About Curl Centric
We check the hair advice so you do not have to.
Curl Centric is an independent publisher for curly, coily, and kinky hair, owned and written by two people since 2008. Everything here is free to read. Everything here is either sourced, or says plainly that the evidence is thin.
Who we are
Curl Centric is two people. Kenneth and Kira Byrd, married, working out of Birmingham, Alabama. There is no content team behind us and no investor waiting on a number.
It started the way a lot of things do, which is accidentally. Kira would stay up late reading about hair, night after night, because the advice she found contradicted itself and she wanted to know which half was true. In 2008 we started publishing what she learned, first as Natural Hair Community, later as Curl Centric. Along the way we also ran Natural Hair Box, a monthly subscription box of products from small natural hair brands.
What we actually do
Kira is the hair side. She trained as a barber and a hairstylist, and she is the one who has done the thing before she writes about it. Kenneth is the research and the software. When a guide here says a technique works, one of us went and checked whether that is true, and it is usually him.
For most of our history that produced articles. It still does, more than 800 of them. But the work we are most proud of now is the part you can use in ten seconds instead of reading for ten minutes: a chart, a calculator, a dictionary. A reader with a specific question deserves a specific answer, not an essay.
What we are not
We are not a salon and we do not diagnose anything. If your scalp is inflamed, patchy, painful, or shedding in a way that worries you, that is a dermatologist, not a blog. We will tell you that rather than sell you a routine.
Eighteen years, abbreviated
The short version of how a late-night research habit turned into the thing you are reading.
It starts
Kira begins publishing what she has been researching, under the name Natural Hair Community.
The first book
The Curly Kids Coloring Book, because a child decides how she feels about her hair long before she learns to care for it.
A routine you can follow
The Natural Hair Regimen Manual, a 90-day guide built around your own porosity, density and goals rather than a generic routine.
Other people start citing us
Wikipedia cites our hair count research on two articles. The International Journal of Women’s Dermatology publishes a paper on curl pattern classification with our hair typing system as its first listed reference.
Tools, not just articles
The hair calculators and a 234-term natural hair dictionary ship, on the theory that a reader with one question deserves one answer.
The two of us
Both names on this site are real people with pages of their own, including what we are each qualified to say.
Co-founder
Kira Byrd
Trained barber, hairstylist, and natural hair educator. Kira works on Curl Centric full time and is a certified fraud examiner, which is a stranger qualification for a hair site than it sounds and a more useful one than you would think.
Read Kira’s page →
Co-founder and Managing Partner
Kenneth Byrd
Runs the business, the research, and the tools. MBA and executive education at Wharton, a long career leading operations, and the one who reads the studies before a claim gets published here.
Read Kenneth’s page →Five things we will not tell you
Anyone can say they are trustworthy. Refusals are easier to check, so here are ours.
That a product will change your curl pattern. Curl shape comes from the shape of the follicle. Anything that permanently loosens texture is a relaxer or a texturizer, and we will call it that.
That your hair grows meaningfully faster than about half an inch a month. If length is not showing up, that is nearly always breakage, and no growth product fixes breakage.
That a remedy works because it is old. Tradition tells you something is worth investigating. It does not tell you the thing is true.
That we have tested something we have not. If a product is in a guide because the ingredients hold up rather than because we used it for six months, we say so.
What is wrong with your scalp. Inflammation, patchy loss, persistent pain and sudden shedding are a dermatologist’s job. Sending you to one costs us a page view and is still the right answer.
Kira is a certified fraud examiner, which carries a professional code of ethics: obtain evidence sufficient for a reasonable basis before giving an opinion, and refuse work where a conflict of interest exists. That is where this list comes from.
What checking one claim actually looks like
Evidence-based is easy to say. This is one claim, start to finish, so you can judge the method rather than the slogan.
The claim
Rice water grows hair. It is one of the most repeated claims in textured hair care, and it arrives with a story attached: the women of Huangluo Yao village in China, known for hair long enough that the place gets called the Land of Rapunzels.
Where the evidence actually comes from
A village known for long hair is an observation, not a trial. The other source usually offered is a reference to hair care practices from Japan’s Heian period, which ran from 794 to 1185.
What we said about it
We published the age problem rather than hiding it. In our own words in that article: “Due to the age of the study, it’s unlikely that the study used modern scientific controls focused on an independent variable. Consequently, this study is most likely an anecdotal report rather than an experiment conducted in a controlled test.”
What we published instead
What rice water actually contains, inositol and amino acids, which is real. How to make it. And the part most write-ups leave out: keep it on under twenty minutes, because it is a protein treatment and protein overload makes hair snap.
The article that came out of it is Rice Water for Hair. Mielle Organics now lists it as a source in their own rice water guide.
How Curl Centric is run
The short version of our editorial guidelines, which is the long version if you want it.
Who writes it
Named people, not a byline pool. Every guide is written and reviewed by Kenneth or Kira Byrd. If a page carries a name, that person actually worked on it.
How it is checked
Claims get sourced before publishing, and where the research on textured hair is thin we say so rather than filling the gap with confidence.
How we are funded
Display advertising and affiliate commissions, both disclosed. Brands do not pay for placement in our guides and the editorial side takes no money from advertisers.
When we get it wrong
Tell us and we will fix it. Articles are revisited as the evidence changes, and a correction is cheaper than a reputation.
Who cites our research
The clearest answer to whether this site is any good is who has relied on it. Open any row to see the citation itself.
Peer-reviewed citationInternational Journal of Women’s Dermatology
Krueger, Aguh, Peterson, Thomas, James & Lo Sicco. “Curl pattern classification: a potential tool for communication and risk stratification.” International Journal of Women’s Dermatology, vol. 8, 2022.
Curl Centric’s hair typing system is the paper’s first listed reference.
They linked to Hair Type Chart
Read the paper on PubMed Central →Referenced in the press
Wikipedia
Cited as a numbered reference on Wikipedia’s “Hair” and “Human hair growth” articles, as “How many hairs are on a human head in total and per square inch?” curlcentric.com. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
A formal encyclopedia reference, in both articles.
They linked to How Many Hairs Are on a Human Head
See the reference on Wikipedia →VICE
“…tightly-coiled natural hair referred to as 4C, an Andre Walker term.”
“What the Natural Hair Movement Looked Like Before Influencers”, VICE.
They linked to Hair Type Chart
Read the article →Bustle
“These Z-shaped coils can be hard to find in 4B hair as this curl type tends to lack curl definition.”
“How to Tell Your Curl Type”, Bustle. Four separate Bustle articles link to Curl Centric.
They linked to Hair Type Chart
Read the article →Reviewed
“…my past-shoulder-length, 3c/4a curly-textured natural hair.”
“Flawless by Gabrielle Union review”, Reviewed. The words “3c/4a” link to our chart.
They linked to Hair Type Chart
Read the article →Romper
“I looked on the Curl Centric website, which provided a thorough though perhaps not conclusive list of hair types.”
“5 Things That Happen When You Wash Your Hair Too Often or Too Little”, Romper.
They linked to Hair Type Chart
Read the article →mindbodygreen
“Thanks to celebrity hairstylist Andre Walker, hairstylists and aficionados know that the four main hair types are Type 1, 2, 3, and 4.”
“Type 3C Hair: What It Is & How To Care For It, From Experts”, mindbodygreen.
They linked to Hair Type Chart
Read the article →Cited as a source by hair care brands
PATTERN Beauty
Listed in the article’s Sources: “How to Wrap Your Hair at Night Like a Professional Hair Stylist.” Curl Centric. Their hair wrapping guide also links to our pineappling article.
A formal source citation, not a passing link.
They linked to How to Wrap Your Hair at Night
Read the article →Mielle Organics
Listed in the article’s sources: “Curl Centric. How to Use Rice Water on Natural Hair for Hair: Side Effects, Before and After Results, and More.”
A formal source citation, not a passing link.
They linked to Rice Water for Hair
Read the article →CurlMix
“You do not have to do the ‘big chop’; it is not a requirement.”
“Transitioning Hair: 5 Essential Reminders”, CurlMix.
They linked to The Big Chop
Read the article →Six of these ten cite the same page: our Hair Type Chart.
What we have built
Free, no sign-up, and made because the answer should take ten seconds rather than ten paragraphs.
Reference
Hair Type Chart
All twelve curl types on one chart, including how wide each curl actually is next to an everyday object. The most cited page we have.
Open it →Tools
Hair Calculators
Growth, shrinkage, length, and porosity, with the math worked out so you do not have to do it on a notepad.
Open it →Reference
Natural Hair Dictionary
234 textured hair terms defined in plain English, from anagen phase to the LOIS system.
Open it →Citing Curl Centric
Around 1,800 websites link to this one. If you are writing about textured hair, here is how to make that easier.
How to cite us
Byrd, Kira and Kenneth. “Article title.” Curl Centric, curlcentric.com. Accessed [date].
A link to the specific page is preferred over a link to the homepage.
Press and partnerships
We can speak to textured hair care, hair typing systems and how the natural hair industry actually works. We do not do paid placements.
If you only do one thing
Read the beginner guide. It is free, it takes about fifteen minutes, and it will save you money on products you were about to buy.