A Glossary of LHC Terms and Abbreviations

[PrincessBob]

While the posting policies are avid about keeping difficult slang off the boards, people will always, for the sake of expediency use some level of code or shorthand in writing. I don’t think this is a problem; in fact it really identifies us as a community. However, I think my head exploded when I first saw all these abbreviations. For the most part, I understand them now but I thought a glossary of common terms would be helpful to some LHCers. Feel free to correct my definitions and to add to the glossary.

Miscellaneous Abbreviations:

OP: Original Poster. A pronoun used to refer to the person who started a thread (however far back), when the person writing the response can not read (or remember) the name.
ETA: Edited to Add. When the OP has something they have remembered or decided to add in the aftermath that is important to the post and they want to be sure it is not lost in the series of responses that follow they will often add this as a post script to the original message.
LHC: Long Hair Community! You’re here LHC may refer to the website as a whole or to its members.

For privacy purposes and expediency, the following abbreviations are used to explain the relationships of people in posts that include the retelling of events:

DGF: Dear Girlfriend as in “my dear Girlfriend”
DBF: Dear Boyfriend as in “my dear Boyfriend”, OR Dear Best Friend as in “my dear Best Friend”
DS: Dear Son as in “my dear Son”, OR Dear Sister as in “my dear Sister”
DB: Dear Brother as in “my dear Brother”
DD: Dear Daughter as in “my dear Daughter”, OR Dear Dad as in “my dear Dad”
DF: Dear Father as in “my dear Father” or Dear Friend as in "my dear friend"
DH: Dear Husband/Hubby/Honey as in “my dear Husband/Hubby/Honey”
DM: Dear Mother/Mom as in “my dear Mother/Mom”
DW: Dear Wife/Wifey as in “my dear Wife/Wifey”
BIL: Brother-in-law
FIL: Father-in-law
MIL: Mother-in-law
SIL: Sister-in-law


Hair Care terms that may have you tearing your hair out:

ACV: Apple Cider Vinegar. Vinegars made from apples (not apple cider “Flavored” vinegar—read labels). This is often an ingredient in many home-brewed concoctions from drinks to natural cleaning products. Often this abbreviation refers to a dilution of Apple Cider Vinegar used as a rinse after washing your hair (as in the shampoo is rinsed out and the ACV rinse is poured over the scalp and hair, different schools of thought exist as to how to dilute and whether or not to rinse the ACV dilution out).
Bangs: Hair from the front section of the head that is cut to frame the face as with a curtain valance. Can be long, or short, even or angle styled up, curled or left to its own devices. This often requires upkeep of regular or frequent trims. Commonly used as a North American term.
BBB: Boar Bristle Brush. A hair brush featuring natural bristles made from boar (wild male pig) hair. Creates less static than Nylon Bristle Brushes and is useful for distributing the natural oils and sebum of your scalp down the length of your hair.
BS: Baking Soda --not the other BS. Used as a non-poo cleanser by some (That is: mixed into a paste using water and massaged onto the scalp in the shower and rinsed thoroughly.)
Canopy: The hair that is immediately above your scalp, or “the ears and up on your hair.”
CO: Conditioner only washing (that is: no shampoo used on hair except occasional clarifying washes, conditioner is applied and massaged into scalp and rinsed in place of shampoo)
CO: Coconut Oil. The fatty oil pressed from the meat of coconuts. A common ingredient in hair oiling, 'poos and conditioners. Solid at most temperatures below body heat.
‘Cones/ ‘Coney: A hair product (Styling gel, Detangler, Shampoo, Conditioner, et cetera) that contains ingredients derived from silicones (a slippery artificial lubricant compound), generally recognizable by the scientific-sounding name ending in “cone” or "xane" appearing in the ingredients list. This ingredient set increases shine, slip, and artificially staves off or seals damaged hair, but can build up in hair and suffocate it from moisture eventually making it more prone to damage… I think.
CWC: Condition, wash, condition (that is: wash with conditioner first, leaving it on as you normally would, rinsing with water, shampooing, rinsing again, and conditioning again, leaving on as usual, and rinsing it all out again)
DT: Deep Treatment
EVOO: Extra Virgin Olive Oil (used as an ingredient in hair oils, facial oils, soaps, shampoos, lotions, et cetera)
FSG: Flax seed Gel
Fringe: Hair from the front section of the head that is cut to frame the face as with a curtain valance. Can be long, or short, even or angle styled up, curled or left to its own devices. This often requires upkeep of regular or frequent trims. Commonly used as a European Term… I think.
Length: The part of your hair that hangs off your head, I think about it as the “ears and down”, but hair on the back of my head is till scalp, so, do your best to understand.
LOC/LCO: Leave-in Oil Cream http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=118167
MO: Mineral Oil
OCM: Oil Cleansing Method (that is: Steam-open pores and apply oil, massage and remove oil, yuckies, and bacterial stuff with it, then cool water refine the pores for less breakouts… I think)
‘Poo: Shampoo
‘Poo Bar: A solid shampoo, in bar form used to suds up your scalp (that is: Wet hair thoroughly and massage to loosen whatever grime, rub bar in hands to lather or along scalp, separating hair in multiple points to get sufficient suds, set bar aside— away from water—and use resulting lather to shampoo as usual)
ROO: Rinse Out Oil http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=129191
SO: Sebum Only Grooming (no “wet washing,” of the hair but rather a grooming routine.)
SO: Also stands for Scalp Only washes (That is: when wet washing in the method of your choice, you do not over dry the length with repeated washings and soap applications, but you still chemically/wetly clear away the oily production in your canopy)
S&D: Search and destroy! An active method of minimizing split ends (That is using sharp scissors, preferably small and only used for hair, to cut away individual split ends, routinely)
SMT: Snowymoon's Moisture Treatment https://forums.longhaircommunity.com...read.php?t=128
Virgin: Hair that has not been altered by dyes, lightening, or chemical straitening/curls.
WCC: Wash Condition Condition http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=119314
WO: Water Only washing (that is: No shampoo, no conditioner, just water on your scalp to rinse away sweat and grime, massaging your scalp and mermaid soaking [laying in a tub for a while to loosen oil and dead skin] as needed)
WTC: Wide-toothed comb
YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary - hair is quite different from one head to the next and not all methods or products work for all people. You may have a different experience than the poster.

[PrincessBob]

(Continued)
We love our body parts on LHC, they give us definable locales for hair without a measuring tape. These are less universal measurements because everybody is built in different shapes and sizes, but give everybody a pretty accurate visual. Hair typing is handy to find people dealing with similar hair and allows us to imagine what they have even if we can’t see the most up-to-date pictures. Some measuring systems are more inexact than others.

Long Hair: What counts as Long Hair varies in the minds of the people. Face it—if you consider it long, someone else will probably agree and some others might disagree. Hair type also makes a difference, thick or curlier hair may appear shorter when dry and longer when wet.
Long Hair: A person with long hair, self identifying notion.
Long-ish: As with Long Hair, personal definitions vary. Arbitrarily I will say from Shoulder to Bra-Strap Length.
Short hair: As inexact as Long Hair. Arbitrarily above the shoulders. Could be styled as a bob, or any number of other styles.
Scalp: The skin from which your head’s hair grows.
Buzz: An amusing way of denoting baldness or shavedness of one’s head. AKA: Scalp Length
Ear Length: Short, maybe styled as an ultra short bob, pixie cut or a grown-out high and tight, or any number of other styles. The point is their ears are being brushed by their longer hairs, and nothing else really is.
Chin Length: Short, often a bob, but many other styles result in hair which, at its longer points, is even with the chin.
SL: Shoulder Length. Intro to what the world calls “long hair,” hair that brushes their shoulders and can often be styled and or pulled back in some way.
APL: Arm Pit Length. This indicates that your hair is below your sternum, and equal or longer than the point where your arms meet your body.
MBL: Mid Back Length. Locate MBL by wrapping a towel, measuring tape, bra, etc around your torso just below your pectoral muscles/above your diaphragm (which ever is easier to identify), this will show you where MBL lands on your back.
BSL: Bra-Strap Length. Same location as MBL.
WL: Waist Length. Your hair is somewhere mid-back where your middle dips in at its smallest, often around or a little above the location of your belly button on the front.
HL: Hip Length ETA: pretty self explanatory... I think. ETA: great debates persist whether this is the top of the hip bone (iliac crest) or the wide part of the hips. The top of the hip bone is used to measure hair, the wide part of the hips is used for clothing measurements.
BCL: Butt Crack Length - the top of the crack
TBL: Tail Bone Length Not all that different from hip length. I think of it as slightly longer, about mid-bottom.
Classic: Hair is level or longer than the point where your legs meet your tuchus/bum/ backside. You would sit on your hair if you sat straight down and or scooted back.
CICT: Can I call this _____? When a person is unsure if they qualify for a given hair length or hair type they may describe themselves using this question.

Hair typing: You can find plenty on this, all around, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to add.

Roman Numerals regarding the thickness of a person’s hair. When all hair is pulled into a ponytail the circumference (area around the outside of the bunched hair) is measured.
i: Less than 2 inches, or less than 5cm. Thin hair, but may be the result of fine hair, not necessarily sparse.
ii: 2”-4” circumference, or between 5 cm and 10 cm. Average or expected thickness for hair.
iii: 4” plus, or more than 10 cm. This is considered thick hair.

Number/letter combinations regarding the straightness/waviness/curliness of one’s hair.
1a: Stick straight
1b: Straight with some body and curve
1c: Straight that waves lightly.
2a: Soft waves
2b: S waves
2c: Swirly waves
3a: Soft curls
3b: Ringlets
3c: Wild curls
4a: Corkscrew curls
4b: Kinky tight curling hairs
4c: Kinky Z curls

Initials regarding the texture of one’s hair.
F: Fine. Soft, hard to see individual strands.
FM: Fine to medium. Still fairly hard to distinguish some strands.
M: Medium. Definite hair.
MC: Medium to Coarse Definite with some wiry strands mixed in.
C: Coarse. Wiry thick strands.

Please keep in mind that we are an international organization, so what makes sense to one poster may confuse another. Do not be afraid to ask for clarification on the meaning of a statement. You will open the doors of communication, and you may learn something and or make a friend!

ETA:

Apparently I'm a big freaking dork, and although I had gone in search of a glossary of some type repeatedly, and having found nothing I put together something that was already in existence. Sorry.

ETAii: Fixed wording to reflect measuring a ponytail is done by measuring the circumference, not as previously stated, the diameter.

[Ivy~Rose]

Fantastic job!! I was looking for this when I joined - finally, here it is

[Gumball]

Just in case, we also have a good amount of that information in the Very Important Threads sticky that is on the top of the different portions of the forum. They link to:

Article on Terms and Abbreviations

Hair Classification System (hair typing)

Hair Lengths Guide (external link)

[christine1989]

Great thread! I have been wondering what OCM meant for a while now.

[Esya]

oh, I'd just added this to my fav.s THANK YOU!

[bte]

Thank you - very useful - although most of this info is available elsewhere in this site, there is so much here that not everything is easy to find.

[frost pattern]

Thanks a lot! I've been looking for that kind of overview for some time, didn't find anything (maybe I was blind) and finally figured out some if the terms. This is much better and will save me a lot of time!

[OtiggerificO]

Cheers muchly for this

It's nice to have all the abbreviations in one place.

[Sammich]

Woot woot, thank you for this. I love all this info in one place, and put in very simple wording too!
Thumbs up to you!