Sudden change in hair texture

[ummyahya]

Hi all! I am quite new here.
Since about six months I have started taking better care of my hair, which includes oiling and stretching washes (using cone-free shampoos and conditioners).
In the last month however, I noticed a very sudden change in texture, I went from a 1a to a 1c/2a!
To my understanding, the curl or lack thereof is determined when the hair grows out of the cuticle, so how could it have changed so suddenly? Is it a good sign in your opinion?

[cathair]

I think hair shows it's curl more when it is better moisturised? Perhaps looking after it better has allowed it to retain more moisture? That's probably a good thing :)

[sarahthegemini]

Hi all! I am quite new here.
Since about six months I have started taking better care of my hair, which includes oiling and stretching washes (using cone-free shampoos and conditioners).
In the last month however, I noticed a very sudden change in texture, I went from a 1a to a 1c/2a!
To my understanding, the curl or lack thereof is determined when the hair grows out of the cuticle so how could it have changed so suddenly? Is it a good sign in your opinion?

I don't even know what that means... Waves usually show themselves when they are adequately moisturised.

[Cania]

Hi there ^_^
I went through the same change, heh. I think cathair probably has it about right, my hair is definitely better since the change so it wouldn't surprise me if the two were related.


ETA: Sarah, I think she meant assuming all is well you wouldn't expect hair type to change until you saw new growth. I wouldn't anticipate someone with very straight hair knowing much about curls and moisture (why would they? They think it is nothing to do with their hair care journey) so it seems like a perfectly valid thing to say to me. She asked, and now she knows ^_^

ETA2: I was very clueless about waves and moisture, at least xD

[cathair]

I don't even know what that means... Waves usually show themselves when they are adequately moisturised.

I think I understand... how the hair grows out of the follicle will determine how much it can curl, so that will set the maximum curling potential your hair has. But that may not be the type of curl you can see if it is not well moisturised. So it might have the potential to be 2c, but look 1b. You could change the hair from 1b to 2c by adding moisture, but you couldn't then make that hair in 3b hair by adding even more moisture, because it didn't grown out of the follicle that way.

I don't know if that explains it any better? :/

[Anje]

As others have said, curl tends to show more when hair is moisturized. Furthermore, the weather has been changing (at least around here), so the combination of summer and your new routine together might be having an effect.

Yes, the potential to curl tends to be determined by the hair's cross-section. However, whether it curls or not is largely determined by handling. It's not unheard of for people to come to this forum saying they have "straight, frizzy hair" and later end up with a hairtype in the 3s.

[Cania]

Yes I think cathair nailed it in her clarification. ^_^

[StellaKatherine]

Been there, done that and so on :) Me a 1b person ( straight hair, freezy, fluffy and unmanagable for first couple of days after washing ) turn in to 2b waves and my long bangs even get slight curls ;) Was total shock, but then after thinking of it, it all made since !!!! :D

[Silverbrumby]

I had no idea I had curls until I joined LHC and started taking care of my hair. Now I can go from wavy to curly depending on how I dry it.

[ummyahya]

Uh moisture! Well, that's a whole new world opening to me!
Thank you very much, the explanation makes a lot of sense.
In my newbie ignorance I thought curl/waviness was something genetic!

[StellaKatherine]

Uh moisture! Well, that's a whole new world opening to me!
Thank you very much, the explanation makes a lot of sense.
In my newbie ignorance I thought curl/waviness was something genetic!

It is genetic. The thing is as I understand it , the 2 a-b-c type of a hair can look straight when brushed waves away, not moisturized enough. If you have genetically 1a it doesn't matter how much you moisturize, you won't get it go to 2a. Proper hair care can show the REAL genetic hair pattern. For me in the end it made sence as my mother and sister have 3a/b hair. I genetically had my 2b (maybe even 2c when shorter, as my short hairs near my neck make cute curls) but I brushed my hair when it was wet and didn't do anything else than shampoo and conditioner once, so i "killed" my waves and had no idea that i had them :)

[Sharysa]

In a lot of cases, waves need both moisture AND more length than the average hair-length most women have. From shoulder to APL I had "straight but frizzy" hair. It settled down after a year of improving my wash methods, which was great.

Then at midback a year later when I switched to Dr. Bronner's shampoo and started oiling, my hair started getting Golden Age Hollywood glamour-waves and was very easy to curl with braiding.

Then at lower mid-back/almost-waist length, my hair got even MORE wavy at about 2a/2b (but the waves are still fragile without braiding help, so I still consider myself borderline wavy instead of wavy).

So yeah: Moisture, good care, and often just getting longer in itself can change your hair texture.