This Week's Discussion: It's time we retire the curl typing system.
What's been blowing up the group chat this week.
“Can somebody tell me what my curl type is?”
This is a question I see at least twice a week in the Black haircare forums I visit. The question will be accompanied by a close up photo of the person’s hair and a request for tips on how to manage it.
For those unfamiliar, the hair typing system was created by Oprah Winfrey’s hairstylist, Andre Walker, in the 90s. According to the system, hair ranges from 1A (straight) to 4C (tightly coiled).
When I first started wearing my hair natural, one of the first things I tried to figure out was my curl pattern because that’s what I saw most on blogs. Brands even use the system to market products.
If you go on YouTube, you’ll find videos with titles like “Best Twist Out Technique for 3C Hair” and “How To Get Curl Definition on Type 4 Hair.” I would spend a lot of time trying to find influencers whose curl pattern looked similar to mine and then buy all the products they recommended and copied their routine.
The majority of the time, my hair never came out looking like theirs.
After many failed twist outs and wash and gos, I started to really pay attention to the content I was consuming. The most popular and most recommended hair influencers usually have “type 3” curls. If you look at the women who dominate brand partnerships, it’s usually the ones with the big, springy curls. It’s almost never women with “type 4” hair or hair that doesn’t have a visible curl. Products and techniques are all about getting elongated curls with no shrinkage.
The natural hair movement has gone from a movement about embracing your natural texture and learning how to take care of it into a movement of selling products and curl definition. And women with the kinkiest hair are being shut out of a movement that was quite literally started for them and by them.
Texturism is not a product of the digital age. Before we had a word for it in the Black community, it was simply “good hair” or “bad hair,” good hair being looser and bad hair being kinky and afro-textured. The conversation about good vs. bad hair came to the forefront with Chris Rock’s 2009 movie Good Hair, but the discourse slowed with the commercialization of the movement.
Since getting to a place of not just acceptance but love for my hair, every time I see a “what’s my curl type?” question my heart sinks. Because I remember the frustration I felt when my hair wouldn’t hang and curl exactly like a woman in an ad for curl cream. I remember neglecting other parts of my hair care routine all in the search for perfect, frizz free curls.
This is precisely why I think the curl typing system needs to be retired for good. It’s time to burn the chart.
While many people think there’s some real scientific basis for the chart and that it’s essential to taking care of your hair, it’s not. Walker, the founder of the system, created it to market and sell his line of products. Also, in 2011, Walker said in an Elle magazine interview, “Kinky hair can have limited styling options; that's the only hair type that I suggest altering with professional relaxing.”
Dr. Afiya Mbilishaka, who is a clinical psychologist, hair stylist, and founder of PsychoHairapy, said that while the system may have initially been created to guide people in their choices for products, it has strong roots in texturism and colorism.
“I think it really does reflect a caste system in hair texture that existed even during the enslavement of Africans in America,” she told me. “For example, those who had longer or curlier or looser hair were given tasks in the home, better quality food … versus those who had tightly coiled or short hair who were often relegated to tasks of manual labor in the hot sun.” She added:
“It’s more than just a typing system that speaks to what hair products to use but also speaks to how people are treated in society.”
The system simply took biases that have long existed and repackaged them into a neat infographic.
When it comes to taking care of your hair and keeping it strong and healthy, there are so many other factors that come into play, like your porosity, density, elasticity, and texture (fine strands or thick strands). Also, many people (like me) have several different curl patterns on their head!
Dr. Mbilishaka believes we can extend beyond the system to understand how to care for our hair: “Hair is more complicated than just how it curls.”
I’m at the point in my journey where I’m no longer trying to make my hair into something it’s not. Sometimes, my wash and go turns out exactly how I want it. Other times, my hair is frizzy — which shouldn’t have such a negative connotation.
I’m much happier and my hair is much healthier ever since I trashed the curl typing system. As community, let’s take back the power we gave to it and instead put it into celebrating the uniqueness of our hair.
You can learn more about Dr. Afiya Mbilishaka and Psychohairpy here.
Going natural can be a daunting experience. There are so many products on the market and figuring out what works for you involves a lot of trial and error — which amounts in a lot of wasted money. Black consumers spend 9x more than any other group on hair products, and many times, a lot of these products don’t even work on our hair! It doesn’t have to be like this.
I’m collecting data for a potential new service that would make the hair industry more equitable for Black women by saving us money and simplifying the process of taking care of our natural hair. I’d appreciate your response to my quick survey about the natural hair journey and the money spent along the way:
Natural hair product usage survey
Stay tuned — I’m hoping to have more to share very soon.
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Hi Ashley: This link with the anchor text "So many other factors" https://campus.edu/blog/cosmetology/how-to-determine-your-hair-type#curlpatterns needs to be changed to https://campus.edu/blog/cosmetology/how-to-determine-your-hair-type if possible. The school got acquired and the old domain is going away. Thank you so much.