I'm a guy trying to determine my hair type

[carce]

Brand new poster but have visited for a couple of years now. I'm growing my hair out after retiring from the military a few years ago. I've been growing from a high and tight to what you see in the pic. It will be 3 years this January since my last cut. I am going for waist and longer if possible. I think I'm a 3c but not sure because the top of my head has almost straight hair now. I'm also trying to keep my ends a little less curly so that you can actually see the length. Is there a way i can reduce shrinkage so that I can have more wavy locks?

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/carce3/20140929_142913_zps2b2b4260.jpg


ETA: Sorry about the link in the first post. I hope this one will work.

[lapushka]

That's definitely in the 3s, some type of curly.

[carce]

Here's a front view:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/carce3/20140929_1439191_zps9b0a9b5d.jpg

I'm only now beginning to understand my hair and how to take care of it. I'm learning that the longer it gets I can no longer style it aside from just putting it into a ponytail.

[jeanniet]

Can you get pictures in better light? It's really hard to see the pattern. I'd say 3bish, mix of 3a/3b, but hard to tell. I don't think the spirals are tight enough for 3c. 3a is sidewalk chalk size (1"), 3b is sharpie (1/2), 3c is pencil size (1/4"), more or less. Most people have a mix.I'm mostly 3a, have some areas of 3b mostly in back and underneath, maybe a stray 3c here and there, and some 2c that generally get wrapped around the curlier hairs. I get all kinds of different shed hairs, which is pretty interesting. So you may very well have quite a mix.

[carce]

I'm away from my house but will get something clearer this evening. Thank you. :)

[Kina]

I'd agree, certainly in the 3's (in fact, it looks a lot like mine when it's shorter). It's not uncommon to have a mix of types, as jeanniet says. My canopy (the top part) is wavy, while the underlayer is curly (2c/3a). You may experience, as i did, that the longer it gets, the less it curls, depending on the strength of the curl pattern and your type of hair, so you have to do nothing at all to get it on the wavier side, other than grow it :D

In the meantime, if you braid your hair, it tends to release the curl. I think it looks very nice on men, first a pony, with a no metal bit at all elastic (can't think of the name in English at the moment) then braid the length, tying off the end with another elastic. Of course, you could always braid it with no pony at first, but if you have any layers, it may be hard to contain the shorter bits.

I have a colleague who wears his shoulder length hair in a mini bun, looks very nice as well.