Nowhere is the infamous saying about greener grass on the other side of the fence more often used than with hair texture, length, color and pretty much any other element in hair styling. Having grown up with very curly - almost afro hair myself in the midst of people who all had either bone straight or wavy hair I know all to well the plight of those wishing for the other hair type. I used to dream of having straight hair and cursed my own texture. Today I have no desire to change my hair texture at all - mostly because once it starts getting thinner, that problem basically makes all your others seem small and insignificant.
What I learned from this was that, if you have enough hair, then you can easily learn to love it - no matter what the hair texture or color. Modern styling techniques also give you many ways to change your hair type at least for a little while.
What exactly does it mean to have thick hair?
People sometimes mistakenly call their hair thin and it can in fact look that way from a distance. However this is usually when someone has very straight and/or very fine hair. Fine hair means that each individual hair is thin but that you have that much more of them on your head (natural blonds have this for example). Now fine hair has other problems such as sensitivity to chemicals, but overall it can be very thick too.
Thick hair basically means lots of it on the whole. You either have lots of individual hairs or each one is thick or both. People often measure the thickness of their hair by using a tape measure to determine the circumference of their ponytail. Another, far less accurate method, is to do a parting and see how much the scalp shows.
It is not about having big hair. That's another common misconception. Big hair just looks thick. This effect is achieved with lots of volume through teasing or with natural curls or perms. I for example have big hair even if it's is quite thin and yet people still sometimes say it's thick. There is a big difference between lots of volume and lots of hair.
Nobody with thick hair really wants thin
With thick hair you have so many more styling options. Basically there's pretty much no hairstyle that a stylist won't be able to do, provided the length is right. Hell you can even get it thinned if you want by using thinning shears. This is not so the other way round. Thin hair needs a certain cut - a really good cut as well. Your options are far fewer. Unless you go for something like extensions, you have to stick to certain layered hairstyles. Big hair styles are pretty much reserved for people with a certain hair thickness too.
On top of this, our hair tends to thin out as we age anyway and this is also true for women though not nearly as much as for men. This is why thicker hair tends to make people look younger.
Hassled with untangling your thick hair? Deal with it!
I know from my time when I had thick curly hair, how much I cursed having to untangle it. Of course, at the time, I blamed it on the texture and not on the thickness. I somehow thought that straight hair would never tangle. Well I just didn't know better. But if someone had given me the choice to go thinner and therefore have far less hassle untangling, then I'd have NEVER taken it.
To somebody with thin hair, the complaints from people with thick hair about dealing with knots and tangles are just silly. Seriously, thin haired people would love to be able to complain about such things. And hey, if you just cannot handle it, then it's easy to have it thinned out or just cut shorter.
It's nice to have the choice!
The big hair guide - is a very comprehensive web page on big hair.
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