Hi all,
Here's an informal hair survey for anyone who who wishes and are able to :) . I saw a photo the other day, one my father in-law took of my back-sise, and saw my hair in the usual ponytail with my wife next to me in hers @_@ . She's Chinese with thicker hair and I've got my finer, curly hair, so it got me to lookin' and wonderin' what the circumferences were at the bottom of our hair ties. Interesting :p ! So I put the question to all of you (just for fun ^_^ ):
1: Take a piece of string or cord.
2: Loop it around at the bottom of where you usually tie off your ponytail, holding onto the cord with your fingers where the two sides cross.
3: Measure!
Be interesting to see how measurements vary, if any ^^ . Here's my measurements:
Mine: 3" circumference
My wife's: 3.5" circumference
Please feel free to participate and let's see what we come up with - have a little fun :D ! Might even me scientific :o ~
Please have a great day and until later ;) .....
SIncerely,
Eric
Extrapolated to slightly over 4 inches.
I don't have a full ponytail though.
Also, if it matters, I'm Chinese. Stick straight+heavy+coarse hair=nearly zero maintenance.
Hi .mkl,
You're really lucky to have the hair you do... knowing my wife's hair, there are so many different things you can do with your hair that someone like I can't because mine will simply tear or rip out :p . My wife's - she has to yank at full force at her gray hair to pull it out ~_~ (*sigh*).....
Say, can I ask how long you've been growing out your hair :) ???
Sincerely,
Eric
I've been growing it out for slightly over a year now. I've had to have it cut because the principal ratted out on me, even though I am the practically the best student in the class. Otherwise, I would have a pretty nice covering to play with.
I just changed my handle (screen name), and it takes some discipline to keep to use it. For the other Matt on the board, sorry. =)
4 inches
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You are really lucky, and have hair that is quite thick. Mine is only 2.6 to 2.7 inches in girth, depending on hair moisture content. The longest strand in it reaches over 42 inches in length. The longest shed strand that I have ever recovered is 49 1/2" long.
I have taken a total scientific approach regarding my hair. I may be the only person on Earth that keeps a spreadsheet on how much hair I shed. It is based on an estimated 80% recoverability of shed strands. It is probably over 80%, but that is the number I use. I weigh rather than count strands. See photo. (Some do fall out unweighed. I just use a default estimate of 20%).
Scott
Which raises a qeustion in my mind, if a man looses on average
100+ strands of hair each day is it possible to recover any more
than a tiny fraction of those lost hairs?
I only notice a strand or two each day, which gets me to wondering
where the other 98+ strands go?
Do they just fall out?
Does the wind blow them out?
Does gravity take care of the
strands?
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If we really lost 100 hairs a day, that would be 1/1000 of your total hair on your head. (100,000 is typical) With 100,000 hairs on your head, that would allow a typical hair only a 1000 day growing period. If you multiply 1/60" growth per day, times 1000, you get only 16 2/3" terminal length. (1/60" per day is 1/2" per month.)
My hair is much longer than this and I lose far fewer than 100 hairs per day.
Hairs just fall out after they stop growing. If your hair is only 12" long, it is easy for them to free themselves and fall away. If your hair is 24" long, hairs tend to get hung up and tangled with surrounding hairs. I keep my hair in a segmented ponytail, so nearly all of the shed hairs get caught instead of falling away.
Look around on your floor at home. Check you bed too. Do you find a lot of shed hair strands there? If not, you may be shedding far fewer hairs than you think.
Remember this: It would be nearly impossible to grow hair past mid back length if you shed 100+ per day with 100,000 hairs on your head.
Scott
If they fall out in bed, in the middle of the night the hair fairy will find them. He gives them to the tooth fairy, and that is where dental floss comes from.
Bill
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ROFLMAO, that is funny. It makes sense to me.
Scott
If you have carpet, run you fingers along it almost like scratching it but digging in with your finger pads rather than nails, you'll find your extra hair
Hey Absalom,
I forget, you've been growing out your hair for something like 25 years or more now, right :) ???
Sincerely,
Eric
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You are close, Eric. It is actually 20 years for me. It has been about the same length for 7 or 8 years now. I probably could have reached my current length in maybe 7 or 8 years, instead of 12 or 13, but it didn't come with an owner's manual. I didn't know of the existance of MLHH until maybe 2002 and posted for the first time in September 2003.
Scott
Here is a link. Look at the second from the bottom for length comparison. I have only gained 4 inches since then.
Hair length poll in archive, link did not work. 54336
Scott
Scott, Shed spread sheet! There's a real tongue twister for ya!
peace, jonalbear
Hi Eric,
I just did a rather hap-hazzard attempt at measuring my hair's circumference as you suggested, and came up with a "hair" bit over 3" -- not bad for an old geezer, eh? (LOL)
When I was younger, I'd often get comments about how thick my hair was (although it never got to ponytail length until the year I turned 40)...
Nowadays, I just get comments that I should be grateful that I still have hair (LOL)!
Thanks for posting this interesting survey!
- Ken
I just did mine. It measured 3.5 inches.
Darrin
Hi Darrin,
For how long have you been growing out your hair :) ???
Sincerely,
Eric
Hi Eric,
I will post a pic soon. I grew it all to one length in 1992. At it's longest in was waist length. Currently it is about 5 inches from belt length. I usually have it trimmed twice a year. I am luck that I have my mom's thick and wavey hair.
Darrin
Hey Darrin,
Looking forward to your picture - sounds like you have great hair :D !!!
Sincerely,
Eric
Hi Ken in SF,
Out of respect, I'm not going to try to guess your age, but I think I can assume you've been growing your hair our for over ten years now, right ^_~ heh?.....
Sincerely,
Eric
My ponytail circumference is about 2.5 inches. My hair is about 3 feet long but very fine. Longest shed I measured is just over 36 inches. Longest shed from beard is 25 inches.
- Oren
It's nice to know somebody else has fine hair and has managed to grow it long. Mine is extremely fine and only measures around 2.25 ~ 2.5 inches in circumference at the tail. It's currently almost long enough(shoulder blade length)for all my hair to end up in a pony tie , probably less than 10% doesn't quite reach.
--Dale
Hey Kansasdude,
How many years have you been growing your hair ^_^ ???
Sincerely, your neighbor to the north,
Eric
I can't say exactly when I started, as I had gradually let it get a little longer over several years. In the summer 2010 I decided I was going to just stop cutting it and see where that took me. I've had a couple maintenance trims to even it up, so by taking the average measured length I'd say I have the equivalent of two full years of growth.
Dale's Facebook Page
Hey again,
This has been pretty interesting so far, all of the wide ranges :) ! Based on how Absalom does things... and something I should have asked a little earlier ~_~ - to make it a little more "scientific", could you also please add how long you've been growing out your hair for ^_^ (for anyone else who joins in)? Thinking about making a spreadsheet myself - see if there is any correlation :D (probably not, but heck, why not :p ?)~
Sincerely,
Eric
3 and 1/4 inches. Have been growing my hair for just over 28 months, it is now near mid back. Have had a tail for 14 of those months.
No idea what mine is but the last time I came across a forum where a bunch of men were comparing their size in inches I tiptoed out quietly and left them to it ... :)
Hey, I'd join in this time but I haven't got a ruler. :(
Damon
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Don't worry, Damon :) ... I'd guess you'd be having to measure in centimeters instead of "English units" anyways ;p (just kidding)~
Sincerely,
Eric
Yeah, I tend to think in centimetres (metric) rather than inches (imperial) no matter what part of our anatomy we are measuring and comparing. But I was tickled by the concept of a bunch of men eagerly posting their sizes! :)
Damon
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Well, in my previous post, I was going to site the quote "It's not the size that counts..." but stopped short on purpose ^_~ .....
Sincerely,
Eric
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needs to be addressed. Did you wrap the string around loosely gathered hair or just below a hair tie? A hair tie substantially compresses everything, making for a smaller measurement. (I measured with my hair compressed, just a few millimeters below the hair tie.) I also used a strip of paper instead of string and cut it to just fit around the tail.
Scott
Hey Absalom,
Yeah, that could be an issue... hopefully everyone did it close to the same way :p . I did mine just below the hair tie (touching it) with a piece of silk cord my wife uses for jewelry making. My ponytail was tightly tied and didn't measure loosely. I'd assume using a piece of paper would get the same results :) . Can't speak for everyone, but at least that's how I did it ^_~ .....
Sincerely,
Eric
Well, now that it looks like most have responded who wants to, I did a little graph and matched it up for those who I could match up a growing time with. A bit imperfect (the way of measuring imperfect itself), but what works works :p (those who didn't have a growing time, Excel omitted, sorry ~_~ ). There is a bit of a trend in the graph that one can see, but who knows, there are so many different ways a could have been done it :p ... fun anyways :D ! Thanks to everyone who wend alone in the survey - interesting indeed ^_^ !!!
Sincerely,
Eric
x= circumference of hair (inches); y=time growing hair (years)
Interesting. It appears hair girth and length of time appears uncorrelated, although a larger n size would be desirable to test the correlation. I would have hypothesized a zero correlation actually, hair thickness would be largely accounted for by genetic factors, rather than environmental or health factors. I would think it independent especially of time growing.
- a scientist
Yep, exactly why you can almost make rope out of my wife's Chinese (Asian) hair and you can pretty much make only nutty putty out of my mostly European hair ~_~ . I just did the graph for fun, nothing more - never know what you might see or come up with ^_~ ~
Please have a great night ^_^ !
Sincerely,
Eric
Thank you for your efforts, it was definitely stimulating to read and see the graph.
Conclusion for data:
With the outlier, you have a weak but nontrivial correlation between ponytail thickness. Without the outler, you have a medium correlation. And the slope is definitely nonzero and negative.
Maybe you who have grown older are starting to bald albeit slowly which contributes to this pattern?
...I know in my case, once in a while I permanently pull out the hair follicle which will never grow back... so maybe with longer hair grown over longer periods, you get more of those hair follicles pulled out leading to less hair in a hair tie to measure. So depending on genetics, the thickness of a person's hair & age, when a person first starts growing out & as they grow out their, their personal maximum circumference decreases over time.....
...hopefully that makes some sense @_@ ~
Sincerely,
Eric