View Full Version : Hair typing opinions wanted
piratejenny
February 22nd, 2012, 06:14 AM
I finally managed to get a picture of the back of my head unbrushed and air-dried (and pretty stringy - ugh :() When I first came here I typed my hair as 2b but I'm not so sure really. It seems very different on the top layers (1c?) as opposed to the layers underneath (2c?). I even have some actual curls that spiral behind my ears (not sure if this comes out). So what do you guys think?
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=8696&pictureid=126892
Shesta
February 22nd, 2012, 07:02 AM
To me it looks like 2b. :)
turtlelover
February 22nd, 2012, 07:42 AM
I'm guessing a combo of 2A and 2B
pepperminttea
February 22nd, 2012, 07:43 AM
This might sound odd, but can you take a photo of the underlayer? :)
piratejenny
February 22nd, 2012, 08:07 AM
This might sound odd, but can you take a photo of the underlayer? :)
LOL. I had to pause a second here wondering what was so odd about the question. I think I might spend too much time on this forum :D
Promptly complying. This is the curly bit behind my ears. It's brushed now, though. (I only wash every four days and now I'm way too impatient to wait till next wash day :cool:)
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=8696&pictureid=126899
pepperminttea
February 22nd, 2012, 08:21 AM
Thanks! Goodness, that is one mixed up hair-type! I'd go 2c on the underlayer and 1c/2a on the canopy; sorry, I know that doesn't help much. It wouldn't surprise me if your canopy had a longer wave pattern that needs more length to show up. :)
Amber_Maiden
February 22nd, 2012, 08:24 AM
I'd say 2b.
elbow chic
February 22nd, 2012, 08:29 AM
I'm voting 2a for the canopy and 2c for the underlayer, for an average of 2b. :D
Mine's the same way, actually. There are times my underlayer approaches a 3a, with spiral curls-- if i'm doing a curly-girl thing they can get suprisingly well-defined! but the canopy simply ignores that and does its own semi-wavy, semi-straight thing. :mad:
lapushka
February 22nd, 2012, 08:32 AM
To me it looks like 1c.
Charybdis
February 22nd, 2012, 08:32 AM
Your hair looks kind of similar to mine, and I consider myself a 2b at this point. Are you pulling the upper layers of your hair straight by running your fingers through it when you wash it? And do you scrunch at all after showering before letting it air dry? The waves in my canopy get pulled straight when I work the conditioner through, and I then have to scrunch after the shower to "reactivate" the wave pattern. No product necessary, just bend forward and gently scrunch with hands after you finish blotting your hair on a T-shirt.
My individual hairs have many different wave patterns, which seems to be common for wavies, but the overall curl type at shoulder length is pretty much a 2b, with some loose ringlets. I occasionally think about calling myself a 2c, but my ringlets mostly brush right out after wash day and don't get particularly poofy in the process. I think the level of poofiness when you brush is often a good differentiator between 2b and 2c.
Anyway, unless you *did* scrunch the canopy before drying for the above pic, I'd go with 2b. Pretty color!
turtlelover
February 22nd, 2012, 08:33 AM
I have a mix, too -- my curls are looser in my canopy than my underneath layers. I am still not sure whether to say I'm 2C or 3A. I think it is very common.
Kayla Nyx
February 22nd, 2012, 09:03 AM
My hair does this as well ): the underside is really curly but the top is straight
teal
February 22nd, 2012, 10:09 AM
Your hair looks kind of similar to mine, and I consider myself a 2b at this point. Are you pulling the upper layers of your hair straight by running your fingers through it when you wash it? And do you scrunch at all after showering before letting it air dry? The waves in my canopy get pulled straight when I work the conditioner through, and I then have to scrunch after the shower to "reactivate" the wave pattern. No product necessary, just bend forward and gently scrunch with hands after you finish blotting your hair on a T-shirt.
My individual hairs have many different wave patterns, which seems to be common for wavies, but the overall curl type at shoulder length is pretty much a 2b, with some loose ringlets. I occasionally think about calling myself a 2c, but my ringlets mostly brush right out after wash day and don't get particularly poofy in the process. I think the level of poofiness when you brush is often a good differentiator between 2b and 2c.
Anyway, unless you *did* scrunch the canopy before drying for the above pic, I'd go with 2b. Pretty color!
This, all of it! Couldn't've said it better myself! :)
piratejenny
February 22nd, 2012, 01:13 PM
Thank you all for your comments. I guess I'll stick with the 2b as my average then ;). Also, it's nice to hear that there are more people with that kind of mixed hair :D.
Your hair looks kind of similar to mine, and I consider myself a 2b at this point. Are you pulling the upper layers of your hair straight by running your fingers through it when you wash it? And do you scrunch at all after showering before letting it air dry? The waves in my canopy get pulled straight when I work the conditioner through, and I then have to scrunch after the shower to "reactivate" the wave pattern. No product necessary, just bend forward and gently scrunch with hands after you finish blotting your hair on a T-shirt.
My individual hairs have many different wave patterns, which seems to be common for wavies, but the overall curl type at shoulder length is pretty much a 2b, with some loose ringlets. I occasionally think about calling myself a 2c, but my ringlets mostly brush right out after wash day and don't get particularly poofy in the process. I think the level of poofiness when you brush is often a good differentiator between 2b and 2c.
Anyway, unless you *did* scrunch the canopy before drying for the above pic, I'd go with 2b. Pretty color!
Hm, it has actually never occured to me to scrunch my hair after washing. I wonder what difference that would make. In the pictures above I only washed, finger combed and air dried. Normally I have to brush though to get rid of the stringyness (very visible in the first pictures). Right after brushing it's a bit poofy but falls back into its normal wave pattern pretty quickly (the last photo is a couple of hours after brushing). Nice idea, I'll definitely experiment a bit with the scrunching :D.
Thank you for the color compliment :blushing: - it's henna, not natural :cool:
terylenerose
February 22nd, 2012, 02:38 PM
I don't know. All I have to say is based on how my own hair airdries, so here you have it.
It looks much straighter on top, like a 1c actually, but that may be because the hair on the bottom is pulling the hair on the top straight. I know the upper third of my hair always looks like 1c/2a when it's at any length longer than about 4 inches all over, so you could have something similar. But it sounds like your canopy is just straighter, so I wouldn't know for sure. The bottom looks to me like 2c/3a, a lot like how my own hair dries, except that my ringlets are a bit more defined. I think that you said your ringlets brush out easily - mine do too. That's not much help though, because I don't know what my type is and can't give you an opinion.
Okay, I have no more input. All I can suggest is that you might want to check out the hairtype help thread. Not that there are any replies to it yet or anything - sorry.
torrilin
February 22nd, 2012, 05:26 PM
My vote is "don't know, what do you think of springy curls?"
If you'd be interested in seeing how curly your hair really is, try gradually shifting your routine to use more curl friendly products and techniques. If you totally hate curly hair, obviously you don't have to try this.
I'd *guess* that with better technique, your hair might be curlier than we're seeing here. But it's not a cut and dried thing, and like other folks are saying, you could also just have multiple hair types. Everyone does really. I've even got occasional single hairs that are like 4a in terms of curl... but I've also got plenty that are more like 1a. It averages out to a barely visible 1c. And the 1c won't show unless I use pretty careful curly hair handling techniques.
The tradeoff for me is... my hair is fine. And it seems like the natural curl pattern is a bit protective. Take care of it, and I have less splitting or breakage. But I dunno... if I were really attached to straight hair, I can see myself ignoring all that in favor of the look I wanted.
Kira94
February 22nd, 2012, 05:37 PM
Your hair is like mine! My underlayer has 2c/3a curls but the top layer is only 2a/2b. So I just round it out to 2b. :)
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