Theories on shrinkage?

[SheenaVee]

Ok, so shrinkage never used to bother me when my hair was shorter, but now my hair's getting longer it's starting to. Lol. I wanna see my length damn it!

Especially after I did a length check:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u9GgPFSk3M (skip to 1:08 to see the length of my hair)
and saw that my hair was that long now!

I was all but also a bit at the shrinkage. And I actually used to think my shrinkage wasn't too bad.

So I started thinking about shrinkage and why some people have so much while others don't. I mean, if your hair curls then it's obviously gonna look shorter than it really is, but the length it's at when it's wet and/or with product should be the length it stays all the time, no? Why does it get even shorter as it dries?

So here is my theory on shrinkage. The finer the hair strands, the more shrinkage because the hair is lighter. Most black people's hair in general is fine so we get more shrinkage.

Anyone got anymore theories? It was just a curious thought and I thought I'd discuss it with you ladies.

 

[Flawlis1]

Well the reason it gets shorter as it dries is because the water is what gives it the weight to hang lower giving your hair a longer look, your hair weighs less when it is dry.
It also depends on the texture, black hair is dryer than any other hair type, especially in its natural state, so there is not enough natural moisture to weigh the hair down to be visibly longer, so since it's drier it weighs less causing it to shrivel up.

 

[Foxglove]

It's like a slinky. It can shrink down to a few inches but when you stretch it out it's a few feet long.

 

[Nonie]

I agree with both of you, which is why I don't consider elongated curls a description of type. Some hair hangs more as it grows longer due to the weight exerted by heavier strands, while some hair is so light that even length doesn't exert much weight on the whole so the coils don't hand or appear elongated.

I've never thought of the moisture content of hair, but that is indeed an interesting point to consider. :scratchch

 

[snillohsss]

When my hair is wet, I mean really wet, it dries with an enlongated curl, regardless if I scrunch or not. If I dry really good, then plop my curls, my hair shrinks above my shoulders. I get a lot of shrinkage when my hair is just damp, but if I air dry with my hair very wet, I get APL curls.

 

[SheenaVee]

When my hair is wet, I mean really wet, it dries with an enlongated curl, regardless if I scrunch or not. If I dry really good, then plop my curls, my hair shrinks above my shoulders. I get a lot of shrinkage when my hair is just damp, but if I air dry with my hair very wet, I get APL curls.

Oh wow, really?! I wish mine would do that!

I've noticed that when I dry my hair with a diffuser it shrinks less than when I air dry. With a diffuser it basically stays the same length it was when I'd just applied product and it was wet, which is around shoulder length. Air dried and it shrinks up to my neck.

Now I'm wondering why that is, and why snilloh's hair shrinks less when soaking wet. Theories on those? Lol.

 

[Amoreofcurls]

I agree with you about the fine hair thing...I have fine strands with a cottony/silkish texture so its like I want elongation I need a product that will put weight to my strands (when dry), without actually weighing it down, I know that doesnt make sense but I hope you see what im tryna say...

For a while I thought people with coarser strands had less shrinkage,in alot of cases they do, but even some of them same issue. Sometimes I even wonder if the people who got elongation from KCCC had coarse or heavier strands of hair...


So what else could it possibly besides strand size?


Texture?


Do you think wirey textures get less shrinkage?


What about elasticity?

 

[growinghealthyhair]

Your hair is beautiful. Thats all I can add to this thread!

 

[Nonie]

Oh wow, really?! I wish mine would do that!

I've noticed that when I dry my hair with a diffuser it shrinks less than when I air dry. With a diffuser it basically stays the same length it was when I'd just applied product and it was wet, which is around shoulder length. Air dried and it shrinks up to my neck.

Now I'm wondering why that is, and why @snilloh's hair shrinks less when soaking wet. Theories on those? Lol.

Perhaps it's because when you use a diffuser, it's almost like you set your hair in its stretched state because the heat of the diffuser dries the water so fast that it doesn't get a chance to pull away from gravity.

And maybe the same thing with @snilloh's hair. Imagine if you had a weight at the end of your hair, in this case the excess water. Due to gravity the water drains down towards the ends of her hair...so her roots start to dry while stretched down by the weight of the water. As the hair dries from base to ends, it sets in that stretched state so that by the time the ends dry, the sections closer to her scalp already set in the semi-stretched state.

When her hair is damp, there isn't enough weight to pull on the hair so gravity doesn't have much effect on it, which is why it pulls up and away from the ground and so "sets" in a tighter coil.

 

[Amoreofcurls]

Come to think of it, my hair does the same thing Shilloh does...if I let my hair air dry without touching or shaking (which makes my curls bounce up), my hair shows a lil more length...When I blot or towel dry my hair shrinks...

If I were to apply product to my soak and wet hair, it would separate my curls and cause them to shrink up more because of that I smooth my gel to damp almost dry hair...

 

[Evolving78]

well i have fine strands, very coily, and my hair shrinks to an inch. i believe my hair would have to be WL to sit on my shoulders unstretched.

 

[Amoreofcurls]

Perhaps it's because when you use a diffuser, it's almost like you set your hair in its stretched state because the heat of the diffuse dries the water so fast that it doesn't get a chance to pull away from gravity.

And maybe the same thing with snilloh's hair. Imagine if you had a weight at the end of your hair, in this case he excess water. Due to gravity the water drains down towards the ends of her hair...so her roots start to dry while stretched down by the weight of the water. As the hair dries from base to ends, it sets in that stretched state so that by the time the ends dry, the sections closer to her scalp already set in the semi-stretched state.

When her hair is damp, there isn't enough weight to pull on the hair so gravity doesn't have much effect on it, which is why it pulls up and away from the ground and so "sets" in a tighter coil.

Nonie you hit a nail on the head!!!! my ends take FOREVER to dry if I leave it soak and wet, and that may be the same case for snilloh

 

[Nonie]

Amoreofcurls, I suppose elasticity would have to be one of the things kept constant. In other words, it doesn't really come into place coz good elasticity means you stretch it and then let go and it springs back to it's "relaxed" state. So fine strands would be easier to stretch but would spring back while coarse/tough strands would take a bit of effort and then spring back.

Hair with bad elasticity (think of an overprocessed jheri curl or heat damage on curly hair) would just stay stretched if you pulled on it, whether fine or coarse....

 

[Napp]

well i had a theory that certain kinds of curls are more prone to elongation.the size of the curl does have a relationship with the degree of elongation but it is not necessarily a direct relationship. i think it is a quality of the hair strand like sheen vs shine.to simplfy it i call it open vs closed curls. open curls are curls that are more likely to elongate. they also allow for more hair to clump together. closed curls tend to not elongate and does not make clumps with its neighbor.i also think that there is a range of this and can occur all in the same head.

this is what i got from observation ...


so going by my theory snilloh can get both a tight curl look and an elongated look because her curls are more prone to opening than to say, Sheena's curls.

does that make sense?

 

[Amoreofcurls]

hmmm its also makes me think of how some of us get elongation after clay or henna treatment...its the weight we put on the ends...

 

[Nonie]

@Napp, yes size of coil definitely makes a difference. If you had two sets of curls, one big and one small, and they both went from being compressed springs that form a tube with an O cross-section into wide-mouthed C's (waves) when viewed from the side, the larger curls would appear to open wider and hang longer due to size, but they might be open just as much as the smaller curls, but because of their size, they would hit a level lower than the smaller curls.

And yes, big curls do cup/spoon each other easier than small curls coz their "mouths" open wide so that it's easy for adjacent ones to fall in.

 

[snillohsss]

@Nonie you hit a nail on the head!!!! my ends take FOREVER to dry if I leave it soak and wet, and that may be the same case for @snilloh

YES! It takes FOREVER for mine to dry as well, and not to mention soaking wet t-shirts, or wet towels draped around my neck all day.

 

[SND411]

Perhaps some people have more disulfide bonds per hair strand than others. Maybe these disulfide bonds are more dispersed in hair that does not shrink as much.

 

[SheenaVee]

Perhaps some people have more disulfide bonds per hair strand than others. Maybe these disulfide bonds are more dispersed in hair that does not shrink as much.

SND411 0_o Would you mind explaining more about these disulfide bonds? Please.

 

[SND411]

@SND411 0_o Would you mind explaining more about these disulfide bonds? Please.

Got this from ehow:

Scientifically is the best way to give an explanation as to why your hair would grow in curly and usually it goes through a genetic gene as to where your proteins are lined up. Your hair is made out of proteins and it's the interlocking of proteins which actually form your hair cuticle and your hair structure from root to shaft. Actually your entire body is made up of protein bonds. Two sulfur atoms that come together in those proteins are called a disulfide bond. As your proteins attach, they attach into this disulfide bond. Now the further that your atoms are away from each other, the easier it's going to be to curl. So if your atom, if your one sulfur atom is a few inches away from your other sulfur atom, what it's going to do is wind the hair in order to bring those two closer together so that way they may connect and form that disulfide bond. Straighter hair, usually your disulfide bonds are one right after the other and that's why you don't really need to get much bend in order to bring those two atoms together in order to create the bond. Perming hair is going to basically force that disulfide bond the waving motion actually takes the bonds and rearranges them and it breaks up the bonds from your straight hair, rearranges them and makes them further apart so that way those two sulfur atoms actually have to connect with each other by winding around the rod. So curly hair is ultimately just in the placement of your sulfur atoms and how far in length they need to go in order to meet and create the disulfide bond which your hair is made out of. And that is why curly hair is curly."

I think this makes sense.

So my earlier statement was flawed. It's not so much how many, but the length a disulfide bond needs to "travel" make a bond. I think water tends to temporarily break some of these bonds, which causes our coils to elongate when drenched with good ol' H2O. As water evaporates, the broken bonds are paired again, cause our hair to experience increasing shrinkage as it dries.
Some people with similar hair textures may still have different chemical structures within their hair; causing perhaps one person to experience greater shrinkage in their hair than another.

 

[lettieg27]

Very interesting theories ladies, this is a very informative thread. Thanks OP.

 

[AvaSpeaks]

I was just saying that shrinkage is a

If you look at my siggy pic, that is my hair unstretched trying to push for SL. I did that 3/2/11. But if you pull on my hair, the sides, back and crown reach down to my shoulder blades, but because of my shrinkage, it doesn't show the length or all of my true progress

You should see my hair right now! Darn shrinkage can kiss ffrant:

 

[Iluvsmuhgrass]

^ ^


My shrinkage can be brutal but the more moisturized it is, the less (what's the word I'm looking for....) "compacted" it is. If I let it dry with no product it goes from shoulder to literally like 1-2 inches. I embrace all that it is... but moisture is definitely a key factor with my grass.

 

[Evolving78]

^ ^


My shrinkage can be brutal but the more moisturized it is, the less (what's the word I'm looking for....) "compacted" it is. If I let it dry with no product it goes from shoulder to literally like 1-2 inches. I embrace all that it is... but moisture is definitely a key factor with my grass.

that's interesting! the minute i put product in my hair, it shrinks up even more. the only time my coils hangs is when they are soaking wet or weighed down with gel.

that's one of the main reasons i can't handle my hair being pressed, the minute moisture hits, it draws up. my hair requires a hard press in order to get it bone straight. not because it is course, but it likes to coil back up. that's why my hair always suffers from heat damage. that's why i stayed away from moisturizing products when i was relaxed.

that was the reason why my mother relaxed my hair, it could hold a press at all.

 

[Poohbear]

So how would you ladies explain white people who have extremely thin/fine hair strands but their hair strands stay straight and doesn't shrink at all?

Sheena284, your natural hair is GORGEOUS!

 

[Poohbear]

Yesterday and a few days ago, I decided to try the wash n go style. NEVER AGAIN! Even though my hair has more length than it did years ago, it still shrinks above my ears. No matter what I did to try to elongate the curl pattern, it shrunk. I have fine strands as well that are light-weight and my hair texture is very tightly coiled with undefined kinky strands too. If I don't want to straighten my hair, I have to do a twistout or braidout in order to get some hang-time with my natural hair.

 

[SND411]

So how would you ladies explain white people who have extremely thin/fine hair strands but their hair strands stay straight and doesn't shrink at all?

@Sheena284, your natural hair is GORGEOUS!

If their hair is curly (any ethnicity) their hair will most likely shrink.

 

[Poohbear]

If their hair is curly (any ethnicity) their hair will most likely shrink.

I'm saying what if their hair is NOT curly? It's naturally straight with light weight fine strands. How come it does not shrink? Maybe it's staying straight because straight strands have more moisture on the inside?

 

[bride91501]

I really have no scientific theories to contribute lol, just glad to see that others have, and are embracing, their major shrinkage too.

My hair in a shrunken state looks EXCACTLY like it did when I BC'd. Thank God for this board cuz I'd never know my hair was actually growing otherwise. I actually don't ever see it hanging down to my shoulders....I'll probably be WL with a TWA *shrug*

Here are 2 pics of my hair recently....the 1st of a "curly fro" style I treid yesterday (my hair isn't even fully shrunken here); the 2nd of a mini-length check I just did a couple of days ago.

The attitude that I have now is that as long as I know my hair is growing, it really doesn't matter if others think it's long or short. I just have to keep reminding myself of this

 

[FlowerHair]

The weight of the strands and the curl size determines shrinkage IMO...

Heavy, thick hair will hang more and of course the straighter the hair, the straighter it will hang.

My hair will hang out to waves within a few days after washing, water and moisture makes it curl up again.