Re-collapsing mail thread in IOS Mail

This is a response to an earlier question that is now closed. The question was how to re-collapse messages in a mail thread on an iPhone. When you open a thread and tap on a previously read message in the thread, it expands, often showing all the previous replies. There’s no button or gesture to re-collapse the message, so it requires a lot of scrolling to navigate the thread.

I found a work-around. Leave that email thread and open any other mail message in your inbox, then return to your thread and all messages are re-collapsed.

Not the most convenient or elegant solution, but it works.