 80 % dry
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/ii517/Kwantslonghair/f9e7c38d757cb99a7aca013c73e57912.jpg

[shutterpillar]

Makes a lot of sense. That's what I gathered from the "braids thread". A few people with ii thickness post there, but mostly there are those with ii/iii and iii thickness, and I did feel quite inadequate while lurking there.

* Makes a mental note to post more of my F/M ii braid pictures on the braid thread. ;) Now to master more braids...

[chen bao jun]

Oh dear. The foot went into the mouth and just lodged there, didn't it. Sorry. I did not mean to imply that those posting a lot were 'showing off'. I love to be on this board and admire people like spidermom's hair. I just meant that those posting were less likely to be shy about their hair, because they do tend to be the people who have more of it/in better condition (often because they have gained wisdom from being on here a long time which they are sharing with us.)
I will go and crawl into a hole now.
I do hope my foot in mouth has the side effect of making people with thinner hair less shy about posting, though. there are people who need to see your lovely hair (which is not necessarily iii or even ii thickness) in order to be encouraged, so go ahead and do that, please! I'd love a variety on here.

[Vampyria]

I haven't been playing with fancy braids much because they take more time than buns, and I doubt there need to be multiple pictures of my english braids. But if the braid thread needs some ii thickness loving, I'll see what I can do!


* Makes a mental note to post more of my F/M ii braid pictures on the braid thread. ;) Now to master more braids...

That would be great. :cheer:

[shutterpillar]

Chen - I don't think you should feel bad about your comment. I sympathized with it, and understood it's nature. I do not post photos much because like you said, compared to a lot of hair on here, I don't feel mine is worthy of being seen at the moment. ;) It's almost like I have this notion that it needs to look a certain way or be a certain length before I can post photos, which is completely ridiculous. Of course there are no photo requirements for the condition of your hair, and I agree it would be nice to see all hair types.
I had also promised myself no length photos until I reached waist (for my own sanity - that way I'm not constantly checking on it), but that does not prevent me from posting photos of braids and buns.

[neko_kawaii]

Oh dear. The foot went into the mouth and just lodged there, didn't it. Sorry. I did not mean to imply that those posting a lot were 'showing off'. I love to be on this board and admire people like spidermom's hair. I just meant that those posting were less likely to be shy about their hair, because they do tend to be the people who have more of it/in better condition (often because they have gained wisdom from being on here a long time which they are sharing with us.)
I will go and crawl into a hole now.
I do hope my foot in mouth has the side effect of making people with thinner hair less shy about posting, though. there are people who need to see your lovely hair (which is not necessarily iii or even ii thickness) in order to be encouraged, so go ahead and do that, please! I'd love a variety on here.

No holes needed!

[0xalis]

My hair is currently at 3'' ponytail circumference [and my bangs are another inch themselves, but I'm never growing those out. I love them too much :o]
This is the thickest my hair has EVER BEEN.
But I keep freaking out and being like "AAAAAAAAH MY HAIR IS GETTING THINNER" and then I measure it... still 3''
I measure the thickness constantly... I'm like obsessed beyond belief. Uhg.

[keyblade]

My ponytail is only 2" :/

[Sharysa]

Ironically enough, my hair dysmorphia is that it always looks/feels SHORTER because it's so thick and wavy. I can barely do anything with it. Decent braids started at a shorter mid-back length; now that it's almost waist-length with a nearly four-inch ponytail, it's too heavy to bun properly but not quite long enough for crown braids. It's like being permanently APL-length.

So I technically have long hair if you go by length alone, but like most curly and wavy haired people, my hair seems to grow out more than down. Bleh.

Thank god for Game of Thrones, where they go crazy with half-ups and awesome braids.

[Kwantslonghair]

Oh dear. The foot went into the mouth and just lodged there, didn't it. Sorry. I did not mean to imply that those posting a lot were 'showing off'. I love to be on this board and admire people like spidermom's hair. I just meant that those posting were less likely to be shy about their hair, because they do tend to be the people who have more of it/in better condition (often because they have gained wisdom from being on here a long time which they are sharing with us.)
I will go and crawl into a hole now.
I do hope my foot in mouth has the side effect of making people with thinner hair less shy about posting, though. there are people who need to see your lovely hair (which is not necessarily iii or even ii thickness) in order to be encouraged, so go ahead and do that, please! I'd love a variety on here.


Don't worry about it. I too, just love seeing a variety of hair lengths/types. I mostly just love the shared love for long hair.

[Komao]

I think if my hair was knee length, I still wouldn't think my hair was long! I don't think, when I look in the mirror I see what everybody else sees. People tell me all the time how long it is and I know if I :scissors: it shudder shudder: that thought, I would then say, gee my hair was long:crazyq: so in conclusion, I do believe I have Hair Anorexia.
Does anyone know of a cure?

[Annibelle]

I have a 3" ponytail, which looks 3" when ponytailed, but looks significantly thinner if I leave it down. I've come to realize that part of the reason is that my thickness is concentrated in the back-- my sides are sparse. So my hair looks much thicker when in a ponytail or even a half ponytail than when it's down. So that's how I wear my hair when it's not bunned. (And I have a puny bun.) IRL I see so many heads of 5" thick hair-- down to hips, even!-- and it makes me feel so self-conscious. They just wake up with gorgeous hair, and I struggle every day to have mediocre hair. :/ I don't have hair dysmorphia. I just realize that some people have naturally beautiful hair, and some of us have to struggle much more for it. Same with everything in life, I guess...

[Rio040113]

After losing 1 inch+ of my thickness (trichotillomania :() I think I definitely have a problem with this, despite my hair still measuring within the ii category, I feel self conscious when I go out but I think most of my insecurity comes from the pattern of the thinning, the back and lower sides are fine but the top, especially at the very front, is so so thin from the pulling, I feel like it's very obvious. Hopefully it will continue to grow back in and I'll have my 'hair confidence' back one day ;)

As for feeling like it's shorter than it is, I always do that until I see a good, straight on, back shot of myself then I'm like 'oh! but it feels so short?!' haha. I think I drive my bf crazy asking him if girls with bsl-ish hair have longer hair than me but it just really doesn't feel waist+/hip at all!

Rio.

[chen bao jun]

Thanks for being so nice to me guys.
On a side note, yesterday a friend came over and let me play in her hair (well, we were trying on hair clips, technically). She has BEAUTIFUL hair, it was so fun. She definitely also has thin hair. I don't think is 1 1/2 inch circumference. Its maybe 1b. she's a natural what we in the US call 'dark blond' but to me it looks just blond. She has virgin hair, probably because she can't do anything, she's Scandinavian blonde in terms of ultra baby fine hair and if she messed with heat or chemicals it would all come off. It feels so silky and soft and looks so ethereal! the fine hairs make like a little halo around her face when not brushed down and she's so pretty. They picked her to play the angel in our Christmas play last year, even though she's way over 40 because she just LOOKS angelic and a lot of it is the hair. Of course she's complaining about it like crazy. It's bra strap bottom length. I had fun showing her how to put it up with sticks. she had been using a broken claw clip (cringe).
I had a lot of fun, I like playing in different hair types. as I said before, my hair is really really thick, but I didn't feel having thick hair was better or worse, both of our hair types look good on us and feel good in different ways and can do different things, that's all.
I WAS struck again by how the baby fineness of her hair was similar to my mother's fineness. They have really different hair as my mother is a very African hairtype, supercurly, much more so than me. She also has lovely hair, though its recovering from being brutalized. Yet, although her hair looks and feels so different than my friends, they have a lot of the same issues just from having such very fine hair. It weighs down easily with any product, it breaks off super easily and needs extreme gentleness in both cases (from having dealt with my mom's hair, I knew that I had to handle my friend's hair much differently than I can get away with doing with mine, which is so very very coarse)--Its so interesting the variety among humans and the beauty of our different variations.

[donnalouise]

The longer my hair gets, the thinner it feels, even though when i measure it it's just the same as always. I think it's just a natural consequence of it being long, in the same way that really tall people look thinner even though they have the same sized waist as a smaller person. The longer your hair gets the more proportionally thinner the ponytail appears.

[chen bao jun]

T The longer your hair gets the more proportionally thinner the ponytail appears.
Naw, the longer my hair gets the more its sticks out sideways. So it depends on your hair type, not your length alone.
That's why people with seriously thick hair either have pixie cuts or grow their hair long enough so that they can braid it or put it up (so other people can't see that it's totally out of control). I don't even like to wear ponytails. I wear braids because the monster NEEDs containment.
I bet your ponytail is silky and pretty.

[Foxylocks]

My hair feels very thin to me, and people IRL always exclaim "Oh, your hair is so thin!" which does not help. My hair is 2.75-3 inches in circumference, which is supposed to be normal, but it doesn't feel that way to me. Or to anyone else, apparently.

[Sharysa]

Naw, the longer my hair gets the more its sticks out sideways. So it depends on your hair type, not your length alone.
That's why people with seriously thick hair either have pixie cuts or grow their hair long enough so that they can braid it or put it up (so other people can't see that it's totally out of control). I don't even like to wear ponytails. I wear braids because the monster NEEDs containment.

This here. Is the truth.

[Crumpet]

Thanks for being so nice to me guys.
I WAS struck again by how the baby fineness of her hair was similar to my mother's fineness. They have really different hair as my mother is a very African hairtype, supercurly, much more so than me. She also has lovely hair, though its recovering from being brutalized. Yet, although her hair looks and feels so different than my friends, they have a lot of the same issues just from having such very fine hair. It weighs down easily with any product, it breaks off super easily and needs extreme gentleness in both cases (from having dealt with my mom's hair, I knew that I had to handle my friend's hair much differently than I can get away with doing with mine, which is so very very coarse)--Its so interesting the variety among humans and the beauty of our different variations.

SO true! I have hair a bit like your friend's hair -- blonde, fine, thin but probably not as thin as her hair. I have several friends with African hair and we have very similar issues and love similar products. I'm always fascinated by the different hair types, but also by the similarities between hair types that seem like they would be very different.

[donnalouise]

Naw, the longer my hair gets the more its sticks out sideways. So it depends on your hair type, not your length alone.
That's why people with seriously thick hair either have pixie cuts or grow their hair long enough so that they can braid it or put it up (so other people can't see that it's totally out of control). I don't even like to wear ponytails. I wear braids because the monster NEEDs containment.
I bet your ponytail is silky and pretty.


I had my hair chemically straightened (yuko), so it's super straight, so you are right. My natural hair does grow sideways so i get that, infact hated the sideways thing so much i went and changed it even though it could have damaged my hair. Going from my natural bushy hair to straight i did lose a lot of thickness i think just because the hair now lies so smoothly together (currently around 9cm thickness vs 14cm natural).

[chen bao jun]

SO true! I have hair a bit like your friend's hair -- blonde, fine, thin but probably not as thin as her hair. I have several friends with African hair and we have very similar issues and love similar products. I'm always fascinated by the different hair types, but also by the similarities between hair types that seem like they would be very different.
Yes, her hair really is beautiful. If it were any thicker(more volume) or less baby fine it would not have just the look that it has, which is, as I said, angelic. It really goes with her very serene face. She has high cheekbones and very blue eyes with faint eyebrows and pale lashes and her whole face is very sculpted--fuller hair would take the attention off the face and ruin the angel or Renaissance Madonna type look that she has. the hair is just the right frame.

[chen bao jun]

SO true! I have hair a bit like your friend's hair -- blonde, fine, thin but probably not as thin as her hair. I have several friends with African hair and we have very similar issues and love similar products. I'm always fascinated by the different hair types, but also by the similarities between hair types that seem like they would be very different.
Yes, people are always shocked to find that this is true. I think a lot of the words traditionally used to describe African hair types such as 'coarse' or 'hard' or 'wirey' lead people to believe the texture is different than it is, especially if they have never touched it. the vast majority of people with African hair types have not fine, but superfine hair in terms of hair strand width. Which creates a unique set of problems--in one word: BREAKAGE.
My mom's hair is amazingly soft. It feels feathery and light.
I have coarse hair from my dad and living in the black community, hairdressers actually did not know what to do with my hair, they had no idea what to do with coarse strands. When I went to an Asian hairdresser (Korean) she was the best hairdresser I ever had, even though my hair is very curly (3c), the coarseness was something familiar to her and she could handle it easily. this subject is indeed a very interesting one.