What is your taper?

**Finoriel** · August 30th, 2008, 01:43 PM

Finally I got around to measure, there were going on some major braided-bun waves so I had to wait for washing day and wet hair to get halfwayexact measurements.
I took the measurements in centimeters and converted them later, that´s why they are somehow über-exact (x = length / y = circumference).

nape (12,2/2,99)
shoulders (15,75/2,6)
bsl (21,65/2,17)
waist (27,95/1,77)
tailbone (34,45/1,01)
classic (39,76/0,59)
thigh (44,09/0,2)
fingertip (46,06/0)

I haven't found out how to convert the diagram into a jpg and get it online

so the coordinates and a description is all I can give you for now. But it´s tapering in a shallow curve from nape to waist. Then it suddenly becomes steeper and +/- a straight line down to nothing at fingertip.
I guess waist is about the length when I gave up rough wet brushing with a ball tipped brush and started to care about so profane things like my hair

back then in spring ´06. So it´s probably a combination of old damage from overstretched hairs, excessive motorbiking and sailing with loose hair, ponytails and loose hair as only known hairstyles

and a poor student´s diet making those parts more prone to breakage. I´m sure the thinning out is more breakage than real hair loss for me, most hairs I loose are either my longest > oldest ones or those fine hairs from the hairline which never get longer than about 10-20cm.
I will definitely save this diagram and compare it with the one next year. It will be interesting to see if the curve-part reaches down more and if the straight line get´s steeper or stays the same.

**spidermom** · August 30th, 2008, 04:34 PM

Measured around a loose-ish braid by myself, in inches:
Nape: 3.5
Shoulder: 3
Armpit: 2.5
Waist: 2
Ends: 1

I realized why the bottom inch falls off so drastically. Duh! It's because the sides end up shorter when I pull them to mid-back.

**Finoriel** · August 30th, 2008, 04:46 PM

*squint* loose braid?
Maybe the ends are thinner, because they are not braided?

I´m pretty sure that it´s not really effective to measure the thickness and taper with a braid. Braid bumps, tassel and all the rest...

**julya** · September 1st, 2008, 09:31 AM

I measured my taper a couple of months ago, measuring the circumference every 10 cm. I have a pretty gradual taper the whole way down.
Nape 8.9 cm
skipped the 10 cm circumference
at 20 cm from nape 7.9 cm circumference
at 30 cm from nape 7.8 cm
at 40 cm from nape 7.6 cm
at 50 cm from nape 6.9 cm
at 60 cm from nape 6.3 cm
at 70 cm from nape 5.5 cm
at 80 cm from nape 3.4 cm

**dor3girl** · September 1st, 2008, 10:43 AM

Will have to do a measuring (I have been meaning to, anyhow)--my ends seem very wimpy when wet--so the taper is pretty good.

**Euphony** · October 13th, 2008, 12:22 PM

HA! I finally found my tape measure and have been meaning to do this out of my own curiosity.

Nape=4.25"
BSL=3.5"
Waist=2.5"

I'm very curious to see what this will be once I don't have layers anymore. BTW longest layer is BSL.

**Euphony** · October 13th, 2008, 12:26 PM

Oh ummm now I have a question. I'm wondering if I'm measuring my thickness of iii incorrectly. I always measure that at my nape, am I supposed to measure it somewhere else? I see some answers here like Emi's showing measurements before nape. And I see others here that have their thickness in their profile as iii but their nape is below 4".

Help...

**Finoriel** · October 13th, 2008, 02:33 PM

In the text about the hairtyping system it is stated in the third classifier article, that the maximum thickness should be measured where your ponytail is thickest. Which is usually not at the nape when making a low ponytail. For most people that point is around the crown area / top of head, just because you can gather more baby hairs, shorter hair from the hairline or longer fringes there. So making a ponytail at the point where the most hair fits into it makes sense for measuring

even if it may look slightly ridiculous and you would not wear that normally.
According to the hair typing system my thickness is iii even if that thickness already has tapered at the nape where a low ponytail sat, when making the taper measurements for comparison purposes with other nape ponytail measurements.
Clear as mud huh? Hope that helps and does not add to the confusion :Wink: but that´s the best way I can explain it.

**Euphony** · October 13th, 2008, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by Finoriel

In the text about the hairtyping system it is stated in the third classifier article, that the maximum thickness should be measured where your ponytail is thickest. Which is usually not at the nape when making a low ponytail. For most people that point is around the crown area / top of head, just because you can gather more baby hairs, shorter hair from the hairline or longer fringes there. So making a ponytail at the point where the most hair fits into it makes sense for measuring

even if it may look slightly ridiculous and you would not wear that normally.
According to the hair typing system my thickness is iii even if that thickness already has tapered at the nape where a low ponytail sat, when making the taper measurements for comparison purposes with other nape ponytail measurements.
Clear as mud huh? Hope that helps and does not add to the confusion :Wink: but that´s the best way I can explain it.

Yours is one of the ones I noticed that confused me. So I probably have thicker hair than I though - dandy

But then again I guess it's not an issue since I've always had to deal with this much hair, I guess now I'll just be more aware of how thick. Which will actually be nice since I've gotten a bit confused on why some members with a 4.25" or so thickness can do things with their hair at my length that I still can't.

Hmmmm off to measure for thickness.

Thanks so much for your explanation Finoriel, it is actually quite clear. For some reason I figured with not having bangs my nape would be the thickest since in essence I can put all my hair in there...but actually I guess that is incorrect.

**justme** · October 15th, 2008, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by Finoriel

In the text about the hairtyping system it is stated in the third classifier article, that the maximum thickness should be measured where your ponytail is thickest. Which is usually not at the nape when making a low ponytail. For most people that point is around the crown area / top of head, just because you can gather more baby hairs, shorter hair from the hairline or longer fringes there. So making a ponytail at the point where the most hair fits into it makes sense for measuring

even if it may look slightly ridiculous and you would not wear that normally.

I didn't know that! I've always measured thickness at nape or barely above it. Hmmm...I'll have to measure again sometime soon!