What's My Hair Type?

hair type 4a

  Natural hair Product Manufacturers love your hair type!
If anybody was following my post on hair grading systems, you'd know I'm not that crazy about classifying my hair type into an a,b,c grade. But the need for women to know there hair type has been carefully constructed my product manufacturer, the bottom line(to me) is it makes there pockets fatter. Think about it!

By the the time you finish flipping you head forward, raking the product in with your fingers, only applying it to the root or ends, towel blotting, air drying, and only use it every other day, you could have probably used  some generic, no frills, non curl pattern specific brand and gotten the same results.

Products work based on the curl pattern your already have. Nothing can make curls besides a Jerri curl and other chemical curl systems. But I digress. What is the point in fighting what everyone feels there getting, which is customization. So to make this really simple, the grading system is letter/number scale that is used to determine what 'curl pattern' you have, although I don't know anyone who has the same curl pattern throughout their entire head. 
 So, you have the Letter part of the grade which goes as follows:

• The letter A would be a looser curl pattern. 

• The letter B is a little more defined 

• and the letter C is the tightest curl pattern of each group.

Now the numbers are graded from 2 to 4. The number 2 symbol is for wavy textured hair and is broken up into three parts, 3 is for curly hair, and 4 is for tightly curly to kinky hair.

Category 2

• Very loose wave: almost straight-2a
• Loose wave  -2b
• Wavy: deeper S shape-2c

Category 3

• Curly:defined slightly loose ringlets-3a
• More curly: defined S shape in coils-3b
• Tight spirals coils -3c

Category 4

• Mixture of Afro and ringlets: curls when wet, drys into an afro-4a
• Very tightly coiled: afro is more distinct-4b
• Extremely tight coils: Z shape very close to the scalp-4c

Now you can see by system that you make have 3a hair in the back 2c hair in the front, I've even seen women with a combination of all three curl patterns on one head of hair.  if you still confused,here is how to tell just by looking at it.

The best way to tell what curl pattern you are is by wetting your hair first.
You make look like a 4c when you hair is dry, but really be a 4a because the hair can change in curl pattern appearance when the hair is wet. And if your hair has been chemically treated, even if its been months or even years, you cannot accurately access what your hair type is.

I can't tell you how many times I consult with clients about curl type and they want me to tell them their curl pattern when they haven't cut off the relaxed or texturized hair. Ladies, in order to know for sure what you are working with, the chemically treated hair has to be removed, yes, even the texturizer.

So now you can select what category your hair type falls into and match it with the product it was designed for..sigh.