I have to clarify that this is only the case in one file and only in the bottom of the tool shell
Blender kept crashing when I tried to convert hair particles to mesh on windows so I went to Ubuntu and converted them there however I must've pressed something there because the font on the bottom of the tool shell is suddenly small
What I've tried :
*reset theme to default
*make side by side comparison of the "broken" user preferences with the user preferences of a new project