posted
I realized this was selfish and vain- especially with threads about sibling cancer and burglary on the front page- but hey, its my body and its intensely interesting to me, at least.
Can you get taller at the age of 21?
I have always been oddly proportioned. Wide shoulders and very big hands and feet (size 15 american). I am also moderately tall (6 feet). But there have been some wierd changes over the last few months, that I have at least started to notice every day.
I used to stoop alot in highschool and kind of hunker down under the weight of my backpack. The habit continued into college, so that friends thought I was 5' 9", instead of 6'00. I began running regularly in college, freshman year as an *awesome* stress management technique, and one effect was a change in posture. People began to comment that I was taller looking. I didn't really notice, but starting this last year, and continuing up till now, I have continually suprised myself with my own perception of my height. Also, since I moved recently, I pulled out a few shirts I hadn't worn in the two years that I lived in my apt, and have worn them, and noticed them riding up my back above my pants in a way that they definetly didn't do before.
The thing is too- I haven't measured my height in all this time, since freshman year, so I have no idea how tall I really am, or was then, when I wore those shirts. Its gotten so that I am going to have to get rid of some of the shirts that used to fit me just fine, but now I can't sit down in them without getting a plumber's crack going. I think the problem too may be proportions. I am somewhat thicker in the chest than I was three years ago, and I have always had broad shoulders and big arms, but I have worn a Large t-shirt size since the 10th grade. The effect is that my torso fits into the shirts fine, but they are getting too short on me, and my arms are getting to thick for the sleeves of a large. An X-large is droopy and silly looking on me (I think), but the larges are just not right. Is it better to just go bigger, or do I need to find a third solution?
I do shop at big and tall, but the selection is no good (try quintuple X sweatsuites etc), and the clothes are too business casual for me. I'm not fat really, but I have a big build that's hard to find clothes for. Any suggestions?
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
TYPICALLY (and of course there are exceptions to the rule) men's growth starts decelerating by the age of 18. After that point don't expect much height.
Girls are the same deal but at about the age of 16 since they typically start earlier.
Its not impossible, some people insisted I was taller as a 21 year old then I was at 19.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I believe that the accepted age at which further growth is considered impossible is 25. But the majority of people are fully grown by 21.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I see pictures of my husband in college, and a few years after, and though he did not get taller, he went form no chest hair to fully covered. Also, his face was really baby-like back then.
Some men are really late bloomers, and I think you could still be growing a bit.
posted
My father really grew a lot between 19 and 22. He joined the army at 20 and was several inches taller when he was finished.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
When I met my husband 6 years ago, we were exactly the same height. Now I'm at least an inch taller, maybe two. Either he's getting shorter or I'm getting taller, but that'd be hard to believe what with all the crap I've been putting my bones through! Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Hmm. This seems to be making sense. Also, my beard has been filling in quite a bit more lately. In my Freshman year, I couldn't grow what anyone would call a beard, but now I definetly can. Even a year ago, my beard was very very thin- and though its still not thick, it is probably twice as thick now as it was a year ago.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
My husband kept growing (very slowly) until 25. He kept going until 21 at his adolescent pace (he really started puberty at 14, according to his mom), and then still grew very slowly for four more years-- but enough that by the end of those four years his shirts had to be 1 inch longer in the sleeves and his pants had to be 1/2 inch longer. He didn't really gain much overall height, but he was growing.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Oh, and I have a friend who hardly grew at all in HS, and then shot up like a weed once he turned 18. He also started getting a little facial hair, which he had never had before (he's Chinese-American.) And he is still growing, AFAIK (he's my age, 23 now.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Oh, and the "girl" figure mentioned earlier is variable as well; what I usually hear cited is that girls generally don't grow more than an inch after 1 1/2 to 2 years after menarche.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
The pubertal hormone cascade triggers fusion of the epiphyseal growth plates at the ends of the long bones. Once the bones are fused, they can't grown any longer, and even something like excess Growth Hormone doesn't make for longer long bones at that point -- just "acromegaly," or a coarsening of the facial features and some soft tissue swelling of the extremities with overgrowth (widening) of some bones like the mandible and front of the forehead.
(Here is also one of those times when you may see excessive body perspiration and offensive body odor, and so with this sort of constellation, it's worthwhile for a medical professional to think about endocrine causes of excessive growth hormone.)
On the other hand, people hit puberty at different ages, and the pubertal process lasts for differing lengths of time from one person to another.
A very common cause of delayed puberty in both boys and girls is constitutional growth delay, in which the individual experiences all the growth spurts (toddler included) at a later timeframe than his peers, and if you were to type the "bone age" of the person with a wrist x-ray, you would see that he or she has "younger" (i.e., unfused) bones than those in the peer group. This tends to run in families, and there is often an uncle that got his beard late, or an aunt who had her menarche late.
No harm, no foul.
[Edited to add: And boys in particular tend to experience puberty in a "caudal to rostral" (i.e., tail-end to head-end) fashion. First their feet and hands start to enlarge, and then their arms and legs lengthen, even though they still have the face of a prepubescent. It's that cute gawky coltish look. The face is usually the last part of the body to show fully matured features.]
posted
That's really enlightening CT. Yes, I had extremely boyish features all through college, and that has only very recently started to change. Also, my hands and feet are very large- larger than people of my same height- I have size 15 feet, and hands big enough to palm a basketball. My hands and feet haven't grown in at least 4 years, but I have definetly grown over an inch in that time. It's just been recently, over the last year, that people have been able to look at me and recognize me by age- whereas before I looked like an overgrown 14 year old. Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Sorry to jump into the guys thread... but I grew an inch and a half when I was 20 (i'm a girl) so if 16 is really the typical slow down for ladies - anything's possible, Orinoco!!!
Posts: 1355 | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
Hmmm, between the ages of 25 and 37 I went from 6 ft 0 inches to 5 ft 11 inches, my shoe size went from 10.5 to 11 and lately 11 is starting to feel a bit snug. My waist size went from 36" to 46".
So, in my case yes and no.
EDIT: Oh and most of the hair on my head has now relocated to my chest. In fact I didn't have any significant chest hair until I was in my early 30s.
Posts: 527 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I swear that in the last week I've had a rapid acceleration in my facial hair growth. Up until now I've been shaving every other day, and been only a little bit scruffy on the off days. Now after something like 18 hours I am clearly in need of a reshave.
Earlier this year I also noticed I'd hit the point where even right after I shave, it still looks like I need to shave (the Homer Simpson effect, though it isn't to that degree quite yet).
Neither of these changes are particularly welcome.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I wish I would grow another two inches or so, but alas, 'tis not to be.
Anecdote -- Michael Jordan grew 4" in his first year in college, iirc, so it's not unheard of. I've known a couple of guys who kept slowly getting taller after high school, including my best friend. Who's now an inch to an inch and a half taller than me. He was my height or a hair shorter when we graduated.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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