Hair Type
The very first step in taking great care of your hair is to acknowledge the type of hair you have. The tricky part is, it can happen to have more than one type of hair, but not to worry, there are many methods you can use to figure that out and how to take care of your hair the right way.
To understand what hair is and how it grows. Most importantly what is it made of and how to give it more of what makes it grow! take a look at the article title Hair.
The most commonly used method was in fact created by the hairstylist of Oprah Winfrey, Andre Walker, therefore; Andre Walker hair Types is the System used mostly today.
| TYPE 1: Straight | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1a | Straight (Fine/Thin) | Hair tends to be very soft, shiny, oily, poor at holding curls but difficult to damage. |
| 1b | Straight (Medium) | Hair characterized by volume and body. |
| 1c | Straight (Coarse) | Hair tends to be bone-straight and difficult to curl. Common in Asian women. |
| TYPE 2: Wavy | ||
| 2a | Wavy (Fine/Thin) | Hair has definite "S" pattern and is usually receptive to a variety of styles. |
| 2b | Wavy (Medium) | Can tend to be frizzy and a little resistant to styling. |
| 2c | Wavy (Coarse) | Frizzy or very frizzy with thicker waves; often more resistant to styling. |
| TYPE 3: Curly | ||
| 3a | Curly (Loose) | Curly hair that usually presents a definite "S" pattern and tends to combine thickness, fullness, body and/or frizziness. |
| 3b | Curly (Tight) | As 3a but with tighter curling like a spiral. |
| TYPE 4: Kinky | ||
| 4a | Kinky (Soft) | Hair tends to be very fragile, tightly coiled and can feature curly patterning. |
| 4b | Kinky (Wiry) | As 4a but with less visible (or no) curly patterning. |
| 4c | Kinky (Wiry) | As 4a and 4b but with almost no defined curl pattern. |
- Type 1 is straight hair, which reflects the most sheen and also the most resilient hair of all of the hair types. It is hard to damage and immensely difficult to curl this hair texture. Because the sebum easily spreads from the scalp to the ends without curls or kinks to interrupt its path, it is the oiliest hair texture of all.
- Type 2 is wavy hair, whose texture and sheen range somewhere between straight and curly hair. Wavy hair is also more likely to become frizzy than straight hair. While type A waves can easily alternate between straight and curly styles, type B and C Wavy hair is resistant to styling.
- Type 3 is curly hair known to have an S-shape. The curl pattern may resemble a lowercase "s", uppercase "S", or sometimes an uppercase "Z" or lowercase "z". This hair type is usually voluminous, "climate dependent (humidity = frizz), and damage prone." Lack of proper care causes less defined curls.
- Type 4 is kinky hair, which features a tightly coiled curl pattern (or no discernible curl pattern at all) that is often fragile with a very high density. This type of hair shrinks when wet and because it has fewer cuticle layers than other hair types it is more susceptible to damage
Discover your hair type:
There are many ways of figuring out your hair type and it requires a solid analysis of your hair and knowing the different criteria for your hair.
- Hair Density - how many strands of hair you have in your scalp. This is usually tested by counting the number of hair within a square inch of your scalp.
- Hair Texture - Is measured by the circumference of a single hair strand, it exists 3 types: Fine, Medium, and Thick.
- Hair porosity - how much can your hair absorb and keep moisture, They are 3 types: Low, medium or high
Those are the top 3 criteria for diagnosing what type of hair you may have. However, your hair has many other important criteria such as the oiliness, elasticity, and curl pattern.
The article that really focuses and elaborated on determining your hair type is one created on the wiki by Laura Martin. she covers everything I mentioned above and more and would strongly recommend to check it out and figure out what your beautiful hair is so you can take better care of it.
Source:
see -Determine your hair type by Laura Martin (Recommended)
Other sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair
https://www.wikihow.com/Determine-Hair-Type