This comes up on a regular basis, and since Fia's system seems to be the most popular (and easiest to determine) one in the hairBoard world, I wanted to make a note of it here, so that next time, I won't have to do a mad google to find it.
It always sort of bothers me when people combine strand thickness and hair thickness into one 'heap' - and that might be because of my history with hair dressers telling me my hair was 'coarse' when it's actually fine and wiry.
Hrm. I might actually go over the whole hair 'typing' thing - not talking the usual 1a-4b typing (or curl typing, as I like to call it, as that's ALL Andre's system is referencing, which makes it only partially useful for determining what your hair does and does not like).
So. There are four major components to describing your hair's appearance, and then there are 2 additionals that describe your hair's actual properties.
1) Curl Type
2) Strand Texture
3) Strand Thickness
4) Hair Density
5) Moisture/Porosity
6) Scalp Type
Yeah, this is the Kiya System, composed of bits and pieces of others.
1) Curl Type
Starting with curl type - the main one that people think of when the question is posed - what's your hair type? The most often used system is Andre's, that goes from no curl/wave at all, to intense curliness/waviness. Starting from 1a - stick straight hair, it goes to 4b - kinky curly hair with no set pattern. The full range is: 1a/1b/2a/2b/3a/3b/4a/4b. Some people (I think this started over on naturallycurly.com) have added a 3c as well.
There is also the LOIS system, which is less frequently used, but still breaks down into four distinct categorites.
L - The hair has all bends, right angles and folds with little to no curve
O - The strand is rolled up into the shape of one or several zeros like a spiral
I - The hair lies mostly flat with no distinctive curve or bend
S - The strand looks like a wavy line with hills and valleys.
1's would be mostly I, 2's would be mostly S, 3's would be mostly O, and 4's would be mostly L - and each individual head could obviously have multiple curl types, no matter which system you opt to use to analyze/define them.
I believe that your curl type's MAIN usefulness comes in determing what hair styles your natural hair CAN do without causing both you & your hair misery. A 1a trying to get an afro is doomed to a lot of heat, hairspray, chemicals and frustration. A 4b trying to get stick straight hair is doomed to a lot of heat, serums, chemicals, and frustration. It is how it is, when you try to buck Ma Nature. Products, on the otherhand, transcend curl type - excluding, obviously, styling products.
2) Strand Texture
Next, we move to strand texture. This one is interesting for me, personally, as my strand texture has CHANGED as my hair has gotten healthier. LOIS is the only system that I know of that has a listing of various textures - in my mind, there are mainly three: Silky, Average, Wiry. LOIS has five, but they incorporate porosity as well, and I think that makes them a little less flexible. Excluding the porosity assumptions, here are the LOIS textures:
Wiry - Hair has a sparkly sheen, with low shine and low frizz.
Spongy - Hair has a high sheen with low shine with a compacted looking frizz.
Silky - Hair has low sheen, a very high shine, with a lot or low frizz.
Cottony - Hair has a low sheen, a high shine if the hair is held taunt and has high frizz.
Thready - Hair as a low sheen, with high shine if the hair is held taut, with low frizz.
Texture, obviously, influnces how your hair looks - silky hair is going to tend to be shinier and smoother looking than cottony hair. Cottony hair will tend to look dry if it's not pulled tight, because of the low sheen, whether it actually is dry or not.
3) Strand Thickness
Ahhh, this one and the next one are what started me on this overall, as people tend to mix them up, so very, very often. The individual strands of hair on your head tend to fall into one of three groups - though, most people tend to have random hairs that are entirely different from their majority hair.
Fine - Thin strands that sometimes are almost translucent when held up to the light. Shed strands can be hard to see even against a contrasting background. You can also try rolling a strand between your thumb and index finger. Fine hair is difficult to feel or it feels like an ultra-fine strand of silk
Medium - Strands are neither fine nor coarse. You can also try rolling a strand between your thumb and index finger. Medium hair feels like a cotton thread. You can feel it, but it isn't stiff or rough. It is neither fine or coarse.
Coarse - Thick strands that where shed strands usually are easily identified against most backgrounds. You can also try rolling a strand between your thumb and index finger. Coarse hair feels hard and wiry. As you roll it back and forth, you may actually hear it.
I actually have all three kinds of hair - my hairline, all the way around, is fine. The majority of my head is medium, but occasionally I'll find these coarse monster hairs that are about 3 times the size of a fine hair. Those hairs also tend to break the most, for me - I assume that my strengthening habits over strengthen those hairs, and they simply get too brittle to survive.
4) Hair Density
When people say - Girl, you got some THICK hair - they are usually actually talking about the density - or the number of hairs you have growing from your scalp. The range is from 80,000 hairs (or follicles) to 140,000 hairs. It can be broken down (on average) by hair color, as well - redheads tend to have about 90,000 scalp hair follicles. Black hair tends to be around 108,000, while brown and blonde haired people can have up to 140,000, and ethnicity also affects the hair density, with people of African & Asian descent on average having the sparest density, and people of Caucasian descent having slightly more.
The 'classic' method of determining your hair density is the simplest of the measurements, as all it requires is hair long enough to put in a ponytail, and a measuring tape. You simply have to measure the circumference of the ponytail. If you have bangs and/or you can't get all of your hair in there adjust according to how much of your hair you have measured.
To measure the circumference - take a piece of string, or a soft tape measure (the kind used by dressmakers). Wrap the string or tape measure around your ponytail - just below the elastic you have in to hold the ponytail together. Read the corresponding number from the tape measure, or hold the string at the length you've measured and use a ruler to determine how much it is. The number given is the circumference of your ponytail.
i - thin (less than 2 inches/5 centimeters)
ii - normal (between 2-4 inches or 5-10 centimeters)
iii - thick (more than 4 inches/10 centimeters)
Very simple, eh? I can't wait til I have enough hair to actually ponytail - I suspect it will compress down to about a ii - but I'm hoping for iii - there is something so wonderous and amazing about long, natural, THICK hair.
5) Moisture/Porousity
These last two are - add-ons, that I think will be VERY helpful for people who are trying to determine a regimen, or even looking for a hairtwin - having the same curl pattern isn't going to help determine if that DC will REALLY work for you, if your hair has entirely different moisture requirements than the person that is offering the recommendation.
I associate moisture and porousity, because in my head they are inescapably linked. Porousity is determined by how 'lifted' your cuticles are - the more lifted they are, the easier they release moisture, and the more closed they are, the harder it is to moisturize - but once it's done, it'll hold onto it for a while.
Chemically processed/damaged hair is usually highly porous, because the chemical processes almost always lifts the cuticle layer. The hair of people of African descent also tends to be pretty porous due to the natural curl, as cuticles don't curl. So, at each bend and angle, the cuticle has a chance to 'lift' slightly.
So, my simple list is just Porous, Normal, Resistant. LOIS assosiated some moisture guidelines around the texture types, and those break down (to me) as follows:
Porous: Wets easily but water dries out quickly
Normal: Absorbs water quickly but does not get thoroughly wet very fast.
Resistant: Hair never seems to get fully wet, but once wet, dries slowly.
There are ways to convince your cuticle to lay down more if it's too porous, and I think that systemic deep moisturizing of your hair can 'improve' the porousity if it's highly resistant - but that's just me talking, there.
6) Scalp Type
And finally, the scalp. The oft-ignored (unless it's causing issues) rootbed of hair. Quite simply, there's Dry, Normal, and Oily - just like the skin on the rest of your body. Dry scalps tend to be pretty fickle about what's used on them, normal scalps can go with the flow, and oily ones - well, I personally think that most oily scalps are caused (ironically enough) by either hormones or over use of shampoo, but that's a whole nother blog.
So, taking all that into account, my 'full' hair type is as follows:
4b/LO, Cottony, Medium, ii, Resistant, Normal.
That's a WHOLE lot more information than just 4b, isn't it? And the next 4b, she's got FIVE ways in which her hair could be totally different than mine - really helps clarify all of the wonderous variety of hair, and why what works fabulously on one head might fail miserably on the next.
