You’ve probably seen the videos. Someone pulls a single hair from their head, runs their fingers down the length of it, and watches as it ripples, bumps, or stays perfectly smooth. On TikTok and Instagram, this is often called the the feeling is mutual strands test. It’s a trend that claims to reveal your inner emotional state, your stress levels, or even "kinks" in your personality through the physical texture of your hair. People are obsessed. They’re filming themselves under ring lights, squinting at a follicle, convinced that a tiny bump near the root is proof of a bad breakup three months ago.
But here’s the thing.
Hair doesn't exactly work like a mood ring. While the internet loves a poetic metaphor—the idea that our hair literally "feels" what we feel—the biological reality is actually way more interesting (and a bit more complex) than a simple viral trend suggests. Honestly, your hair is a historical record, but it’s recording biology, not just "vibes."
What are the feeling is mutual strands anyway?
When people talk about the feeling is mutual strands, they are usually referring to a phenomenon where a single hair has varying textures along its length. You might have a strand that starts out thick and coarse at the root but feels thin and smooth toward the ends. Or maybe you find a "crinkly" hair in a sea of straight ones.
The term itself is a bit of a romanticized way of looking at hair health. The "mutual" part comes from the idea that your body and your environment are in a constant conversation, and your hair is the transcript. If you’ve been eating nothing but instant ramen and sleeping three hours a night, your hair follicles notice. They react. They change the way they produce the protein structure of the hair.
It’s basically a living diary.
However, we need to clear something up. A lot of the "feeling is mutual" content suggests that if you have a bumpy strand, it means you’re "out of alignment." That’s mostly nonsense. Most of the time, those weirdly textured strands are just the result of a follicle that’s been slightly damaged, or perhaps you’re seeing the early signs of "acquired progressive kinking," a real condition where hair texture changes due to hormonal shifts.
The Biology of the Bumps
Your hair is made of keratin. It’s dead tissue, which is why it doesn't hurt when you get a haircut. But the follicle—the little pocket in your scalp—is very much alive. It’s connected to your bloodstream. It’s fed by nutrients. It’s sensitive to androgens like testosterone and cortisol, the stress hormone.
When you experience a massive physiological shock—think high fever, surgery, or extreme grief—the follicle can literally "hiccup." This is a documented medical phenomenon. In severe cases, it leads to Telogen Effluvium, where hair falls out in clumps. But in milder cases, it just changes the diameter or the shape of the strand as it’s being formed.
🔗 Read more: Finding the Right Word That Starts With AJ for Games and Everyday Writing
You can actually see this. If you look at a strand under a microscope, a period of illness might appear as a thinner segment. It’s not that the hair is "sad." It’s that the body diverted energy away from "luxury" items like hair to focus on keeping your vital organs running.
Why Everyone Is Obsessed With Hair Texture Changes
We live in an era of hyper-self-documentation. We track our steps, our sleep, our glucose. It makes sense that we’d start looking at our hair for answers too. The the feeling is mutual strands trend tapped into a deep desire for physical proof of our internal struggles.
"I knew I was stressed, but seeing this crinkly hair really confirmed it," one creator says in a video with 2 million views.
There’s a comfort in that. It’s a form of validation. If your hair is "messy," then it’s okay for your life to be messy too. But it’s also easy to fall down a rabbit hole of pseudo-science. Not every textured hair is a sign of a spiritual crisis. Sometimes, it’s just a clogged pore on your scalp. Sometimes, it’s just the way your genetics are expressing themselves as you age.
Did you know that most people’s hair texture changes every seven to ten years? It’s true. You might go from having stick-straight hair as a kid to wavy hair in your twenties. This is usually down to hormones. Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause are the big three. If you find a few "stray" strands that don't match the rest, it’s often just your follicles entering a new phase of life.
The Role of Scalp Health
If we’re being real, most of what people call the feeling is mutual strands is actually just localized scalp inflammation.
Think about it.
If the skin around the follicle is tight, inflamed, or covered in product buildup, the hair has to "squeeze" its way out. This can cause it to emerge with a distorted shape. It’s like squeezing Play-Doh through a shaped toy—if the opening is dented, the shape comes out wonky.
💡 You might also like: Is there actually a legal age to stay home alone? What parents need to know
- Product Buildup: Dry shampoo is a major culprit here. It sits on the scalp and can irritate the follicle.
- Mechanical Stress: Do you always wear your hair in a tight "clean girl" bun? That tension (traction) can physically warp the follicle over time.
- Seborrheic Dermatitis: This is a common scalp condition that causes itchiness and flakes. It also disrupts the "smoothness" of hair production.
Misconceptions That Need to Die
There is a weird myth circulating that if you pluck a "feeling is mutual" strand, seven more will grow back in its place, or that the "bad energy" will spread.
That is 100% false.
Each follicle is an independent unit. Plucking one hair doesn't tell the neighboring follicles anything. However, plucking is still a bad idea. If you constantly pull out those textured strands because they bother you, you risk "traction alopecia" or permanent scarring of the follicle. Eventually, that hair just won't come back at all.
Another big one? The idea that you can "fix" a strand once it has grown out.
You can’t.
Once the hair has left the scalp, the "feeling is mutual" part is over. It’s a finished record. You can use silicones to coat it and make it feel smoother, but you can’t change the structural integrity of that specific strand. You have to look at the new growth. That’s where the real information is.
How to Actually "Read" Your Hair
Instead of looking for "kinks" as a sign of emotional trauma, look for these evidence-based markers. This is what trichologists (hair and scalp specialists) actually look for:
- Sudden Brittleness: If your hair feels like straw despite using good conditioner, it’s often a sign of protein deficiency or a lack of certain fats in your diet. Your hair needs Omega-3s.
- Width Variation: If a single strand goes from thick to thin and back to thick, that’s a sign of fluctuating systemic health. It might be worth getting your thyroid checked.
- Loss of Pigment: We all know about graying, but "poliosis" (a white patch) can sometimes appear suddenly due to an autoimmune response.
Honestly, the best way to deal with the feeling is mutual strands is to stop overanalyzing them in the mirror and start looking at your lifestyle as a whole. Your hair is the caboose of the train. By the time you see a change in your hair, the "event" happened weeks or months ago.
📖 Related: The Long Haired Russian Cat Explained: Why the Siberian is Basically a Living Legend
Actionable Steps for Better Hair (and Soul) Harmony
If you’re noticing a lot of these textured, "mutual" strands and you want to smooth things out, you don't need a shaman. You need a scalp routine.
Stop treating your hair like a fabric and start treating your scalp like skin. Because it is.
First, get a scalp massager. Use it while you wash your hair. It increases blood flow to those follicles, ensuring they get the nutrients they need to produce smooth, strong keratin.
Second, check your ferritin levels. Iron deficiency is one of the most common reasons for "weird" hair texture and thinning, especially in women. If your iron is low, your follicles are essentially "gasping for air," and they won't produce high-quality hair.
Third, embrace the "low tension" life. Give your scalp a break from the tight ties. Let your hair exist in its natural state more often.
Lastly, pay attention to your protein intake. Your hair is literally made of the stuff. If you aren't eating enough, your body will scavenge protein from your hair to support your muscles and heart.
The "feeling is mutual" between your body and your hair is a real biological partnership. Your hair reflects your health, your habits, and yes, sometimes your stress. But it’s not a curse, and it’s not a permanent mark of failure. It’s just data. Use it to take better care of yourself, and the strands will follow suit.
Focus on the following to see real change in the next 90 days:
- Scalp Clarification: Use a salicylic acid-based scalp treatment once a week to clear out follicle-clogging debris.
- Dietary Support: Incorporate biotin and collagen-rich foods, but prioritize whole proteins like eggs, lentils, or lean meats.
- Stress Management: Since cortisol does impact follicle function, finding a way to lower your baseline stress will eventually lead to more "calm" hair growth.
- Professional Consultation: If your hair texture changes drastically and suddenly across your whole head, skip the TikTok tutorials and see a dermatologist. It could be an underlying hormonal issue that a hair mask won't fix.