What is it about children or childhood that makes them have thick, beautiful hair?

[Sweetalexandria]

I have noticed many children have thick, lovely hair. Even some children who are fed on a poor diet. I work in a store and there was this adorable little girl (about 8-10 years old) with a very healthy, thick and silky long plait. (The times I have wanted to compliment people's children about their hair!) but I thought that would sound rather odd.

Some little girls have plaits, too large for their little frame.

Ive also talked to a few young people, around 18-26 age group and noticed their hair was thinning and they told me how their hair started to get thinner. But when I saw them as a child (8-14 years old), they had such thick hair and I wondered what had changed.

I don't know whether it is just my observations but what makes children have thick hair?

[lazuliblue]

To me there always seems to be a mixture: some kids have really thick hair, others have average thickness and then there are those with thinner hair. As to why it gets thinner as people get older, it might be because the teenage years are the time when kids start dying, straightening, curling their hair, which damages it and potentially leads to it being less healthy.

[Hairkay]

There's also changes in hormones, diets and the fact that since they get physically bigger the hair ratio to body looks different.

It also depends on hair types and what kind of experimentation the young people are doing on their hair. In my family hair never gets thin. My own retired mother still has thick hair.

[vega]

I've seen plenty of children with very fine hair also , i haven't noticed any trends

[Johannah]

To me there always seems to be a mixture: some kids have really thick hair, others have average thickness and then there are those with thinner hair. As to why it gets thinner as people get older, it might be because the teenage years are the time when kids start dying, straightening, curling their hair, which damages it and potentially leads to it being less healthy.

Yes, I was thinking about this as well.

[laceyfairy]

I think I had pretty thin hair as a kid but maybe it relates to how kids tend to be blonder and blondes tend to have more follicles

[yogagirl]

My hair was extremely thick as a child. It started getting thinner in my mid-twenties. Before that I would have hair dressers thin it for me when I got trims. My hair was natural and mostly left unstyled, so I'm pretty sure my gradual hair loss was not due to damage. I also eat better now than I ever had. I think it's hormonal in my case.

[lapushka]

Yeah, no. Not all children have thick hair. I'm iii now, but that's largely due to puberty. I was a regular middle of the road ii before that. And even a i/ii as a single digit kid.

[*ReiKa*]

I might be the exception to the rule, but I'm pretty sure that my hair is thicker now than when I was younger. Or it might just be that it's not changed, but looking at the pictures I do not see thicker hair on the "younger me".
I also have seen many children with thin hair.
Overall, I don't think that the density can change that much between childhood and adulthood, but it definitely can happen when you hit menopause (I've seen it on my mum).

[Larki]

I've noticed that most blonde kids have thin hair. Makes sense, because blonde hair is naturally finer. Other than that, I have no idea!

[FuzzyBlackWaves]

My natural colour and texture has changed vastly over the course of my life. My hair was very light blonde, thin, fine and straight up until age 8. Then until 11 it was chestnut brown, medium, straight. It then went black, very thick and wavy until around 14. Now, at 22, it's medium thickness, very wavy and naturally light blonde. And that's all the natural colours and textures, not how I dyed it or styled it.

I'm guessing the environment, hormones and diet are huge factors.

[lapushka]

I've noticed that most blonde kids have thin hair. Makes sense, because blonde hair is naturally finer. Other than that, I have no idea!

My hair was a very light blonde as a child, and as it got darker it got thicker. Go figure. Then when puberty hit, well... it went wavy, frizzy, and iii (pouf). I did have major hairloss (abnormal hairloss) when that transition happened, which is weird.

[M-L-E]

Hormonal imbalances can have a big impact on hair thickness/health, which obviously doesn't affect young children. Whenever I see children with beautiful thick hair, I secretly hope they never ruin it with dye and heat when they get older! Really don't think there is a particular pattern, though :) My hair has become thicker as I've got older, thank goodness...

[endlessly]

As a child, my hair was very thick - almost too thick at times according to my mother, hence why she always kept it styled very short. As I grew, I noticed it starting to get a bit thinner especially as it became longer and it was at its absolute thinnest around the time I had graduated from High School. The reasoning? I started coloring and heat styling my hair which caused quite a bit of damage and breakage. Once I started college, I cut my classic-length hair just a bit longer than my shoulders and from then on, started taking better care of myself as well as the health of my hair.

So, I have to think the reason some children have such thick, healthy hair has to do almost entirely with the fact that they're really not doing much to their hair. They don't color-treat it, most don't use a heat styling tool with the exception of a hair dryer, and if it's longer, then it's almost always in some sort of braid or ponytail. I abused the hell out of my hair as a teenager, but I was one of the few who actually learned from their mistakes and now, my hair is even thicker than it was when I was a child.

I do know what you mean about feeling weird complimenting children on their hair! I met a little girl back when I worked in a mall who had a braid that was as long and thick as my arm - and she was only 8 or 9-years-old! I was helping her mother with makeup and told her, "Never let your little girl cut her hair, it's absolutely gorgeous." Thankfully, the mom didn't find my comment weird, just agreed with me - she also had extremely long, thick hair by the way - then she complimented me on my hair. All in all, it was a wonderful scenario, but I haven't always been so lucky!

[Arctic]

I think thin and avarage hair is also beautiful. This thread seems to imply only thick hair on child is beautiful.

[Beborani]

I think thin and avarage hair is also beautiful. This thread seems to imply only thick hair on child is beautiful.


Agree! I was a thick-haired child but my daughter has always had average hair (would count as thin on lhc) and I think it was/is beautiful.

[Seeshami]

Children are small. Their hair is physically shorter in all aspects then an adult at any given length that is not a pixie or buzz

[-Fern]

I think everyone in my family has/had thinner hair as a child, and it got thicker as we passed puberty, then thinner again as we got older. I think everyone's just different, and as others mentioned: healthy hair is beautiful no matter the length or thickness! :D

[Nadine <3]

My hair was very thin and almost white as a child. I think more often than not I see children with pretty thin baby hair. It's pretty rare formetofind abig thick braidon a child, but it's probably just genetics.

[Arctic]

Here in Finland the stereotypical hairtype is very fine, straight and thin, and children often have super fine, wispy, thin, weightless as air hair. Not all, ofcourse, there is a wide range of hairtypes here, too. But many many children have this particular hair type, I have seen it being refered as "cat hair" or "Scandinavian hair" or gossamer-like hair. I think it looks adorable :D

[divinedobbie]

I agree with Nadine<3 and Arctic. I honestly haven't seen a lot of children with thick hair. Most children I see have very fine, light, wispy hair.

[DizzyGinger]

Both me and my little sister had the finest, wispiest hair as kids and once we hit puberty it got insanely thick

So it definitely depends

[nicolezoie]

I haven't read thoroughly through the whole thread but this is my perspective..

We're born with all the follicles we'll ever have.

Our hair type changes from cradle hair to adult hair over time. Some of us get 'adult' hair earlier than others.

With that being said, I think it's a perception thing. Little heads with adult quantity hair make it seem like the little ones have extraordinarily thick hair.

[jeanniet]

I had very thick hair as a child, although it didn't come in until I was 4 or 5. Still have thick hair. My son had quite fine, thinnish hair as a toddler until he was about 5, and now he has very thick, strong hair (I'd guess 6" at least). It may be that you are noticing the thicker-haired children, but there are plenty of kids with thinner hair, too.

[woodswanderer]

I certainly had thicker hair as a teenager(I don't remember how thick my childhood hair was). I wouldn't call it thin now, but it was considerably thicker before.

[tigereye]

I had really thin hair as a child, but I think that was mostly due to the insane fineness and wispiness of it. It thickened up to a solid iii by the time I reached university. Sadly, I've had progressive levels of medication-induced shed the past two years, reducing my hair into mid-IIs, which I'm hoping is now over and stable. I have hope that it'll grow back over time, and the baby hairs I have going on seem somewhat promising.

[DreamSheep]

Strange, I only see very thin hair on kids I'd say!
Even when I was little, I was the only kid with super thick hair, virtually every other kid had i/ii hair.

[Hairkay]

My younger sis hair was finer than the rest of us. It hung more than stick out so it was longer or appeared longest of us. When she got to around 9 it got thicker and drier so the ends would break off more often. It appeared shorter. I've seen children with thin hair and those with thick hair from babyhood.

[Larki]

There was a girl a few years younger than me who I was just in awe of in middle school. She played tennis, and she was gorgeous (could've been a model - might be now for all I know!) and her hair was this beautiful shade of brown, probably around classic length, and always in a braid. I don't remember whether it was particularly thick, I was so focused on the length and the color - that was the longest hair I'd ever seen, and I was so jealous! It's still the second longest hair I've seen in real life, and that was probably ten years ago now!

[Lady Mary]

Or... Same amount of hair (child vs teen) but much larger head! Haha :)

[chen bao jun]

Children don't usu ally change their hair texture.

In the cases where they do like afro curly kids having h a ir straightneed young, then they also have thin, messed up hair, then being defined he re not as as naturally grows out of head thin, but destroyed thin. There is a difference.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I don't really have much in the way of childhood photos but this is me as a baby (no hair) and a toddler (blonde sproingy curls) Sorry for photo quality - obviously the pics are old and not digital.

http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/Sarahlabyrinth/DSCF9439.jpg http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/Sarahlabyrinth/DSCF9440.jpg

[gwenalyn]

I also am doubtful that kids usually have thick hair. It might be true, it might not be, I'm not sure--but more likely you are noticing kids with thick hair more frequently, and forgetting all the times you see children with thin hair.

[chen bao jun]

I really think the OP meant by 'thick' just simply 'undamaged'. Maybe she can weigh in again to clarify. I don't think she was saying all kids have thick hair but that their hair was not 'thin'--not meaning naturally, healthily thin, but scanty from damage. A whole lot of adults have hair that is obviously not supposed to be as thin as it currently is, its not saying that thin hair is bad to notice that.

[MINAKO]

Dont forget that kids have a bigger head in relation to their bodies, makes it easier for hair to cover tha shoulders and back i guess.
If i remember my childhood, there were actually very few girls with really thick hair in my school if we are talking iii. More super straight, thin and silky for sure. On average the thick haired ones were either mediterranian, oriental, or very very light blonde scandinavian looking girls.
I only remember one of them crastyl clear for her thickness, she was from SriLanka and had the blackest hair possible, always in twin braids each tassle the circumference of other girls (on the thicker side) entire head of hair

[StellaKatherine]

I didn't have much of a hair as child. So for me it was opposite. The older I was getting the more hair was growing and the more darker it turned :)

[lapushka]

I didn't have much of a hair as child. So for me it was opposite. The older I was getting the more hair was growing and the more darker it turned :)

Same with me, and I was a very light blond as a kid. Born with black hair, though, but that fell out and by the time I was 2 I had gotten over being bald and got wispy light hair.

[Cania]

I'm another who had thin, blonde hair that eventually turned thick, coarse and brown.

[Wosie]

Indeed; I doubt that your hair gets thinner as you leave childhood (rather thicker in most cases), but I do believe that all the stress that many grownups put on their hair damages the hair's cuticle enough so that it breaks off earlier than it was supposed to. I also read that the vast majority of women colour their hair, and that might also thin out the hair. Many people wash their hair daily (often with harsh shampoos), and I don't think (?) children do so. I know I didn't. :p

[lapushka]

I think it's all as varied as with adults. Not all children have thick hair, that's a myth, sorry.

[ladonna]

I have never noticed this. I have 3 long haired children...
My dd10 had always had very straight thin hair, but she been going through puberty and now her hair is growing in fairly thick coarse and wavy/curly. My dd6 has average thickness hair, my ds4 has the thickest hair compared to his sister at his age.

[Sharysa]

Kids have as much variation as adults.

Black hair aside, when I was little, my hair was either thin or fine, straight, and very shiny. Now it's a behemoth iii/iv ponytail with coarse strands, wavy, and matte.