Four Things That Can Help You Determine Your Hair Type
By: Rose K. Charlotin
Tags: Hair, Hair Care, Natural Hair, Identity, Black Women

Four Things That Can Help You Determine Your Hair Type

Photo by Leighann Blackwood on Unsplash

When we try to determine our type of hair, we often only think about the texture. Some people have straight or wavy hair, others have curly or kinky hair.

Straight hair is known as type 1, wavy hair is known as type 2, curly hair is type 3, and kinky hair is considered type 4. These categories are subdivided into A, B, and C. For example, you might hear someone saying: “I have type 4B hair”. These subcategories exist because not all type 1, 2, 3, or 4 hair is the same.

The kinkier your hair is, the less likely it is to be appreciated by society because it looks nothing like the Euro-centric hair, aka straight or wavy hair. Even in communities where the majority of people are Black, the closer your hair is to the societal standard, the more other people will appreciate it. The opposite is also true; the farther your hair is from the standard, the less likely that it will be appreciated by your community. Both scenarios will influence the way you see and appreciate your own hair. In reality, hair texture doesn’t say anything about how you should take care of your hair.

I have type 4B hair. Now what? What do I do with my 4B hair? What products should I use? How do I detangle my hair? How do I style it? There are too many questions that hair texture by itself cannot answer. That’s why I say that hair texture cannot be the only factor you use in order to determine your hair type. Of course, you can refer to your texture in order to find out what products will work on your hair, but there are three other factors that you should consider: porosity, density, and strand size.

First, you have to know your hair porosity. What does that mean? Hair porosity is the rate at which your hair strands absorb moisture. The longer your hair takes to absorb moisture, the higher your porosity is. There are three main categories of hair porosity: low, medium, and high. The cuticles of hair with low porosity are very tight, and it’s a little bit hard for moisture to penetrate the hair strands. However, once that moisture is in there, it’s hard for it to come out. This is great because it keeps your hair moisturized and less prone to breakage.

Hair with medium porosity has what we call a balanced porosity. It’s not hard for moisture to get in, and not too easy for it to come out. Finally, hair with high porosity absorbs moisture very quickly because the cuticles are open. Unfortunately, the moisture can get out as fast as it got in, which can make the hair prone to breakage. How can you know what your hair porosity is? There are different tests, but the most common uses a glass of water. Take a glass and fill it with water. Take a hair strand that is product-free and put it on top of the water. After 5 minutes, if it stays at the surface, you have low porosity. If it’s in the middle of the water, you have medium porosity. And if it sinks to the bottom, you have high porosity. Porosity helps you determine what products and techniques you can use to moisturize your hair.

Second, you need to know your hair density. Hair density is the amount of hair strands you have on your head. This is often referred to as volume. People with high density have a lot of hair strands. Therefore, it’s important that they detangle their hair in sections to avoid excessive breakage. Knowing your density can also help you determine what hairstyles are more suitable to your hair. To determine your hair density, do the ponytail test. If it’s very easy for you to assemble your hair in a ponytail and do multiple passes with the rubber band, you have low density or sparse hair. If it’s the opposite, you have high density or dense hair. Unlike hair porosity, there is no such thing as a balanced hair density.

Third, you have to know your hair strand size. You may have heard the terms fine and thick hair. These terms are quite often mistaken for hair density while in reality they refer to the size of individual hair strands on your head. The bigger the hair strand is, the more you can say that it’s thick. Knowing your hair thickness or fineness will help you determine what tools you should use to detangle your hair. Fine hair is more prone to breakage than thick hair.

Finally, I can say that to determine your hair type, you need to look at these four different factors. Your hair cannot be put in one category because everyone’s hair is unique. Someone might have low porosity, sparse, and thick 4C hair, and someone else has high porosity, dense, and fine 4B hair. The most important thing is to learn to identify your own hair: that’s how you will know how to properly take care of your own hair. Also, it doesn’t matter if your hair doesn’t fit the societal standard. It’s your hair! If you don’t love and embrace it, no one else will do it for you.