Having a perfectly fitting bra helps ward off gaping cups, droopy straps, and dreaded uni-boob. Here’s how to measure a teenager for a bra, combat other everyday bra related issues and what to do when your size changes.

Finding the Right Bra Size

Your bra size at its core is a shorthand that typically describes the relationship between the bust and rib cage measurement. You can use a tape measure or visit a store to get professionally fitted.

If you stay in a metropolitan area, getting measured professionally for a bra in a store allows you to experiment with different brands, styles, sizes, and silhouettes. This will help you get a bra that works well for you with a perfect fit. Besides, you can always get feedback from the staff, which is always important when you are still learning about different bra sizes, feel, fit, and look.

However, the environment in a boutique can sometimes intimidate, especially when the bras are quite expensive. Unfortunately, not all department stores and shops have a friendly environment. Here are a few tips that will help you through the bra measuring process in the privacy of your home.

How to Measure a Teenage for a Bra

• 1. Measure the Ribcage

Wearing a solid bra that offers ultimate breast support and lifts, wrap the measuring tape around your ribcage on the bra’s band area and ensure it’s parallel to the ground. It helps determine the band size. To get accurate measurements, round off the results to the nearest even number if you get an odd number.

• 2. Measure the Breasts

Wrap the measuring tape around the body where the breasts are fullest, ensuring the tape measure is parallel to the floor. Round up the inches to the nearest even number for accurate results. This helps you get the cup size measurement.

• 3. Determine the Cup Size

The number of inches between the fullest part of the breasts and the ribcage usually determines the cup size.

Check out the following examples:

5” – DD

4” – D

3” – C

2” – B

1” – A

0” – AA

If for instance, your ribcage measurement is, say 30” while the fullest part of the breasts is 32”, you get the difference of the two, which is 2”. It, therefore, means you are a B cup.

• 4. Determine the Band Size

To get the band size, add 4 to your ribcage measurement. For instance, if your ribcage measurement is 30, the band size will be 34. If you put them together, the right bra size should be 34B.

Here is a video showing how to correctly measure your bra size:

Common Bra Fit Issues

Knowing your right bra size is only a starting point and doesn’t necessarily mean that all bras in that particular size will fit perfectly. Sometimes, you might need to go up or down a cup size due to different factors such as the bra’s colour.

For example, black bras always tend to run tight meaning you will need to size up for a perfect fit. You can typically wear different sizes significantly when you change bra styles or brands. Switching to a different size does not reflect on your body or you as it’s only an odd quirk of the pastry industry and the bra itself.

Here’s how to comfortably adjust your bra size if it doesn’t fit properly. Remember, to feel comfortable, your bra should be of the right size.

• Go down a size if the cups have gapping since they are supposed to hug the curves.
• If the straps are either too tight or too loose, try sizing down as the bra’s band might be too big.
• Try a bigger cup size if your breasts keep popping out or are slightly raised on the sides or at the top.
• Digging underwire? The bra’s underwire should always sit flat against the ribcage. Go for a bigger band size if it keeps digging into the skin.

All Breasts Are Not Identical

Breasts come in different shapes and sizes, which is quite normal. Whether you are a KK or AA cup, your breasts are not unusual, weird, or strange. Currently, the market offers a wide range of sizes.

It’s also perfectly normal to have a smaller body frame with massive breasts or larger frame with small breasts and any other variation that fall in between the two. When it comes to the human body, there are endless variations, even if it’s rarely highlighted in the media.

It’s normal to have two different breast sizes. Your left breast can be slightly bigger than the right one or vice versa. Some women have near-identical melons while others vary by a cup size or even more, and neither is unusual although we always try to fit into the larger one when we can.

Breasts and Breast Sizes Change

Our bodies, including the breasts, tend to change continually. Different factors like the amount of water we drink, stress, medication, illness, and hormones usually affect the shape and size of the breasts in both noticeable and subtle ways.

All these can be the reason your bra doesn’t suddenly fit even though you bought it a month ago as your breasts might have changed since you first tried the bra on.

Getting professionally fitted regularly will help you keep tabs on any change and will make you comfortable with your body and also get the perfect undergarments. Being comfortable with your body since you are aware of all the changes has several positive benefits beyond the bra fitting realm.

Barring other conditions like hypersensitivity well-fitting bras should not be constricting, painful, or uncomfortable. Ideally, you should feel well supported and snug when wearing a bra.

Conclusion

Bras can last for years with proper care but will eventually wear out. It’s advisable to replace bras after every six months, but you should know signs of a dead bra. Some of the signs include permanent dents on the moulded cups, stretched out elastic which doesn’t snap back, bent hook, and breaking free wires of the stitching.

RELATED GUIDES: How to Measure Bra Size with Measuring Tape | How to Measure Bra Size for Sagging Breasts | How to Measure Your Bra Size | How to Measure Bra Band Size | How to Measure a Teenager for a Bra | How to Measure the Bust Size