Can you tell the diff between a braidout and natural curly hair?

[blasianbeauty]

If so, what is the dead giveaway?

 

[Sugar Brown]

If so, what is the dead giveaway?

depends...do u mean a braidout on relaxed hair or natural hair?

the more I think about it - you ladies might be able to tell the difference but folx irl never could. when I was relaxed I did twist outs with the ends set on rods and everyone swore that was my natural texture even as the waves and curls fell more and more every day.

now, I do the same twistouts on my natural hair. I don't ever pretend about the true natural texture of my hair, but friends swear up and down that my hair must not be as kinky-peasy-curly as theirs even as they watch my hair shrink up more and more every day. by day 4 my hair is a twa again, but I still get the same natural texture compliments after a fresh twist-out.

to be honest I can't always tell the difference between a twist-out and naturally curly hair either. there are so many variations of the same hair texture walking around that I don't even bother to try.

 

[JustKiya]

Usually, the textures will change at the roots if it's a natural braidout - at least that is what I have noticed. Relaxed braidouts are usually 'flattish' - they don't have as much 3D volume as naturally curly hair would.

 

[blasianbeauty]

depends...do u mean a braidout on relaxed hair or natural hair?

On relaxed hair vs. someone who has "natural curly" hair. What are the giveaways that makes you know that that is not their real hair texture?

 

[Qt girl]

On relaxed hair the ends never quite blend with the texture. Also if there is NG it can sometimes be noticeable.

 

[MekyakaKinkerbelle]

JustKiya pretty much hit the nail on the head. Braid-outs on natural hair tend not to have as much volume as naturally curly hair.

In addition, the ends don't look the same. With naturally curly hair, there is usually so coil, curl, kink or what have you at the end of the hair. This will look different on a braid out with relaxed hair.

 

[nnmiles]

Well, my braidouts, (although I'm natural) definitely look like I've done something. My ends are usually straight because I use to be so addicted to flat ironing. But I like the straight ends, I'm learning to love my hair.

 

[JustKiya]

Now I'm thinking about this more - there are a lot of giveaways - I think if you did small braids on relaxed hair, and perm-rodded the ends, that might be the best way to fake out naturally curly - but then, you've got to get rid of all the part lines without messing up the curls (another braidout giveaway)

 

[blasianbeauty]

On relaxed hair the ends never quite blend with the texture. Also if there is NG it can sometimes be noticeable.

Now see, I thought that having new growth with relaxed hair would help aiding the braidout to look more "natural".

 

[*KP*]

Now I'm thinking about this more - there are a lot of giveaways - I think if you did small braids on relaxed hair, and perm-rodded the ends, that might be the best way to fake out naturally curly - but then, you've got to get rid of all the part lines without messing up the curls (another braidout giveaway)

To get around this, I don't part with a comb. I kind of do a messy part with just my fingers.

 

[LongiLox]

On a braidout, the wave pattern will get smaller towards the end and are larger closer to the roots. This is due to how the hair is braided. Think of a single french braid; the braid is larger closer to the roots and gets smaller towards the ends of the braid.

 

[Pheonixx]

I'd imagine you could tell by looking at the ends. Maybe.

I don't know. I tend to braid in small squares. And I finger comb...if you can call it that.
People have confused my braid-outs for naturally curly hair.
I don't know how though. I guess because I wear the hair in a french roll. All they see are waves...so I suppose that's why they're confused.

 

[JustKiya]

And of course, also, what a 'normal' person would see as naturally curly hair vs. braid-out, us LHCF 's might be able to peg it for an assortment of random reasons.

 

[me-T]

nobody outside of hairforums that i know of see undone braids as a style, lol. unless its a guy who took out his braids, on the way back to get 'em redone

 

[blasianbeauty]

On a braidout, the wave pattern will get smaller towards the end and are larger closer to the roots. This is due to how the hair is braided. Think of a single french braid; the braid is larger closer to the roots and gets smaller towards the ends of the braid.

So if the wave pattern is the same down to the ends, then it would look more natural? I guess doing that and using rods on the ends to give it some curl instead of being straight - and also making sure that the roots aren't straight either, they have to hav e texture as well.

 

[blasianbeauty]

And of course, also, what a 'normal' person would see as naturally curly hair vs. braid-out, us LHCF 's might be able to peg it for an assortment of random reasons.

You got that right!! I think that naturals can easily detect the differences between the two as well.

 

[Neith]

It's very easy for me to tell with naturals and relaxed people usually.

It's simple... braid outs and twist outs don't produce coils and curls... they produce crinkles and waves.

"Crinkle" is not a natural hair type.

The waves usually don't look like "real" type 2 hair either. The waves don't clump up the way naturally wavy hair does. They also aren't uniform enough to look natural either.
​

 

[blasianbeauty]

It's very easy for me to tell with naturals and relaxed people usually.

It's simple... braid outs and twist outs don't produce coils and curls... they produce crinkles and waves.

"Crinkle" is not a natural hair type.

The waves usually don't look like "real" type 2 hair either. The waves don't clump up the way naturally wavy hair does. They also aren't uniform enough to look natural either.
​

Thanks for the breakdown. Question - isn't 4A hair "crinkled"? If a braidout is done with small braids, it would blend in just fine, right? So, a finger combed twist-out or bantu knot set that is done in small increments is easily detectable as well? Thanks.

 

[glamazon386]

Yes.. a braidout creates more of a crinkle and not a curl. Also it'll look totally uniform (each crinkle will look the same, be the same size, etc.) and like it's been set when it's first done. Then after a few days it'll start to look different. Naturally curly hair will continue to look the same and it won't be completely and perfectly uniform. It'll just form clumps naturally.

 

[glamazon386]

Thanks for the breakdown. Question - isn't 4A hair "crinkled"? If a braidout is done with small braids, it would blend in just fine, right? So, a finger combed twist-out or bantu knot set that is done in small increments is easily detectable as well? Thanks.

No... 4a is a small curl.

 

[Gigi-07]

There is a very clear difference between the two to me.

Braidouts are crinkly/wavy/crimp-like

Natural hair is, 9 times out of ten, much more curly in texture (Unless you are a type 2)

 

[kblc06]

It's very easy for me to tell with naturals and relaxed people usually.

It's simple... braid outs and twist outs don't produce coils and curls... they produce crinkles and waves.

"Crinkle" is not a natural hair type.

The waves usually don't look like "real" type 2 hair either. The waves don't clump up the way naturally wavy hair does. They also aren't uniform enough to look natural either.
​

Well what if you naturally have an S-wave hair pattern (even the kinkiest sections of my hair have an S type formation, but many sections are looser than others. Someone else who comes to mind is zzirving and silvergirl) erplexed

There are some parts of my hair that look like the girl in the 1st pic Gigi posted above me

 

[Neith]

Crinkles dont truly resemble waves, not natural waves anyway.
Natural type 2's clump similar to type 3 hair when the waves are defined.

I dunno, for me it's fairly easy to see that the braid out waves aren't formed by nature. It MIMICS wavy har, but truly doesnt look like naturally wavy hair if you really compare them.

Sometimes, I really cant tell and it's usually with a really well done set on type 2 or 3 hair. Most of the time it doesn't fool me.

A braid out just doesn't usually look natural. No one's hair naturally grows into crinkles and zigzags. That's why we call it "curl pattern" curls are "round"... they dont have sharp bends.

4b is litte undefined COILS, not crinkles.

 

[MizAvalon]

There is a very clear difference between the two to me.

Braidouts are crinkly/wavy/crimp-like

Natural hair is, 9 times out of ten, much more curly in texture (Unless you are a type 2)

And there you have it.

 

[Sui Topi]

I can tell by the roots. Unless the person did tiny tiny braids that start at the scalp, you can generally see where the hair poofed up and then there is one sharp bend where the braid started.

 

[BostonMaria]

I can tell right away. I think it looks pretty on both naturals and people that relax their hair. I think I would think it was weird if somebody pretended that were their natural texture, but who the heck would do that? They'd be lying to themselves not me. Anyway I think it looks cute. I've done it once since being natural because I wanted to see if I could retain some length, but nope that didn't happen LOL

 

[1QTPie]

On relaxed hair vs. someone who has "natural curly" hair. What are the giveaways that makes you know that that is not their real hair texture?

roots, ends and the flatness. (Unless they have highly textured hair.)

 

[1QTPie]

The closest I've seen relaxed hair look like "curly" and kinky natural hair was a straw set that was frizzed out. So yeah, the lack of frizz is another indicator.

 

[Eisani]

I can tell, but it surprises me how many can't. A lot people ask about pics in my Fotki. I purposely added both braid out and WnG pics so people can see the difference. They're labeled as well. Maybe it's because I'm transitioning from texlaxed it's harder to tell...not sure.