Your hair sort is based totally in your hair’s curl sample. The quantity of curl in your hair is set by your hair follicle. The form of your follicle determines whether or not your hair is:
The extra oval or asymmetrical your follicle is, the curlier your hair can be.
Your hair sort is set by genetics.
You possibly can alter your curl sample with warmth or chemical substances, and your curl sample can modified considerably by hormones or drugs you’re taking, however your primary curl sample is in your DNA.
Each time your hair goes by way of its progress cycle, these genetic traits are reasserted.
Andre Walker, recognized for many years as Oprah Winfrey’s stylist, is credited with devising a system that classifies hair in keeping with considered one of 4 curl patterns:
These varieties are additional divided into subcategories based mostly on the tightness or looseness of the curls and coils. It might sound easy, however like most makes an attempt to outline human traits, it isn’t.
You possibly can have sort 4C at your crown and 4A at your temples. Your hair could possibly be straight on the root and wavy on the ends. The secret is to know what every sort wants so you possibly can type it properly and hold it wholesome.
Kind 1: Straight
Kind 1 hair has no pure curl. The person strands could also be high-quality or coarse, thick or skinny, however they fall with out waving from root to tip.
Kind 1 hair tends to develop into oily, so many stylists advocate that you simply verify the label to make sure the product you’re shopping for isn’t going so as to add additional oil to your hair.
Stylist Kristi Lovelace additionally suggests avoiding heavy serums or butters. “With straight or high-quality hair, I’d advocate texture sprays as a substitute. Dry shampoos are additionally a good suggestion,” she stated.
Washing your hair too usually could cause your scalp to overproduce oils, so dry shampoo is a boon for individuals with straight, oily hair.
Lovelace says most girls come into salons with Instagram or Pinterest images of the type they need.
“I normally advocate kinds based mostly extra on face form than on hair sort,” she stated. “One type that’s actually in style proper now’s a chin-length blunt reduce, which works rather well with straight hair.”
Kind 2: Wavy hair
Kind 2A
The pure state of sort 2 hair is a mild, tousled texture. From the roots to round eye degree, your hair is pretty straight. And from eye degree to the ends, you’ve a unfastened, undefined wave.
To maintain from flattening out that wave, keep away from oil-based or creamy merchandise. As an alternative, stylists advocate that you simply enhance the bottom with a light-weight mousse or use a gel to outline these waves.
Kind 2B
As with 2A, sort 2B hair curls from the midpoint to the ends. The curls have a extra outlined S form. It might require slightly extra effort to straighten, however it’s straightforward to create that beachy look with a spritz of salt spray.
Kind 2B is good for the balayage pattern, the place stylists hand-paint colour on the outer layer of hair.
“When individuals are available with photos of balayage,” Lovelace stated, “the picture is all the time going to indicate wavy hair as a result of when that hair curls round, it’s getting dimension from the again aspect. Individuals with wavy hair don’t need to exit of their technique to type this look.”
Kind 2C
Probably the most well-defined S-shaped waves are sort 2C. The wave sample could start near the crown and tumble downward. Kind 2C hair is usually thick and will be liable to frizz in damp climate.
Lovelace recommends utilizing a diffuser, a toothy devise that snaps onto the top of your blow dryer and helps remove the frizz.
“I’m an enormous advocate for merchandise, particularly the place you’ve obtained environmental elements like laborious water and salt water,” Lovelace stated. “Anti-humidity merchandise are large.”
Individuals with 2C hair could also be annoyed with alternating between each day straightening, which may injury hair, and looking for methods to boost and management their waves. The excellent news is that many light-weight mousses now comprise anti-humidity components together with moisture.
Kind 3: Curly
Kind 3A
With sort 3A hair, S-shaped curls kind unfastened loops. The curls have a circumference slightly wider than the massive finish of a taper candle. One essential styling word: Brushing one of these hair can wreck curl definition and result in a frizzy mane.
Silvana Castillo, grasp stylist and founding father of The Curl Whisperer, a Miami salon specializing in hair varieties 3 and 4, recommends kinds and merchandise that outline pure curl. Her greatest recommendation? Lose the ponytail.
“It’s OK in the event you’re on the best way to the fitness center,” Castillo stated, “or if it’s required for work. However pulling your hair again right into a ponytail causes curls to lose their formation. And in the event you hold pulling your hair again right into a bun or ponytail, additionally, you will begin to see thinning and hair loss at your hairline.”
That hair loss occurs as a result of the load of the ponytail pulls in opposition to the entrance of the hair for extended durations.
Kind 3B
Kind 3B curls have a circumference about as extensive because the barrel of a Sharpie marker. Curls spring from the roots and have ample quantity. To take care of their attribute spiral form, these ringlets typically want moisture.
Keep away from silicone and sulfates in your curl merchandise, although. They might quickly tame frizz, however they’ll dry hair over time and result in breakage.
Kind 3C
These curls are tight and springy — they might coil completely round a consuming straw. To protect the definition in these corkscrew curls, take a hands-on method.
As an alternative of combing, which may result in frizz and breakage, use a leave-in conditioner and rake by way of moist hair along with your fingertips. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends that you simply air-dry as a substitute of utilizing a blow dryer.
Kind 4: Coils
Kind 4A
The curl sample for 4A hair is an S-shaped coil you could possibly wrap round a chopstick.
“Kind 4 hair is probably the most delicate hair sort,” Castillo stated. “You need to be very light with it, and it wants numerous moisture.” However getting moisture doesn’t essentially imply utilizing oils. Deep conditioning masques, butters, and lotions are good choices for preserving hair well being.
“We advocate that individuals put on it unfastened in wash-and-go kinds,” she stated.
One factor The Curl Whisperer salon doesn’t advocate for is protecting kinds like weaves and braids.
Although some stylists swear by kinds that can help you tuck away fragile ends to guard them whereas they develop out, Castillo says these kinds usually do extra hurt than good. Whereas the hair is out of sight, it’s additionally out of attain for conditioning remedies.
“When you’ve had your hair in a protecting type for weeks, the curl formation is totally gone. The cuticle is so dry and open that it turns into like little fish hooks that catch on one another and break once you take out the braids,” Castillo stated.
Higher to put on it in a method that allows you to hold moisturizing.
Kind 4B
The curls in 4B hair zig-zag. One in style method for outlining and accentuating your curls is shingling.
Shingling begins with moist hair. Gently detangle along with your fingertips, utilizing liberal quantities of leave-in conditioner to moisturize and situation. Then separate your hair into 4 sections.
Work curling cream or gel down the size of every curl, twisting the strands round your index finger as you go.
Kind 4C
Kind 4C coils are the tightest and most fragile. It’s very easy to interrupt them in the event you comb roughly or too usually, and it’s important to regularly nourish the hair with wealthy conditioners.
Coconut oils are nonetheless in style, as are shea butter lotions. Extra persons are ditching shampoo for co-washing, or rinsing the hair with conditioners as a substitute.
By way of type, 4C hair is having a second.
“What we’re seeing is the youthful technology needs their hair to be daring,” Castillo stated. “They need the hair to be large and spherical, nearly like a solar. And so they wish to experiment with enjoyable colours — all the time conserving in thoughts the well being of the hair.”
Porosity
When hair professionals speak about porosity, they imply your hair’s capacity to take in moisture. In case your hair is very porous, it has numerous holes in its floor layer, referred to as the cuticle.
You could have naturally porous hair, or chemical and warmth processing could have made your hair extra porous than it usually can be.
These holes within the cuticle permit your hair to soak up extra moisture. If the local weather the place you reside is humid, your hair could are likely to frizz. That’s as a result of the cuticle is drawing moisture from the air.
The excellent news is that porous hair additionally absorbs moisturizing merchandise properly. A variety of merchandise, from leave-in conditioners to wealthy butters, can seal the holes and make your hair simpler to handle.
Hair that’s much less porous is tightly locked and tends to withstand moisture, whether or not that’s environmental humidity or chemical processing.
To keep away from product buildup that would overwhelm and boring your hair, wash with a clarifying shampoo weekly and select lighter merchandise, like hair milks and mousses, to create quantity.
You could discover that merchandise work higher in the event you use a blow dryer. The warmth can open up the tight cuticle and permit moisture to seep in.
Density
Hair density refers back to the variety of hairs in your head. If you happen to can’t see your scalp clearly, you in all probability have dense hair. If you happen to can see your scalp even with out parting your hair, you in all probability have low hair density.
Your hair’s density will be affected by plenty of elements, together with stress, hormones throughout being pregnant or menopause, and vitamin.
It’s a good suggestion to take inventory of the merchandise you’re utilizing in case your hair density has modified.
Heavy merchandise can flatten low density hair. Search for texture sprays and light-weight mousses so as to add quantity and elevate. Excessive density hair can profit from thicker lotions and butters so as to add shine and management.
