Is my hair type changing?

[Rosalaun]

Hi all!
I'm getting a little confused by my hair type recently - I've been looking back at photos of my hair from when I was 12-13 years old (my hair then was 100% natural, not layered or dyed and about mid-back length, and I am 18 now) and my hair then was probably 1a/1b, very tiny amounts of wave but generally straight.

I've since done a lot to my hair - currently it's nearing APL, shortest layers to a couple of inches past chin length all the way around, it's been bleached 2 or 3 times, dyed all the colours of the rainbow (literally) and hennaed twice, beyond henna it's not been trimmed or dyed since November last year. Now with the knowledge that henna sometimes straightens hair, and all the damage to the strands that it currently has, I'm wondering why it seems to have increased in curly-ness. I have stopped using cones and shampoo, and the addition of layers are probably helping also... But it also varies wash to wash, after some washes it's 1b/c, other times it gets closer to 2b/c, and these are washes with the same condition, same type of heat same method of applying conditioner and all the rest of it.

IMG REMOVED :)

Top left photo is my hair just before wash day, full of greasies but that's how I now measure it due to the constant texture changing. Not sure if to count myself as APL yet?

Then two from the back - there isn't a proper pattern to the waves from these, looks more like the ends of the layers are just flicking out with only a proper wave to the bottom layers.

But, the two inserts at the side show what happens to the longest layers that sit at the front over my shoulders - they're getting a proper little ringlet curl going on.

All the waved photos are all the same day, after washing my hair in the morning and having it dry by afternoon, no combing, scrunching or anything. Basically I have no idea what to make of my hair type any more - should I expect it to curl or wave, or will the lack of layers flatten out the waves so it'll be like my old hair? I have no idea.

[spidermom]

Hair will often change as hormone levels, etc, shift. I am sure I once had only slightly wavy hair, now there are areas that will curl. Or there used to be before it got so long. Which is another point - length changes how the hair behaves as well.

[Henrietta]

About the wash to wash changes... yes, hormones, weather, the way you sleep, updos you make (if you make them...) Anything can cause a change.
The general change... I'd say it's layers that causes it.

P.S. And to me you are at APL already :)

[tambalina]

I didn't notice waves in my hair until I stopped using silicones . . . it's been an adventure learning to take care of wavy hair! Those are definitely ringlets - and gorgeous ones at that. LOVING your hair color!!

I'm not sure about hair typing as well. If I clarify and air-dry, I am a 1b/1c. When I condition and style, I am a 2a/2b. ??? I'm leaving my hair at 1b/1c here as that is what my original hairtyping gave me. Who knows what it will be a year from now?! Learning about the Curly-Girl method has completely changed how I take care of my hair!

[Rosalaun]

Yeah I figured it was probably changed on a permanent basis seeing as I'm comparing my early teens to my very late teens and the addition of layers and the length being apl instead of mid-back, lack of cones, addition of henna and so on.

It's just the fact that it seems to be giving me a serious range of types in different lengths, being straight on top, wavy in the middle and curly at the bottom – my fringe is about an inch past my chin, and it slopes down into the final length with layers being added a couple of inches below the length of my fringe – if I split the section that’s just sloping down and not layered, it’s perfectly straight until the last 3 inches or so which show a deep wave nearing curl to them, so that’s leading me to believe that there are changes along the hair shaft rather than it just being 100% down to layers.

There’s also the thing about getting different types from wash to wash, even though I always wash my hair in a morning and have it dry by afternoon when I haven't touched it and have treated it the same way each time. I generally wear it down, in a pony, or in a lazy wrap (with the help of a hair grip), but the day it's washed it stays down :) For sleeping it's usually in a pony or a braid, unfortunately the layers and general shortness mean I can't get it into many updo's or secure braids yet...

And awesome, I've been waiting to hit APL for what seems like forever, so it's brilliant to get confirmation that I'm there!

Yay for not being the only one that had a hair-revelation when they started treating it differently XD Even at the beginning of the year when I still used cones, it was showing a lot straighter than it is now, I was hairtyped by people here as 1c at the time (with essentially the same hair as I have now, same layers etc just shorter in general, the only change since then was another layer of henna and lack of cones) so the ringlets have very much sprung up on me in the past 3 or 4 months.

Thank you :D I’m really liking having these ringlets, just wish there was more of them now haha and henna makes for fun hair colours ^^ I've read up on the CG method, but heard it does odd things to shorter hair so with my layers I've not wanted to try it just yet.

[celebriangel]

I had 1c/2a hair when I was a kid, then it got all "busahy and frizzy". actually it didn't - it just acquired wurls when I wasn't looking, and treatment that was okay for straight hair didn't work so well with my current texture.

It happens.

[Rosalaun]

Haha well that's one way of it changing xD

Thing with mine, I've changed what I've done with it and that seems to have brought about a major change in texture, rather than it changing driving me to treat it differently, but the texture varies hugely depending on which part of my head we're looking at, and it changes from wash to wash even though every wash is the same, which is weird.