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View Full Version : If you haven't measured yet ... consider it.



Impulsive
October 15th, 2014, 03:18 PM
For years people told me I have thick hair and for years I've always replied that my hair isn't really thick, it just looks thick because the curls expand so much. When I first joined this forum I guessed my thickness as the thin side of ii. I didn't measure, I just guessed. I guessed ii because I was certain I wasn't a iii and I thought I had too many people telling me I had thick hair to be a i.

Not too long ago, I had a friend comment on how thick my hair was, and as usual I said it's not that thick ... and she just insisted that it is. So ... I asked her to take a picture of my braids so we could compare it to pictures of people with iii thickness on this forum and I could prove once and for all that my hair isn't thick. And that's when something a little funny happened. I don't get to see what the top of my hair looks like that often because the only mirror I have is hand sized and there isn't much you can see with it. I'm most familiar with the ends of my hair which are about as thick as a pencil and when I looked at the picture, that's exactly what I saw- thin ends which got thicker (as I knew they would, because I have taper and I know it), but I wasn't expecting how thick the hair near my scalp is. Just by looking at the picture, I knew I was a solid ii and was possibly even bordering on a iii. And so, I decided to measure for the first time ever. I never would have guessed it, but it turns out my circumference is actually hovering around 4.25 inches.

I'm glad I did this because I've been feeling down about my hair lately and now not only am I feeling better about my hair, but I know exactly what I'm working with which I can only imagine will help me better care for my hair. I'm not sure where I got the impression that my hair was so much thinner than it actually is ... low self-esteem ? staring at some of the massive braids on this site?? other??? only focusing on one section (the thinnest section) of my hair ???? (a likely culprit, and a lesson to look at the whole and not just a piece) who knows ... but I was apparently dead wrong.

And, finally, the point of this post: I wanted to share this little experience with all of you, because if anyone did like I did and just guessed at their thickness (or length), then it might be a good idea to measure; You just might be pleasantly surprised :).

jeanniet
October 15th, 2014, 03:54 PM
I don't understand why everyone seems to buy into this notion of thicker hair is somehow "better." It's not. Hair is hair is hair. I'm not magically more impressive because I have iii hair--it's not like I do anything special--any more than someone with i hair is somehow deficient. Whatever grows out of your head is just fine the way it is, i or ii or iii. I'm glad you feel better about your hair, but you shouldn't let a number dictate feelings. None of us should.

mamaherrera
October 15th, 2014, 03:58 PM
I was shocked but the other way. I always heard people telling me I had thick hair (when I was younger and brushed) but now I don't hear it. when it air dries, it's poofy and big, but meausre my ponytail and it feels so small to me and measures only 3.75" it looks so small compared to the big flowery bush that is my actual ponytail. The elastic gets hidden behind all that poof, but in actuality it's small. ANd my roots, aren't thick, they are normal, but spaced out normally, not OMG tons of hair. I focused so much on the poof and I think everyone else, so now I'm trying to accept this new image for me, which is reality. I don't have that much hair just because the strands are thicker and poofy-ish. In fact, I wish my hair was less poofy and that the strands wouldn't separate so much, because my bangs always "open" up , separate into sections, even if I straighten them, they don't all hang together. So it's not just how much hair you have, but what type of hair you have. I have curls like others 2c/3A, but mine separate and poof and others I've seen here, look like nice/settled/controlled curls as though they have gel in them.

StellaKatherine
October 15th, 2014, 04:06 PM
I was told a lot too , that my hair was thick and I did believed that as my hair does puffs up when brushed because of the waves in it. I remember when I take the first photo of my braid to post here and I almost wanted to cry when I realized, that my braid wasn't as thick as I though it was :) I still wish I would have never taken that photo. Would have never really measured my ponytail (3 inch) . Now every time I make my braid I feel like it just looks smaller and smaller hehe The funny thing is, that I still hear people saying how thick my hair is and this time I say " Nope, it's average" :laugh:

So in the end , not all of us will have the "wow, cool I have thicker hair that I thought"- experiment happening. Some of us will start the journey of " damn, what should I do to thicken up my hair... learn 5,6,7 strand braids.. anything" ;)

ARG
October 15th, 2014, 04:22 PM
I was told my whole life that my hair was thin, and baby fine... nope, average alllll the way. I'm probably more iii than ii because when I did measure, I couldn't factor in my post-partum shed and all that I had lost.


In any case jeanniet, I believe its the social misconception of i thickness being thin and thin ca and iii thickness being healthy and youthful. I am a great admirer of many of the members with i thickness, society tends to prefer iii better and those huge head eating buns (even if they're sock filled).

Larki
October 15th, 2014, 04:24 PM
I'm curious, where did the i/ii/iii classification system come from? Who decided that 4 inches+ is thick, 2-4 inches is average, etc? Is that just something someone on LHC came up with arbitrarily?

Impulsive
October 15th, 2014, 04:38 PM
StellaKatherine, I'm always impressed by your braids. I think they are lovely.

mamaherrera, the description of your ponytail sounds exactly like mine. It always puffs out until it's bigger than my head and the elastic always disappears, too. I always find it difficult to take the elastic out - the puff gets in the way. Perhaps, there's a trick to it?

To clarify, I wasn't depressed because I thought I had thin hair and I don't think that thin hair is bad or thick hair is better. As stated, I thought my hair was on the thinner side for a long time, and I had accepted it. I've been upset with my hair because I've had a lot of split ends and fairy knots for a long time and no matter what I do they don't go away AND my hair doesn't seem to be growing as fast as it used to. I was happy to find I have thicker hair than I thought I did because I'm hoping this means I'll be able to grow longer and still have a nice hemline. I'm also happy because now I have a more accurate understanding of my hair than I had before.

Now if only I could get rid of the split ends and the knots and figure out why I have such a severe taper...

Beckstar
October 15th, 2014, 04:40 PM
I always get comments about how thick my hair is. It really isn't. It's just curly and has a lot of body. Just see my hair when it's wet and you can see a lot of scalp. People at work can't believe how thin my hair looks when it's wet.

LauraLongLocks
October 15th, 2014, 04:54 PM
I'm curious, where did the i/ii/iii classification system come from? Who decided that 4 inches+ is thick, 2-4 inches is average, etc? Is that just something someone on LHC came up with arbitrarily?

I want to know the same thing!

3" or 7.5 cm circumference here. Average, but with a very high thread count, as one person said on FB. Fine hair with average thickness means I probably have a lot of follicles. I think a fun experiment would be to count a square centimeter of strands and then figure a ballpark estimate of my total scalp area and figure how many follicles I have. I know I have a lot more than my friend with coarse hair, but her hair is thicker because the strands themselves are so coarse.

Larki
October 15th, 2014, 05:03 PM
I also thought my hair was thin for a long time (up until a month or so ago, in fact) because for the last ten or so years, all I've heard from my mother regarding my hair was that it was so much thinner and duller than it had been when I was a young child. So I thought my hair was thin this whole time, until I came here - initially I came in at a solid ii, 3.25", and currently I'm 3.8" or 4.0" if I include my bangs, so a ii/iii.

Entangled
October 15th, 2014, 05:12 PM
The reverse happened to me. I always thought my hair was very thin, when in fact it's on the thicker end of average. I didn't really know anything about hair at that point, only that some hair always looked nice while mine floofed.

mamaherrera
October 15th, 2014, 05:29 PM
NO and my hair doesn't puff up as much as it used to because I don't stick a comb or brush in it when it's damp. But yes, my hair looks like so very little hair when wet, and I think to myself, did I never SEE this before when I was younger, at how little it was, I guess I never paid attention. but I found a pic of me ten years ago and my hair was damp, and yes, it was very little then too. I guess we focus in more on those things people say than on what it really is.

yes, I know I have less follicles than most, because my hair is thicker, the strands, but if you compare my head to my whole family's head, you can see my pores are more "spaced out", all equally spaced, but less dense than the rest, but all of them have thinner hair strands than me. I imagine there are people with the best of both worrlds too, with super thick strands and super high density, that would be fun to have for a day!! But yes, I don't have as many follicles as the rest of you with the fine strands, I get jealous at times, cuz I can see more scalp than you all because of it, or my part looks wider than you all, because they are farther apart.

but yeah, I mean curly haired ponytails always look smaller than me, because of that "flower" pony and the actual elastic looks smaller than that, but straight-haired people ponytails always look so buff, and thick to me, cuz there's no air/transparency, just all this hair spilling out of the elastic!!

tokugawa.miyako
October 15th, 2014, 07:06 PM
I had been told my whole life that I had thick hair, but when I finally measured it I found out I was average. That really doesn't bother me much, I'm ok with my thickness as long as it doesn't suddenly become thinner for no good reason. :)

mamaherrera
October 15th, 2014, 07:12 PM
Exactly what I say!

Impulsive
October 15th, 2014, 08:29 PM
I have no idea who came up with the classification system, but I agree that I would like to know the origin.

LauraLongLocks, that does sound like a fun experiment, though I don't think I have the patience for it. It seems like it would be really easy to miscount and I can just see myself losing count and then starting over frustrated many times. If you ever decide to do it, I hope you'll let us know the results.

mamaherrera
October 15th, 2014, 09:39 PM
I've gotten tempted to do this too. but I would be depressed at seeing how few follicles I have!


I want to know the same thing!

3" or 7.5 cm circumference here. Average, but with a very high thread count, as one person said on FB. Fine hair with average thickness means I probably have a lot of follicles. I think a fun experiment would be to count a square centimeter of strands and then figure a ballpark estimate of my total scalp area and figure how many follicles I have. I know I have a lot more than my friend with coarse hair, but her hair is thicker because the strands themselves are so coarse.

mamaherrera
October 15th, 2014, 09:41 PM
as soon as I sleep on mine, or braid it, the poof/body is completely gone. Its' only temporary and then you see just how much hair I really have. I used to brush daily so that would bring body back, but now that I don't, it is what it is!

Adiro
October 15th, 2014, 11:34 PM
I think with hair, the looks are more important than what is inside :)

if it looks luscious and rich, then it is!

Who's ever gonna look at you, grab your hair, compact it and measure your pony when all they want to say is "you look beautiful" ?!?

just try to make your hair look good, keep it healthy and relax! classifications are most often arbitrary

RainbowBowser
October 15th, 2014, 11:59 PM
I do measure every now and then to make sure I'm not crazy and I am in fact not losing my hair (my circumference usually hangs around Pi-3.2 and if I feel like its thinner I start worrying for no real reason)
I did feel a lot better coming on here to see how perfectly average my hair thickness is, I had complained in the past about my hair being so thin, but its not :) I'm happy with average/middle

mamaherrera
October 16th, 2014, 12:35 AM
YOu sound just like me. Every once in a while, I get this fear or think I'm losing hair or that it's thinner, for no real reason, just because and I meausure. Now I caught myself in a jam, because this happened last weekend and in for the first time in my life it did actually measure out smaller, went down half a centimeter. I know it's not much, but just to see it go past my usual mark worries me. But then my husband says, "Andrea, you just had a baby 9 months ago, and it's fall (shed season), so I HOPE to God that is all it is?? I've gone through other fall seasons and never seen it go down, so I hope it's from the baby. I didn't have much of a shed (thank God) but maybe it was just all that extra hair that accumulated during pregnancy that came out and now it went back to normal measurement. so as long as it doesn't continue to go down.


I do measure every now and then to make sure I'm not crazy and I am in fact not losing my hair (my circumference usually hangs around Pi-3.2 and if I feel like its thinner I start worrying for no real reason)
I did feel a lot better coming on here to see how perfectly average my hair thickness is, I had complained in the past about my hair being so thin, but its not :) I'm happy with average/middle

StellaKatherine
October 16th, 2014, 01:39 AM
StellaKatherine, I'm always impressed by your braids. I think they are lovely.


Awww, thank you, you'r too sweet to say so :o