Hair Curl Pattern: Step-by-Step Guide

We understand how you feel. Identifying your curl type may seem to be a mystery. While styling your curly hair, you may need to think about how to integrate many different textures into one. When the texture of your hair at the crown differs from the texture of your hair on the sides and back, it’s tempting to give up and have a buzz cut. You totally can! We will help discover your hair curl pattern step by step in The hair Curl Pattern: Step-by-Step Guide post

Don’t be concerned if it’s not your style. Curls may make embracing and enjoying your natural hair texture more difficult than it has to be. We’re not going to sugar-coat it: some have questioned if the typing approach is too exclusive. Members of the curly community have even made minor changes to it throughout the years. To the persons with authority.

Your Crown

Regardless of the disagreement, many people have discovered that this set of principles is quite useful in choosing which hair care products would work best for their specific curl pattern (s). Since your hair is your crown, you should take care of it and know how to style it before going shopping.

There’s an easy way to identify what’s going on up there, whether you have smooth bends pouring down your back or tight coils bursting into the air. Follow our easy advice sheet (along with hair-care collection options) below.

Where to Start

Your curl type is determined by the shape of the follicle from which your hair grows on your scalp. The curlier your hair, the flatter or more oval-shaped the follicle; the straighter your hair, the more circular the cross-section. Your curl pattern is also determined by the shape of your hair strands, which kink, twist, or coil over themselves into spirals.”

The majority of people with textured hair have more than one pattern on their head “As a result, you may have kinky, coily, wavy, or curly hair. It is preferable to determine your curl shape and pattern(s) when your hair is still moist.

A brief rundown: Type 1 people have straight hair, Type 2 people have wavy hair, Type 3 people have curly hair, and Type 4 people have coily hair. Isn’t that straightforward?

The width or diameter of your wave, curl, or coil determines the sub-classifications of A through C. Type A patterns are bigger in size, Type B patterns are medium in length, and Type C patterns are the smallest of the three. “The actual beauty of knowing your hair type is that you’re better at understanding how to care for your texture, which allows you to have more variety,” says one expert.

Type 2 (Wavy)

This type of hair wave has an S-shaped pattern that can range from fine to coarse and is closer to the skull.

Type 2A

Hair type 2A has a delicate, scarcely there, tousled texture that straightens extremely easily. Strong styling products should be avoided by users of this texture since they can quickly weigh down the strands and make them limp and lifeless. If you have this sort of hair, you should use products with a thin, watery formula.

Type 2B

This type of hair is flatter at the crown and has strong S-shaped waves beginning at midlength. Because the diameter of the strands is greater than that of a 2A, more work will be necessary to get it straight. To highlight your natural surfer-babe waves, use a texturizing spray like Wave Mist, which is enriched with rice protein for hair that is never crunchy or stiff.

To emphasize you’re natural surfer-babe waves, use a texturizing spray like Wave Spray, which is reinforced with rice protein to prevent brittle, stiff hair.

Type 2C

2C waves are the thickest and most readily frizzy of all wave kinds. The S-curves are well-defined and arise from the bottom. Make use of a co-wash. In between washes, use Rice Amino + Shea Hydrating Co-Wash to maintain your curls healthy and lustrous without robbing them of their natural oils. This product was created to be used efficiently by people with a wide range of curl kinds.

Use a leave-in conditioner under your mousse to hold in your hair’s natural wave pattern while also giving moisture.

Use a leave-in conditioner as a base before applying mousse to hold your waves in place and provide moisture.

Type 3 (Curly)

This type of hair can range from loose, buoyant loops too tight, to springy corkscrews with a lot of shine but a lot of frizz.

Type 3 curly hair can range from loose, buoyant loops too tight, to bouncy corkscrews with considerable shine but a proclivity toward frizz.

Type 3A

3A strands are often glossy, with huge, loose curls and a diameter about the same as a piece of sidewalk chalk. Rub a Curl Power Nourishing Curl Cream onto dry hair to accentuate the curl texture. If you don’t want a frizzy crown, avoid touching your curls with your hands (or a brush or comb) afterwards. To keep your curls looking fresh and vibrant, use a curl refresher, such as Hair Milk Nourishing & Conditioning Refresher Spray.

Type 3B

Ringlets on Type 3Bs, such as H.E.R., are as thick as a Sharpie marker and as springy as a pencil. Curl gels with humectants are worth looking for if your hair dries out quickly due to this texture. You might use Organics’ Honey & Ginger Styling Gel. “A word of advice: Apply when [your hair is] wet to get definition without frizz.”

Use while your hair is moist for the most defined, frizz-free style.

Type 3C

3C curls are tight corkscrews with a straw- to pencil-sized circumference. As a result of the strands’ close closeness, there is a large increase in volume. Use a sulphate-free, creamy shampoo like the Handmade Ginger Mint Co-Wash if you don’t want your hair to seem frizzy.

Curls dry faster when applied while hair is still damp using coconut curling cream. “Your co-wash reveals your curl pattern, and your style product seals it in,” as the saying goes.

Type 4 (Coily)

Coily hair (Afro-textured or kinky hair) has a naturally dry, spongy texture, whether soft and thin or coarse and wiry. Strands are prone to substantial shrinkage and generate very tight, tiny zigzag curls right from the scalp.

Extremely tight, little zigzag curls form on the strands shortly after they leave the scalp, and the hair shrinks dramatically.

Type 4A

Type 4A hair is thick and tightly coiled in an S form, with a diameter equivalent to that of a crochet needle. If you like wash-and-go, more frequent styling is essential to keep this coily texture’s vivid explosion of soft, flexible strands. A curling product that serves as a leave-in moisturizer is a requirement if you want to add moisture to your usual wash-and-go styling. A classic cocktail pairing is a hair curling product with a leave-in moisturizer.

Mixing the curling cream with a leave-in moisturizer that nourishes the hair is a tried-and-true beauty trick.

Type 4B

The 4B strands are closely packed and may twist like the letter Z. As François puts it, I admire how adaptable it is. A little goes a long way, and my Mist Nourishing Water, which comes in a non-aerosol spray and is one of my favourite products for all kinks, coils, curls, and waves, appears to nourish hair rapidly.

However, styling creams, such as the Coconut Milk Curl Hydrating Curling Cream, may be more suitable for this type of hair due to their thickness and suitability for palm-rolling and shingling, two product distribution methods that stretch out coils and clump them for greater texture definition and elongation.

Type 4C

4C textures are similar to 4B textures, but their tightly coiled strands are more fragile, and their zigzag pattern is so fine that it can be difficult to tell by sight. When wet, this hair structure loses the greatest length, by a factor of three to five, or 75 per cent.

Since dryness and shrinkage are major difficulties for this type, one can use a leave-in moisturizer like Shea Moisture’s Red Palm Oil & Cocoa Butter Curl Stretch Pudding to obtain the greatest possible length. We recommend Shea Moisture’s 100% Pure Jamaican Black Castor Oil as an outstanding moisturizer and sealer for this severely dry skin.