Are you at peace with your shrinkage?

[adamson]

I've gotten used to it, but I wish that I could see my full length. My hair would probably have to be tbl to look apl while shrunken.

 

[ManeStreet]

That's why I love to shingle. It reduces shrinkage alot by stretching it out some.

 

[Computer Blue]

Yes. It is what it is, that's why I chose to transition until I'm at a length I am comfortable at with the shrinkage. Shrinkage is not a bad thing to me. I have always accepted my hair for what it is.

 

[Windsy]

I love it; I get about 50% shrinkage; I haven't seen my hair straight in over a year and I'm content with it.

I pretty much wash 'n go. I love the curls over the straight hair.....I'm probably weird!!!

 

[SmilingElephant]

I love my shrinkage! My hair is soooo close to crossing the APL line...yet it shrinks to the top of my neck I don't get alot of shrinkage in the front and crown however.

To me it serves as a protective style. ...I think our hair was designed to shrink for a reason...to protect it as it grows bc it's fragile.

 

[lacreolegurl]

I am at peace with my shrinkage. I wear a wash-n-go daily. I'm neck length shrunken and bsb straightened.

 

[faithVA]

I deal with it but I wouldn't necessarily call it being at peace. I let it be what it is but if I could find a good way to have less shrinkage I would. With the amount of shrinkage I have there are styles I will probably never get to wear. And I don't really even want to wear out styles, I just want to wear 2 strand twists that don't sit up at my ears all of the time. And no amount of stretching, blowdrying, product applying gives me twists that don't shrink right back up.

 

[Lynnerie]

Not really but I deal with it. I still wear wash n go's but I usually end up putting my hair up in a puff because I don't like leaving the house looking cute and then at the end of the day looking well...different.

 

[Cherokee-n-Black]

All that banding and twisting and whatever other airdry methods are WAY too time consuming also, I dont have 3 days to finish a hairstyle

I know exactly what you mean. Now that my hair is getting longer/more natural, airdrying is taking longer as well. If I let my braidouts fully dry, it takes nearly 24 hours!

 

[curlyninjagirl]

I actually like my shrinkage for the fact that there is a pleasant shock factor for myself and for others when i do straighten my hair.

My 10 year old neice once said my hair was 'magical' because she thought it grew from jaw length to below shoulder overnight!!!

Eta - why do i keep saying jaw length - heck i have ear length shrinkage - lol.

^^This is exactly why I like my shrinkage. There was a time when I resented my shrinkage because it kept me from seeing my true length. Although I feel I am at peace with it, I do not like the tangles and ssks. Oh well, I have learned to work around these flaws.

 

[prettypithy]

I'm not at peace with mine. I'm a length whore. But I also never let my hair shrink fully cuz I air dry in twists. After two three days, it is sufficiently stretched for my hair to reach SL. Straight, I'm closer to APL. When my twist outs reach APL, I will come to peace with my shrinkage. But that might taking getting to WL, in which case, never mind!

 

[Nonie]

I am not just at peace with my shrinkage. I my shrinkage. You will rarely catch me with stretched hair--or I should say--in a style where my hair is fully stretched straight. I do keep my hair in styles that keep it from being fully shrunken. Buthen I wear it out, it's usually in a shrunken state unless my hair is straightened it (which in the last ten years has been a total of 3 times lasting a week each time ). Even my twists are never worn in their stretched out state. Always worn shrunken. And if I've had them in a braided pony, I actually can't stand to have them hanging down later and usually end up putting on a hat or headwrap with a plastic cap (just so I don't have to deal with them) or just wash them to get them to shrink up again.

I used to love shrinkage for the tricks it played on people: You know, one minute it's long, the next minute it's short. I loved the questions "OMG did you cut your hair?" "Wow! How does it do that? Look it coils!" "When did your hair get that long?" Loved it!

But now I love it for the look I get. The way I twist (twirling strands first) does give longer twists than twisting the way a lot of people do. But when I wet the twists, the shrinkage makes them fall in a way I like and puffs them up a bit so they don't look so "underfed". Shrinkage also gives my twists weight so they actually fall back into place after the wind blows. You can see from the stretched twist below that the nape ones would probably be hanging at APL...but then I'd not have the cute bob I am enjoying here:

Even when my hair was just at SL, I loved the dreadlock look I got when I wet my twists. They'd be bouncy, and I loved how they fell and how my shadow looked like leaves of a palm tree!

See? Nonie's shadows

In the pics below, you can see what the twists looked like when done on straightened SL hair:

 

[manter26]

I like my shrinkage. Even though my hair is APL, it never goes past my neck...built in protective styling.

 

[Oasis]

i love when i straighten my hair only to be shocked by how long it really is. but no, i do not like my shrinkage.

i'm relaxed and my shrinkage rivals many naturals. my natural shrinkage is just unbearable.

 

[BrookeLynn]

I do not like my shrinkage at all. First, it leads to tangles. Second, my fat face isn't suited for short hair- so when my near armpit length hair shrivels up to eyelash length it definitely isn't a good look.

 

[belldandy]

no, but i think it is because of my bonelaxed ends. i am almost mbl when curly. i think it will be good to go in a year or so. my hair is so much longer when straight though...it is kind of weird that no one gets to see that but me when I am in the shower.

 

[TaraDyan]

In a word ... no!

Exhibit A

This is exactly why I keep my hair stretched at all times. Shrinkage gets on my nerves.

 

[chebaby]

i am and have always been 110% at peace with my shrinkage. i love it and have no problems with it. i rarely straighten my hair so i really dont care what it looks like when straightened. but i know when i pull my hair its bsl and when shrunken its full sl in the back and shorter in the front.

 

[lilyofthenile]

I am at peace with my shrinkage; it is what it is. If I don't want it, I can stretch my hair in many other ways. I think my shrinkage is really intriguing. One day I'll have long hair and the next I won't XD I think that's quite nice and diverse in itself.

 

[Zaz]

I'm fine with my shrinkage, I like it actually. Right now my hair is BSB straight but only about ear length with a wash n go. But when I flat iron it, my hair looks... well, just like my old relaxed hair used to look

Not that there's anything wrong with that but I had that hair for like 20 years and I'm used to it and kinda over it which is why I went natural. My natural hair is new and different and exciting so the shrinkage really just doesn't bother me at all.

 

[snillohsss]

I'm fine with my shrinkage, but I don't have crazy shrinkage to begin with.

 

[thecurlycamshow]

I'm at peace with it and like my shrunken hair. I just reached BSL (yah!) But my shrunken hair doesn't touch my shoulders = major shrinkage. The back of my hair is full of coils, the front has a loose curl and the sides are a mixture. I like the independence of my hair lol!

 

[lilanie]

At total peace with my shrinkage!

 

[kellistarr]

Truthfully, I never gave shrinkage any thought until I started reading these hair boards.
I never cared that my hair was longer than it appears. Probably because I rarely get my hair straightened, so my hair in its natural state is what I'm used to looking at. There are many benefits to shrinkage. It hides many flaws, like me needing a hair cut or trim. I don't worry when it rains or when the wind blows, my hair always bounces back into shape.

 

[MissDarcei]

I'm not. I have BSL hair that shrinks to between SL and APL which isn't bad but I think that my shrinkage length looks really awkward on me and I can't wait until my hair grows so that my shrinkage is at BSL

 

[jamaica68]

Shrinkage is inevitable for some of us, I accepted it years ago.

 

[NefertariBlu]

My hair doesn't shrink that much, so I would say that it's never really bothered me. I think because when I was younger having natural hair, it was just what it did. I expected it, so when I started to grow my hair natural again I just expected it to shrink, so it never gets a second thought. IDK, never really thought about shrinkage to be honest.

I mainly focus on moisture as my hair gets SUPER dry.

 

[LoveTheSkinImIn]

I'm cool with my shrinkage because I like the way my curls look. If I had a less-existent curl pattern I probably wouldn't be so okay with the shrinkage.

 

[Sweet_Ambrosia]

I’ve been at peace with my shrinkage since 2007.

 

[Dizz]

I love my shrinkage. My hair protective-styles itself. It's when I go fighting my hair's plans that we have problems.