So where is this 'hip' thing, anyway?

[Brianna]

I actually posted this in my blog a bit earlier, but then I decided I'd probably get a better response if I put it here instead and deleted it. :rolleyes:


So I've been having some issues figuring out exactly where "hip length" is on me. A description I found somewhere was something like, "at your front hip bones", and I've simply got too much pudge around that area to tell for sure on my own. I'd love some feedback, but I've also taken a couple of pictures with my hands at the area I figure is more or less hip length.

Y'know, where I place my hands when I'm putting them on my hips and it feels like a sort of comfortable area to place them. Hip length is my next goal before tailbone (which is still about 5 to 6 inches away) so knowing where it is is...probably a good idea. :p

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Saerin/Hair/Hip2.jpg

So assuming my hands mark hip length (and please tell me if you think they don't), I might be about an inch or two away at the longest, here? :confused:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Saerin/Hair/Hip1.jpg

And having just about reached it when it's stretched?

I'll call this "progress" in any case. :D And do please excuse the sunny glare.

[manderly]

To ME, hip is the front hip bones (not the back of the pelvis where your hands are resting). Your pelvis is tilted forward, so the hip in the front is lower. Pudge or not, you should be able to feel your hip bones in the front :) Try laying on your side and finding them.

I would still call that waist. You've got a couple inches more (IMHO) before hip. Of course, I'm not the hairlength police so others might say otherwise :D. But it looks fabulous!!

[misstwist]

I think you are right, Manderly.

Waist is usually about where the navel is. High hip is usually right about where the hair down there starts.

Those are the references I use when measuring people for clothes anyway.

[Heavenly Locks]

For me, hip is smack dab half way between 'waist' and 'TB' :)

[Flynn]

I agree that your hands are at hip level for your body. For me, with my body shape, "hip" is a fair bit lower than the tops of my hip bones. I'd guess (though it is difficult to compare when I can't really see your back) that I'd call hip for my shape a squinch lower than where it is on you. I don't think the bones come into it at all; just your shape.


Edit: Stretched, I'd say it hits hip, but I wouldn't call it hip until it hits there naturally. /edit



By the way, is TB the start of the, er, lower reverse cleavage?

[Heavenly Locks]

By the way, is TB the start of the, er, lower reverse cleavage?

Yup :) When I asked I was informed that it was the top of the vertical smile ;)

[Kiraela]

I think you are right, Manderly.

Waist is usually about where the navel is. High hip is usually right about where the hair down there starts.

Those are the references I use when measuring people for clothes anyway.


What do you mean by where High Hip starts? From what I understand, hip would be below tailbone if that were the case! I think it's where your hip bones start - and it looks like your hair isn't that far from it, Brianna, maybe just an inch or two.

[Quixii]

After a quick check, I found that if I stand up and relax my shoulders, my elbows exactly hit my hip bones.
I don't know if that's true for everyone, but you could see if that seems to feel right to you.

[spidermom]

To me, it looks like your hands are resting on your hips. I don't count hip length until your ends naturally fall to that level; pulling down a strand doesn't count. (but that's just me)

[misstwist]

What do you mean by where High Hip starts? From what I understand, hip would be below tailbone if that were the case! I think it's where your hip bones start - and it looks like your hair isn't that far from it, Brianna, maybe just an inch or two.

Sorry that wasn't clear. The hair down their starts at right around the top of the ilium and that is the high hip measurement used in making clothes. The low hip measurement is the fullest part of the rear, and usually corresponds to what we refer to as tailbone (or a little lower) in hair measurement terms.

I think in sewing measurements. :D

[Flynn]

Sorry that wasn't clear. The hair down their starts at right around the top of the ilium and that is the high hip measurement used in making clothes. The low hip measurement is the fullest part of the rear, and usually corresponds to what we refer to as tailbone (or a little lower) in hair measurement terms.

I think in sewing measurements. :D

Low hip on me is a lot lower than TB, if TB is the start of the lower reverse cleavage. High hip on me is what I would call hip here, right on the ilium, (and therefore below the "hipbones" which I'm taking to be the iliac crest...) and that's quite a lot higher than the top of my lower hairline...

[manderly]

What do you mean by where High Hip starts? From what I understand, hip would be below tailbone if that were the case! I think it's where your hip bones start - and it looks like your hair isn't that far from it, Brianna, maybe just an inch or two.


Sorry, that's a bit confusing. If you stand and place your hands on the pubis in the front of you, where it protrudes out and make your hands level at the backside, you'll find your hands sit several inches below what most people perceive as the hip from behind.

I said that I personally consider my "front hip" or pubis to be "hip". I don't think the "high hip" or ilium to be hip, though I believe most people do. If she is going by the "high hip" then she has an inch or two to go. If she goes by the "front hip" several more. It's just my personal take on the hip region :)

Here is an image which illustrates what I'm talking about:

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/graphics/bio105/pelvis.jpg



ETA: Where does my opinion of the hip come from? Well, look at most images of women wearing hip huggers. They do not sit on the "high hip" or illium, they sit at the pubis, like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/shakespeares_sister/shakes3/diaz.png

So I am measuring hip by the social connotation of where hip starts :)

[Flynn]

Sorry, that's a bit confusing. If you stand and place your hands on the pubis in the front of you, where it protrudes out and make your hands level at the backside, you'll find your hands sit several inches below what most people perceive as the hip from behind.

I said that I personally consider my "front hip" or pubis to be "hip". I don't think the "high hip" or ilium to be hip, though I believe most people do. If she is going by the "high hip" then she has an inch or two to go. If she goes by the "front hip" several more. It's just my personal take on the hip region :)

Here is an image which illustrates what I'm talking about:

[Image removed]



ETA: Where does my opinion of the hip come from? Well, look at most images of women wearing hip huggers. They do not sit on the "high hip" or illium, they sit at the pubis, like this:

[Image removed]

So I am measuring hip by the social connotation of where hip starts :)

O.o My pubis is basically level with the top of my (actual) tailbone. There's lots of variation between body types... I think this sort of question probably needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration the individual shape on which the level is being defined.

(Incidentally, I always thought that "hip huggers" were a lot higher than that, and your image is what I'd recognise as "ultra low-rise", of "super low-slung". What I'm familar with as "hip huggers" are meant to hit at the widest part of the hip, and are often responsible for the dreaded muffin top (http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/muffintop.jpg) when worn too small. ETA: This (http://www.skillshare.org/images/FR_appeals/wikimedia%20Hiphuggers.jpg) is what pops into my mind when someone says "hip huggers".)

[manderly]

Flynn, it's so confusing when we choose to go by body parts, because we are all different and on top of that, we all have different ideas of where those parts start. :D

For instance, BSL. Some women wear bras incorrectly and the back strap is much higher than it should be. Then you have to ask if it's upper or lower strap, since I have a wide back strap. Then the guys! Where do they fall? LOL

I say if you want to call hip that part of your body where your waist starts to get wider, then that works for me. If you want to call it pubis, more power to you! It's all on what YOU want to consider it, when all is said and done :)

[misstwist]

Flynn, it's so confusing when we choose to go by body parts, because we are all different and on top of that, we all have different ideas of where those parts start. :D

I think I'll wait until classic to change my length measurement. I know where the bottom of my butt is. :cheese:

[Flynn]

Flynn, it's so confusing when we choose to go by body parts, because we are all different and on top of that, we all have different ideas of where those parts start. :D

For instance, BSL. Some women wear bras incorrectly and the back strap is much higher than it should be. Then you have to ask if it's upper or lower strap, since I have a wide back strap. Then the guys! Where do they fall? LOL

I say if you want to call hip that part of your body where your waist starts to get wider, then that works for me. If you want to call it pubis, more power to you! It's all on what YOU want to consider it, when all is said and done :)

Regarding the BSL: it's a region of only a few inches, though, isn't it? and isn't the point of the body level measurements that they are an illustrative approximation? I only question the pubis definition of "hip" because I suspect that's where TB is on a lot of people, myself included.

[manderly]

Regarding the BSL: it's a region of only a few inches, though, isn't it? and isn't the point of the body level measurements that they are an illustrative approximation? I only question the pubis definition of "hip" because I suspect that's where TB is on a lot of people, myself included.

Well I am not going to argue with anyone who call the illium hip (it's technically the hip, so who am I to argue :shrug:).

I'm only aiming for waist at this point, so I don't think I'll have to worry about the pubis/illium/hip issue. I was just throwing my :twocents: out there.

In any case, the OP isn't quite hip either way (again, IMHO). :flower:

[Flynn]

Agreed. I think stretched, she's just there, or at least only just shy, but stretched don't count >_o

[enfys]

I have no idea about the biology stuff, I just know where my hip bones jut out and when I reach level with that at te back I'll say I'm hip.

Tailbone I don't count as the top of the smile, I count it as the bottom of the bone.

We are all built too differently for any method of measuring to be failsafe, it really falls to photos to see where people are. As long as their heads are in the same position.

Why do we bother, eh?

[ecologystudent]

Sorry that wasn't clear. The hair down their starts at right around the top of the ilium and that is the high hip measurement used in making clothes. The low hip measurement is the fullest part of the rear, and usually corresponds to what we refer to as tailbone (or a little lower) in hair measurement terms.

I think in sewing measurements. :D

Really? Because I just checked, and my hair "down there" starts a good 5 inches below the top of my ilium (of course, my belly botton is only an inch above that---maybe I have a funny pelvis?).

[SimplyViki]

Heh... I'm going to have a heck of a time deciding when I'm at hip - on me, I have one hip higher than the other, due to scoliosis - which one do I go by??

[enfys]

Heh... I'm going to have a heck of a time deciding when I'm at hip - on me, I have one hip higher than the other, due to scoliosis - which one do I go by??

How quickly do you want to do at hip length? :p

[natt i nord]

How quickly do you want to do at hip length? :p

:rollin: Good question :D

Hm, honestly: Take the middle between the two hips and use this?

[SimplyViki]

:rollin: Good question :D

Hm, honestly: Take the middle between the two hips and use this?
Yeah, I'm fairly close to that anyway... I think I'll take a ruler and hold it so it's lined up at either hip, and where ever the middle is, that's hip. :shrug:
I guess. I think I'm pretty close, too... I've got a very short waist.

[WaitingSoLong]

This is interesting!

Ok, well for me, my pubis and TB are about the same, and the bottom of the bone of my TB is exactly the same as the "start of my verticle smile" (LOL on that one, I had never heard that before). My elbows do not come anywhere near my hip bones, we are talking at least 4-5" difference (my elbows are higher). My navel is probably an inch or two below waist length.

I agree that we are all different (bodies) and so just pick a spot and go by that! These are personal goals anyway, so you may as well make it "tailored" to you! I am not satistfied I have reached a length until there is NO question about it (so probably slightly past it).

[82exoticbeauty]

Hip length is where the hip bones are which is that if you put your hands on your hips and feel the bone on your hips! Try locating the bone of your hips at front, it's the middle part of the bone I call hip! That's where mine is at! Some call it what ever as between waist to tailbone!

[sedonia]

The "rear cleavage" is at the level of the sacrum, not the tailbone (coccyx), or at least it is on me and most human anatomy illustrations I've seen. The tailbone would be at the level of mid buttock on most people probably.

[sedonia]

or wait, are you all calling the "rear cleavage" what shows when your hip huggers are too low, or your hotpants are too short!

[CaityBear]

Well, most people here consider it like the top of your hips. Below your waist, where your hips start to curve outwards. Which is pretty much the same as the hipbones.

Whereas I, personally consider hip length the middle of my hips, but that's more like tailbone...which is where I'm aiming at...

[klcqtee]

You know that spot where your stomach hangs over your pubic bone? That little indent there? travel upwards about 2-3 inches. That's approximately the top of your hip. At least on me. I'm almost 5'3", but I think that our hip bones should be relatively close to the same size.

[keight425]

After a quick check, I found that if I stand up and relax my shoulders, my elbows exactly hit my hip bones.
I don't know if that's true for everyone, but you could see if that seems to feel right to you.

I always knew I had a long torso! My elbows are higher than my waist!!

[Roseate]

Okay, so this thread settles it. I will have no idea how to describe my length after waist and before classic. Too many options! I think I'll just start measuring again at that point, list the inches and call it a day.