Pictures of hair types

[ComfortablyNumb]

I am still confused about hair types even after reading thread after thread. I think I have type 3b/3c hair but I am so confused. I think that many people on here have different perceptions of what particularly type 3b, 3c and 4a hair is. Could anybody post pictures specifically on these three types of hair? On the hair typing thing on this site, they don't give the particular hair types, only one from each number. So please oh please help me!

 

[Nanyanika]

Click on the link below, it shows photographs of different hair types, I hope this assists you in discovering approximately, which ones relate to your hair texture.

http://www.growafrohairlong.com/hairtypes.html

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Still confused...So how do these fit in the Andre Walker hair system? Is their 3a/3b the same as what other people who use Walker's system believe is 3a/3b?

 

[Nanyanika]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
ComfortablyNumb said:
Still confused...So how do these fit in the Andre Walker hair system? Is their 3a/3b the same as what other people who use Walker's system believe is 3a/3b?

[/ QUOTE ]

Does your hair have any similarities to the pictures you have just viewed? It will be hard judge your hair type, without seeing your hair.

This is what my hair looks like it is 4a/4b has no defined curls it is coily. http://www.growafrohairlong.com/denise.html

 

[mirrormirror]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
den1 said:
Click on the link below, it shows photographs of different hair types, I hope this assists you in discovering approximately, which ones relate to your hair texture.

http://www.growafrohairlong.com/hairtypes.html

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks alot den1 for that site. I am medium textured and it says that it tangles excessively when its shoulderlenghth or longer. And that is definately my hair, my hair tangles really bad especially the longer it gets. And I like how the diagram shows what direction to comb your hair when wet.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Okay, my hair looks like the pics that are 3a/3b. I guess I am just confused because according to the descriptions on here, I would have never gathered that I have any kind of 3a hair. But I don't know. My hair does look like the 3a/3b pics on the growafrohairlong website, especially the one with the model or whoever, whose hair is blowing back, same length, same texture, everything.

 

[Nanyanika]

Okay, you maybe a type 3 then, It is very difficult to judge the charctersistics of hair. Andre's system can be criticised for his generalised explanations of hair types, many people have more than one texture growing from their scalps.

Hopefully you will eventually discover your hair type catergory!

 

[Nanyanika]

Hello Mirrormirror,
No problem! I like to be helpful in anyway that I can. I have the same trouble with tangling hair especially as it gets longer, so I have to be extra gentle and very patient when I'm combing my hair, don't want to snap any hair strands, now! Do you use any products that helps detangle your hair? and Coud you list them please?, I'd really appreciate that, thanks!

 

[mirrormirror]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
den1 said:
Do you use any products that helps detangle your hair? and Coud you list them please?, I'd really appreciate that, thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

Right now there is no product that is detangling my hair, Conditioners only detangle my hair while Im washing it out. But as soon as I step out the shower, and put a comb in my hair, its tangled. So I dont know what to do.

 

[Guest]

This is an interesting thread. By the looks of the pictures I've been misinterpreting my hair type. I thought I was 4a, but now I see based on these pictures that I'm a 3a/b... interesting. Different sites, however, say different things.

 

[Integrity]

i wish the fotos were of NATURAL hair. i thought hair type referred to the state of the hair in its natural state not relaxed, please correct me if i am wrong. i dont get it.

 

[sweetcocoa]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Pandora said:
i wish the fotos were of NATURAL hair. i thought hair type referred to the state of the hair in its natural state not relaxed, please correct me if i am wrong. i dont get it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree it would help...maybe that's why certain products don't work as we expect them to. But then some ladies have been relaxed for so long, or their mothers relaxed their hair at an early age, it's hard to remember what your original texture was. Since hair is relaxed differently and for varying amounts of time for straightness, you can never really pin down your texture based on relaxed hair either.

 

[Tonya]

I thought I was a 4a/b but based on this site I am a 3a/3b

 

[Crysdon]

I don't know if Robin's assumptions are accurate. According to her chart, I am a 3a/3b. I bought Andre's book the day it came out, back in 1997, and according to him, I'm 3b with sections of 3c.

 

[marabou1]

I don't know. Don't ya'll think that Sade was put in the wrong category? I've met her before and it seems like her hair is 3a.

It's still confusing. I think I'm a 5 because I've seen pics of people saying they are a 4b, and if they are correct, then I'm a 5.

 

[Ennyaa]

Ok,now I'm confused. I think I'm a 4a... but the pic of the FIRST model in the 3a/b section, the one that look natural and unstyled, is what my hair looked like when I was natural. But the only way I think my hair would look like Holly Robinson's is if I did a braid out...

I'm sticking with my 4a assumption.

 

[Janice]

I would have to say that I am confused as well. On Robin's system she has Oprah on the 3a/3b category but on Andre's system, it says that Oprah is a 4a or 4b.

I see nothing mentioned about 4a or 4b's hair in her system.

 

[azul11]

I have been going by these characteristics for hair types. HAIR TYPES

If I was to follow robins hair thing gloria ruben would be a 4a. I can only go by his thing because wasnt he the one who created the who hair type/classificiation thing to begin with.

God bless you all.

 

[Nanyanika]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Janice said:
I would have to say that I am confused as well. On Robin's system she has Oprah on the 3a/3b category but on Andre's system, it says that Oprah is a 4a or 4b. I see nothing mentioned about 4a or 4b's hair in her system.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, Robin has categorised the photos, under different headings i.e.(medium/in-between texture), she has failed to clarify them under the Andre's hair typing system. The photos show relaxed haired celebrities, which cannot possibly demonstrate, the correct hair types, because it is not in the natural state.

 

[skegeesmb]

I don't even really like Andre's system, and the added section on NC makes his system even more confusing.

If you look at the section for 3b he says: " Type 3B, on the other hand, is hair with a medium amount of curl, ranging from bouncy ringlets – think of Shirley Temple and Nicole Kidman – to tight corkscrews – think of actress Cree Summer of television's Sweet Justice of jazz singer Cleo Laine." Now I've seen both Cree Summer and Cleo lane's hair. Cleo Lane's hair looks just like Gloria Rueben's.

Now here's what I think (it might be wrong to say this, but here goes): White people realized that their hair based on Andre's system could be *gasp* a 4a. I think they changed the system so that many of their 4a characteristics would be still be classified as a type 3.

I know I say I am a 3c/4a, but I use the NC category, I am a 50/50 3b/4a if I use Andre's system. I'm 4a at the top and 3b in the back.

I'm going to scan some pictures from my Andre Book to give you a better idea.

 

[SweetNic_JA]

I thought I was a 4a/4b and I STILL think and know that I'm a 4a/4b. I think a lot of the ladies on this board who think they are a 4a/4b could actually be a 3b/3b or 3b/4a because their hair does not resemble mine at all.

 

[SweetNic_JA]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I don't know. Don't ya'll think that Sade was put in the wrong category? I've met her before and it seems like her hair is 3a.

It's still confusing. I think I'm a 5 because I've seen pics of people saying they are a 4b, and if they are correct, then I'm a 5.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Robin's error is that she is mixing the classifications of texture and thickness.Sade may have delicate hair but not all delicate hair is a 4a/4b. Likewise, some of the other women (like Oprah) may have strong hair but that doesn't mean that she is not a 4a/4b.

Thickness has nothing to do with texture, IMO. I live with 3 white girls and they all have bone straight hair but their hairs are delicate nonetheless.

As for me I have thread-thin strands of hair on my head and the hair is very coily in some areas and in some areas my hair doesn't have a definite curl pattern -- not even z's (not really sure what's going on). When my relaxed hair is wet it soaks up water very quickly. These are the reasons why I classify myself as a 4a/4b.

 

[Ennyaa]

OK going by this I'm a 4a like I thought. Thanks Azul.

 

[Armyqt]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
The photos show relaxed haired celebrities, which cannot possibly demonstrate, the correct hair types, because it is not in the natural state.



[/ QUOTE ]

Den1, I was thinking the same thing

 

[skegeesmb]

Hey I just scanned some pictures from Andre's book. I'll post them as soon as I get back from school.

Here they are:

 

[skegeesmb]

bump

 

[ngaa]

thanks for the scans but then i dont get why he didnt include pple wit more 4b hair than 4a in there coz the twa are the ones that seem to represent the 4b yet we cant even see what the texture wud look lik eif the haie was longer....coz i kno my hair is like macy grays and den1's in its natural state but then Robin's site wud then classify me as a 3a/b wen all along i thot i was a 4b !!

 

[EbonyF]

Out of curiousity (please don't harm me

)

But how do the majority of you guys know what your hair type is, if majority (I'm assuming) asking these questions are relaxed?

When I was transitioning, I had no idea what my hair type was, even when wet and comparing relaxed versus my natural. And actually when I did the chop, my hair was straightish (2a?) for a day, then turn 4a'ish after a good healthy wash.

In other words, maybe what I'm trying to say is: you really don't know your hairtype unless you was recently natural and then relaxed (usually after your prime teen years being that your hair changes), or if you are currently natural.

Plus, it might be false texture from scab hair that you may be seeing. I have seen people who have cut off their relaxer and go from 3a/3c to 4a or 4b within days or months, so go fig. So really, I think we should take these hairtypings (especially with relaxers), with a grain of salt.

***runs and crawls back into her hole***

 

[ngaa]

wen i was still relaxed i'd compare my hairto picsof other ppl's pics coz i'd been naturall all thru primary school and so remembered what my hair looked like so i jus had to comapre it to ppl lik den1's hair

 

[Crysdon]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
But how do the majority of you guys know what your hair type is, if majority (I'm assuming) asking these questions are relaxed?

[/ QUOTE ]

I was natural for 3 years before I got a texturizer in October of 02. My toddler pictures were all 3b and when I cut all my hair off and let it grow in natural, it was still 3b with 3c sections.