Stretchy hair?

[EvilPigeon]

This may sound like a rather odd question...but in the past I have heard from folks that if you take a strand of hair, wrap it around your fingers and pull, it will help determine the elasticity and/or of your hair...i.e stretchy = healthy hair, won't stretch=damaged hair. Is there any validity to this?

[Delilah]

I think it varies by hairtype. It seems thicker hair would be more likely to stretch little and thin hair would be more likely to stretch a lot.
I remember seeing on the old boards a 'test' you could do where you took a piece of hair 'x' inches long and see how many inches it would stretch before it snapped.
Personally for my hair I can tell it's strong and well moisturised when it stretches more. I often stretch shed hairs to see how far they will go before snapping.

[IdiotBird]

It would probably help to some degree, because if your hair is very brittle, of course it'll snap quicker! But if your hair is so brittle it snaps at the drop of the hat...well, you really don't need to pull it to know it's not healthy. =P

[Meli]

I read somewhere that it depends on the protein/moisture balance in the hair. Healthy hair should stretch and then go back to its original shape. If there is too much protein, the hair will snap with little or no stretching. If there is too much moisture, the hair will stretch very long before it snaps. Or it can also stretch very long without snapping, but it won't go back to it's original shape either - the stretched part will be weaker and more breakage-prone. Unfortunately I cannot find the link to the page where I read this - I got the link from the old LCH... :(