Do you retype your hair as it grows?

[BeckyAH]

...What it says in the subject.

Do you? How often? If length is pulling out your curls, for instance, do you retype to reflect that? Or, maybe more to the point, are you supposed to? :confused:

[spidermom]

Fia used to be an active member here, and it's her hair typing system that we use. I asked her this same question, and she said "no, the type doesn't change just because the appearance does."

I find that kind of iffy, though. If I were a new member and had my hair typed now, I'm not sure many would put me at 2C.

[Vanilla]

I don't think you're supposed to re evaluate your hair type as you reach different lengths, but that hasn't stopped me.

I think I am probably closer to a 2a right now, but as my hair grows, it stretches out the wave pattern. I am projecting out what my hair type would be at the next milestone. When my hair is shorter, it's definitely wavier.

[BeckyAH]

. If I were a new member and had my hair typed now, I'm not sure many would put me at 2C.

That is part of my reason for the question.

The rest is: Do you really treat your hair now the same as when it was wavier/curlier? Or is your treatment also changing?

On the other hand, I *can* see the benefit in saying 'this is what 2c hair does at classic length'. But that must be pretty individual, too.

Hrm.

[BeckyAH]

I don't think you're supposed to re evaluate your hair type as you reach different lengths, but that hasn't stopped me.

I think I am probably closer to a 2a right now, but as my hair grows, it stretches out the wave pattern. I am projecting out what my hair type would be at the next milestone. When my hair is shorter, it's definitely wavier.

My hair goes from straight at super short, to curl at shorter-medium, and eventually stretches out and gets straighter again. A little awkward, that, but it's sure not consistent, regardless.

[spidermom]

Even at this length, every once in awhile my spiral curls show up for a brief visit. That's always nice. I think my current picture looks more 2B though, maybe even 2A/2B.

[jojo]

I think my hair has always been in the 2's for the whole of my growing, the wave did get flatter when i reached waist but strangely now just barely touching hip the ends are curling once more.

Id like to think if your a 1.2.3.or 4 this really shouldnt change, though you may get a more stretched out version at certain lengths, so the a,b or c may change the overall texture id think would stay!

[kitschy]

My hair looks like it isn't the 3B that is was when I first signed up here, but in reality, when you look closely at the curl pattern at the ends you can tell that my spirals are sharpie sized coils even though the weight of my hair pulls out the spirals at the top.

My curls now aren't sidewalk chalk size they are more like sharpie sized S or zig-zags.

But it is definitely less curly looking than it was when it was shorter.

[Laylah]

I'm going to be the weird one here and say my hair has gotten curlier as it's gotten longer. When I first joined, I was a little above BSL and my hair looked a lot like spidermom's sig pic. I only had waves, no curls. The waves, from crest to crest, were maybe 2.5'' apart. Now, I'm past tailbone and I have curls and waves. The waves have gotten tighter, not only about 1-1.5'' apart crest to crest. The curls range in diameter from dry erase marker to sharpie sized.

[BeckyAH]

I'm going to be the weird one here and say my hair has gotten curlier as it's gotten longer. When I first joined, I was a little above BSL and my hair looked a lot like spidermom's sig pic. I only had waves, no curls. The waves, from crest to crest, were maybe 2.5'' apart. Now, I'm past tailbone and I have curls and waves. The waves have gotten tighter, not only about 1-1.5'' apart crest to crest. The curls range in diameter from dry erase marker to sharpie sized.

You aren't alone, though I'm not that long - or close.

This was my hair last year:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y26/Greylin/006-41.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y26/Greylin/layers.jpg

This is my hair fairly recently. It's definitely gotten more spiral and less wave (and more frizz, in this picture). Neither one of these is hair-typing type pics, though. Combing happened. Anyway, I suspect the curl will drop out again soon enough, though. Which will make me sad. I've just gotten used to them!

[Hyacinth]

I thought I was a certain thickness and as it grows out, I'm finding that it was different from what I thought. The numerical classifications and pictures of curliness really helped me. I also found that I was straight-haired as a 20-something and now I'm much more curly.

[Impulsive]

No, I don't retype, because (I'm having trouble putting this into words...) while the weight of my hair may be pulling it a little straighter, that's the only reason it's straighter. The weight is producing the same effect that would occur if I pulled my hair down by hand.The curliness of my hair hasn't changed it's just being pulled down so that the curls are slightly hidden. My curls would return to normal again in an instant if I ever cut my hair, so it's not really change, it just looks like change... I really hope that made sense.

[Hollyfire3]

I thought I was a certain thickness and as it grows out, I'm finding that it was different from what I thought. The numerical classifications and pictures of curliness really helped me. I also found that I was straight-haired as a 20-something and now I'm much more curly.

Did you find it was thicker or thinner? Interesting...

[Hyacinth]

Did you find it was thicker or thinner? Interesting...

Probably because it was so short I could not put it in a real ponytail to measure it's thickness. When I could barely get it into 2 pigtails, someone on LHC helped me to mathmatically figure what the thickness of a single ponytail would be. I wish there was a way to measure thickness for the short-haired, but who can know until it grows out? What it "feels" like and what it actually is may be 2 different things. Mine was thicker than I thought :)

[torrilin]

Thus far, I haven't had any reason to change my type except to reflect more curl. It's possible 1c is on the straight side for my hair still, but it seems to do a decent job of expressing the range of what my hair can do. I can maximize the wave by using curly techniques like scrunching in leave in conditioner and gel. But even at the absolute max, it is not going to pass for 2b for more than about 15 minutes :D. The reality is my waves are looong S waves, and since my hair is fine, they won't stay scrunched up for long at all. Most of the time, my hair looks closer to 1a, especially if it's getting a steady diet of conditioners that are good for my waves, but not much scrunching.

[Amber_Maiden]

I have retyped my hair since it has grown- it's much more wavy than it used to be.

[Vanilla]

My hair goes from straight at super short, to curl at shorter-medium, and eventually stretches out and gets straighter again. A little awkward, that, but it's sure not consistent, regardless.

How short was your hair when it was straight? My hair was still very wavy at bob length.

[BeckyAH]

How short was your hair when it was straight? My hair was still very wavy at bob length.

Oh, bob length I had wave and curl again. When I say short I mean like... 2 inches or less. I don't think it's a real change, though, because my wave/curl pattern doesn't start until about my ears, no matter what. There through chin, it just flips straight out at the ends. After that, to close to shoulder, it's wavy. Beyond shoulder it starts to (slowly, loosely) spiral.

[holothuroidea]

If your wave pattern changes based on length, but you are not supposed to change your hair type as it grows- what exactly is the standard length for typing?

And if you are not at that length, how do you type? Just guess? Do you change it once you reach the standard length? What if you are already passed it when you become a member and you are unwilling to cut your hair to type it?

The whole idea of not being able to change it seems a lot more complicated than just saying "hey, my hair is wavier now, I need to update my hair type."

[ravenheather]

My hair is getting wavier as it gets longer. It is fine though. Who knows what it will be in the future as it is only shoulder length right now.

[AndreaPetrea]

If your wave pattern changes based on length, but you are not supposed to change your hair type as it grows- what exactly is the standard length for typing?

And if you are not at that length, how do you type? Just guess? Do you change it once you reach the standard length? What if you are already passed it when you become a member and you are unwilling to cut your hair to type it?

The whole idea of not being able to change it seems a lot more complicated than just saying "hey, my hair is wavier now, I need to update my hair type."

Exactly my thoughts - what is then the right length for typing?

[oktobergoud]

I know I will! But I have chin-length hair now, so I guess I HAVE to retype my hair when it gets longer, there's just no way to be sure now!

[Quahatundightu]

Well mine still does spiral curls at the ends so I think the non-weighed down part is still 3A while the rest seems to look 2C. I have been wondering this myself though. Wurly hair is difficult to type anyway because it looks so different depending on the weather! I like being able to have the 2c/3a combination because my hair varied a lot even when it was shorter.

[DancingQueen]

Because my hair is curly, I 'loose' a few inches. Therefore, I hair type my hair the way it is supposed to be typed, and if I find it changes a bit, I retype it.

About length, I always measure with straightened hair or my cur lies pulled out, as I feel that is my 'true' length. :)

[Amelia]

I thought about this when i started to grwon my hair. And now almost at hip i can say that no, it stayed the same lol It still curls and coils and waves the same amount it did at shoulder length. So much so that when i have my hair down it can curl up to somehwhere between APL and BSL:lol:

[henné]

I don't really assign much importance to typing, tbbh :) It doesn't really change anything about my hair. My hair changes its 'type' depending on the humidity in the air, even geographical position (in FLA it would get in the 3 zone, here in Sweden it's in the 2 zone), what product I used to wash my hair, how healthy/unhealthy I'm eating ... It's just way too variable to worry about it :D Imho.

[newbeginning]

I just typed my hair as well as I could (when it was shorter). I know for a fact that using a tangle teaser and length has pulled the waves out more so I feel (to me anyway) that me typing at my shorter hair length is more accurate.

[Bedhead]

Before I joined LHC I was WO and had curls galore with quite a few spirals all over, but with NW/SO, my hair has straightened quite a bit. If I typed it based on this regime, I'd have a 2a or maybe at most a 2b. I guess just keep it in the back of my head that if I wet my hair it would still be 2c/3a. As for the thickness, I think I need to be quite flexible; I lost a lot of hair a couple years ago, and so I have a lot of baby hairs that haven't gotten long enough to fit into a pony tail just yet. Since I've already gone from 3.25 (non-clarified) to 3.75 (clarified), I'm suspecting one day soon I'll be a iii again.

I don't know, I think if you're taking care of your hair and it's healthier than it ever was, then perhaps you need to reevaluate your hair type - just maybe, as you learn to care for your hair properly, your hair begins expressing its true type? I think flexibility is key here.

[Jing]

Considering that curls appear and disappear, waves get stretched out etc. etc., in order for hair typing to be consistent and definitive there would have to be a standard length at which to type it. But even if there was, what would be the point? It's not like your hair type reveals your ultimate destiny or anything. If you've got 3a curls at shoulder length then care for them as such, and if your hair stretches to a 2b wave at classic, same thing. Hair typing is supposed to tell you what you've got to work with and help you find the best methods to care for your hair, is it not? There's no reason to treat your hair as though it's stick straight if it's suddenly gone wavy on you, and so on.

[lapushka]

I waited with typing until my hair had had its share of lengths (from chin to BSL). I don't think your hairtype changes because it grows, after all if you were to cut it just like that it would revert right back to its old state - it's not like wave or curl definition disappears permanently.

[holothuroidea]

I waited with typing until my hair had had its share of lengths (from chin to BSL). I don't think your hairtype changes because it grows, after all if you were to cut it just like that it would revert right back to its old state - it's not like wave or curl definition disappears permanently.

That's not always true. My hair went from 1a to almost-wavy when I had a baby. I'll never have super straight hair again.

And I still think that if you say you hair is forever one type, there needs to be established a standard hair length at which typing happens.

[NymphSpirit]

Fia used to be an active member here, and it's her hair typing system that we use. I asked her this same question, and she said "no, the type doesn't change just because the appearance does."

I find that kind of iffy, though. If I were a new member and had my hair typed now, I'm not sure many would put me at 2C.

That's really odd, when I started growing my hair it was a 2c/3a and now it's nowhere near that :confused:

(But right now I don't really know what my -real- hair type is, since only one eigth of it is virgin... so may be when it's all natural it'll be 2c/3a again? who knows...I think retyping is necessary in some cases...)

[spidermom]

I'm going to be the weird one here and say my hair has gotten curlier as it's gotten longer. When I first joined, I was a little above BSL and my hair looked a lot like spidermom's sig pic. I only had waves, no curls. The waves, from crest to crest, were maybe 2.5'' apart. Now, I'm past tailbone and I have curls and waves. The waves have gotten tighter, not only about 1-1.5'' apart crest to crest. The curls range in diameter from dry erase marker to sharpie sized.

My hair did that also, to a point. At this length, most of the curl has been stretched out from the weight (I assume).

Oh, and somebody mentioned geographic location earlier. I found that to be true also. When we vacationed in Italy, my hair went very straight - 1B or 1C.

[Ostelot]

Oh, and somebody mentioned geographic location earlier. I found that to be true also. When we vacationed in Italy, my hair went very straight - 1B or 1C.

So there's hope for us 1b/1cs to hold the curls somewhere in this globe?:D I need a vacation to test that.

Last time was hair was shorter, I hadn't heard a word about the hair typing. The first time I read from it was in 2004 (not TLHC), and I did the air drying test with the BSL+ hair. So there's no evidence data with my shorter styles, but I remember having a bendier hair type at the grown out bob style. That's logical because the gravity doesn't affect the potential waves so much yet. And I always remember having quite heavy hair, even though it looks just thin and straight.:)

[ApatheticFairy]

Mine has gotten more wavy the longer it grows, too. At chin-length, I was a 2A, at just-above APL I think I'm more 2b-ish. The time last that I cut it so short was at age 9, and it looks 1A in those pictures and I wasn't allowed to heat style until 15.

And it's getting more wavy the better condition it gets in.... It could have been all the damage, though... but it's still legit to change the type.

[jeanniet]

My hair type really hasn't changed. The main difference is that the curl loosens up easier, but the basic type after washing is still the same.

[florenonite]

As I understand it, the point of hair typing is to have a common baseline for discussions on hair texture and care. We all have a vague understanding of what 3a hair looks like and its basic needs (moisture, no brushing, etc.).

If your texture changes to the point where the way you care for it changes then I think it makes sense to re-type. My hair's straighter when it's short and wavier when it's long, so at the moment I treat it like straight hair: shampoo, no conditioner, brushing/combing at will. I might reach, say, hip length and find my waves coming out, at which point I might start using more conditioner, scrunching when wet, and avoiding combing. It would be misleading and kind of useless to still refer to it as 1c when it behaves like 2a.

Besides, as others have said, if your hair type stays the same regardless of length there needs to be a standard length at which to type it, because the way it appears changes due to length.

[BlazingHeart]

I typed my hair between APL and waist, because my hair goes through fairly dramatic changes above APL. From ear-length to APL, I get wavier and wavier. Above the shoulder, I could be mistaken for a 1b, especially when brushed out- I look like I have just enough wave to give body to the hair. As my hair gets closer to APL, it becomes wavier. Between APL and waist, my hair develops into 1c/2a-ish when brushed out, and 2a/2b when air-dried. My longest tips are now just shy of BCL, and I still have about the same type.

I think for me, above APL looks the way it looks because my wave pattern doesn't start right at the roots - I have big loose waves above the shoulder (even when my hair is long, the waves are looser at the tip) that slowly increase to tighter waves as my hair gets longer. So I wouldn't type my hair above APL because it seems like my hair just hasn't figured out what it wants to do when it's shorter.

I don't know where I'd say the 'proper' place for typing is, but I guess if I had to pick one, I'd say APL is a good place - it's long enough that even people who have a really loose wave pattern will have it showing, but short enough that the weight of the hair hasn't pulled out too much of the wave/curl/wurl for people who don't have straight hair.

~Blaze

[Avital88]

No, I don't retype, because (I'm having trouble putting this into words...) while the weight of my hair may be pulling it a little straighter, that's the only reason it's straighter. The weight is producing the same effect that would occur if I pulled my hair down by hand.The curliness of my hair hasn't changed it's just being pulled down so that the curls are slightly hidden. My curls would return to normal again in an instant if I ever cut my hair, so it's not really change, it just looks like change... I really hope that made sense.

Yes i agree this counts for me too:)

[lapushka]

I don't know where I'd say the 'proper' place for typing is, but I guess if I had to pick one, I'd say APL is a good place - it's long enough that even people who have a really loose wave pattern will have it showing, but short enough that the weight of the hair hasn't pulled out too much of the wave/curl/wurl for people who don't have straight hair.

I agree with that. APL is a good length to type hair, I think, well... for wavies at least.

[auburntressed]

I don't think that longer hair has effected my hair type, but henna definitely made a difference. I never properly hair typed before my henna use, but from memory and pictures, I roughly estimate that my hair was 2c or possibly 2c/3a before the henna. The last time my hair was hacked off (not by my choice) was my sophomore year of college. It looks very curly to me in a few pictures from that year. I might post some of them in my albums some day. Also old pictures show frizz - like curls that have been brushed out.

Even now, I sometimes wonder if I'm not really a 1c/2a because I've got curls at the nape of my neck and around my ears. I guess one of these days, I'll take a true hair typing photo and let you all decide.

Anyways, I think hair typing can be redone as often as changes occur. Hair changes for reasons aside from length and from length as well. The goal is to find strategies that best fit your hair, and strategies should stay current with how your hair is NOW.