3c · 4c · 4chair · covidhairloss · hair · haircare · hairtypes ·Sep 07, 2022

Do you know your physical hair properties?

As many of you know I've always had a love for hair. Lately I've been doing a lot of research and I've found some amazing articles that have helped me along my hair journey and I've decided I'm going to start sharing my findings. I came across a blog by the name of The Mestiza Muse by an amazing woman named Verna. She has a plethora of helpful and educational articles that changed my life! Check her out here! In the meantime I wanted to share some of the most important information I learned from her in regards to hair and learning your physical unique properties. Keep reading to learn the importance of really getting to know your hair.

Proper hair care starts with understanding each different factor that makes up your unique hair design, and how to care for your hair accordingly. It helps to care for your hair especially when it comes to choosing the right products. The first important property to identify about your hair is your curl type.

Curl Type: refers to the shape of your hair’s individual strands. This can range from straight to tightly coiled. One of the most widely used and accepted curl typing systems is the Andre Walker Hair Typing System.

This system classifies hair into four main categories:

Type 1: Straight hair
Type 2: Wavy hair
Type 3: Curly hair
Type 4: Kinky hair

The other dimension is defining the thickness of hair.

Level a is for fine hair
Level b for the medium hair
Level c is for thick hair

So, combining the two, hair 2c would be wavy thick hair, so on and so forth.

Next, Porosity: Essentially, hair porosity is about your hair's ability to absorb and retain moisture and how porous the hair is. The porosity of your hair affects how well oils and moisture pass in and out of the outermost layer of your hair, known as the cuticle. Its important to know your hair’s porosity because it affects how your hair looks, feels, handles, and absorbs certain products.

It’s also important to note your hair porosity can change, depending on what’s done to it. Hair can be damaged by harsh chemical treatments and other factors. But porosity can also be due to genetics.

Low Porosity: Cuticles are flat and tightly packed together, low ability to absorb moisture but does not easily lose moisture.
High Porosity: More porous, readily absorbs moisture but also loses moisture easily.
Medium Porosity: In between

Knowing your physical hair properties will allow you to better care for your hair, and give you better insight on which products are right for your tresses. There are other hair properties to get familiar with that you can read about on the original blog I learned from by clicking here, but I just wanted to talk about the two most commonly talked about for now.

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