Hair typing help

[elfynity]

I've put myself as 2a, what do you think my hair type is. My image is freshly washed hair and allowed to dry on it's own without any fiddling.
EDIT: Various articles I have read say that 2B and 2C hair are coarse, and my hair is super fine. It is confusing.

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33490&d=1538305089

[Margarita]

It seems to be 2b :D

[Estrid]

To me it seems like your hair is forming some spirals, which would put you at 2c. I'm by no means an expert on this though, so I'd wait for more opinions. You're definitely not a 2a though :p

[Ravenne]

I’m thinking 2c as well, just based on the corkscrews on the bottom right of your hemline. I’m a 2a, and my hair is nowhere near that level of wavy/wurly. Your waves have some nice definition!

[Crystawni]

Welcome to my world; super fine with sausagey ringlets that form braidwaves when relaxed: 2b/2c. Your hair is one of the first on the forum that really reminds me of mine, actually. And by being fine it tends to fall softer, so the spirals drag out a bit into a longer S waves compared to full-on 2c. (My texture is twice as tight in the underlayer, though.)

[lapushka]

I would say 2c for sure. Because you have ringlets to the side, clear as day!

Maybe even 2c/3a, but I'll see what others have to say first!

[MusicalSpoons]

So pretty! I see lots of spirals - the waves seem to be spiralling about their own axis - which afaik puts you at the curlier end of wavy. I'd say 2c, but with a disclaimer that I'm not well-versed with 2s and 3s hairtyping :)

ETA apparently there are a couple of different hairtyping systems, so the article you read may have been talking about one of those. But in the system we use here, any type of hair can be any texture :)

[ravenskey]

For the LHC hair typing, I would definitely say 2c maybe even 2c/3a.

The one where 2b and 2c are coarse is the Andre Walker system, which is very popular in magazines but doesn't allow for lose, coarse waves, or tight fine ones. I much prefer the one on LHC.

[elfynity]

So pretty!

ETA apparently there are a couple of different hairtyping systems, so the article you read may have been talking about one of those. But in the system we use here, any type of hair can be any texture :)

Thank you MusicalSpoons. That hairtyping system definitly doesn't fit my hair type in any way, so I'm just going to ignore theirs from now on. Thank you for clearing this up.


I’m thinking 2c as well, just based on the corkscrews on the bottom right of your hemline. I’m a 2a, and my hair is nowhere near that level of wavy/wurly. Your waves have some nice definition!



I would say 2c for sure. Because you have ringlets to the side, clear as day!

Maybe even 2c/3a, but I'll see what others have to say first!
I know, I have always wondered about where I fit in because I always have those ringlets / corkscrews. I think I have just been bit confused because of that other hairtyping system that says you have to have coarse hair for it to be 2c. I just chose 2a because my hair is fine.


Welcome to my world; super fine with sausagey ringlets that form braidwaves when relaxed: 2b/2c. Your hair is one of the first on the forum that really reminds me of mine, actually. And by being fine it tends to fall softer, so the spirals drag out a bit into a longer S waves compared to full-on 2c. (My texture is twice as tight in the underlayer, though.)
Hi Crystawni, sounds like my hair! Because of the fine-ss, the S waves really do drag out longer and give a different look to a 2c curl - makes such sense now that I look at it and think about it. Do you also get crazy frizz?

[lithostoic]

2c! I know two people with this hair type IRL. Their hair is gorgeous and so is yours :)

[VersLaLumière]

Looks like a solid 2c to me !

[elfynity]

Looks like a solid 2c to me !


2c! I know two people with this hair type IRL. Their hair is gorgeous and so is yours :)

Thank you Lithostoic, that is so kind of you to say. Thank you everyone who has helped me to type my hair today. I really appreciate your time and messages.

The majority vote has been 2c so I am officially changing my type to that. I also was going to type myself as 2c right before I even joined LHC, but articles online said I had to have coarse hair to have ringlets - their system does not have a category for people with this hair type.

I am so glad, it really does make sense now in so many ways, and I am sure is going to be very helpful in how I take care of my hair in the future.

:joy:

[Crystawni]

Hi Crystawni, sounds like my hair! Because of the fine-ss, the S waves really do drag out longer and give a different look to a 2c curl - makes such sense now that I look at it and think about it. Do you also get crazy frizz?

Yup, all the time. I see people on here complaining about frizz, but I see it as the nature of the beast. Most of it settles in the length (thanks to mine being low porosity and very silky), but I always have a halo. Luckily I live in the tropics where frizz is the norm. :p

As for hairtyping, I see people saying ringlets = (at least) 2c all the time on here now, so as my own hair is all ringlets as well, I'm re-typing mine (stuff the "wave-length"). :wethree: Mine clump into the same pattern (for all the years I've been on LHC) as they spiral down, and are not actually "wavy" but 3D. It's manipulation that changes the look of them into waves. I'm so glad you posted, as this was enough for me to change up and accept the fine and fragile coilies. :hifive:

ETA: And if I were to go by the Visual Hairtyping Guide here (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=116252), I'd be:

3a - big, loose spiral curls

as opposed to:

2b - shorter, more distinct S-waves (similar to waves from braiding damp hair)
2c - distinct S-waves and the odd spiral curl forming here and there

So, um, paint me confuzzled. I guess I'll be straddling the 2c/3a line, even though 3a describes my hair (for hairtyping--it even spirals in the shower when drenched) perfectly.

[Natalia_A00]

Seems like 2c to me!

[Crystawni]

elfynity, here's some frizz for you. :grin:

https://i.imgur.com/ypDfY1c.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/x43Ybrf.jpg

And some semi-behaving:

https://i.imgur.com/MWlA5bD.jpg

[elfynity]

Crystawni, you would have laughed at me, I sat by the mirror and compared our hair and looking at your hair was almost identical to mine. This has been quite a surprise for me to find out that I am alot curlier than I thought. I didn't realise how important actually doing the visual typing test was. I feel like I don't even know my hair! When I was little, my mom kept my hair short and I was just a mop of these same curls, I thought I'd just outgrown them. I have obviously been doing it all wrong for all these years, which would explain my permanent frizz bomb. And as your picture clearly shows, that is one of the symptoms of trying to treat curled hair like straight hair. It makes such sense now.

I have downloaded the curly girl ebook and I am going to read it to try figure out what to do with this new found discovery. Please let me know if you have any tips, I'm sure if they work for you, they will probably work for me! Ironically, we have even more in common, I also live in a warm, humid subtropical climate. Shew what a day of discovery! I'm figuring out whether i need to throw my brushes away and buy a comb. I actually don't even know yet what to use.

[elfynity]

Crystawni, I've had a crazy 2 days trying to figure out how to deal with my hair, and stop getting to the frizz stage - the obvious thing is to not brush it after it has been washed and set into it's spirals. I am very interested to know how you deal with this, if you use a brush inbetween washes or not? i am thinking to take out sections carefully that is one curl and preen that individually around my head.
This is going to take some getting used to!

[Crystawni]

Crystawni, you would have laughed at me, I sat by the mirror and compared our hair and looking at your hair was almost identical to mine. This has been quite a surprise for me to find out that I am alot curlier than I thought. I didn't realise how important actually doing the visual typing test was. I feel like I don't even know my hair! When I was little, my mom kept my hair short and I was just a mop of these same curls, I thought I'd just outgrown them. I have obviously been doing it all wrong for all these years, which would explain my permanent frizz bomb. And as your picture clearly shows, that is one of the symptoms of trying to treat curled hair like straight hair. It makes such sense now.

I have downloaded the curly girl ebook and I am going to read it to try figure out what to do with this new found discovery. Please let me know if you have any tips, I'm sure if they work for you, they will probably work for me! Ironically, we have even more in common, I also live in a warm, humid subtropical climate. Shew what a day of discovery! I'm figuring out whether i need to throw my brushes away and buy a comb. I actually don't even know yet what to use.

Bahahaha! Well, I admit I've done the very same thing! :p And yup, I was surprised to find I wasn't a straightish-kinkyish-wonky-hair, and that that coily stuff that happened after swimming in the ocean, or pool, or getting drenched in a downpour, was actually my natural texture. Those wings that formed over my ears, or longish fringe, when my hair was short that I'd fought with a brush and hairdryer--I wish I have known all I had to do was let the lot dry naturally..! And yeah, I had Shirley Temple hair as a toddler through to junior primary, then had my hair cut into a Monkey Cut (Mrs Brady from the Brady Bunch--shortish layers on top with wispy neck bits that hit shoulder and curled in one big wave outwards), and looked like an idiot. My hair just didn't DO that. It took years to recover from that, and my hair got fuller and heavier as puberty thickened hair all over the place. :lol: And then in the 80s it was all about the highlights and perm, so I missed my texture revival and just thought perms lasted a long time on me. Duh! It wasn't until I joined LHC and did some hairtyping pics that the lightbulb went off... I was 47. :o

Now, as for what I do, I don't do much to be honest as I don't wear it down very often thanks to length and heat (it's a 4 minute burn where I am). When I was in the subtropics down south and my hair was a bit shorter (growing from APL to around waist), I did wear it down a bit more, but still kept things fairly simple as products (like curly girl stuff) just weighed everything down or gave it a stiffness and stringiness I'm not a fan of. For frizz, a dab of pure aloe vera gel works, or a smear of hair mask (I use a cheapy dollar store knock-off) or silicone serum (my rotational faves are mentioned on my profile). They also smell yummy, so that's a bonus. I do (sandalwood) comb and (bamboo) brush my hair, but find it will only settle once totally dry (around the following day after being washed). A silk scarf may be your friend for frizz as well, although it flattens my hair (especially when I've slept in a silk bonnet). Going fully CO also flattened my hair a bit on top, but also lets my coils sproing. Shampoo lightens the load, and I can get more coiling from it, but it also means a bit more frizz. Some shampoos can flatten everything, though, so it takes a bit of trial and error. The only leave-in I use is a teeny bit of hair mask on the ends, but don't always bother as my hair is low-porosity and doesn't soak in moisture.


Crystawni, I've had a crazy 2 days trying to figure out how to deal with my hair, and stop getting to the frizz stage - the obvious thing is to not brush it after it has been washed and set into it's spirals. I am very interested to know how you deal with this, if you use a brush inbetween washes or not? i am thinking to take out sections carefully that is one curl and preen that individually around my head.
This is going to take some getting used to!

I comb and brush to detangle, neaten and gloss things up, but that means I don't keep my texture (it's bunned, so don't need it). When I do want the texture, I've had some success with a bit of hair mousse or gel on damp hair fresh from plopping in my turbie (no turbie twist is too short for me as I pile all my hair up in it when drying for about 15 minutes). Once there's some goop in it, I cup the ringlets in my palm so they clump, then don't touch it. It often dries stiff when there's that kind of stuff in it, and I'm lucky if I let it stay that way (it feels cruddy to me). An extra bit of coil-security is hairspray (I use a pump one), but that's RARE for me these days.

When not gooped up, I sometimes flip my head over for a good root-fluffing (that breaks things up while adding volume), or whip my hair when drying for straightness, or just run a really wide-toothed non-static plastic comb through my coils to loosen them up a bit (similar to finger combing) for a shaggy look. When the coils die a bit after day one, I just refresh them with a good soak of water (on the ends, my face framers, etc.) and do some palm-cupping. This is also what I do if I'm wearing a non-bun updo that needs my ends to get their coil on (like half-ups, twists, ponytails...).

That's all I can think of for now! (Was that a sigh of relief I heard??? :rolling: ) Just yell out if you need any clarification!

[elfynity]

I looked at my photos when I was younger and it's clear I'm the curly girl in my family! I never noticed before till now. I'm not as curly as shirley temple over the crown but very curly near the ends, and my hair was only ever about 5 inches long for all of my childhood. My mom thought my thin, fine hair would thicken if she cut it regularily. Very humiliating.


just thought perms lasted a long time on me
I always thought this whenever I curled my hair, it would stay curly until I washed it and blowdried it. This also may be an option for me, I just came to this thought, which is to create my own curls over my existing ones. My natural curl will keep them in shape and I can neaten it up and have a bit of control over their wildness.

I feel that our hairtypes are very similar, however mine is not as thick as yours I don't think. It is thinner than it should be due to damage before the beginning of this year, but it will grow out in the next few years.

I actually did curly girl yesterday and was disappointed with the result. My hair, like yours, was over conditioned and so was hanging very heavy. Also, the scrunch method caused my hair to become very messy with crazy stringed out curls whisping all over the show - i wont do that again. I have taken quite a bit away from her method though and will keep trialing to see what works for me.
I'm going to get that aloe vera and give it a try. Maybe just leave it in my ends after a wash and see what happens.

I don't ever CO my roots, it not just flattens my hair but would be a grease bomb too. I will either water wash only or I will cornstarch shampoo the roots and always just condition my ends, from just below my ears. I actually put conditioner into my ends every day, either diluted or straight to keep it from drying out.

Ha ha, I think it is a sigh of relief to know that my hair is not going to be easy to deal with, and never really has been, unless i just blowdry and straighten (and I wont do that!). I feel like I need to plan ahead if I want to take my curls with me - just like you have to, because from what you have descibed and from what I know from my hair is that our curls break very easily and become a fuzzy bomb. I am going to try some aloe vera gel to see if I can keep them together and looking neat for longer.

This has been very helpful Crystawni! thank you so so much for taking the time to go into a deep explanation. I really appreciate it. :blossom: