If you’ve ever put on a shirt and felt like it hung off your back, you know how unattractive it can look. No one wants to have a shirt that sticks out in the back. It makes the wearer look like they have a hump. A fitted shirt should fit snugly around the body of the wearer, particularly in the shoulders and back. It should not be loose or else it will hang off your frame, causing you to look shapeless and slightly deformed.
It would be best if no one ever put on a shirt and had others point out that their back looks like they have a hump because of how their shirt fits incorrectly. If this happens, wearers will likely get insecure about their appearance because there’s nothing worse than walking around with clothing that doesn’t fit right.
The fit of the shirt is wrong.
There are a few common ways a shirt can go wrong:
- The neck is too tight. If you measure your neck and it comes out to be 16 inches, then you’re technically a 16 1/2 (a half-size up from the next inch). But if that 1/2 inch makes the collar too tight, consider sizing up to a 16 3/4 or 17. Keep in mind, different shirts have different fits; sometimes even going down one shirt size can give you the fit you like.
- The shoulders hang off your back. The shoulder seam should lie right where your shoulder ends; if it does not, this is not your size. It’s also possible that the extra material around your arm is coming from an ill-fitting sleeve rather than an oversized body—read on to learn how to fix that problem.
- The sleeves are too long or short. Check that the seam of the sleeve at its widest point—the bicep—is not falling past where your bicep actually ends. If it does, cuffing up the sleeve will put more stress on this area than necessary, and wearing long sleeves in hot weather will cause discomfort as well as make you look sloppy (you’ll be forced to roll them up).
Your posture is not correct.
There are two reasons for this:
- You might be in the habit of sitting or standing with your shoulders hunched, causing them to pull your shirt out from behind you.
- You might be leaning forward when you stand, which will cause your shirt to slide off your back and leave an unsightly gap between the shirt’s back and the bottom of your spine
You’re hunching your shoulders.
Rounded shoulders are a common cause of clothes hanging off your back. If you’re always hunched over, it can change the angle of your shoulder blade and pull your shoulder forward. This pulls the curve of your shoulder out and away from the natural curve of your back, making shirts hang differently in the back than in the front.
If you think this may be a problem for you, take a look at yourself in a full-length mirror as you stand with good posture. Your chest should be out and raised, with your shoulders pulled down and relaxed. If you see that one or both of your shoulders is rounded or elevated higher than the other, it may be time to do some stretches to fix it!
You have an uneven spine.
If your spine is uneven, you may be experiencing a number of uncomfortable symptoms. To test yourself to see if you might have an uneven spine, lean your head back and try to touch the back of your neck with your chin.
- If it feels like you can’t get close enough, that could mean that there’s some curvature in your spine that’s pulling at the muscles in your neck and shoulders. You should consider seeing a doctor or chiropractor to get evaluated.
- If everything feels fine, then maybe you don’t have an uneven spine—but it’s still important to take care with how you position yourself when sitting or standing to make sure that doesn’t change! Either way, taking steps to correct a curved spine will help make sure you’re feeling comfortable in all aspects of life. Sometimes it just takes doing some stretches and exercises daily to improve posture; other times it’ll require more intensive evaluation from professionals who will give recommendations based on what they find during their examination.
It might be the washing machine’s fault.
Here’s the thing: clothes aren’t meant to be shrunk. The fabric is meant to stretch and mold to your body, so if you’re shrinking clothes, it’s probably not helping them fit as well as they should. Instead, try laundrying your shirts by themselves. And if you absolutely have to wash other items in with them, make sure that the larger pieces of clothing go into the machine after you close the door to prevent them from pulling on your delicates.
If you can figure out why your shirts hang off your back, you might be able to fix it.
Make sure you’re keeping up with your doctor appointments. There are several reasons this could be happening, some more serious than others. You want to make sure you get your blood work done and all is well. I’m not a doctor, but I certainly don’t want you to go without treatment for something serious!
Next, make sure you’re wearing the right size shirt! A lot of people wear shirts that don’t fit them correctly because they think it looks better, or better camouflages their physique. When the shirt is too big, it hangs off your back in a weird way. Make sure it fits snugly around your torso, back included!
Also check out your washing machine! If you wash and dry on high heat all the time, which damages and stretches fibers over time (including elastane/spandex), causing them to shrink less than they should between washes and further accelerating damage. For most shirts though if you wash them on cold water and hang dry them after that – this will help decrease the heat caused damage to the fibers of your shirts.
If you lay on a pillow every night that causes poor posture then when you sleep with it under your head then stretch and pull on the muscles of your neck which can cause pain in other parts of your body such as shoulders and back muscles even causing pain in other areas where organs are located such as chest cavity area down throughout stomach area even at times lower back/lower abdominal areas from poor posture from lying down with a pillow or whatever object underneath head while sleeping; so try sleeping without any objects underneath head or use a small object like a thin towel folded up just enough to give head adequate support while lying flat on sleeping surface; don’t put any pressure anywhere else on upper body just resting position allowing body to relax more naturally while sleeping since pillows can contribute towards making one’s body tense at night while trying to lay down with them under the head.
Conclusion
But don’t be discouraged if you feel like a shirt is hanging off your back. It’s not the most important thing in the world, and it doesn’t define who you are as a person. If you want to try to change that shape, there are lots of things you can do to improve your posture and your overall health. Do what makes sense for you—nothing is more important than feeling good about yourself, so don’t beat yourself up over something as small as this!
FAQ
Having a shirt that doesn’t fit correctly can be especially frustrating when you’re trying to impress. For its part, this poorly-fitting shirt will only add to your stress as it flaps in the wind and dances away with every step you take. Even if this particular shirt fits perfectly everywhere else, it’s likely too large for your torso if you find yourself asking “why does the back of my shirt stick out?” Unsure of how to proceed in these moments? Thanks to our handy guide, there are no wrong answers.
In fact, we can answer your question without even knowing what kind of shirt you wear! Whether you wear a dress or polo, long sleeve or short sleeve, a few common factors may be at play here:
- Your shoulders are narrower than your waist size
- Your chest is fuller than your waist size
