Breast Root
This term refers to the area on your torso occupied by your breasts. Where they attach to you.
Note that if your breasts fold/hang, the region this tissue occupies on your torso does not form part of the breast root.
The breast root is usually referred to by its width, its height or position. Please remember that breasts don't come in only these flavors but that they vary greatly on several dimensions and ranges. These connotations of "wide", "narrow", "short", etc are only to make it easier to understand what symptoms start appearing as one approaches certain end of each spectrum.
In order to determine if the bra's cup width matches your breast root you must have first put on the bra properly and have scooped all the way in.
By width
The width of the breast root will affect which bras are better for you since the outer side of the underwire should lie against its curve.
Read the article on finding the root of your breasts
Rather then determining if your breast roots are either "wide" or "narrow", it is best to guide yourself by the bras that you find most comfortable and take note of their cup width measurement. Then it will be easier to determine if a bra will be narrow for you or wide for you.
Wide root breasts
Breasts with wide roots will need bras with wider cups and have different needs on the wire length and height of the side wing of the bra to avoid poking into the armpit.
If you feel that the bra's wire is resting on your side breast tissue, it could be a symptom of the cup being too narrow for you. Search for a bra with higher cup width measurement and adjust the cup depth accordingly.
Narrow root breasts
Narrow root breasts will need narrower cups, otherwise you will feel that the underwire is reaching into your back or resting on your ribs as well as leaving empty cup on your side.
A way to note if your bra's cups are too wide for your narrow roots is to find if there is empty fabric on the side.
Impact with breast separation
Please note that not all cases of breast tissue reaching far into your side or under your armpits is necessarily a case of wide breast roots. People with very separate breasts may have not so wide breast roots but their breast tissue still reach far to the side due the fact that they are far apart on the center.
By height
Breast root height is to be referred as how much vertical space the root of your boobs take in your torso. From the bottom of the infra mammary fold to the top.
Breast root height is more difficult to pin point as gravity will tend to pull breast tissue down making tricky to determine the higher limit of the root.
Tall breast root
A tall breast root indicates that the breasts take a large amount of your torso vertically. This means that bras with tall cups and balconette bras may be good for you as a general rule.
Bras with tight cup trims or seams may cut in the middle of the breast when wearing them as they may assume a faster curving breast. This is a similar problem that women with full on top breasts have.
Short breast root
Short breast roots are usually are more notable due their width but it is really a visual trick since they will look wider.
On this case it is better to avoid high coverage bras such as full cups or tall cups such as high vertical cups, full cups or tall balconettes. A common symptom will be having difficulty filling up the higher part of cups, a similar problem that full on bottom breasts have.
By position
Indicates where on your torso your breasts are attached. Some women have their breasts very high on their torsos as other women may have their breasts attached lower on their bodies.
Note that this is not related to breast sagging/ptosis. Mentioned above, when talking about breasts roots we do not consider the amount of breast hang. But it could give the impression of lower set breasts.
The best way to tell if your breasts are high or low in your torso is by positioning your infra mammary fold in relationship with your torso. Using your armpit could be a way of reference.
Here on Bratabase we take note of this parameter by the Breast base height.
High breasts
High set breasts will find that it is very easy for them to dress more cleavagy or to hide breasts from showing on low cut tops. Usually a similar symptom of full on top breasts.
A common issue with high set breasts will be too tall wires, be it on the center gore or on the side wing.
Too tall wires on the side wing of the bra will cause the bra's underwire to poke in the armpit or cause the outer side of the bra strap/cup joint to rub against your arm. For this case it is recommended to look for bras with short wing height. Full cup bras will tend to have a smaller arm hole.
Common symptoms are also constant need to adjust your bra strap or your bra in general slide down leaving empty space on the bottom of the cups. This could also be a symptom of a badly worn bra.
Low breasts
Low set breasts may be confused with full on bottom or ptotic/low hanging breasts; here we refer to the breast root not the hang of the breast tissue. You can have self supported low set breasts or low hanging high set breasts. The symptoms will be that it is difficult to show cleavage or need very low cut tops to show breast tissue.
Bra fit is usually affected by the need to loosen up the straps in order to increase the distance from the shoulder to the breast leaving sometimes empty fabric on the top of the cups.
How to find what bras work?
Remember you can do search by measurements here in Bratabase, so it's a good start to measure your best fitting bra and see what symptoms you have, then enter those measurements on the search form and reduce the cup's width measurement or cup height measurement to find better styles.