Does resting your head on a guy's shoulder mean anything?

[Anonymous]

So, basically, I was taking the train home the other day with this guy friend of mine, and I was feeling really tired so I asked him if I could rest my head on his shoulder for a while, and he said I could.

We're just friends and he's recently broken up with his girlfriend, but when I asked him to rest my head on his shoulder I didn't think it was romantic or anything, he's just my friend and I trust him so I asked him if I could do that.

Do you think he saw that as if I was flirting with him or something? Does it mean anything romantically? Because to me it doesn't, at least not with my friends...

[Anonymous]

This happened to me too, a few times, with a guy that I'm kind of seeing. I asked him if I could lean my head against his shoulder and he said yes. Though, the most recent time he hinted that he thought it was more of a couple-y thing to do. He's a really serious and formal kind of guy.

It really depends on the person. If he's a touchy affectionate guy toward his friends, chances are that he wouldn't make anything of it. But if he's a little more distant, reserved, or you're not very close friends, he could see it as romantic or flirty.

[Zerokoool]

50/50. That one could go either way. The best thing to do in this case is just talk to him about it. Tell him you're sorry if there was any confusion, and that you don't think of him in that way, at least at this time in your life ;) The best thing you can do is be honest with him if you expect to stay friends without things getting weird. Otherwise he may start getting ideas.

[Asker]

The thing is, I do kind of have feelings for him, but I know he doesn't feel the same way about me so all I want to do is to stay friends with him. He knows I have feelings for him, so that's why I was afraid that he'd think I was flirting with him or something... But I wasn't, I really wasn't, regardless of how I feel about him

[Zerokoool]

Tell him exactly what you just told me and you two should be just fine. If you want a safe way to lean on his shoulder again in the future (or any other body part), just say "No Homo" after you do it and it makes the situation funny, rather than awkward. :)

[RationalNAC]

I rest my head on my friends shoulders, laps and stomachs. I have highly affectionate friends. So it depends on his view of it. He might have thought so, or he could be like me and my friends who simply love to show physical signs of affection. :)

[CSyde65]

It doesn't necessarily mean that you have romantic feelings for him. But I wouldn't expect you to do it with anyone that you aren't close to. I've never been in this type of situation with a girl before, myself. But I imagine that it must be a very nice thing to do when you are feeling stressed and need a shoulder to rest on. Someone that you care about who cares about you back.

The average guy tends to be more touchy feely towards girls than towards other guys. While the average girl tends to be more touchy feely in general. Although guys can be more touchy feely towards other guys if at least the younger of the two is a minor and clearly not in the same age group as the older of the two for them to have any sort of romantic connection.

Probably because two guys acting like that who are in the same age group is typically frowned upon due to homophobia, regardless if the relationship is purely platonic. Handholding is another thing that you may see in relationships. Particularly with boys in different age groups, guys and girls, or girls and girls. I recently did some research to see why some people resort to handholding when one of them is potentially grieving either on the outside or the inside.

According to multiple sites, handholding helps to release anti-stress and love hormones. So I imagine if you were feeling stressed and a guy put one of his arms around you, put his other hand on your lap and took hold of your hand, and had you rest your head on his shoulder, that would be a very pleasant feeling for both parties, whether you be in a platonic or romantic relationship.

I wouldn't expect you to rest your head on anyone's shoulder unless there were any immediate gestures beforehand though. And I wouldn't expect you to do it at all unless you were sure that the guy would be cool with it.

[smallguy]

Yes sure means attachment and affection