Everything you need to know about natural hair. All girls are beautiful. Every curly girl is unique in that something that we all love about. It's a really beautiful thing. Our hair offers a great amount of diversity, variety between the curl patterns, porosity within a length. Girl you name it, it's all different. What makes our hair really different is what our hair requires. Knowing your hair porosity, hair density and hair type helps you understand your hair overall and how to care for your natural curly hair. Give it a try and maybe this will help you figure out your hair regimen.
Hair Porosity
Hair Porosity refers to how well your hair is able to absorb and hold moisture. There are things that could definitely affect its capability so if you get a lot of heat damage, your hair porosity is going to be off from it may be in a healthy state. It is affected by the outer layer of your hair molecule that is called the cuticle which would determine how easily moisture can pass in and out of your hair.
There are two methods to figure out your hair porosity.
lThe Float Test
Take a couple stands of your hair from a comb or a brush and drop it into a cup or a bowl of water and let it sit for two to four minutes. If your hair floats, you have low porosity hair. If your hair sinks, you have high porosity hair.
lThe Slip & Slide Test
Take a strand of hair. Slide your finger up towards the root if you feel a little bump along the way, this means that your cuticle is lifted, you have high porosity hair. If your finger slips smoothly you have low porosity hair.
Low porosity hair has tightly bound cuticle layers with overlapping scales that lay flat. This hair type is usually considered healthy and it is often shiny. The thing about low porosity hair that it usually repels moisture when you try to wet it and it is hard to process since it resists penetrations of chemicals.
Medium porosity hair requires the least amount of maintenance. The cuticle layer is looser than low porosity allowing just right amount of moisture to get into the hair while forbidding too much from escaping. This porosity is normed home styled better because it doesn't dry out and you definitely get better results as far as styles and chemically process your hair as colors.
High porosity hair has these big gaps and holes in the cuticles which lessen too much moisture.
Hair Density
Hair density refers to how closely those strands are packed together on your hair. To determine your hair density, it is recommended that you start with dry hair because wet hair often looks thinner than dry hair.
There are 2 ways to test out your hair density.
lLet your hair hang loose in its natural state so don't we do little Bantu Knots and none of that. If you can see your scalp very easily, then you have low density hair. If you can see some of your scalp, you have medium density hair. If your scalp is difficult or impossible to see, then you have high density hair.
lThe second method is to measure your ponytail. So density is equal to less than two inches. And medium density is between two inches and three inches and then for a high density that will be equal to a greater than four inches.
What products are suggested to use for each hair density?
For low density hair, it's suggested you use light product that won't weigh your hair down. It reduces volume because heavy product is going to make your hair lay flatter.
For medium density hair, you can use a variety of products to enhance your texture. So if you want your hair to be flatter, you can use some heavy products. If you want your hair to be bigger, you can use some light products. That’s the beautiful thing of medium density hair.
For heavy density hair, your hair is definitely going to do well with those heavy products such as gel, cream and butter to hold your curls and it would help you to reduce the volume because sometime your hair could get really big.
Hair Width
Hair width refers to the thickness of the individual strand on your hair rather than how much hair you have on your head.
Take a piece of your hair that may have from a comb or brush and hold it up to the light. If your hair is very wide and easily visible, you have coarse hair. If the hair is so thin that you could hardly see it, you have fine hair. If your hair appears either thin or coarse, then you have medium width hair.
So here's a pro about coarse hair, coarse hair is more resistant to damage because it is thicker. Medium density hair is strong and has more elasticity to it. It is neither too thick nor too thin.
Curl Type
Curl Type refers to how hair texture is defined by number in letter and ranges from letters 1 through 4, A through C. 1 through 4 is the actual category and the letters A through C is how deep curl pattern is within the category. Knowing hair type helps you understand your hair overall and how to care for your natural curly hair. The actual characteristics of each hair type are as follows.
lTYPE 1 - STRAIGHT HAIR
Hair type number one is straight with no bend or no wave. Hair type 1 doesn't have A through C because it's just straight.
lTYPE 2 WAVY HAIR
Hair type 2A is so much straight but there's a slight bend in a slight wave.Then 2B starts to get a little bit more of an S wave pattern and there are waves but not a lot.2C starts to get a little bit more curls.
lTYPE 3 CURLY HAIR
3A starts to get a coil and ringlets, like a pigtail .There isn't that much coil there, it is a mini coils but there are curl coils.3B is more coils happening more frequently on the strand.3C has more coils and it's really curly.
lTYPE 4 COILY HAIR
4A has a lot more coils in it. It's tighter, giving it a more coarse appearance and more frequent coils going on the strand.4B gets more of a zigzag appearance, creating a tight texture of hair.4C is more of a very tight strand and not so much coils anymore but more of a coarse texture.
As the hair types go on, the more curls will appear, making your hair appear tighter and curlier.
Remember that: everyone's hair density and porosity is different even within curl patterns so you must treat your hair in an individual basis.
At last,Divaswigs would like to send a shout out to LavishlyBritt and ulovemegz.
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