Perception of our own hair

[Bri-Chan]

Yesterday I saw a girl with a long and healthy ponytail (about hip length). I was with a friend and I said "look how beautiful her hair is!" and my friend answered me "I prefer your because it is thicker". I was surprised because I thought the opposite thing and this made me thought about the perception we have of our hair. Have you ever thought about it?

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Yes, I often think we don't see our own hair as it is seen by others, and it's a shame that we are so hard on ourselves about it. I'm not sure how to change this, though.

[Ylva]

I often underestimate my own length and thickness. I've only recently realised that my ponytail circumference is bigger than maybe 90% of the people I encounter in my daily life. My hair is brushing BCL right now but to me it feels about BSL even though it's been years upon years since my hair was that length (maintained between hip and BCL for a really long time without a particular intention to do so).

[SleepyTangles]

Ditto. My hairline is quite high and feathery, so I always feel like I have thin hair. My ponytail circumference is perfectly fine tough, probably better than average (most hair here is somehow thinned out by dyes and heath tools)

[Belgrade Beauty]

I often underestimate my own length and thickness. I've only recently realised that my ponytail circumference is bigger than maybe 90% of the people I encounter in my daily life. My hair is brushing BCL right now but to me it feels about BSL even though it's been years upon years since my hair was that length (maintained between hip and BCL for a really long time without a particular intention to do so).

Same here..Except I don't really have that length..XD But when I first registered and had to type my hair I put 'i' without measuring. I was convinced my hair is really thin. Than I measured the circumference of pony, it was between 8 and 9 cm,so between 3,14-3.20 inch which is not that bad. But I just have so many girls around me with thicker hair that I made myself believe mine is as thin as it gets..But I guess it's just because I have fine hair.

[Juicetine]

This happens to me with my sister. She’s a year younger and has solidly hip length hair. Her hair can withstand dyes and heating tools pretty well while mine will burn or go brittle. Our hair is around the same length except I have a V-hemline but I feel as if my hair is sooooo much shorter. It doesn't help that her hemline is thick and almost straight. However, she sees the grass greener on my side since I'm a 2c and she's in the 1’s.

[Bri-Chan]

I've only recently realised that my ponytail circumference is bigger than maybe 90% of the people I encounter in my daily life.
I always thought that my hair was thin because of the opposite: here the "average" is over iii

[Zesty]

Oh gosh I definitely see my hair and ends as thinner than most other people seem to. I love the inspiration online but sometimes it can create a little dysmorphia I think. I adore my hair but sometimes slip into thinking it's inadequate in one way or another. Doesn't help that we see our hair at its worst but generally see others' at their best.

[lapushka]

I sometimes catch myself. A couple weeks ago we saw a mother & daughter with black sleek hip length hair. I almost wanted to say to my mom, look at that hair. And I'm waaay past this myself. :o It's so odd how that goes.

[Stray_mind]

Well, i don't receive any compliments of my hair outside of LHC so i am pretty sure my hair is exactly how i think it is.

[akurah]

Where I usually get tripped up is when I say "oh person with long hair like me" and then I get funny looks or comments because my hair is a foot or even two feet longer...

[imalda]

Previously, I didn't personally notice until someone commented on my hair. I used not care about it and treated it like any part of my body i.e. it was just there and attached to me, nothing special haha. It was much more convenient to let it grow and do whatever it wanted than try to trim it. It also grew and still grows quite fast. It also doesn't help that I have a sister who has the same attitude to her hair and it's almost the same length as mine. It just seemed normal. Our mother maintains BSL hair though but she never really said anything about our hair either.

Now I personally notice because one of my new year's resolutions was to do more interesting things to my hair. I could only do a braid or leave it completely down. Now I'm learning how to do buns and knowing my thickness and length determines what I can and can't do. I am also looking at lots of hair accessories and trying to work out what will work and won't work so I'm constantly thinking about it now. I think I've thought about my hair more in the last 2 months than my whole life combined :lol:

BUT, I have always taken not of OTHER people's hair! Mainly colour and texture. I have black hair and always liked how beautifully hair accessories would show up against lighter coloured hair. I also admired girls with soft curls to their hair because their hair bounced nicely and hair bows would nestle nicely. Stuff like that would always look funny on my stick straight hair, like they didn't belong.

[Natalia_A00]

I think I perceive my hair shorter than it is. I always have it on my back so it doesn't bother me, so sometimes I don't notice it too much

[jane_marie]

I'm solidly into waist territory again but I feel like I'm still at BSL.

When will I feel like I'm at waist?

[blackgothicdoll]

My hair is a frizzy mess unless I heat style it. So it's a frizzy mess. No one really envies it, and plenty of people have negative things to say. The only compliment I get is that it's long (for my hair type).

We play with the cards were dealt :o

[LittleHealthy]

Yes I have this issue. I had a really long winded, lovely compliment from a friend I hadn't seen in 12 months just recently and she told me she can't believe how long my hair is now, she said "And it's almost to your bottom!!" And I said oh nooo it's only halfway down my back!! And she disagreed. Its a bit of a hair dysmorphia!!

[Shepherdess]

I can completely relate!! Perhaps we don't get as good of views of our hair since we can't really see it on ourselves or at a distance as well as on others since we really can only see it completely in mirrors or in pictures. I notice that even when taking pictures if you angle the camera wrong it can make the hair look shorter, or if it is bad lighting it can make the hair look thinner. I don't know if my hair will ever feel long, but I'm trying to learn to appreciate it more. :p

[kme81]

Yep! Another one here who has a poor handle on her hair length. :rolleyes: I’m now at calf length but my mind seems stuck at somewhere around classic length! I see people with long hair and vaguely wish that my hair could be as long as their’s before my brain catches up and I realize that my hair is a foot or two longer.

I blame the reaction on 1)not being able to see myself from behind, 2)almost constantly wearing my hair up, and 3)not connecting my body proportions to my hair length. By that last one, I mean that I’ve noticed that I have a hard time visualizing what percentage of my height is matched with the length of my hair. I feel that my default thought is that my hair reaches about halfway down my body, when it is actually over 75% of my height, a reality that frankly shocks me every time I see it in a mirror.

[lapis_lazuli]

This reminds me of when I was a kid and how I would look with envy at my classmates that had shiny thinner (and also finer, as I know now) hair and how they could brush it back over their head so smoothly. I remember liking this move so much and wished I could do it. My hair was not nearly as fluid in motion and just got knotted when I tried that. So yes, I've always quietly admired thinner, finer hair like that.

lol kme81 that sounds like me too. I hardly think about my hair, so the fact that it's less than a foot from the ground is often lost on me. Then I see it in pictures, even at the shorter lengths, and I'm like WOAH!! :surprise:

[bokeh]

My hair is a frizzy mess unless I heat style it. So it's a frizzy mess. No one really envies it, and plenty of people have negative things to say. The only compliment I get is that it's long (for my hair type).

We play with the cards were dealt :oI strongly disagree! I visited your album and saw the picture of your hair in a half-up. It’s lovely.

People don’t always share compliments but they sure are quick to criticize!
I’ve stopped trying to see myself through the eyes of others. If I love my hair then it’s beautiful to me!

[Laurenhope29]

I definitely suffer with some hair dysmorphia!! I always look back at old pictures when my hair was the longest it's ever been and i think what the heck? How did i not realize how long my hair actually was?? I always thought it was short. And now after chopping it back to APL it feels extremely short :doh: