# Do people's heads get wider as they age? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111 "2007-12-15T17:07:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bea\_Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Bea\_Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bea_Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/1 "2007-12-15T17:07:03Z")
I have this argument with my parents all the time. I can even point to their own young adult and current photos. Yet they insist “I never heard that. I’ve heard your ears get bigger, but not your head.” Apparently pictures are not enough. Any data on this? ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/2 "2007-12-15T17:13:53Z")
[QUOTE=Bea Spoke] I have this argument with my parents all the time. I can even point to their own young adult and current photos. Yet they insist “I never heard that. I’ve heard your ears get bigger, but not your head.” Apparently pictures are not enough. Any data on this? [/QUOTE] I think there would have to be more information on this, like the time scale over which this change has taken. For instance, Paget’s Disease, a bone disease seen in older people can present as increasing hat size. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/3 "2007-12-15T17:25:52Z")
No data, but look at pictures of Frank Sinatra’s head when he was young and when he was old. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/4 "2007-12-15T17:27:37Z")
[Barry Bonds](http://www.espn.go.com/media/pg2/2006/0310/photo/bonds_300.jpg) seems to support this theory. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/5 "2007-12-15T17:32:03Z")
I’ve wondered about this since my Borsolina no longer fits. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/6 "2007-12-15T17:33:37Z")
[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion] [Barry Bonds](http://www.espn.go.com/media/pg2/2006/0310/photo/bonds_300.jpg) seems to support this theory. [/QUOTE] Yeah but he got wider all over, didn’t he. There is fat in the face, which will give the appearance of a bigger head if you increase in all over weight. And, not to bring up a sore subject, but isn’t he one of the steroid users? I’m not sure we should use someone who’s dickered in growth hormones as our test subject for normal physical development. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/7 "2007-12-15T17:38:14Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Yeah but he got wider all over, didn’t he. There is fat in the face, which will give the appearance of a bigger head if you increase in all over weight. And, not to bring up a sore subject, but isn’t he one of the steroid users? I’m not sure we should use someone who’s dickered in growth hormones as our test subject for normal physical development. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I admit I was being flippant. By some estimates, Bonds’ head increased by 1-1/2 to 2 hat sizes. But not, as you note, as the natural product of aging. ETA: His head didn’t grow that much, but apparently [HGH can cause growth in the skull, as well as the hands and feet](http://www.slate.com/id/2178288/), all of which Bonds has apparently experienced. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/8 "2007-12-15T17:53:23Z")
[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion] Yeah, I admit I was being flippant. [/QUOTE] Ah. That explains the whooshing sound over Chicago just now! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/9 "2007-12-15T20:34:56Z")
For the most part the skull itself doesn’t get bigger once the individual is mature. However deposition of subcutaneous fat will certainly widen the overall head, and an increase in the musculature would do the same thing. Some conditions will change the shape and size of the bone itself, but I wouldn’t consider this to be “normal” (i.e. non-pathologic). ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/10 "2007-12-16T16:45:14Z")
I was recently talking to my aunt about fancy synagogue hats, and she commented that she always keeps hers, because they’ll come back into style in thirty or forty years. She’s in her early seventies, and wears hats she bought fifty years ago, implying that her head, at least, hasn’t changed much. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/11 "2007-12-17T04:18:24Z")
They do in Innsmouth… ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/12 "2007-12-17T04:22:08Z")
It depends on how successful they are in life. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-peoples-heads-get-wider-as-they-age/430111/13 "2007-12-17T14:35:17Z")
I certainly hope not, I have a devil of a time finding hats now as it is.