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Home » Hair Care Advice

Hair Typing System: The Curl Pattern Chart, 1A to 4C

Kenneth ByrdBy Kenneth ByrdMBA · 15+ years in hair care · Co-founder of Curl CentricUpdated Oct 13, 202629 min read · Reviewed by Kira Byrd

Evidence-basedPublishing since 2008May contain affiliate links
Original Curl Centric illustrationAll twelve hair types, side-by-side
You have probably held your hair up to a chart and still walked away unsure. Length, lighting, and whatever product is in your hair can change how a curl looks. So this illustration shows every pattern drawn instead, with the same hair length each time, so you’re only comparing the curl.
The twelve curl patterns drawn to the same scaleTwelve single strands drawn side by side at identical length. 1A is perfectly straight. 1B and 1C carry a slight bend. 2A through 2C are flat S-shaped waves that get deeper and closer together. 3A through 3C are drawn as side-on spirals that tighten from big loose loops to dense corkscrews. 4A, 4B and 4C are drawn as tightly wound coils, with 4B showing flatter sides than the others. Only the pattern changes; the length of hair is identical in every one.Type 1 · StraightType 2 · WavyType 3 · CurlyType 4 · Coily1A1B1C2A2B2C3A3B3C4A4B4CSame length of hair every time. The only thing changing is the pattern.
Evaluate your hair type from left to right. The hard part is never telling 2A from 4C; it’s telling your hair type from the one next to it. For example, 2C or 3A. 3C or 4A. That’s where people often misevaluate their curl pattern.

What's your hair type? Are you a 3B or 4A hair type? Maybe you have never worked it out, or maybe you worked it out once and have quietly wondered ever since whether you got it right.

We are asked about hair typing systems very often, and we recognize that there are real differences in how each pattern behaves and what it needs. So this guide covers every major hair typing system in use, and gives you the tools to place your own hair inside them.

We don't endorse or recommend any particular hair typing system. Each one sorts hair differently, and none of them is the last word. This does not imply that Andre Walker's system is necessarily the best or most accurate; it is simply the one most people already use.

One thing worth knowing before you start. It is very easy to determine your hair type incorrectly, especially if you go by photographs alone. Wash your hair, add no product, let it air-dry, and look at a single strand rather than your entire head of hair. The quiz below walks you through it.

Original Curl Centric toolWhich curl type do I have?
Four questions, and every one of them asks about something you can actually see. Clean your hair. Air-dry it and don’t add product. Product and heat both change the pattern you are trying to read. Now you’re ready to start the quiz.
This quiz helps determine your curl pattern and only that. Porosity, density and how thick each strand is are separate concepts, and no quiz can measure them by asking you questions. Most heads of hair carry two or three curl patterns at once, so answer based on the majority of your hairs.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Andre Walker Hair Typing System
  • 2. Type 1: Straight Hair
  • 3. Type 2: Wavy Hair
  • 4. Type 3: Curly Hair
  • 5. Type 4: Coily Hair
  • 6. Where 3C, 4C, and 4D Came From
  • 7. LOIS Hair Typing System (often spelled as L.O.I.S Hair Typing System)
  • 8. The NaturallyCurly Hair Typing System
  • 9. Fia's Hair Typing System
  • 10. Where the Hair Typing System Came From
  • 11. Why Some People Push Back on Hair Typing
  • 12. Texturism and Where Hair Typing Fits
  • 13. Emerging Hair Typing Systems
  • 14. Frequently Asked Questions
  • 15. Sources
Original Curl Centric hair-typing chartThe whole hair type chart, 1A to 4C
This chart shows every curl pattern in one place and describes each hair type’s unique characteristics. Each row links to a full guide that provides more details on each hair type.
TypeWhat the pattern doesCurl is about as wide asWhat trips people up
Type 1 · Straight
1AStraight, no bend anywhere—Goes oily fast; will not hold a curl1A guide
1BStraight with a little body—Flat at the roots, texture at the ends1B guide
1CStraight and thick—Hidden bends that puff up in humidity1C guide
Type 2 · Wavy
2AA loose S past the ears—Heavy products flatten it completely2A guide
2BA clear S from mid-length—The crown frizzes before anything else2B guide
2CWaves from the root, a few ringlets—Constantly mistaken for 3A2C guide
Type 3 · Curly
3ABig loose spiralsSidewalk chalkDefinition drops out if you touch it while drying3A guide
3BSpringy ringlets with bounceA SharpieThirsty — needs layered moisture3B guide
3CTight corkscrews packed closeA pencil or strawShrinks noticeably more than 3B3C guide
Type 4 · Coily
4ASmall springy coilsA crochet needleWash day makes or breaks the week4A guide
4BSharp bends instead of spirals—Definition comes from the bend, not a ringlet4B guide
4CSo tight no curl shows, even wet—65% to 75% shrinkage is normal, not damage4C guide
The width column only applies where the curl makes a closed loop you can measure. Types 1 and 2 have no loop, and 4B and 4C bend in angles rather than circles — those you read by shape instead.

Andre Walker Hair Typing System

Woman with a full brown curly afro lifting it with both hands, against a coral wallPin

Andre Walker created this system and laid it out in his book, Andre Talks Hair! Depending on who you ask, he is either famous or infamous for it.

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One thing gets lost in almost every write-up of his chart: Andre makes it very clear in that book that everyone has good hair, regardless of ethnicity.

He was trying to shut down the good hair versus bad hair debate before he ever got into typing. We will come back to how well that worked further down this page. For now, here are the hair types as he actually defined them.

The Curl Centric hair type cheat sheet, a one-page printable showing all twelve curl patterns drawn side by side with what each one needsPin1 page
Free printable
Which curl type do I have?
All twelve patterns drawn on a single page, so you can hold it up next to a strand at the mirror instead of scrolling with wet hands.
✓All twelve patterns, drawn✓What each hair type needs✓The shrinkage cross-check✓A checklist before you decide
Download the cheat sheet (PDF)
Letter size · no email required

Prefer to listen while you work on your hair? This one's also an episode of Curl Science, our podcast, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Type 1: Straight Hair

Woman with long, straight dark brown hair looking at her phone outdoorsPin
Brunette with blonde highlights and type 1 straight hair.

Type 1 Straight Hair: Type 1 hair is straight, and Andre splits it into three. What separates 1A, 1B, and 1C is how thick a single strand is and how much body you get out of it.

Type 1A Hair

Your strands are fine, very thin, and soft, with a shine you can see across a room. This is the straightest hair there is, and a curl will not hold in it without help.

Our guide to 1A hair covers the products that add body without weighing it down.

Type 1B Hair

Medium-textured, with noticeably more body than 1A. It still falls straight, but it has enough weight to hold a bend for a few hours.

Here is our full guide to 1B hair.

Type 1C Hair

The coarsest of the Type 1s, and the most stubborn. 1C resists curling more than any other hair type on the chart, which is a problem if you want a curl and a gift if you do not.

More on this one in our guide to 1C hair.

Type 2: Wavy Hair

Red-haired woman with loose waves falling around her shouldersPin
Redhead with freckles and type 2 wavy hair.

Type 2 Wavy Hair: Type 2 sits right between straight and curly. It is not quite straight, and it is not fully curly; it runs from a loose tousled bend all the way to thick S-shaped waves with real curls mixed in.

Wavy hair tends to be flatter at the root, so it lies close to your head, and then it gets curlier from around the ears down. That flat stretch at the top is why so many wavies spend years thinking their hair is straight.

Type 2A Hair

Dark-haired woman with long waves falling past her shoulders, against a white backdropPin

Your waves are loose and a little tousled, with more texture than definition. There is not much volume to start with, so products weigh 2A hair down fast.

Stick to the light stuff. A gel or a mousse will hold your wave without flattening it. Our guide to 2A hair goes further.

Type 2B Hair

Type 2B wavy hair, straight at the roots with defined S-shaped waves from mid-length downPin

Your hair is mostly straight at the roots and then falls into S-shaped waves from the mid-length down. The waves follow the shape of your head, the texture is medium, and the crown is where frizz shows up first.

If you want more definition, plop your hair as soon as you get out of the shower. More in our guide to 2B hair.

Type 2C Hair

Woman with light brown waves that tighten into loose curls below the crownPin

Your waves are defined, and they start at the root instead of halfway down, with ringlets and the occasional true curl in the mix. The texture is coarser than 2A or 2B, and it frizzes easily.

Diffuse it while it is damp rather than soaking wet, or you will lose the volume. Here is our full guide to 2C hair.

Type 3: Curly Hair

Woman with tight brown curls framing her face, in a fur-collared coatPin
African American female with brownish type 3 curly hair.

Type 3 Curly Hair: Type 3 hair has a definite S-shaped curl pattern, and it runs from big loose loops down to tight springy tendrils. Most Type 3 heads carry more than one of those textures at once.

Type 3 hair may not look as shiny as Type 1 or Type 2 hair because its curls scatter light in many directions instead of reflecting it back in one smooth line. It makes up for it in volume; curls sit up at the root in a way waves never do.

Original Curl Centric referenceUsing common household items to measure your curls
This is a technique that we recommend to measure the circumference of your curls. This approach usually works for type 3 curls, but can often work for 4A hair types also. The key here is that you’re not squinting at somebody else’s photo trying to decide if her curls look like yours; you are wrapping one of your own curls around something you already own.
Wrap one curl around the object. Whichever it fits, that is your hair type.
These are drawn true to scale against each other, so a 3A loop really is that much bigger than a 4A one.
Curl width compared with everyday objects, at true relative scaleFour filled circles drawn at true relative scale on one shared center line. 3A is about the width of a stick of sidewalk chalk, 24 millimeters. 3B is about a Sharpie, 14 millimeters. 3C is about a pencil or a drinking straw, 7.5 millimeters. 4A is about a crochet needle, 4 millimeters.3ASidewalk chalkBig, loose, shiny loopsabout 24 mm across3BA SharpieSpringy ringlets with real bounceabout 14 mm across3CA pencil or a strawTight corkscrews, packed closeabout 7.5 mm across4AA crochet needleSmall springy coils, clearest when wetabout 4 mm across
Works for Type 3 and 4A patterns, where your curl makes a round loop you can actually wrap. It will not work for Types 1 and 2, because there are no closed curls to measure. Also, it won’t work for 4B or 4C, where the strands progressively resemble tight coils.

Type 3A Hair

Woman with long brown ringlets falling either side of her facePin

Your curls are big, loose, and shiny, with a clear S shape. If you have ever held a stick of sidewalk chalk, you already know how wide a 3A curl is.

For more definition, twirl small sections around your finger while your hair is still damp. Our guide to 3A hair has the rest.

Type 3B Hair

Type 3B curly hair with springy ringlets and corkscrew curlsPin

Your curls are springy and full, anywhere from bouncy ringlets to tight corkscrews. Where a 3A curl is about as wide as sidewalk chalk, a 3B curl is closer to a permanent marker.

3B hair is usually dense, and it will pull humidity straight out of the air. A humidity-blocking styler helps, and a styling milk gets you definition with less frizz. More in our guide to 3B hair.

Type 3C Hair

Type 3C curly hair with tightly packed pencil-width corkscrew curlsPin

Your curls are tightly packed corkscrews, about as wide around as a pencil. You will hear 3C called curly-coily hair, and that is a fair description of how dense it is.

3C gets the most volume of any Type 3 and also the most shrinkage. Stretch it gently and without heat; a flexi-rod set, a twist-out, or perm rods will all do it. Our guide to 3C hair covers wash day.

Worth knowing: 3C is not in Andre Walker’s original system. The natural hair community added it, and we get into where it came from in the next section.

Type 4: Coily Hair

Woman resting her chin on her arm, her dark curls lifted full around her headPin
Type 4 coily hair has tight coils packed close together.

Type 4 Coily Hair: Type 4 hair is full of tight coils. You will still see it called kinky hair, which is the word Andre used, and plenty of naturals use it about their own hair without a second thought.

It often looks coarse, but strand thickness varies a lot from person to person, and even across one head. What makes this hair type fragile is its tight bends, because every bend is a spot where a strand can knot or break.

There is research behind that. A scanning electron microscope study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found knots in 10% to 16% of tightly coiled African hair shafts, compared with 0.15% in the comparison groups (Khumalo et al.). The same study found clear evidence of repeated breaks along the shaft.

Every one of those knots is a place where a comb can catch and a strand can snap.

Type 4 hair is one of the most common hair types found in black hair, and it is the hair type that pays the highest price for rough handling.

Type 4A Hair

Young woman in a plaid shirt with a soft brown curl pattern around her facePin

Your coils are small and springy, roughly the width of a crochet needle, and they hold a visible S pattern when you stretch them out. Fine or wiry, they are dense either way.

Thicker natural emollients work well here. Shea butter is a good starting point for a twist-out or a wash-and-go. More in our guide to 4A hair.

Type 4B Hair

Woman in glasses resting her chin on one hand, her afro cropped close at the sidesPin

Instead of coiling, your hair bends at sharp angles, closer to the letter Z than the letter S. The pattern is tighter and far less defined, so you read 4B by its shape rather than its width.

Strands run from wiry and coarse to fine and thin. A pre-poo with coconut oil before wash day helps this hair type hold onto moisture. Here is our guide to 4B hair.

Type 4C Hair

Type 4C coily hair, densely packed with very little visible curl definitionPin

Your hair is as densely packed as 4B, with even less definition and even more shrinkage. The texture runs from super fine and soft to coarse and wiry, and it is the most delicate hair type on the chart.

A creamy humectant as a leave-in is usually the right call, and avoiding tangles matters more here than anywhere else. Our guide to 4C hair walks through a full routine.

Like 3C, 4C is not part of Andre’s original system; it came out of the natural hair community. You will also see 4D used online for coils tighter still. No established system has adopted it. More on both of those next.

Where 3C, 4C, and 4D Came From

So if 3C, 4C, and 4D are not in the original system, why does this article use them?

Because that is what people actually say. Andre Walker published four hair types with letter subtypes (e.g., A, B, and C), but his grid was never as complete as the one people use now. His Type 4 stopped at 4B, and 3C was not included in his system. The natural hair community filled in the gaps, and those additions stuck. They are what you will hear in a salon chair, read on a product label, and type into Google, so they are what we use here.

Type 3C came first. The community’s own account credits a member at NaturallyCurly.com, and it’s told that way everywhere it appears, though we haven’t found a dated record behind it. The argument was that the original chart jumped from 3B ringlets straight to 4A coils and left a whole texture in between with nowhere to go. 3C filled it: tight corkscrews, packed close, curly but not yet coily.

Type 4C followed the same path. Andre’s own rule for Type 4 was simple. If you can see a definite curl pattern, you are 4A. If you cannot, you are 4B.

That leaves an enormous range of hair sorted into a single bucket, which is why 4C exists. It gave the tightest and least defined coils a name of their own.

4D is the newest label and the shakiest. It is popular on social media and in hair care forums, and it is usually described as a tighter extension of 4C. No system has adopted it, so treat it as community shorthand rather than a classification.

LOIS Hair Typing System (often spelled as L.O.I.S Hair Typing System)

Woman with a brown curly afro pushing it back with one hand, against a purple wallPin

The LOIS system is quieter than it used to be, though you will still find naturals who prefer it to Andre Walker’s chart. The site that created it is long gone.

Here is why people liked it. LOIS does not ask you to eyeball your hair against somebody else’s photo. It asks you to pull one strand and answer three questions about it.

Those three questions give you the three characteristics LOIS uses: pattern, strand size, and texture.

Hair Patterns

The pattern is where the system gets its name. Pull one strand, let it hang, and work out which letter it looks like:

  • L = If your hair is dominated by right angles and substantially bends with nearly no curve, then you're considered a pattern "L".
  • O = If your hair strand curls or coils significantly and appear to be shaped like the letter "O", then you're considered a pattern "O".
  • I = If your hair has no distinctive curls or bends and primarily lies flat against your head, then you're considered a pattern "I".
  • S = If your hair strand has "S" shaped curls or gorgeous waves with defined hills and valleys, then you're considered a pattern "S".

Finally, it's important to note that you may have several different LOIS hair patterns on your head. When this occurs, the system allows you to combine LOIS letters to determine your hair pattern.

For example, your hair pattern may be an "OS" LOIS hair type. In this example, your hair would contain primarily a combination of "O" shaped spiral curls and "S" shaped curly waves with defined hills and valleys.

Hair Strand Sizes

Next, how thick is that single strand? LOIS gives you a measuring stick you already own: a piece of sewing thread.

Hold your strand up next to the thread and compare the two. One caution: most sewing thread is thicker than even a coarse hair strand, so use it to compare your own strands with each other, not as a measurement.

  • Smaller than a piece of sewing thread = Thin, fine hair strands
  • Size of a piece of sewing thread = Medium hair strands
  • Larger than a piece of sewing thread = Thick hair strands

Hair Textures

Last, texture. This is how your hair behaves when it is wet and how it looks when it is dry. It is also the part of LOIS that the Andre Walker chart has no answer for at all.

  • Thready - This thready hair texture has a low sheen and a bright shine when the hair is stretched. This hair texture should have low frizz and get wet easily. Even though this hair texture wets easily, the water will dry out very quickly.
  • Wiry - This hair texture has a sparkly glossy appearance with very little shine and low frizz. When the wiry hair texture is wet, the water will bead up or bounce off the hair strands. This hair texture is more difficult to get fully wet.
  • Cottony - The cottony hair texture has a low sheen and bright shine when the hair is stretched and is usually highly frizzy. The cottony texture absorbs water very quickly; however, it doesn't get completely wet very fast.
  • Spongy - The spongy hair texture absorbs water (like a sponge) and has a high sheen and low shine.
  • Silky - The silky texture has a low sheen and a bright high shine. The level of expected frizz with this hair texture can vary substantially. Silky hair becomes completely wet very easily.

How to Find Your LOIS Hair Type

Look at a few sections from different parts of your head. If you have more than one pattern up there, and most people do, you will end up with a combination.

Wash your hair first and rinse it in cold water, with no product left in it. Product changes how a strand behaves, and it will hand you the wrong answer.

You can also pull a single shed strand, wash that on its own, and rinse it in cold water. It is far easier to read one strand clearly than to judge a whole section.

Original Curl Centric referenceThe LOIS system on one screen
LOIS is described across four separate sections above, which makes it hard to actually use. Here it is in one place: read your strand’s shape, then its width, then its texture. The three together are your LOIS type.
Read thisOptionsHow to tell
ShapeLRight angles and sharp bends, with almost no curve
OCurls or coils into a rolled zero or a spiral
INo distinct curl or bend; lies flat against your head
SS-shaped curls or waves with defined hills and valleys
Strand widthFineThinner than a piece of sewing thread
MediumAbout the same as a piece of sewing thread
ThickThicker than a piece of sewing thread
TextureThreadyLow sheen, bright shine when stretched, low frizz
WirySparkly and glossy, little shine, low frizz; water beads on it
CottonyLow sheen, bright shine when stretched, usually high frizz
SpongyAbsorbs water like a sponge; high sheen, low shine
SilkyLow sheen with a bright high shine; frizz varies a lot
A thready, medium-width S strand is written as S-medium-thready. Unlike the numbered systems, nothing here ranks above anything else — it is a description, not a scale.

The NaturallyCurly Hair Typing System

Woman in a gray cardigan laughing, her dark curls falling forward over one shoulderPin

You have already seen this system. You just saw it under a different name.

NaturallyCurly, which, along with CurlyNikki, is owned by TextureMedia, uses a modified version of Andre Walker’s chart. It groups hair into Wavy, Curly, and Coily, then splits each group into A, B, and C subclasses based on the diameter of your wave, curl, or coil. Those subclasses come straight from Andre.

The one real change is that NaturallyCurly treats 3C and 4C as standard, which the original never did. That is the version of the chart most product labels and salon sites use today, and it is the version we have used throughout this article.

It carries the same limitation as the original, too. Plenty of people do not fit cleanly into one box, and most heads carry more than one pattern at once.

Fia's Hair Typing System

Woman with blonde curls in a striped polo shirt, looking at the cameraPin

There is one more worth knowing about. Fia’s Hair Typing System had a real following on natural hair forums several years ago, and some people still swear by it.

Fia takes Andre Walker’s chart and bolts on the parts LOIS got right.

It describes your hair with three classifiers: how defined your curls are, how thick a single strand is, and how much hair you have overall.

First classifier: curl definition. This is Andre’s chart, more or less. Type 1 straight, Type 2 wavy, Type 3 curly, Type 4 very curly.

Second classifier: strand thickness. Same idea as the LOIS strand sizes, with different labels.

  • F - Fine: Fine, thin hair strands that feel almost like an ultra-fine strand of silk.
  • M - Medium: Medium-sized hair strands, which generally feel like rolling a cotton thread between your thumb and index fingers, are ones that simply fall in between the fine and coarse categories according to Fia's Hair Typing System.
  • C - Coarse: Think of hair strands that feel hard and wiry.

Third classifier: volume. This is the one nothing else on this page measures, and it is the most useful of the three. Pull your hair into a ponytail, getting as much of it in there as you can. It does not need to look good.

Now measure the circumference of the ponytail, just below the elastic, with a soft tape measure. Circumference is the distance around it, not across it.

Whatever number the tape gives you falls into one of three bands:

  • Thin - The circumference of the ponytail is less than 2 inches (less than 5 centimeters)
  • Normal - The circumference of the ponytail is between 2 - 4 inches (between 5-10 centimeters)
  • Thick - The circumference of the ponytail is greater than 4 inches (greater than 10 centimeters)

That single number tells you something no curl chart can. Two people can both be 3B and need completely different amounts of product, because one of them has twice as much hair.

Related Articles:

  • Do I Have 2c or 3a Hair?
  • 4D Hair
  • How to Care For Coily Hair
  • Hair Porosity Quiz

Where the Hair Typing System Came From

Andre Walker created this system in the 1990s. He was Oprah Winfrey’s stylist, and he built the chart to go with his own line of hair care products.

That origin explains something people find odd about it. The system sorts hair by what a curl looks like, because that is what you can see in a salon chair and what you can print on a bottle. It was never built to describe what is happening inside the strand.

And a great deal is happening inside the strand. Your curl pattern is set before your hair ever reaches the surface.

Research in the British Journal of Dermatology found that tightly curled hair grows from a follicle that is itself curved (Thibaut et al., 2005). The shaft keeps that shape even when it is lifted out of the surrounding tissue. A 2017 review in Experimental Dermatology traced curl further down still, to specific genetic variation.

None of that shows up on a chart that asks you to compare yourself to a photograph.

Walker’s four categories, with their A, B, and C subtypes, became the vocabulary almost everyone uses anyway.

Why Some People Push Back on Hair Typing

There are a few criticisms worth knowing about, and all of them are fair.

The first is about hierarchy. The chart starts at Type 1 and ends at Type 4, and that ordering does a lot of quiet work. Nothing in the system says straight hair is better. But a scale that runs from straight to coily, in that order, is easy to read as a ranking, and a great many people read it exactly that way.

Andre did not help his own case here. Over the years, he made comments that offended a lot of Type 4 women, including this one, given to Elle:

I always recommend embracing your natural texture. Kinky hair can have limited styling options; that’s the only hair type that I suggest altering with professional relaxing.

Andre Walker

It started a tremendous amount of buzz, and he later posted a clarification on his own website. Whatever he meant by it, the damage was done, and for a lot of women, that quote is now the whole memory of the system.

We would still say read the book before you decide. Andre Talks Hair! is clearer and more generous than most of the blog posts written about it, and his system gets misquoted far more often than it gets quoted correctly.

The second criticism is that curl classification is incomplete on its own. Your hair type tells you the shape of your curl. It does not tell you your porosity, your density, your strand thickness, or how much protein your hair wants, and those are the things that decide what actually happens on wash day.

The third is that eyeballing a chart is not measurement. That gap has been closed, just not by any of the systems on this page.

A 2007 study in Human Biology measured hair from 1,442 people across 18 countries: curve diameter, curl index, number of waves. It sorted them into eight groups without referring to ethnicity at all (De la Mettrie et al.). A companion study extended the approach to 2,449 people from 22 countries and again found eight main groups.

That is what an objective hair type looks like. It also requires a laboratory, which is why you are still holding a strand up against a photo.

That work has kept going. A 2023 review in Accounts of Chemical Research set out a way to sort curly hair textures by measurable geometry and by how a strand behaves under stress, rather than by how a curl looks to you in a mirror (Gaines et al.). It is the sharpest account yet of what the chart can’t see, and it's why researchers who measure hair are building more exact systems alongside the letters and numbers.

Texturism and Where Hair Typing Fits

Texturism is hair discrimination based on texture, and it is usually aimed at people with tighter coils. It shows up in which hair gets called professional, which gets called neat, and which gets a comment.

It is not a small thing. The 2023 CROWN Workplace Research Study, commissioned by Dove and LinkedIn, found that Black women’s hair is 2.5 times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional.

It also found that roughly two-thirds of Black women change their hair for a job interview, and that women with coily or textured hair are twice as likely to experience microaggressions at work.

A hair classification chart does not cause any of that. But a numbered system running from straight to coily hands texturism a vocabulary, and it is worth being honest about that instead of pretending the chart is neutral.

So use hair typing for what it is genuinely good at. It is shorthand for finding products, techniques, and other people whose hair behaves like yours. It is not a grade, and your number is not a ranking.

Emerging Hair Typing Systems

Every few months something new turns up, and most of it is a product catalog wearing a lab coat.

That is the pattern worth understanding. Nearly all of the new systems come from brands, and a brand system exists to route you to a shelf. That is not automatically a bad thing; a system built around what a product does can be more useful than one built around what a curl looks like. It just means the classification is doing marketing work as well as descriptive work, and you should read it that way.

Here are the ones you are most likely to run into:

  • Ouidad sorts curls into four groups: loose, classic, tight, and kinky. It is the simplest of the brand systems, and it maps roughly onto Types 2 through 4.
  • The Curly Girl Method, from Lorraine Massey, mostly sidesteps typing altogether. It cares about porosity, ingredients, and technique instead, which is arguably the more useful question.
  • Mizani’s Natural Curl Key is the interesting one. It has eight types, and unlike everything else on this page, it is built on published measurements rather than eyeballing.

That last one deserves a longer look, because it is the closest thing to an evidence-based hair typing system that anybody has.

Mizani is a L’Oréal brand, and the Natural Curl Key comes out of the same research as the De la Mettrie and Loussouarn studies above. Curve diameter, curl index, number of waves, number of twists were measured rather than judged, across thousands of people in dozens of countries.

Eight types came out of it. It is the only widely available system that could tell you your hair type without asking you to compare yourself to a photograph.

So why has it not taken over?

Because you cannot run it at home. It needs laboratory measurement, which means it works in a salon or a research setting and nowhere else. Andre Walker’s chart won because anyone can use it at a bathroom mirror in ten seconds. That is a real advantage, even though the trade-off is that it is approximate.

Our rule of thumb for anything new is the same three questions. Who made it? Could you actually run it yourself? And does it tell you anything you did not already know from your curl pattern, your porosity, and your density?

Most of them fail at least two. If one of them earns a real following, we will cover it here.

Once you know your hair type, our free hair calculators and printables help you put it to use: shrinkage, growth timelines, and reference charts you can print.

Original Curl Centric referenceWhich hair typing system should you use?
We don’t endorse any single one. They measure different things, so the right one depends on what you are trying to work out about your hair.
SystemWhat it measuresMost useful whenWhere it falls short
Andre WalkerCurl tightness only, as Types 1–4 with A/B/C subtypesYou want the shorthand everyone else already usesOmits 3C, 4C and 4D, and has been criticized as hierarchical
LOISStrand shape (L, O, I, S), strand width, and textureYou want to describe your hair without numbers or rankingMuch less widely known, and takes closer observation
NaturallyCurlyCurl tightness, compared to everyday objectsYou are actually trying to identify your own curl sizeOnly covers Types 2–4, so straight hair is left out
Fia'sCurl definition, strand appearance, and total hair volumeDensity and volume matter more to you than curl shapeSmall following, and needs a ponytail measurement
Most people only ever need Andre Walker, because it is the vocabulary every product label and tutorial already uses. Reach for the others when it stops answering your question.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Created the Hair Typing System?

Andre Walker, Oprah Winfrey's longtime stylist, created the hair typing system. He says he developed it in 1997 for his book, Andre Talks Hair, to go with his own line of hair products. His chart sorted hair into four types, but it stopped at 3B and 4B. The natural hair community added 3C and 4C later.

Is Hair Typing Real?

Hair typing is a real and widely used system in the hair care industry. It is used as a tool to categorize and describe the different textures and types of hair, such as straight, wavy, curly, and coily. However, hair typing is not scientific or exact, and some people have criticized the system for promoting hair texture stereotypes.

Is Hair Typing Necessary?

While not necessary, many people find hair typing extremely helpful for understanding their hair texture and choosing hair care products. It's a tool used in the industry to categorize hair textures. Some view it as limiting and choose not to use it, while others find it useful. The choice to use hair typing is personal and depends on individual preferences.

What Is the LOIS Hair Typing System?

The LOIS hair typing system categorizes hair based on the shape, size, and texture of a single strand. This system eliminates the need for labeling hair types by numbers. Strands are labeled as L (bendy with minimal or no curvature), O (curled into a zero or multiple spirals), I (flat and straight), or S (wavy with hills and valleys).

What Are the 4 Types of Hair?

The four main hair types are: 1) Straight (Type 1), 2) Wavy (Type 2), 3) Curly (Type 3), and 4) Coily (Type 4).

How Do You Determine Your Hair Type?

To determine your hair type, wash it and let it air-dry without adding any products. Next, compare your hair's natural pattern and texture to hair typing charts or descriptions. This comparison will help you identify its type and subtype.

What Are the 12 Major Hair Types?

The 12 major hair types, derived from the main four types, are: 1A, 1B, 1C (straight); 2A, 2B, 2C (wavy); 3A, 3B, 3C (curly); and 4A, 4B, 4C (coily).

Is My Hair 1C or 2A?

1C hair is the coarsest and most textured form of straight hair. It remains straight but has more texture than straight hair types like 1A. For instance, 1A is pin-straight from root to tip and lacks body or volume. On the other hand, Type 2 hair is naturally wavy. If your hair is entirely straight with some texture but without waves, it's more likely 1C. If your hair exhibits a wavy pattern, then it's likely 2A.

What Is Type B vs Type C Hair?

Type B and Type C are subcategories within the main hair types (e.g., 1B or 3C). Type B hair has a more defined wave or curl pattern than Type A. Type C hair has the strongest wave or curl pattern in its category.

Do I Have 1B Hair?

1B hair is part of the "straight" hair category. It's characterized as being straight with some volume and bounce. It usually lies flat against the head at the roots and may have a bit of texture, especially towards the ends. You likely have 1B hair strands if your hair matches this description.

Sources

The research referenced in this guide:

  • De la Mettrie R, Saint-Léger D, Loussouarn G, et al. “Shape variability and classification of human hair: a worldwide approach.” Human Biology, 2007.
  • Loussouarn G, Garcel AL, Lozano I, et al. “Worldwide diversity of hair curliness: a new method of assessment.” International Journal of Dermatology, 2007.
  • Thibaut S, Gaillard O, Bouhanna P, Cannell DW, Bernard BA. “Human hair shape is programmed from the bulb.” British Journal of Dermatology, 2005.
  • Westgate GE, Ginger RS, Green MR. “The biology and genetics of curly hair.” Experimental Dermatology, 2017.
  • Gaines MK, Page IY, Miller NA, et al. “Reimagining hair science: a new approach to classify curly hair phenotypes via new quantitative geometric and structural mechanical parameters.” Accounts of Chemical Research, 2023.
  • Khumalo NP, Doe PT, Dawber RP, Ferguson DJ. “What is normal black African hair? A light and scanning electron-microscopic study.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2000.
  • The CROWN Workplace Research Study, Dove and LinkedIn, 2023.
  • Walker A. Andre Talks Hair! Simon & Schuster, 1997.
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Kenneth Byrd

About the author

Kenneth Byrd

Co-founder and Managing Partner

Publishing on textured hair since 2008MBA, University of Alabama at BirminghamExecutive education, WhartonTop 40 Under 40, Birmingham Business Journal

Kenneth does the research behind the guides here: reading the studies and checking whether a claim holds up before it gets published, under our editorial guidelines. Outside Curl Centric he leads an operations organization of more than 1,000 people, and he serves on the board of Oasis Counseling for Women and Children. Curl Centric's hair typing system is the first listed reference in a peer-reviewed paper in the International Journal of Women's Dermatology, and it is cited by Wikipedia.

More about KennethAbout Curl Centric

Kira Byrd

Hey, I’m Kira

Curl Centric is run by me and my husband Kenneth. We’ve been publishing evidence-based hair care since 2008 to help you care for your curls with confidence.

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