Alternate length measurement technique

[Les]

I've been thinking too much lately about different techniques for measuring hair length and came up with one that I thought y'all might find interesting. I'm probably not the first to propose this alternate method, but I wasn't able to find any references to it elsewhere. I devised this to try and come up with a metric to describe how long someone's hair appeared regardless of their height.

First a warning: math content ahead. Nothing more than division, subtraction (and if you're lucky enough to have super-long hair, negative numbers). If math and you don't agree, consider yourself warned.

To do the calculation you need to know your height and the distance from the ground to the hemline of your hair. This second number will be negative if you have longer-than-floor-length-hair, representing the amount of hair you have past floor length. These measurements can be in any units you want (inches, cm, etc..) provided both are in the same units - in the calculation the units cancel out. Once you have those:

(height - floor_hair_distance) / height

The number essentially expresses what percentage of your height your hair makes up. Bald = 0 and floor length = 1, numbers greater than 1 indicate beyond floor-length hair. It scales independent to height - two similarly proportioned people with BSL hair will have the same number regardless of vast differences in height (and hair length).

I'm 6'2" tall and my hair is 45" off the floor, so... (74-45)/74 = .39 (or 39%), classic on me would be 33.5" off the floor (74-33.5)/74 = .55 (or 55%).

What's your number?

[RavennaNight]

Ouch. My brain hurts! :lol:

[marikamt]

actually, I think this might be easier for me.... you could a chart on the wall/ door like they do for little kids and mark the bottom of your hair and measure from the floor up to mark....... I never get it right (a consistent measurement) the other way.........

[Latin Tea]

That is VERY cool. I'm going to do some figuring and let you know (my hair is kinda wrapped up right now doing a treatment). I've always felt that measuring from the hairline just isn't accurate (different height foreheads, parting the hair in the middle or side or no part, too many variables), but couldn't think of a better way since my part is in the middle and both sides are not the same length. I like your idea. :)

[Akiko]

Mine is 39.6%. It's almost the same as Golden Ratio. I do like the balance of my height and hair length.

[halo_tightens]

I like this idea, actually. It won't replace actual measurement of length for me, but do like that it gives us the ability to level the playing field, so to speak.

Nice. :thumbsup:

[katha]

I like this! I'll definetely add this to my normal measures. Can't do it right now though, but will post my number.

[Les]

Thanks! I'm glad yall like it. I was thinking that the calculation may be simpler to represent as:

1 - ( floor_hair_distance / height )

Alone the ratio is a good comparative number, but I didn't like that floor length was 0 and bald was 1, so I threw in the "1 - " part of the calculation to swap around that relationship.


actually, I think this might be easier for me.... you could a chart on the wall/ door like they do for little kids and mark the bottom of your hair and measure from the floor up to mark....... I never get it right (a consistent measurement) the other way.........

I find this an easier and more consistent measurement to make too. As I was thinking this up I envisioned a wall chart just like you described.

[WyrdWay]

this is a great way of measuring! It gets rid of all of the variables. What are you going to call it?
Les-surment?

[Coriander]

Les-surement. :lol: I love it.

I'll have to try this tomorrow when we measure. :)

[enfys]

I like it, but shrinkage will be an issue still. We really can't win, can we?

I'm measuring either tomorrow or later today so if I remember and find my calculator I'll try this out.

Yes, the name should be Lesurement!

[Amara]

I am 66.5" tall, and my hair is 33.75" away from the ground.

66.5-33.75=32.75

32.75/66.5 = .492, or 49%.

In one month my hair will be exactly half my height!

And classic on me is 57%.

[klcqtee]

Hm. This is handy, but I wonder how this will effect updos. When someone says, "I do this with 35" of hair,"then everyone understands that somewhere between 30-40" people can do this updo comfortably. If someone were to say, "Well, I do this with my hair being 55% the length of my body." That's tough! 55% of your body is classic. You're 6'2"! Sure, 55% on my body would also be right around classic, but considerably shorter in inches, because I'm only 5'2"! Though, many people say, "I do this updo with classic length hair." so it would be the same problem...

Oh dear, I've talked myself in a circle.

I like your method though, it's really cool! I wonder if that means "long" hair would be over 50% of your body? This way we can officially end the "What's long" debate!

[Honestwitness]

Awesome! I just measured this way and my hair-to-height ratio is 28 percent. I wish there were a way to add this ratio to the details displayed under our avatars. Les, maybe you could ask the moderators to add this field to our profiles.

[Wicked Princess]

This measurement system is awesome! I'm going to try it later, when I'm home!

[Les]

Wow, it is great to hear that some folks are finding this a useful metric.


I like it, but shrinkage will be an issue still. We really can't win, can we?

Good point. This measure is trying to describe hair's apparent length - how it appears to someone seeing you, so it should be measured shrunk to align with the intent of this technique.


Yes, the name should be Lesurement!

Hehh heh heh. Personally I like LHR. LH can either be Long Hair or my initials, and R is ratio.


Hm. This is handy, but I wonder how this will effect updos.

You raise a good point. I think that this technique isn't as applicable for updo/hair compatibility as current methods..


I like your method though, it's really cool! I wonder if that means "long" hair would be over 50% of your body? This way we can officially end the "What's long" debate!

That will never be solved. In talking about defining Science Fiction, author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty by stating that "science fiction is what we point to when we say it". IMHO the same thing applies to long hair : long hair is what we point to when we say it.


I wish there were a way to add this ratio to the details displayed under our avatars. Les, maybe you could ask the moderators to add this field to our profiles.

I'd love to see that happen if enough people find this to be a useful measurement. I think it is a bit early to make that request at this point... maybe when this thread reaches 10 pages it'll be time...

[manderly]

Honestly, to this day I don't understand the point of measuring one's hair. People do not walk around the street with tape measures going "Ooooh, look at her 38.5" long hair, I wish mine were that long!"

That's why I stick to the visual landmarks.

While I understand wanting to see the actual growth you are getting, it still doesn't make much sense to me :shrug:

[EdG]

My hair-to-height ratio is 0.90. :cheese:

My longest strands are mid-calf, even though they're invisible in my siggy.
Ed

[jel]

My hair is 49% of my height! Or, my LHR is 0.49.

That makes me want to grow a bit more, to half my height, though I'm happy at this (tailbone) length... Ah, decisions, decisions! :D

[meph]

I like this method, more than visual marks such as waist or hip and hair length in inches. Maybe it's just because I'm fond of percentages :p.
I will try this today, but I guess it's 60%.

[Heidi_234]

I find that the only shortcoming of the regular method are the way too big margin of error. Unfortunately, this method does not solve this, and maybe makes it more inaccurate for some (how am I supposed to measure from the floor to my hemline anyway?).

It's a cool method, but doesn't correct the flaws of the current one.

[Wicked Princess]

I'm a little late to the party. :o I've been busy partying the old year away and the new year in! :)

I just had a pretty big trim (cut from classic to tailbone) so now is as good a time as any to measure my ratio. It's 0.47!

I measured it "the regular way" as well. Both of these will be very handy in tracking my progress - I think my hair grows approximately 9 inches a year, but I haven't been measuring consistently...which is a little silly because I want to know how fast my hair grows! Does my hair growth rate matter? Nope! But I want to KNOW!

My favorite part of this alternate method is that...with the ratio, you know roughly where someone's hair falls on them via description. Someone who is shorter would have tailbone length hair at 34" whereas on a taller person that same measurement could be hip or even waist!

[TheEndlessOcean]

I like this method, but it's rather hard on really tall curlies :p. My hair is about 27.5" (pulled straight), using the conventional method, and with this I'm getting just over 20%.

[justme]

I like this! LHR! I want a wall chart now. ;)

My hair is thigh length (48" - a few inches below classic) and is apparently 63% of my height.


(height - floor_hair_distance) / height
(67-25) / 67 = 63%

1 - ( floor_hair_distance / height )
1 - (25/67) = 63%

[Les]

I like this method, but it's rather hard on really tall curlies :p.

I was actually rather self-conscious about this method for that reason. I'm not curly, but I was worried it might be considered preferential to shorter folks if I wasn't 6'2" tall myself.

[Honestwitness]

I had an embarrassing moment at work related to this thread. I had very lightly (or so I thought) marked a wall in my office with a pencil when taking the measurements to find my ratio.

Well, this morning my boss just happened to be standing near this wall when he was talking to me. In the 6.5 years I have worked in this office, my boss has NEVER paid any attention to this spot on the wall, so I felt I was safe in leaving my marks on the wall.

As he was giving me some instructions, he was looking right at the wall. He stopped mid-sentence and said, "Why are we making marks on this wall?" I could have DIED! I replied, "I was measuring my height." Then he pointed to the lower mark and asked, "And, what is this one for?" I wanted to crawl into a hole and cover myself with dirt!!! So, I said, "That's how long my hair is."

He just looked at me like, "I'll never understand women!"

I told him I thought no one would ever notice the marks, and asked him how many times he looked at that wall in the last 6.5 years. He said, "Never." I said, "That's what I thought.".

He then asked how long ago I had put the marks on the wall, and I told him it was just a couple of days ago. I told him I would erase them, which I did just as soon as he walked away!!!

*sheesh* This forum influences me way too much!

[Arctic_Mama]

Interesting! This could easily be extrapolated to the traditional forehead measurement as well, by the measuring the distance from your crown to forehead and adding those inches to the length down your back you already measured. No super long arms required! Awesome :)

[Elainehali]

Neat I'm 42%:cheese:

[EdG]

I find that the only shortcoming of the regular method are the way too big margin of error. Unfortunately, this method does not solve this, and maybe makes it more inaccurate for some (how am I supposed to measure from the floor to my hemline anyway?).I used a mirror, minimizing parallax by keeping my hair close to the ruler. :)
Ed

[Eniratak]

Apparently mine is 71%?
I dunno. I got my best friend to do it because he's way better at math than I am.

[Sammich]

Thank you very much. I actually find this much easier than the normal. *Strange* :D

[Les]

I had an embarrassing moment at work related to this thread.

....

He just looked at me like, "I'll never understand women!"


LOL. That got me a good chuckle. I actually measured mine in my office using my whiteboard. I held a marker at the end of my hair and backed up to the board to make a mark. If it comes to it, you can tell your boss that a man came up with this technique - and he used a spreadsheet when doing it!

re: EdG - You got me thinking, this method does add some complications if the end of your hair is beyond your fingertips. I like your photo approach. Maybe one of those laser-levels would help too...

[rags]

This is very hard to do at APL, but I persevered! :D I am 5'7" and my ratio is 20% at APL. Hmm, being wavy and a bit taller (for a woman) doesn't help me either.......(my hair is the same lenght as Honest Witness according to the old measurements - either she's quite a bit shorter or I'm doing the math wrong! :confused:)

[marobader]

good idea I will use it defintly

[Superfine]

I like this measurement too. I did it by myself so we'll see about accuracy. I'm 5'3-1/2" & my floor to base of hair length is 48-1/2". I figure 23.6%. I was not a math whiz. My hair is almost to APL. To me the length looks pretty much like "rags".
Thanks to all of you for information during my growth from 2-1/2 in. pixie in Aug. 2007. Great condition, no color, & loving the easy daily hairdos. Thanks!

[Honestwitness]

Rags, my height is 5'2".