I’m done with hair typing.
It’s a waste of time.
I can’t swear that my hair is a 4a, 4b or whatever. All I know is that I love my hair and it’s growing. Whether it’s 4a with some defined curls or 4b with cottony clouds, what it comes down to is that my hair is hype regardless of what hair typing system exists.
Now that I’m two years into this natural hair journey, I can honestly say, I’ve found no real use in hair typing. Good tips are good tips no matter who shares them. Good products may or may not work on my hair – not because my hair is better or worse than someone else’s, but because my hair is different and unique to me.
So, starting today, I am not mentioning any hair type – well, it’s not like I mention hair type regularly anyway because it hasn’t added anything to the conversation. As far as I’m concerned, it’s another way for Black people to separate ourselves: my hair is better than your hair because I have 4a hair and you have 4b hair.
Whatever.
Hair is hair and it’s good because it grows out of your scalp. If you care it and find out what it likes, it will grow. If you disregard it and plaster any type of product that doesn’t agree with it, it will break.
And that’s the same for all hair types.
The Accidental Natural 
Amen to that! Foolishness that we allow others to define us by and then decide we should just go along with it…such nonsense!
I truly enjoying reading your blog to get my naptural hair fix. Don’t be discouraged. It is ridiculous the seperation. Ironically, this past week I read an article of veteran napturals who have issue with newer napturals….*smh*. Are you kidding me?
Couldn’t agree more!!! It helps to some extent, but it doesn’t solve any of the hair issues you had if it wasn’t around & so widely used.
I think hair typing helped me in the beginning because the “expert” who was helping me find products for my daughter was insisting that her hair was 3a/3b without seeing her first and giving me products that weren’t doing a thing for her hair. When I pointed to a picture of 4a and said “um, I think this is it” he told me I was wrong (I don’t spend my money there anymore.)
Once I started buying hair products aimed at type 4 hair I was seeing better results. So in that way I think me learning the hair types helped me understand her hair a lot better and what it needs.
But now the more I hear about it the more confused I am. I see pictures of 4a kids and her hair looks nothing like theirs. I see pictures of 3c kids and her hair looks nothing like theirs. And for a while it got me a bit upset because I would see “4a” kids with long spirals going down their back and I’d look at my daughter of the same age and wonder why her hair was still growing out rather than down. And I thought maybe I was doing something wrong. I got caught up in what was right for what hair type.
Now I’m trying to stay away from it. One kids 4a is not my daughter’s 4a and I just need to find what’s right for her by trial and error.
Thanks for the comments, ladies! At first, I thought it would be a great idea to know what products work for my texture… but like Shan pointed out one 4a isn’t always like another 4a. I think once you know your hair’s characteristics, you can choose products that work rather than relying on someone’s typing system. From what I see, God only knows what type of hair I have because depending on the day, the humidity and what I’ve used to wash it/condition it, it can be a variation of a bunch of types.
I agree with Shan. For newbie naturals who are constantly flooded with info I think typing helps to get them get started, once, they figure out what products work for them, then yeah you’re right, it doesn’t really matter. JMO.
savvy brown
http://savvybrown.com
In some respects, for newbies, sure, I can see the value. But I find that typing is so loaded with the politics of hair. It goes from truly trying to figure out how to manage your hair to a hair hierarchy where hair that is less curly is frown upon. Now, I haven’t seen that on my blog or on the blogs that I read, but I’ve seen in it the so-called hair idols that are featured online and some of the hair boards. I remember reading way back when I first went natural someone comparing 4b hair with scab hair. Really? I just don’t think many people use typing the right way – a lot of people are using it to say, my hair is better than yours. That’s what really annoys me about hair typing, not the typing itself.