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Debunking the Damaging and Dangerous Myth of 'Hair Typing'

Hair Typing. Have you heard of it? Type the words ‘curls’ or ‘curly hair’ into a search engine and a million results will come up talking about the benefits of hair typing (understanding your curl pattern) for finding products that work best for your hair.

But here’s the thing. Science proves that the typing system designed by Andre Walker isn’t true or even scientifically accurate. Rather, curl pattern or texture is just one characteristic of hair. More than that, curl diameter and shape ranges widely and cannot fit into the simple categories 2a-4c. Everyone without dead straight hair has a variety of different curls or waves on their head. Curliness is determined by two factors:

Tightness of the curl (the number of rotational turns around the long axis)

A good phenotyping system similar to the Mr Walker’s system is ‘stick straight’, ‘near straight’, ‘wavy’, ‘wavy, big curls’, ‘small curls, frizzy, kinky, afro’, ‘tight, interwoven small curls'. Another is the STAM system which groups 8 systems as below:

2. Direction of the curl (the way in which iT rotates about the long axis)

The major curl forms are “twist” (with irregular natural constrictions in the fibre producing a discontinuity in curvature), “crimp” (change in direction of curvature), “wave” (number of oscillations/coils per unit length) and “kink” (sharp twist or bend).

Think of a string in the wind. The way it turns is dependent upon the direction of the force. For hair, this ‘force’ is determined by our follicles. Each individual strand and has its own direction and tightness of curl so it’s highly unlikely that curlies will have the same ‘curl pattern’ consistently across their heads. Moreover, it means that no two heads of hair are the same and even hair that looks visibly similar may behave very differently.

So any system that is based on just the tightness of the curl can only go so far in determining haircare.

Our research found 6 main factors that impact how your hair behaves:

Of these, porosity and strand diameter are two of the most important factors in determining which products work well on your hair and how effective they are.

Porosity determines how moisture is retained and moves through the hair strands. It’s a scale moving from very low to high porosity.

Low porosity means that hair struggles or takes a long time to absorb water but does not lose it easily. This means that water-based products typically work best.

Medium porosity is when hair absorbs moisture pretty easily and retains it relatively well.

High porosity is when hair absorbs moisture straight away and loses it just as easily.

This has a huge impact on whether an oil-based or water-based product is beneficial. Think of dry skin for example, if skin is dry, adding water will only temporarily prevent dry skin. Adding oil on top on water will help ‘seal in’ the moisture preventing loss. This is the same for hair products. High porosity is like the dry skin in this example, often requiring oil or thick products to ‘lock in moisture’. For low porosity hair, oil-based products often do the opposite and can sit on the surface preventing water access to hair that is already difficult to hydrate. This can lead to hair feeling dry and brittle but for completely different reasons.

But haircare is not the only reason why the hair typing system is dangerous. Often this categorisation is racially and socially charged. It buys in to the construct that European hair is easier to manage and better than tightly coiled afro hair that is all grouped into a narrow category. If curl tightness is not a determinant for hair health and growth than why do we invest so much time and money into it?

Currently, the trend is to categorise products via hair type online and in supermarkets. This is limiting and incorrect. For years, wavy, curly and afro hair was considered secondary to straight hair. The natural hair and curly girl movements have changed that. However, we have to be more proactive in challenging damaging stereotypes within these communities. Afro hair is not always dry or difficult to moisturise and it does not consist of only ‘4c’ hair. Curly hair can be dry or greasy and straight hair can be fine, weak and prone to damage. The important thing is that all hair is beautiful.

Clearly, it’s a little complex. That’s why at Nature’s Botanist, our mission is to help re-educate everyone on how to do and understand haircare. We created a simple and fun quiz that collates this information for you in an easy-to-understand format.

Please share and join us in our commitment to education and hair empowerment.

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The biology and genetics of curly hair,Gillian E. Westgate, Rebecca S. Ginger, Martin R. Green

First published: 31 March 2017, https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.13347 (Citations: 28)

The what, why and how of curly hair: a review, Elsabe Cloete, Nonhlanhla P. Khumalo and Malebogo N. Ngoepe, Published:20 November 2019https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2019.0516

The biology and genetics of curly hair,Gillian E. Westgate, Rebecca S. Ginger, Martin R. Green

First published: 31 March 2017, https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.13347 (Citations: 28)

Shape Variability and Classification of Human Hair: A Worldwide Approach Article in Human Biology, Didier Saint-Léger, Geneviève Loussouarn L'Oréal, Crystal Porter Mane, Andre Langaney · July 2007 https://DOI:10.1353/hub.2007.0045 · Source: PubMed

Characterization of Human Hair Exploring Microbial Association Dynamics in Cicatricial Alopecia Patients, Didier Saint-Léger, Geneviève Loussouarn L'Oréal, Crystal Porter Mane, Andre Langaney

Geometric classification of scalp hair for valid drug testing, 6 more reliable than 8 hair curl groups, Freedom Gumedze, Nonhlanhla P Khumalo, Article in PLoS ONE · June 2017

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172834 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317578316

Debunking the Damaging and Dangerous Myth of 'Hair Typing'

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