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Find Your Texture
Shine is a sharp reflection of light while Sheen is a dull reflection of light.
- Thready - Hair as a low sheen, with high shine if the hair is held taut (as in a braid), with low frizz. Wets easily but water dries out quickly.
Wiry - Hair has a sparkly sheen, with low shine and low frizz. Water beads up or bounces off the hair strands. Hair never seems to get fully wet.
Cottony - Hair has a low sheen, a high shine if the hair is held taunt and has high frizz. Absorbs water quickly but does not get thoroughly wet very fast.
Spongy - Hair has a high sheen with low shine with a compacted looking frizz. Absorbs water before it gets thoroughly wet.
- Silky - Hair has low sheen, a very high shine, with a lot or low frizz. Easily wets in water.
Other Hair Typing Systems
Although we will no longer use Andre Walker's hair type system as explained in his book "Andre Talks Hair," many of you are familiar with it and may wish to continue using it.
Generally speaking, Andre's system could stand a few additional letters in the alphabet, but we feel that his intent was to give a general indication of hair types and not a definitive answer to all hair. Many of you will fall in between Andre's descriptions which we hope you will keep in mind as you develop a hair care regimen that works best for you.
Andre types hair from 1 to 4, 1 being the straightest and 4 the curliest:
- Type 1a and 1b hair is straight with no curl or wave. This hair type has a lot of shine and tends to be oily.
Hair that Andre classifies as Type 2a and 2b has some soft waves but little or no curl. It tends to be coarse and stays clings to the scalp in long S shaped curves. This hair type has very little body, though styling products can help it along.
Type 3a and 3b hair has a definite "S" pattern to it which is usually fine textured and soft. It does not have as much shine as Type 1 or 2 hair, but it does have a lot of natural body. When this hair type is wet, it straightens out, but then draws up into a curlier state as it dries.
- Andre classifies Type 4 hair as kinky textured hair which he defines as being tightly curled. Type 4 hair can be wiry and very fragile. It is also drier than other hair types because the twists in the hair make it harder for the scalp's sebum to reach the ends. Type 4a's hair strand has an "S" shape like spirals.
Type 4b has the characteristics of Type 4a, but the hair strand has a zig zag shape like "Z". This makes it more fragile than all of the other hair types and it should be handled accordingly.
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