Is Hair Typing Necessary? What Does it Do Exactly?

Hair typing is useful for having a starting point in knowing what is likely to work and not work for your hair. Knowing your hair type will not be the answer to solving all your hair issues, but it is indeed a start.

There are many DIY recipes, hair products and techniques that are great for the health of hair regardless of the typing system. However, there is a reason why generally speaking women with looser curl types may find wash n go styles easy in comparison to tightly coiled naturals who may find it to be too much work.

Different types of hair require different care. This is why having a system to categorize types is useful.

Hair typing is limited in that it cannot account for the vast variation within the hair types. No two heads of hair are alike, so even though two people may fall into the category of 4C hair it does not mean that every single technique or product will work for both individuals.

How thick your strands are and porosity type (knowing this is equally important) is not factored into hair typing; it simply describes your curl pattern.

There are many women that do not like the concept of hair typing because they believe it creates division among women. Some believe that it encourages the idea that one hair type is better than another. Unfortunately, many people still do pedal the “good hair” mentality, but hair typing doesn’t do this, people do.

Healthy hair is good hair.

Use hair typing to get the basics of how to maintain your hair, products that are more likely to give you the results you are looking for and styling techniques. The categorization the hair typing system uses simplifies the process in targeting advice and connecting with others that understand your particular hair challenges.

You will still experiment with products and there will still be some things that maybe don’t work for you but work for someone else with a similar hair type, which is all a part of the journey.