How thick can hair be!?

[Ohio Sky]

Ok, I dont usually do the long hair siting posts but this got me wondering.

I was at an awards ceremony last week and there was this girl (I think they said she was from Sweden?) who had so much hair I dont know how she was standing. It was kinda hard to get a really good look at the thickness of her pony because she had it pulled up so high her hair kinda hid most of the base of the pony, but it looked like her pony tail took up half her head. It had to have been over 6" thick at least, and it was about hip pulled up. I couldnt take my eyes off of her.

So how thick can hair be? Whats the thickest hair youve ever seen?

[spidermom]

The thickest hair I've ever seen was on a woman I saw in the women's locker room at Evergreen State College. She had the back pulled into a ponytail that I didn't pay much attention to because her bangs dazzled me. Rather than a fringe, it looked like a big pile of bangs; they were SO THICK but didn't start further back on her head than the average bangs. She really shouldn't have had bangs; they looked very peculiar. Boxy. Weird.

[akurah]

I've seen people with an UNDERCUT (where half your hair is shaved OFF!!!) have a ponytail circumference of at least 6 inches before. Usually hispanic girls, though.

[Ohio Sky]

Yeah, it seems like hispanics, African Americans, and some other darker ethnicities tend to have thicker and courser hair. A lot of more light-complected people have fine, thin hair. But this girl was as white as me (which is WHITE) and blonde blonde. It was weird.

[Anje]

I've seen a woman wearing a salwar-kameez (so Indian or Pakistani, I'm guessing) with probably curly hair in a braid that was at least as thick as my arm at the elbow. Her braid must have been at least 3-4 inches in diameter (yes, it was roundish, and I mean diameter, not circumference). If I run into her again I need to tell her I'm in awe of her thickness.

[Loviatar]

My friend Rob had an undercut but his waist length blond hair was as thick as 3 of my fingers when he braided it.

And my friend Rue puts her hair in twin braids, and one of her braids is thicker than my entire ponytail.

[TheSpottedCow]

In middle school I knew some girl who had to use headbands instead of ponytail holders because even once around with the bands (the thick ones) would break them. That was the thickest haired person I've known. She was white (Eastern European Jewish).

Hair does have to do with ethnicity... It seems like hers was just unusually thick for any type of person though.

[Anje]

Doesn't quidscribis have super-thick hair? I thought she once said her circumference was something like 8 or 9 inches.

[flapjack]

I think my mother might actually have the thickest hair of anyone I know personally. Her braid is about six inches around and she can't really wear ponytails very well because after a few minutes the weight of her hair will make the ponytail sag and slide down to her neck. She has trouble wearing her hair up, in general.

[swanns]

I'm probably going to sound quite egocentric but this is the truth so - out of all the people I know I think my hair's the thickest. But that's because I live in the land of thin & straight hair :) The circumference is a bit over 4'', so not THAT thick at all really, but compared to my friends' hair, it is.

Hair really does have to do with ethnicity. (which makes my hair even weirder, because as far as I know my genes are as Finnish as anyone's around here. Oh well.)

[flapjack]

I think it has to do with ethnicity, also, but I have no idea how it's distributed to be quite honest. I've ran into people from all kinds of different backgrounds, with insanely thick hair, so who really knows. I actually know quite a number of northern europeans with huge amounts of hair, too. So I'm unsure about the "northern europeans all have fine hair" stereotype because I've seen a whole lot of people who break that rule, haha.


And in regards to my mother, she is Russian, in case anyone is curious.

[sapphire-o]

Curly hair might give the illusion of thick hair. When I was 22 my mom attempted to give me a perm. It didn't work but made tiny little waves in my hair. My hair ended up looking straight but enormous. My ponytail was as thick as my arm. I did have thick hair back then but it's only 4.5" around before the perm.

[Periwinkle]

I'm probably going to sound quite egocentric but this is the truth so - out of all the people I know I think my hair's the thickest. But that's because I live in the land of thin & straight hair :) The circumference is a bit over 4'', so not THAT thick at all really, but compared to my friends' hair, it is.

Hair really does have to do with ethnicity. (which makes my hair even weirder, because as far as I know my genes are as Finnish as anyone's around here. Oh well.)

At least I'm not the only one who thinks that ;) My hair is thinned out beyond belief and my circumference is still 16cm (about 6in) but it was WAY more than that before I started having it thinned. At least another inch or two.

[jojo]

my eldest daughter has the thickest hair i have ever seen, her hair at a guess must have a circumference of 5.5" and she is a natural pale blond, my hair is 4" which is thick but looks like a rats tail next to hers!

[Ohio Sky]

Wow... I cant even imagine having that much hair.

I dont think thickness is necessarily *always* related to thickness, but it is a lot of times. I see a lot of very European-looking people with very thick hair sometimes, but it seems like women from India, or other countries with similar physical traits always seem to have lovely long, thick hair. We have quite a few here, though I cant name any off the top of my head :o Im terrible with names.

At the same time, my mom, my sister, and my brother who has long hair, all have a pony circumfrence of less than 2". My hair isnt thick, but it looks like it compared to theirs. And we all have the same genes :shrug: So I digress.

[TheSpottedCow]

Curly hair might give the illusion of thick hair. When I was 22 my mom attempted to give me a perm. It didn't work but made tiny little waves in my hair. My hair ended up looking straight but enormous. My ponytail was as thick as my arm. I did have thick hair back then but it's only 4.5" around before the perm.

I believe that could also be because the chemicals open up the cuticles, and keeps them blown open. I don't know really the specific science of that, but in a lot of "conventional" hair magazines I have seen it recommended for thin haired women to have chemical processes (even if the color or texture isn't changed) just to make each hair thicker.

[freznow]

My grandma has i hair, and well not to be of offense to my grandma, but her i hair makes me feel better about my ii hair when I'm feeling down in comparison with all the iii hairs around. You have NO idea how many comments I've gotten to the effect of "Wow your hair is so long! But it's not very thick." (or 'Wow it doesn't look that long when it's up, because it's not that thick' or 'I like that, while your hair is rather long, my hair is rather thick') Most of the people I get this from are Indian or Chinese, so I've learned that it's not meant to cause offense, it's just that they're used to super thick hair, whereas I'm not.

It's all genes. Yeah, sometimes they surge and you can be a thiny among thick heads or vice versa, but it's all genes. I wonder if these super thick people come from super thick families or if they were just a random mix of genes that just happened to be that way...

[Paniscus]

Doesn't quidscribis have super-thick hair? I thought she once said her circumference was something like 8 or 9 inches.


8 or 9 inches! Really? Wow. <<<<off to see if quidscribis has pictures on the profile.

I do think curly hair sometimes looks thicker than it actually is. Which isn't a bad thing. I have several friends who look like they have ridiculously thick, bouncy hair. Just massive waves and curls encircling their heads. When they put it in a ponytail though, you can tell that it's not as thick as it looks. I was actually surprised.

[Nynaeve]

Thickest I've seen is on a pair of twins at my school. They have long, thick, curly dark hair. It's long, but it's still very fluffy even though it's not frizzy and it's weighed down that much. It's amazing.