Hair Type Charts: Useful or Not | Kelly Beauty Supply

Hair Type Charts: Useful or Not?

The numbered system, running from 1 for straight through 4 for tightly coiled with a, b and c subdivisions, is the most common way people describe their hair. It is useful for one thing, which is describing the shape of a curl to someone who cannot see it. It is much less useful for deciding what to buy, and that is what most people try to use it for.

What it describes

Curl pattern and nothing else. A 4c coil and a 3b curl look different and are named accordingly. The system was popularized as a way to talk about hair on television and in salons, and it does that job. It does not describe how thick your strands are, how dense they are, how much water they hold, or how they respond to protein, which are the properties that determine what works on your head.

Where it falls down

Almost nobody has one type. Curl pattern varies between the crown, the nape, the temples and the front on most heads, so a single label is an average of several different behaviors. The subdivisions are also inconsistently applied, with the same head of hair called 4b by one person and 4c by another. And two people with the same label can need completely different routines because everything else about their hair differs.

The three things that matter more

Porosity, which decides how products get in and how fast moisture leaves. Density, meaning how many strands you have per square inch, which decides how much product you need and how a style will look. Strand width, meaning whether individual hairs are fine, medium or coarse, which decides how much weight your hair can carry before it goes flat. A fine, low-density 4c head and a coarse, high-density 4c head need different products entirely.

How to judge density and width

For density, look at your scalp in a mirror with the hair loose and dry. If you can see scalp easily all over, density is low; if you have to part the hair to find it, density is high. For width, roll a single shed strand between your fingers. If you can barely feel it, it is fine. If it feels like a thread, it is coarse. Neither takes more than a minute.