Thick strands, not coarse?

[telegraph64]

Is there a hair type to define this or do I just call it "coarse" plain and simple? Because when I sift through my hair, it feels silky and smooth, and each individual strand is very smooth and round, however they are very thick, and easily identifiable against any color background, even if the background matches the hair. I only have ii hair and it still gives the illusion of being thick. I am not Asian. Also, I am a straight hair.

Please forgive my "newness" - as I am very familiar with long hair care itself, I have just not heard anything about thick but smooth strands.

Thank you all in advance for your time in answering.

-Elizabeth

[RitaCeleste]

One of my aunts has hair like that. She calls it coarse because the hairs are thicker than mine. Even though mine is actually coarse she calls it medium because each strand isn't as thick as hers. I am always looking at the hair types funny because I believe any hair type can feel coarse or smooth no matter the thickness of the hair strand or the curliness of the hair etc. I think there are as many hair types as there are people and not everyone fits into the categories. I wouldn't worry about it not getting its own box, just be glad it feels good when you run your fingers threw it. My sister described my head as a Brillo pad today.

[jojo]

sounds lovely, would give my right arm for lovely thick strands like that. More potential for extreme length hair. My friend whos Indian has the same as you and her is just *I wish* hair.

[curlyhairdfreak]

My hair is exactly like that it feels smooth, but its so each strand is crazy thick :)

[curlyhairdfreak]

btw I tend to just say its thick or coarse

[teela1978]

We use "thick" to refer to the total volume of hair you have (ponytail circumference). Fine, medium, and coarse refer to very thin individual strands to very thick individual strands. "Coarse" hair doesn't necessarially feel rough, it just has thicker individual strands than other types.

[telegraph64]

RitaCeleste, very interesting, my mother who is actually a 3a (father is 1a) has hair that feels extremely coarse however her strands are very thin and if I look at one in the light they differ greatly in thickness down the length.

Jojo, that's good to hear, I think you may be right, because I very rarely see splits nor white dots and believe me they do show up on darker hair.

Thank you teela, that makes a lot of sense! :)

[Mesmerise]

I think "coarse" is just a term used for thick strands of hair. Hair can theoretically be fine but still not feel all smooth, if the hair strands themselves are very thin.

I don't think a designated term is really a reflection on your hair itself, which can obviously be sleek and shiny even if the hairs are "coarse" and thick!

[teela1978]

Thank you teela, that makes a lot of sense! :)
No problem! There's also the caveat that not everyone everywhere uses LHC terminology though. To keep everyone on the same page, everyone here generally tries to stick to the LHC hair typing system (found here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=7804) along with some other helpful links) so things don't get too confusing :)