"Hair dysphoria" and dissatisfaction

[Kalamazoo]

Do the hair follicles ever shrink, like in tellogen phase? Some days, I think my hair measures noticeably shorter than the previous day.

[DropStitches]

Do the hair follicles ever shrink, like in tellogen phase? Some days, I think my hair measures noticeably shorter than the previous day.

That's interesting - I hadn't heard of that. Sometimes I definitely feel like my hair has got shorter - I put it down to some days being wavier than others.

I definitely experience hair 'dysphoria' ('dysphairia' maybe?!), especially in this dreaded buzzcut grow-out phase. I absolutely cannot wait till I can just put it up and forget about it. I find it kind of comforting, in a strange way, to hear that even those of you whose hair I consider very long struggle with this.

[Bat]

This I relate to this! I had gender dysphoria that receeded a bit after I had chest surgery, but now I do have 'hair dysphoria' I don't feel I'll be happy till it atleast gets to waist, I'm goth but I feel like such a fake cause it's short, even though short hairs can be goth. the mind is a silly thing.

[Stray_mind]

I hate how thin my hair looks and feels, while other people comment it looks thick.
I guess i suffer hair "dysphoria".

[meepster]

Anyone else here suffer from what I'm going to tentatively call 'hair dysphoria'? Where you feel like your hair is thinner and shorter than it objectively is? For example, my hair is well past TBL and solidly medium thickness, yet it feels subjectively shorter to me than it did at waist-length (before I decided I wanted to actively grow it). And my braid always feels so thin to me, even though I know objectively that it is not. Any tips on how to deal with this?

(also, apologies for the made-up term in the thread title, I felt it was the most accurate descriptor of what I'm trying to explain!)

I'm kinda starting to think that I had a touch of that with respect to thickness last time I tried growing out my hair. I was sure it was thinner than it actually was. I can't verify thickness now because my hair is way too short for any sort of ponytail, but I know I felt that my hair was thin when it was longer.

[Sora Rose]

I guess I suffer from this. I always feel like my hair is shorter than it is and that it's not growing hardly at all even if I went from BSL to TB in a perfectly reasonable amount of time. I never believe it when people tell me 'my hair is so long' and always tell them it isn't really, even if it's clearly TB length. My opinion of 'long' seems to change with every new milestone I hit, keeping my hair 'short' in my own mind.

Although when I see pictures of it, I'm genuinely surprised at how long it looks.

[Lady_Eowyn]

I can definitely relate to this. My hair is medium thick, and when I see the braid in the mirror or in the picture it looks ok to me, but when I feel it - it feels extraordinary thin. The same is with length - some days I feel my hair so short, as if barely past shoulder length (although it's almost BSL).
Funny feeling.

[0xalis]

I used to feel this way, back when I was growing in HS, but it's entirely different for me now.
My hair feels longer than it actually is, because I'm not used to it being this long! So it's like the exact opposite problem... weird.

[lapushka]

Try and get to a length where you actually, physically... sit on it. There it all goes; sends you right back to reality.

[MusicalSpoons]

I did feel my hair was shorter than it really was until about solid, unstretched knee length. When it actually looked knee without having to really shake it out or comb it, then my perception and reality finally aligned