Not so New but Need a little guidance....

itskinababy

Hey guys any help would be great...

I am new to this forum but not new to hair care so I just need a little guidance so I can know which path I need to take.

I am on year semi-big chop I cut all the back off and portion from the front was short so I can have a layered bang and my hair has been growing and I'm loving the new me.

I think I fall in a 3b/c family not sure so if anyone can look at my AVI and tell me your opinion that would be great.

I have sent my hair collection in so I'm waiting for the results of the prosperity but in the meantime this is some of the things about my hair I have observed overtime.

My hair is fine, but not drying under my new care and regimen.
I have been co-washing daily (just trying something for the summer) and deep cleansing every 7 days.

As a protective style (which is my current struggle) I have experienced TONS of shedding NOT BREAKAGE and I know its normal but ALL MY LIFE the amount of shedding I experience from braids/weave is excessive so I assume my hair don't like a lot of manipulation.

I am still trying to figure my hair out and prepare myself with a steady styling regimen for when fall hits so if anyone could kindly chime in and tell me what they think my hair type is that would be greatly appreciated.

The back of my hair is in it's natural state after wash n conditioning; the back is curly and the front/side pieces still need to be cut but the straggly pieces are the parts that were for my bang when my hair was much shorter but will be cut once I continue to grow out my hair.

Jessica.Wile

I'd say you're mostly 3c. Maybe between 3b & 3c in some spots, but certainly 3c. I'm in the same boat. But that only tells you your curl pattern/size of your curls, not what products will work for your hair. There's texture, porosity, and density to consider for that. You can figure out your porosity at home, if you'd like. Take a clean strand of hair and place it in a glass of water. After no more than 30 minutes, floating = low porosity, sunk to the bottom = high porosity, and floating in the middle = normal porosity. If you're having that much breakage, it may be due to the transitioning parts of your hair. It's very weak. Or you may need more protein? Try a DIY masque like this one: https://youtu.be/MQ_RnB_FbuM. A store bought one may be too strong if you don't need protein, so better safe than sorry. I highly recommend that masque, btw. Amazing. Myself (wash & go's) and the ladies below are 3c, if it'll help.

naturecat

The porosity test on this website is not reliable unfortunately. The only true way to tell definitively is a hair analysis, but a simpler way that many here on this site use: on bare freshly washed hair (no product), less than 2 hours to dry = high porosity, between 2-6 = medium porosity, and 6+ hours = low porosity.

Jessica.Wile

This is another wash & go, but with gel in my hair. It makes my hair look more 3b than 3c when dry.

Jessica.Wile

naturecat wrote: »

The porosity test on this website is not reliable unfortunately. The only true way to tell definitively is a hair analysis, but a simpler way that many here on this site use: on bare freshly washed hair (no product), less than 2 hours to dry = high porosity, between 2-6 = medium porosity, and 6+ hours = low porosity.

I like that idea better. I guess I'm a medium porosity.

naturecat

Jessica.Wile wrote: »

This is another wash & go, but with gel in my hair. It makes my hair look more 3b than 3c when dry.

Your hair is ridiculously gorgeous no matter what you do with it. Your post interests me because I remember 3Bs asking how to be more 3C and 3Cs asking how to get their hair more 3B. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that it wasn't possible, but you're the first person I've seen who can do it.

Jessica.Wile

naturecat wrote: »

Jessica.Wile wrote: »

This is another wash & go, but with gel in my hair. It makes my hair look more 3b than 3c when dry.

Your hair is ridiculously gorgeous no matter what you do with it. Your post interests me because I remember 3Bs asking how to be more 3C and 3Cs asking how to get their hair more 3B. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that it wasn't possible, but you're the first person I've seen who can do it.

You're quickly becoming my favorite person on this board. Lol Thank you, AGAIN! And I was definitely one of those people. Not because I want 3b hair, but because parts of my hair sometimes look 3b and I can never recreate what I did. I'm told hair type is what your hair looks like dry and naked. It's 3c most days by that rule, but sometimes it's mostly 3b. What gives, right? After following Rachel True, another 3c'er, I'm thinking the climate influences my hair like it does hers. She says when she lived in a humid climate, which I do, her curls were much tighter. Now that she lives in a dry climate, her texture has completely changed. I attached pics. I think the gel combats the humidity where I live, so my curls don't shrink as much. And the random days it's 3b on its own, I think the humidity is lower. So, I concluded I'm 3c IN TEXAS. LoL

naturecat

Around here we consider hair type to go by products and styling, not bare hair so much. Products and styling don't make your hair something it is not; after all, a straight haired person can't get curl no matter how much product they use. There are some threads around here where people posted bare hair. Those were fun threads.

Jessica.Wile

naturecat wrote: »

Around here we consider hair type to go by products and styling, not bare hair so much. Products and styling don't make your hair something it is not; after all, a straight haired person can't get curl no matter how much product they use. There are some threads around here where people posted bare hair. Those were fun threads.

I hadn't heard that one. I can see that being true though! And for most cases, I think it is. I think they started the "bare & dry" hair idea for type 4's and maybe 3c's because our hair will do some crazy stuff. A lot of type 4's and 3c's braid their hair every night. When they take it down the next morning, the results look 3a-3c. Usually "twistouts" or "bantu knots" are used. Some are under the impression that however they're able to manipulate their hair is their curl pattern. So they may be 4b, but their braid/knot results look 3c...so that's their hair type to them. Kinda like if someone 2c flat ironed their hair everyday and claimed 1a. That's what some are doing. I think that's why they say don't do anything to your hair after washing it to avoid confusion. And I think the "dry" rule was created for the same reason. The same group has a TON of "shrinkage" and some hair type based on how loose their hair is while wet. If I hair typed while soaking wet, I'd be mostly 3b/3a and some 3c. After my hair dries, it's mostly 3c though. So there's some people with hair like mine saying they're 3a. I think "bare & dry" was created just to dumb it down. But between those two rules, I guess I'd be 3c/3b. I think that's a fair assessment.

naturecat

In a way that makes sense about bare and dry for tighter curl, because there will still be quite of curl even without product. Lots of 2s would I think go straight or much straighter without product. And much of the same is probably true for fine 3A curlies (for them maybe they'd go wavy). I can see tighter curl being more consistent. There's only one curly I've seen on youtube who doesn't use product, and her hair is ridiculously gorgeous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qFyDMEj1Sk
Yeah, you can type yourself either way. For myself as a fine curly my hair can go from 3a to 2b or even 2a depending on how badly I mess it up.