whinge, whinge, whinge.....

I think I'm a CNapp. *laugh & eyeroll*

I've never been really 'big' on the classifier thing - and I think that's a side effect of the styles that I choose to wear. If I'm not wearing my hair 'out', then attempting to 'define' my curls? A moot point. However, knowing that someone has fine, wiry, dry, soft hair - that helps, a lot!

All the same, me being the 'need to know' type that I am, I've been trying for ages to pin down whether I'm a 'true' 3c, 4a, 4b, Cnapp, and/or plain old nappyheaded gyal.

That's picture is from my hair, about as 'unmeddled/stretched' as it gets - it's a day old rinsed and shook twistout.



The ends of my hair manage to form tight, tiny little boings, but that's about it.



I was combing my hair, last weekend I think it was, and realized that really, my hair ISN'T coily, it's simply CURLY. And the more I stretch it/pull it straight, the more it becomes actually wavy/kinky, more so than any sort of curl. The below picture is my hair, braided, with *thinks* a little afrodetangler in it, and that's it. It's not braided super tight, either.



And personally, that's rather upsetting. If I actually WANTED to wear my hair straight, I would be over the moon, as I think it would flat iron into a lovely, full, sleek little bob. But, dammit, I don't. I want curls. I want hair that's shaped like a helix stairway to heaven.

So. I don't know what kind of hair I have. I know it's kinky. I know it's soft. I know it's coily - but only at the ends - and curly - but only in the middle - and wavy - but only at the roots. I know a single hair will form a lovely helix, but a group of them together? *sigh* Maybe I just haven't figured out the 'routine' for convincing the coils to play nice together.

Mrrr. I'm still not super happy with any of the pictures of my texture - I'll have to work on that, for a while.

There's a thread over on HC that's currently talking about the 'need' to trim your hair. I put my piece in, then shut my mouth as I'm still a newb - but it really made me wonder how MUCH the difference in my texture AND my habits make a difference.
1) I'll never see a 'nappy knot' dangling from the end of my hair, because I rigourously detangle. All those knots are is shed hair, that's worked it's way down to the end of the hair, and is still hanging on for dear life. That's not a reason to cut your hair, that's a sign that you aren't detangling enough.
2) When my ends get rough and I start getting fairy knots - that's a sign that my cuticles need sealing (either with henna, or with citric acid for a short term fix), and that I need to up the moisture content in my hair. I have some fairy knots (my hair is actually long enough that I can SEE them) but really - they don't bother me. I don't wear my hair out straight, so *shrug* who cares if I have single strand knots?
As for the roughness - I dunno. My ends are always a lil 'crinklier' than the rest of my hair, and not as 'smooth' - but I always assumed that was a side effect of them being old - and even if I cut those off, in another six months, the 'fresh' ends are gonna be old again.
3) I almost NEVER wear my hair out. That two day twistout was the first time I've worn my hair out in 2008 - which means that my ends are usually nicely protected, uber moisturized, and not being touched by ANYTHING - including my hands, playing in it.

So. I guess, if I wore my hair out more, if I didn't detangle madly, and if I HAD to have ends that felt just like the rest of my hair, I would be on the every 3 months trim wagon as well. But I don't. - largely because I don't want to have to cut off most of my growth every year - it rather defeats the purpose of all that I'm doing.

I have to remind myself though, HC is not about growing long hair. It's about keeping your curls, happy, I reckon. Mrrr.

And if one more person implies that having long hair is 'pointless' unless you are tossing and swanging it all over the place, I might go kurplunk. But then, they haven't experienced the addictive delight and wonder of hairtoys, so I guess that can just be chalked up to ignorance.

*think* I think that's all the hair related snark for today.