Misperception of hair length?

[GoddesJourney]

Has anyone noticed that people tell you your hair is long right after you cut it? I've noticed that at least 80% of the time someone says, "Wow, your hair is really long!" "Your hair has gotten so long!" "Look at your long hair!" or whatever it may be, it's within a week or two of cutting at least an inch or two from my hair.

Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me? Do they just notice my hair more because the ends look blunt? Do layers/stringy ends make it look shorter? Does this happen to anyone else or is it just me?

[Angellen]

My guess is that it's because something's a little different about your hair, but not something as drastic as a big cut. Interesting phenomena. :p

[Stevy]

As far as I can tell, people are just really useless at estimating hair length, full stop. The number of times someone has said to me 'Oh, Charlotte has beautiful hair, it's down to her waist' and I've met Charlotte and her hair's barely past BSL...

[manderly]

For me at least, my hair always seemed longer after getting a cut. This is because I would have my layers cleaned up. When my layers got too long they would kind of tangle up my ends and create a bit of a mat and shorten it up. When my layers were freshly cut this no longer happened and my ends were free to hang longer and unmatted. Make sense?

Otherwise it's generally that people notice a slight change but can't quite figure out what it is, but length tends to be a good guess :)

[HotRag]

It could be that hair looks longer when it has a more even hem. If it just is about one inch or less that has been trimmed off.

[GoddesJourney]

This happened to me a lot before I started growing it out. About three times a year I would cut of two- three inches, maybe more if I let it go longer. The last cut deepened my V, so it was about one inch off the back, two inches off the front.

[Curlsgirl]

I have never had that happen but then again I haven't trimmed my hair that much in quite a while.

[theshadowpuppet]

Maybe if you tend to leave your hair down right after a trim? Then it's just that people happen to see your hair and realize it's long, whereas if it's up...

[GoddesJourney]

I rarely wear it up.