When choosing hairpieces, many of you just ask what type of hair extensions is high-quality right? You might ignore a crucial question “what are natural hair types?” So why it is a matter? In fact, if you know what exactly types of natural hair, you can find the right hair products and styles for your hair.

The question for hair types is not as easy as many people assume. It tends to be a matter of science to clarify. There are many criteria to categorize natural hair types like texture or shade of hair. So if you learn more about this topic, let’s check it out through this article.

How to Determine Your Natural Hair Types?

Having better understanding your hair types my benefit you in not only find the right hair care product but also find the right hairpiece like hair wigs or toupee for yourself.

Some criteria may determine what your different types of natural hair, are hair texture, structure, hair porosity, and scalp moisture. That sounds overwhelming so let Layla Hair help you to discover what is your natural hair types. This year many hair specialists have published hair type systems, we can name 3 famous systems, the one from Oprah Winfrey’s hairstylist – Andre Walker, LOIS hair type chart, and FIA’s Hair Typing System.

These 3 systems are based on the African American natural hair, which attracts considerable attention hairstylist.

Andre Walker Hair Typing System

As its name show, this natural hair type chart is a classification system created by Andre Walker, a well-known hairstylist. He works for many famous names as Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama ( first African American First Lady of the US), Barbara Pierce Bush (wife of President George Bush), and Halle Berry ( Best Actress in the Academy Awards in 2001).

Andre Walker Hair Typing System was created back in the 1990s decade to offer hair care products on sale. The system is often known as the hair chat to categorize different natural hair types. The systems include 4 hair types for natural hair with their different subtypes. The systems consist of straight, wavy, curly, and kinky hair as 4 types.

Andre Walker Hair Typing System:

Type 1: Straight Hair (Fine & Fragile to Coarse & Thin)

The first type mentioned in the natural hair types of Andre Walker is straight hair. This type identifies 3 subtypes (1A, 1B, 1C) based on different types of natural hair textures.

1A: Hair belong in these subtypes is usually thin and soft. It owns a small amount of oil hence creating noticeable shine on each strand. This feature protects hair from damage. However, its drawback is that it will be easy to loosen curl when styling

1B: 1S has a thicker volume than 1A subtypes since it owns medium-textured strands with rough stresses.

1C: The texture of 1C hair is coarse so it hard to curl hair from straight

Type 2: Wavy Hair (Fine & Thin to Coarse & Frizzy)

This type owns wavy and coarse hair. It is not too dry or oily hair, it happens between them. There are 3 small types in African American natural hair types.

2A: This subtype possesses thin and fine hair with an “S-shaped” pattern. Therefore, it is easy to straight or curly hair in type 2A

2B: The type 2B’s hair bundles can stick around the shape your head

2C: The hair quality of 2C is not as good as the 2 above, its texture is thick coarse and frizzy. Therefore, styling this hair type is not an easy task

Type 3: Curly Hair (Loose Curls to Corkscrew Curls)

Natural hair type 3 is curly hair. It is often voluminous with flexible curls. If it is left not proper care, it triggers less defined curls. Type 3 is categorized into 3 sub-types: 3A, 3B, and 3C.

3A: this naturally curly hair type has big, shiny, and loose strands.

3B: The texture of this natural hair type is medium tighter curl than subtype 3A so it brings out a more fuller and thicker look

3C: Type 3C possesses tight curl which takes after corkscrews. The volume of natural hair types 3c is denser and coarser than 2 types above so it gives much thickness for sure. The curls of 3C type tend to finer in texture while tighter near scalp.

Type 4: Kinky Hair (Tight Coils to Z-Angled Coils)

This is the curliest type which is known to be frizzy and dry. It is fragile and twisted. It identifies 4 natural hair types 4A 4B 4C

4A: This subtype owns the extra soft and ultra defined in texture among the three. It hair the S-shaped pattern

4B: The natural hair type has a zigzag pattern. It has a more fluffy look than the two hair types. Moreover, because of its blends and curls, it is vulnerable to breakage. This type also tends to be shorter than its actual length because it shrinks up to 70%.

4C: Natural hair types 4C looks the same as 4B but it is more coiled. Moreover, its raw state is less defined than others

Among 4 types we mention, type 4 is the common natural curly hair type for black women.

LOIS Natural Hair Types System

If the Andre Walker divided types of natural hair based on the curly level or patter of hair and use number to present types. LOIS system use letters to show the different types in terms of hair width, sheen, and shine. This system is easy to understand. The 4 letter inside the name “LOIS” stands for 4 major types of hair. L = Bend, O = Curl, I = Straight and S = Wave.

L = If your hair bends with nearly no curve, your hair can be a pattern “L”.

O = If your hair strand curls or coils like the shape of the letter “O”, then your hair can be a pattern “O”.

I = If your hair is less defined curls and lays flat against your scalp or bends and primarily lies flat against your head, then your hair can be a pattern “I”.

S = If your hair strand has an “S” shaped pattern or waves like hills and valleys, your hair can be a pattern “S”.

FIA’s Natural Hair Typing System

The last system to mentions is FIA’s Natural Hair Typing System. This can be the most complex scheme among the three.

This hair type system is the expand of Andre Walker’s Hair Typing System and includes some elements of the LOIS Hair Typing System as well.

The reason why we said it is a complicated system since it owns 3 classifiers:

The first classifier will determine your hair due to its curliness like Andre Walker.

The second classifier is based on the appearance of the most hair strands of yours. This system at that point has quite similar to the LOIS system but it uses different words o present. F-fine, M-medium, C-coarse.

The third one is measured by the hair volume. There are 3 states in this natural African American hair types system, thin (less than 2 inches), normal (between 2 – 4 inches) and thick (greater than 4 inches )

Our conclusion

Hopefully, after this writing, you can define what natural hair types to find the right hair products as well as hairstyles. Let us know you did find out!

If you want to learn more about your hair systems, or just symbols hair extension like hair wigs and its types, visit Layla Hair blog for more interesting writing.

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