How to determine true hair thickness

[Arwenlily]

I'm not convinced on my thickness, whether it is ii or iii or even ii/iii. When I put my hair up in ponytail towards the back of my head and I measure the circumference, it is usually about 5 inches. However, I don't think my hair looks like it is iii because from my shoulders to the rest of my length, my hair gradually gets thinner to where the ends are pretty tiny. I think this is because of breakage, the result of previous hair dying and mechanical damage. I could really be doing better but I since my ends are damaged, anything I do is damaging.

But anyway, what is truly my hair thickness? Where my pony tail sits or the rest of my hair?

[burny]

thickness is measured at pony tail: a taper is fully normal, and different people have varying amounts of taper

[kidari]

I'm pretty sure it's at the base of a compact pony tail when it's dry. Taper doesn't mean breakage necessarily. Hair is in a different growth cycle all over your head so every single hair can never be the same length at any time even if you never have bangs or layers.

[Arwenlily]

I'm pretty sure it's at the base of a compact pony tail when it's dry. Taper doesn't mean breakage necessarily. Hair is in a different growth cycle all over your head so every single hair can never be the same length at any time even if you never have bangs or layers.

This is a very interesting point you made about growth cycle; I had not even considered this. Is there a way to truly tell what the taper is from?

And if I measure the base of a compact pony tail when dry, it comes out to 4 inches. When I do a pony tail higher on my head and measure, it is usually about 5 inches. I wonder why this is ...

[hennalonghair]

That's interesting that you get different readings.
If you measured either 4 or 5 then you are still in the iii category. I've never tried measuring from a high ponytail so didn't notice a difference with mine.

[yogagirl]

With your curls, I'm not surprised you get such different numbers. It all depends on how much you compact your hair when making the ponytail for measuring.

I have a slightly wavy, coarse and kinky hair. It is frizzy especially the day after a wash. Day 2 after a wash my hair is considerably sleeker. I get about a 1 inch difference when I measure on a wavy and frizzy day, versus a sleek day.

[Panth]

This is a very interesting point you made about growth cycle; I had not even considered this. Is there a way to truly tell what the taper is from?

And if I measure the base of a compact pony tail when dry, it comes out to 4 inches. When I do a pony tail higher on my head and measure, it is usually about 5 inches. I wonder why this is ...

It's probably because of one of two things:

1) Curls make compaction of ponytail variable and thickness difficult to measure.

2) You may have a fair amount of new growth. The bits coming from the upper part / front of your head won't reach a nape ponytail until they're 6+" long, but they will reach a higher ponytail. Your thickness difference may come from whether or not you are including these hairs in your ponytail.