Do I have F or M hair?!

[stachelbeere]

I have a dilemma. I'm not sure whether I have F or M hair.

I think I have F hair - at least that's what I've found out when I did the hair typing test a long time ago - but I've been having doubts lately. Do I actually have M hair?

I'm either taking such good care of my F hair that I barely have any split ends (I do get occasional breakage though) or my hair is just resilient and is actually M hair. I do take good care of my hair though :) silk pillowcase, wooden comb, super gentle detangling, keeping it up 90% of the time etc etc etc

My problem with hair typing is that the guidelines are not specific enough for me.
Here are loose excerpts: "strands of F hair are almost translucent when held up to the light. Shed strands can be hard to see even against a contrasting background." my hair is rather dark and I can always see it when held up to the light. I can usually also see the shed - again, because my hair is on the darker side. "F hair is difficult to feel or it feels like an ultra-fine strand of silk" Now I always thought that my hair feels ultra-fine. But then again maybe it's my interpretation of 'ultra fine'?

M hair: "strands are neither fine nor coarse. Medium hair feels like a cotton thread. You can feel it but it isn't stiff or rough." I DO feel my hair between my fingers but I'm not sure how it feels :/

My boyfriend is of Indian heritage and (I believe) his hair is C. The strands are wider than mine but his hair feels really silky (is C hair 'silky' when you touch it? Fun fact about his hair. It's long-ish and while sitting he rests his head on a pillow, turns, rubs his hair against it and gets a rat's nest on the back of his head quiet frequently. And no. damage. AT ALL!!! How is that even possible?!)

I have a long-haired friend (3a, iii, gorgeous honey blonde in colour) whose hair I like to braid, and I'm pretty sure she has M hair because individual strands are wider than mine. Then what if she has C hair?! (unlikely. I'm pretty sure she's of Slavic descent)

So. Maybe I am mistaking 'baby fine' with fine and my hair is actually fine despite the fact that it's visible against light? Is it possible that in the original test baby-fine hair was described?

Now, my problem is that I don't really have a reference point except for the 'feel of an ultra-fine silk strand' and 'cotton thread'. I would like to show to you lovely people a strand of my hair but I guess that will be pointless. Tell me what you'd like me to post - what kind of pictures - I can take macro pictures, comparison pictures to other things like threads and so on. Maybe I'm putting too much thought in that as I'm pretty sure my hair is F.

I know the world is probably not going to end if I don't solve this riddle and that there are other more productive things for me to do than to ponder on the width of my hair strands but... I'm just curious. Still, I kind of feel silly asking this question and posting such a long thread and in need to justify myself.

Anyway - how shall I find out what my hair is?

[Kaelee]

I have the same dilemma...I was always told growing up that I have fine hair. By my mother, grandmother, stylists, everyone. But it doesn't BEHAVE like "fine" hair (and lately has been getting coarser for some reason. My grandmother confirmed this, I don't quite know why it is.) I also have mixed strands on my head, some are DEFINITELY "baby fine" and some are much coarser and kinky.

[stachelbeere]

yes! totally, I remember some stylists referring to my hair as 'fine' and I always thought it's fine. I also have a variety of different thicknesses but they are in the vast minority, especially C hair, and some weird crimped C hair. They make up, maybe less than 1% of my hair ;)

Also, a few years ago I discovered the curling iron and I was curling away for a good few years until probably early last year. And guess what - my hair is not really damaged, only the last third of it feels 'rougher' than the top two-thirds which is probably because of old dye and abuse from the past 3-5 years and heat.

I have baby-fine hair around my temples. I know they are baby-fine because my 3-year-old niece's hair is that fine too and hers definitely meet the criteria. Translucent, white blonde, extremely fine, even finer than silk.

My regular hair is thicker than that. But not as thick as my friend's hair whose hair I like to braid.

[thankyousir74]

Coarse hair is supposed to be resilient to split end?

Boy did I just get a sour deal or what?! Splits up the length! ]

Just kidding just kidding, I'm happy with my hair and if I get splits it's my own darn fault for having gone on a dying spree a while back.

Alas I don't have an answer to your question, but my two cents is that many of us in the middle have these unsure moments about what "categories" our hair falls in. Remember it's hard to type a detail with so much rich variety in it into three neat categories.

Also, I struggled with the M/C distinction. I ended up w/ coarse because, my hair though it is not uber thick in numbers, it's pretty thick by strand. Also, I think it fit the "makes noise when you run it through your fingers" criteria, if I recall correctly.

[thankyousir74]

Also, stachelbeere, what do the multi lettered hair goals in your sig mean?

I was an avid measurer before I hit BSL and now that I'm midback I'm getting ultra aware of my hair goals again ahaha!

[stachelbeere]

Coarse hair is supposed to be resilient to split end?

Boy did I just get a sour deal or what?! Splits up the length! ]

Just kidding just kidding, I'm happy with my hair and if I get splits it's my own darn fault for having gone on a dying spree a while back.

Alas I don't have an answer to your question, but my two cents is that many of us in the middle have these unsure moments about what "categories" our hair falls in. Remember it's hard to type a detail with so much rich variety in it into three neat categories.

Also, I struggled with the M/C distinction. I ended up w/ coarse because, my hair though it is not uber thick in numbers, it's pretty thick by strand. Also, I think it fit the "makes noise when you run it through your fingers" criteria, if I recall correctly.

Also, stachelbeere, what do the multi lettered hair goals in your sig mean?

Well... he's the kind of guy who needs to keep his hair 'above the collar' for his work but if he could he'd grow his hair out - because I like it :) and he kind of doesn't take great care of it. He uses shampoo every time he takes a shower, rubs his hair with a towel, then sits on his bed with his head on the pillow = rats nest in the back. I sometimes detangle it gently and it just smooths out like it's no big deal haha :P but as I mentioned he needs to get a trim ever so often for work. I'm not sure he'd pull that off if his hair was longer :D
but to be fair your hair is probably more resilient than mine :)

My multi-lettered hair goals... hmm... let's just say that they symbolise hair growth and once a goal is written in orange I've achieved it. So far I am hovering around APL. I think I'm nearly there but I'll wait for another inch of growth until I post a picture claiming that I got there :) I'm not really a measurer though. I don't really know how long my hair is now in inches/ cm. I'm more like 'oh I still can't put my braid to the front, it's still too short'