What is your Hair Type?

To be quite honest, one cannot know their hair type unless they are natural, have been natural before (relaxing/texlaxing), or if transitioning, and have a substantial amount of growth, at least six months. I am no expert at typing hair, just sharing stuff I have learned during my transition.

There are many sites which help let us know what types there are. A lot of people, use the 1-4 hair typing system, which has A,B,C subcategories. Now I feel that density, can vary within these hair types, but that is just me.

Type 1- is bone straight hair, with no curl pattern. All hair (scalp) produces its own oils, but it distributes easily through straight hair, as opposed to someone with 3 or 4 (subcategory) hair. There is no subcategory for type 1 hair, as I have said before, it has no curl pattern. Think Jennifer Aniston.

Type 2- is wavy hair. To me it resembles hair that has a loose s curl pattern, which is the bridge between curly and straight hair.

A- C. From Loose S Curl Pattern to a tighter S Curl pattern, closer to resembling curls.

Type 3- is a curly hair. Which has defined S Curl Pattern.You can tell this because the hair is loopy.

A-C. this type of hair is curlier the deeper the pattern. For example, type 3a can start of straight, and then begin it's loopy patter, whereas type 3c hair can be curly from the root.

Type 4- is curly hair as well but this type hair can resemble an s or z curl. The Z curl looks  like a zig zag. This type hair is tightly coiled, but is the most fragile of them all, because the hair is packed more densely. 

A-C. This type can be tightly curled, all the way to 4c which does not have a defined curl pattern.

A website that truly helped me me make sense of this whole hair typing this is NaturallyCurly.Com Their hair typing gives an in depth detail of what hair types are, and what products is best used for each type, although in my opinion, you really won't know what works for you unless you do trial, and error. 

Another Hair typing system brought to my attention, was posted on my Home hair care forum, Forum.BlackHairPlanet.Com by one of our best contributers, V, she really knows her stuff. Is Mizani's Natural Curl Key. Their typing is a bit different, as it does not follow the 1-4 a/b/c categories, but has eight categories, from type I being Straight Hair, to type VIII Zig Zag Coiled Hair.

I knew my hair type by the time I found the Mizani Natural Curl Key, but it helped me narrow it down a bit more, and is also specific in how each type hair grows, and what have you.

Anyway, those two typing systems really helped me during my transition, and even when I was newly natural, and still trying to figure out what my hair type was, and what worked best for it. Again, I stand by the good ol' trail and error. Remember, what works for one person, may not work for the next. I am no expert, but I hope this information helps!

Until Next time, HHG to All! Naomi <3

Update

I usually try to post at least once a week, but I haven't been doing that lately and I apologize! Life has been kind of hectic for me for the past couple of weeks, and I have not been able to give my hair the baby treatment as I usually do! Lol, but in the past weeks I have flat ironed, which lasted for about a week and a half, and then I did two strand twists again last Sunday. I might take them out tomorrow, even though I'm sure they could probably last for the whole week, we'll see. Anyway, I don't have my camera, so I won't be able to post any pics! Which I know sucks majorly, but I will be purchasing a new camera soon, so all my pics will be nice and crisp.

I am going to start posting tutorials, in which I do my styling so any of you naturals, or transitioners, or even relaxed ladies (depending on the style), can see the steps in which I do particular styles, and do them for yourselves, or just use it an idea to form your own styles.

I will also try to keep updates on how my growth is going with the use of my cayenne pepper treatments. 

Thanks for the support, and keep following, or start if you are not already! Please post any comments, ideas, or questions!

Until Next Time, HHG to All! Naomi <3

Uneven Hair Growth

As you all know I have been natural for the past six months, and everything has been going well. My bald spots are growing hair, thanks to my cayenne pepper treatments, my hair is healthier than it's ever been, I experience little to no shedding or breakage, I have no heat damage, no split ends that I know of, but yet my hair decided it wanted to grow unevenly.

I BCed at home, and I believe my hair was EL (Ear Length) or close to NL (Neck Length) since then the back has grown to be about SL (Shoulder Length), but yet the front only reaches about CL (Chin Length) /EL, I know this because I decided to flat iron my hair, since I am not home, and cannot style it everyday because I do not have my beloved products! 

I am sure this is pretty common, but I am frustrated! I am hoping my hair becomes even by the end of this year, I refuse to claim SL until then! I also have a piece of hair that broken off while I was relaxed due to hair care ignorance lol. To help influence growth, I will keep up with my reggie, I have not been trimming/dusting (dusting means to trim a tiny amount of hair, small enough to resemble dust, hence the name), because I really haven't felt a need to, my ends are not not split, they are uneven in places, but I want to give it a chance to catch up, especially because it has been so long since I have retained length.

While I was relaxed, my hair never surpassed EL, which was really upsetting, because of how badly broken off it was, I cut my hair short back in 2007 so my hair would look decent. What I did not know, was cutting my hair was not going to solve the problem if I still had the same bad habits, you know, relaxing every 4 weeks, not sealing, not deep conditioning,washing/cowashing, basically not doing anything, and relying only on my visits to the salon, and the "advisory" of the beautician.

Anyway, I am entering myself in my own challenge! The retaining length for even hair challenge! Lol, my goal, like I stated before is to get my hair close or the same length all around without trimming or dusting. I hope it works, I am giving myself until the end of this year to complete this challenge! You all are welcome to join me, or set your own personal challenge, and share your experiences!

Until Next Time, HHG TO ALL! Naomi <3