RainbowHawk
August 26th, 2011, 01:17 PM
I've been reading through some of the 'typing' threads (even though I'm very, very confident about my own type-- just curious :)) and I've come across statements to the effect that if your hair was "truly" one type or another, it could not under any circumstances be easily converted to appear as another type. In my experience, though, this has *nothing* to do with how straight or curly your hair is and everything to do with how fine/coarse it is. Now that I've learned something about porosity, I'd be willing to bet that plays a huge role too. . . but does it *really* mean that your hair "isn't really a 1/2/3/4" if it can or can't be manipulated easily into something else? I have a hard time believing that!
My hair is *definitely* type 3, and in easily-typed 3b spirals most of the time. That said, with remarkably little effort I can get hair which is stick-straight, indistinguishable from 1a (I have pictures, they're just not on this computer). I can also very easily manage 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, and 3a styles-- it really takes only a teensy bit more work than my natural, spontaneous 3b curls in most cases. 3c is more difficult, I have to actively twist my hair and the relative humidity has to be very high, but I can make it happen.
That said, my hair is *extremely* fine and very porous. I've met others who have similarly-flexible hair, though. Most 1a people I know with fine hair can indeed get it to hold a curl-- usually the mistake they make is applying too much of whatever fixative they're using, which causes the curls to fall out prematurely, but I've managed to give more than one curls which last all day (at least). If the hair is more coarse, it's more difficult to get it to take on an unnatural shape-- coarse 1a hair can be, in my experience, nigh on impossible to curl. Likewise, a coarse 3b might find it impossible to get their hair straight, but I've met other 3a/3bs who have fine hair and, like myself, can easily straighten it out. So why does it come up so often that one type of hair "can't" appear to be another? Does this sort of statement just fail to take texture (fine/coarse) into account, or am I missing something?
My hair is *definitely* type 3, and in easily-typed 3b spirals most of the time. That said, with remarkably little effort I can get hair which is stick-straight, indistinguishable from 1a (I have pictures, they're just not on this computer). I can also very easily manage 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, and 3a styles-- it really takes only a teensy bit more work than my natural, spontaneous 3b curls in most cases. 3c is more difficult, I have to actively twist my hair and the relative humidity has to be very high, but I can make it happen.
That said, my hair is *extremely* fine and very porous. I've met others who have similarly-flexible hair, though. Most 1a people I know with fine hair can indeed get it to hold a curl-- usually the mistake they make is applying too much of whatever fixative they're using, which causes the curls to fall out prematurely, but I've managed to give more than one curls which last all day (at least). If the hair is more coarse, it's more difficult to get it to take on an unnatural shape-- coarse 1a hair can be, in my experience, nigh on impossible to curl. Likewise, a coarse 3b might find it impossible to get their hair straight, but I've met other 3a/3bs who have fine hair and, like myself, can easily straighten it out. So why does it come up so often that one type of hair "can't" appear to be another? Does this sort of statement just fail to take texture (fine/coarse) into account, or am I missing something?