Hair Typing Help? It might be changing.

[Decoy24601]

So, I've never officially typed my hair or anything, I just guessed that it's around 1b. With certain products and brushing/combing I can get my hair to be stick straight, albeit still a bit poofy and frizzy. I clarified my hair and didn't use any conditioner or products that would influence my wave pattern, if there is any. I also didn't comb/detangle my hair at all. I normally don't use heavy cones or gels on my hair, so conditioners/oils don't effect it a whole lot unless there's buildup. The humidity is 68% today, which is pretty average for here so it's also a good representation of how my hair behaves on any given day.

Here are my pictures:
Damp:
http://i.imgur.com/eXbsLDj.jpg

Slightly Damp/Mostly Dry:
http://i.imgur.com/pJD1BEk.jpg

Pretty much dry, but it's still a bit damp:
http://i.imgur.com/6L3iQiQ.png

Strands (Medium, coarse, or a mix?):
http://i.imgur.com/OZYFbiF.jpg

What do you guys think? It looks like it could be 2a to me :shrug: I really have no idea. I know my hair was probably somewhere around 1c/2a when I was around 12. It changed texture when I started puberty, but started going straight again when I moved to a very dry and cold climate. I'm back in a humid climate again, and my hair type seems to be changing back to a wavier pattern and frizzier/poofier texture. My hair is also weighed down because of the length.

What products can I use to define my waves? I have a lot of products my hair loves right now, but a lot of conditioners/oils weigh down my hair enough to where if there's enough buildup I can get my hair to be almost stick straight.

[lithostoic]

Looks 1b/1c to me but your hair probably weighs itself down due to length.

[Decoy24601]

Huh, I always thought 1b was a looser wave. I'm no good at this hair typing business :doh:.

"1b - straight but with a slight body wave, just enough to add some volume, doesn't look wavy
1c - straight with body wave and one or two visible S-waves (e.g. nape of neck or temples)"

Why I think I'm not 1b/c is because of that description, but I'm not sure how accurate that is or how it would actually look and I have waves from my ears all the way down my length.

[lithostoic]

Yeah, so do I, and I'm 1b/1c. As I said your hair is probably weighed down, meaning you could be wavier.

[vampyyri]

I would say 1c/2a, this looks a lot like my hair does with some body waves and some S waves mixed in. There's definitely a wave in there, so definitely not 1b!


Huh, I always thought 1b was a looser wave. I'm no good at this hair typing business :doh:.


"1b - straight but with a slight body wave, just enough to add some volume, doesn't look wavy
1c - straight with body wave and one or two visible S-waves (e.g. nape of neck or temples)"


Why I think I'm not 1b/c is because of that description, but I'm not sure how accurate that is or how it would actually look and I have waves from my ears all the way down my length.


You're definitely not 1b, the 1s are more in the straight category, you hair definitely leans towards wavy. They're soft waves, but they're there!

[lithostoic]

^ This means I'm likely wavier than I thought o: Gotta reanalyze. Apologies, Decoy.

[vampyyri]

^ This means I'm likely wavier than I thought o: Gotta reanalyze. Apologies, Decoy.

Definitely take a hair typing photo, I know how confusing it is to determine hair type (it's way easier on other people, but we're our own worst critics and have a hard time typing ourselves)!

[Decoy24601]

lithostoic It's no problem ;). From the pictures I've seen I'd say your hair is a little wavier than 1b, but what specifically I have no clue.

Vampyyri Hmm, I think I might lean more towards 2a. I wish I had a good picture of when my hair was shorter, because the length of the individual waves is normally a little shorter. My hair has been getting wavier since I've lived here, so I'm curious about how it'll look in a few months. I think I lived in a dry environment for so long that it made my hair seem a lot straighter than it was, closer to 1b for a long time. My individual hairs also grew thinner for a few years because of stress and malnutrition, so that could be playing a factor too. I think my old layers are also throwing off the wave pattern a bit. I know I'm definitely not anything more than 2a, because my waves aren't very defined, but they look shorter than body waves, if that makes sense.

Do you think I typed my coarseness right? I think it's fairly even with M/C with just a little bit of fine hair at my temples.

[littlestarface]

Your texture looks M to me I don't see C strands in the picture.

[Decoy24601]

Hmm, I think you're right.

I think I'm siding with 1c/2a based on my hair's tendency to be either very wavy or straight depending on the day and what products I use in my hair and whatever my hair feels like doing that day.

If anyone has other opinions, I'd love to hear them.

[littlestarface]

Dunno your hair looks like it has more body then actual S waves, i'd say 1b/1c. It's very pretty especially at the bottom of your hair, I like how it has a couple of bumps in there.

[Decoy24601]

Eh, I don't know, at least when I look at my dry picture I can clearly see slight s-waves. If I'm 1c/2c I'm definitely closer to 1c. My waves are "shorter" than the body waves I see when I look up examples of 1b/1c. When I see 1c pictures the waves look a lot more defined than mine and a lot larger/longer.

Also, my signature picture isn't an accurate reflection of my waves, because that was taken after I had my hair in a LWB.

[vampyyri]

Eh, I don't know, at least when I look at my dry picture I can clearly see slight s-waves. If I'm 1c/2c I'm definitely closer to 1c. My waves are "shorter" than the body waves I see when I look up examples of 1b/1c. When I see 1c pictures the waves look a lot more defined than mine and a lot larger/longer.

Also, my signature picture isn't an accurate reflection of my waves, because that was taken after I had my hair in a LWB.

My hair leans towards 1c, but now it's closer to 2a with my new routine. So basically smack in the middle, but I can also enhance the waves closer to 2a... Straight/Wavy/Confused hair is a strange thing.

[diddiedaisy]

I'm with littlestarface on this one. It doesn't look in the 2's to me, it looks like straight hair with a lot of body and a cute flick up at the ends. What you might find with hair like that is as you get older it will decide on being wavy. When I was young it was pin straight with body and a flick up at the ends. It would also clump, but it was still straight lol. It only decided to start getting wavy in mid thirties, and then it was only at the ends, but now in my mid forties it waves from ear length.

[Decoy24601]

Really? :confused: It doesn't look fully straight at all to me. Even if they're just body waves, I can still clearly see waves in my hair, but they aren't very defined.

http://i.imgur.com/VZAa1Pk.png
Around each of those black lines is where I am seeing waves. Maybe they're 1c, but it still looks closer to s-waves than body. The body waves on pictures with 1c hair look much more defined and larger to me. It looks like some of it's s-waves and some of it's body waves to me.

I'm much more confused now...

[Ava Ruu]

I've been wondering for a while now so maybe this is an ok place to ask. What exactly is a body wave? How does it differ from an s-wave? The difference seems relevant to this discussion.

For hair typing, I think that my hair is a bit wavier than yours and I've typed it as 1c/2a. It clumps to these individual loosely wavy bunches. It's a bit diffucult with this kind of straight, kind of wavy hair that it is different every day even if you try to repeat the same procedure.

[lapushka]

IMO, that is 1c, very typically 1c. I also agree this is not 2! You have more of a body wave, not individual stringy, almost braid-like waves, which is what you need to be in the 2s.

[Arctic]

It's there and there, whether I'd put you in 1c or 1c/2a but I lean towards 1c. Yes there is some wave but the overall look is more straight than wavy (straight-ish with flippy ends).


AvaRuu body wave, the way I understand it, is, well, body (or volume) without really or veeery minimal visible waves. The hair straightness-wavyness-curlyness-kinkycurlyness is a continuum that goes on smoothly and not in steps. So 1a is super-duper straight, flat and smooth with no volume, body or waves. 1b has a bit of body/volume with flippy ends. 1c is body, flippy ends and bit of visible s-wave, but still visually more straight than wavy. 2a is visually already in the wavy cattegory, waves are big and might be weak - - - and so on.

[diddiedaisy]

If you compare it to this photo, I know my hair is a lot shorter than yours and length can pull out waves, but yours is very different. This is the only photo I can find where my hair is relatively natural, I will have combed it once or twice while wet and then left it alone, but you can still clearly see waves. I'm now just at bsl but it looks more or less the same.

http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag361/sblackburn4/Mobile%20Uploads/40F7B8D6-BD18-4C34-8767-E5C3227D3B7B_zpsrupaxxmt.jpg (http://s1373.photobucket.com/user/sblackburn4/media/Mobile%20Uploads/40F7B8D6-BD18-4C34-8767-E5C3227D3B7B_zpsrupaxxmt.jpg.html)

It's hard to type hair if you're not pin straight or very curly lol

[Decoy24601]

lapushka Actually, that visual of braidwaves helped a lot. I think I was having issues imagining what 1c would be, because when I think of "straight" hair, I think of 1a or maybe 1b, not 1c. I also think my waves are probably too easily "brushed out" to be 2a.

Arctic You have a good point about there being some more s-waves being there, but not quite enough to be 2a.

diddiedaisy Thank you for the picture! That helped a lot. I'd have to say that even when my hair was that length, it wasn't quite as wavy.

Thanks everyone for the help! I think I'll go with 1c, but I think my hair might end up becoming more 1c/2a in the future, since I have noticed my hair becoming wavier over the past year or so since I've moved. I do think at least for a few years during my childhood I was right inbetween 1c/2a, so I'm curious to see if it'll return to that in the future.

Yeah, hair typing is hard :lol: . My mind was just not wanting to grasp that 1c is in the "straight" category, but isn't pin-straight.

[school of fish]

Hairtyping can indeed be tricky! Especially when you have different sections of your hair that grow in different patterns, like I do ;) The sidebar options don't allow for me to actually state my type accurately - which is 1a AND 2a - so I've gone with the one that more closely ressembles how my hair appears and behaves, which is definitely skewed toward the straighter end of the spectrum :)

I think you've settled on the right classification in your case. And yes, you may find that your type may change over time and/or from day to day. Health issues, climate, hormones, water quality... all kinds of factors can alter hairtype either temporarily or permanently. But as it looks right now, I think you're right on with the 1c :)

A lot of heads of hair don't fit neatly into the boxes of the typing system. As much as anything, I type according to how my hair *behaves*, and it still reponds much better to 'straight haircare' than to 'wavy haircare', no matter how tenacious those waves are on me. I'll see over the course of time if that changes ;)

[Decoy24601]

That's a good point about which hair-care routines your hair responds better to. My hair type seems to be able to completely change based on what products I'm using on it. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly my hair likes the best. So far I've discovered that it hates whey/wheat proteins or larger proteins in general, but will tolerate gelatin. I also figured out my hair has low porosity, so I have started using a little bit of baking soda in my SMTs to force my hair to accept the moisture (followed by an ACV rinse). I was throwing moisture at it constantly and it wasn't doing much and I was wondering why. My hair likes at least some product on it, like oil or a LOC, because it tends to be very frizzy. I'm still not sure whether I get a better result from doing those while my hair is soaking wet, damp, or dry.

I wish I could just say my hair is "rebelliously straight". It's straight, but just doesn't seem to want to behave like it! :p I actually thought my hair was more damaged than it really was for a long time because I have frizzy straight hair.

[diddiedaisy]

Glad you've sorted it, but be careful what you wish for, 2a hair is a nightmare!!! Lol :)

[littlestarface]

Glad you've sorted it, but be careful what you wish for, 2a hair is a nightmare!!! Lol :)

Lol tell me about it.

[Decoy24601]

Heh, my hair is already pretty unruly. I found this description online and it fits very well:

"The 1C category is primarily straight with a few waves hiding in the underbrush. It's superthick and particularly prone to frizz. This hair type can hold curls very well. However, to keep from looking like a fuzz ball after stepping outside, use a smoothing serum and the cool-shot setting on your blow dryer."

Frizz-pic:
http://i.imgur.com/ry6amzI.png

[littlestarface]

Your frizz looks so smooth compared to my fluff :laugh:

[Decoy24601]

Yeah ;). I had a curly-haired redhead friend in high school who would laugh at me whenever I complained about frizz.

[vampyyri]

Here's my first hair typing picture:

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac27/Nyssa_Gomez/hairtyping_zpsjnpew6uv.jpg

Second hair typing picture:

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac27/Nyssa_Gomez/b28e62e7-eca4-45a6-b011-c04ab8a9ea39_zps94gb1wrs.jpg

Some days it looks like the first photo, some days it looks like the second photo. I suppose you are more of a solid 1c now that I look at my photos again. 1c/2a is a real headache, it has the frizz from 1c and the unruliness of 2a... a really mean combination actually, thanks mother nature :lol:

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac27/Nyssa_Gomez/20189360-9680-48ed-a53e-73d08b0d1011_zpsj5ctg03z.jpg

The typical frizz on my end if I brush my waves out :lol:

[Decoy24601]

Yeah, when compared to your photos my hair looks like 1c, but I still think it's a little quirky for 1c :p.

The other day it was 94% humidity and my hair was not happy at all. I had my hair in a bun, but even then my hair looked like a puff-ball. I really miss dry weather sometimes...

[Anje]

I'm also thinking pure 1c, which is a pretty quirky type. If the waves were a little closer together, I'd give you 1c/2a.

For comparison, my 1c/2a hair makes lazy spirals that just aren't consistent enough to make it look wavy everywhere.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6629&d=1380293273

Ancient picture from when I was hairtyped. Frizzy baby hairs and stringiness included.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10054&d=1396321078

[vampyyri]

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6629&d=1380293273


Unrelated, but what a pretty kitty!

[spidermom]

No expert but I'm going with 1C because although there is some wave, the overall effect to my eye is straight. I type myself 2A these days, and I'm quite a lot wavier, but maybe I should be 2B and you should be 2A.

Lovely hair, whatever the exact type. I don't think typing matters much beyond differentiating among straight, wavy, curly, kinky.

[Decoy24601]

I'm also thinking pure 1c, which is a pretty quirky type. If the waves were a little closer together, I'd give you 1c/2a.

For comparison, my 1c/2a hair makes lazy spirals that just aren't consistent enough to make it look wavy everywhere.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6629&d=1380293273

Ancient picture from when I was hairtyped. Frizzy baby hairs and stringiness included.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10054&d=1396321078

Awwww, cute kitty.

Yeah, I think my hair is 1c, although based on your picture it doesn't look too far off from 1c/2a. My hair has become wavier again over the last year or so, especially the last few months, so I'm curious if it'll stop there of if my hair will morph into some sort of 1c/2a over time. My hair definitely isn't full 2a for sure.

[littlestarface]

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=6629&d=1380293273

That is one beautiful kitty.

[Anje]

Unrelated, but what a pretty kitty!


Awwww, cute kitty.

Yeah, I think my hair is 1c, although based on your picture it doesn't look too far off from 1c/2a. My hair has become wavier again over the last year or so, especially the last few months, so I'm curious if it'll stop there of if my hair will morph into some sort of 1c/2a over time. My hair definitely isn't full 2a for sure.


That is one beautiful kitty.

That's my Freya monster. She's absurdly attached to me.