Rather ominous topic: Can Hair Shrink?

[Tangles]

I was just wondering if it's technically possible for the hemline to move up, instead of down, without the aid of scissors. I'm fairly certain I'm just experiencing a bit of a stall--but when my hair curls up, I sometimes fear that I am, indeed, losing inches!

[Speckla]

Only if you had severe damage that is causing breakage. Curling up more with be a good reason the hemline seems to measure shorter.
________
Extreme q vaporizer (http://www.vaporshop.com/extreme-q-vaporizer.html)

[silkenblacksea]

Why mine does all the time! :justy: ( shrinkage!!!) :justy: But don't worry, it always comes back down again:D.
But, seriously, perhaps your hair is responding to the TLC by curling more?

[manderly]

My hair always got longer after a haircut. That's because I got layers cut in, which allowed the longest layers to be freed from tangling from the shorter layers, hence, my hair actually got longer when I removed the problem areas.

Could be your hair is just kind of lightly tangling with itself on the ends, causing it to appear shorter than it is.

[kelsoberry]

Hair will shrink a little with the humidity for example after a rainstorm when the sun comes out. But once everything dries out again, it should straighten back out. Depending on how curly your hair is naturally you might be losing some length.

[spidermom]

Yes, I believe this can happen: you shed out all of your longest hairs. It happened to me around waist length.

[~GypsyCurls~]

Yep...I am waist length, having breakage, and you eill always lose hair no matter what your length.

[Elainehali]

I could see how the longest strands of fairytailed hair could be shed close to the same time.

However I dont think hair will retract into your head to spite you. :D

[Darkhorse1]

If hair breaks off, it will be shorter--outside of cutting it. I have a curl that makes my hair/hemline seem sorter. If you have a natural curl in your hair it will 'hike' the length up. Hope that helps :)

[ReddishRocks]

"Shrinkage" is a hot topic in curly communities. If your curl pattern is tightening, it will definitely seem like you're losing length. :o I'm getting tighter curls since I went CG, and my dry length is shorter than when I started 4 months ago. Many curlies therefore measure their length stretched out. :) HTH!

[Darkhorse1]

RR--funny, people think I can cut my own hair, but when you wet it and put scissors into it, whammo--instant curl at the ends. It's quite amusing! I warned hair dressers about it and they started to laugh and said 'I didn't think it was true, but you are right!'. I said that was partly the reason I grew it out.

When I get a trim, even a mini-one, my ends will curl up and it seems way shorter than a mini trim. Once the splits are gone, my curl springs up. :D

[Tangles]

Interesting, spidermom, that you lost length at waist length due to shedding.

I'm pretty sure most of the perceived shrinkage is because when I went home, to a more humid climate, my hair starting curling a bit more. It is possible, however, that this big shed I continue to experience has shed out mostly long hairs. There is no breakage, however.

I'm starting to massage my scalp in hopes of stopping this shed, and I've contemplated going sulfate-free and see if that helps.

Beginning to think it might take longer than I thought to get to BSL, but I will try to remain positive.

It is almost tempting to trim in an attempt to regain lost thickness, and because I'm not growing anyway, but I know I'd regret it.