Coarse, Fine or What?

[Imani]

My stylist says I have medium-fine strands and I think thats pretty accurate. She also says I have alot of strands, however I don't agree, I'd say my density is medium. My hair is similar to Kimmaytube's but much kinkier.

There's different strand thicknesses all over my head, the crown/front is thicker, maybe closer to medium and on rare occasion I run into a strand up there that feels like it could be medium-coarse. When I was relaxed, that was the part of my hair that retained the most. Then the middle and back gets finer and finer, and I struggled HARD retaining in the back when I was relaxed, I'm talking oftentimes especially if I was overusing heat, it wouldn't get longer than 3-4 inches, and I don't mean the nape, I mean almost the entire back half of my head stayed broken off. Like another poster, this is why my hair usually ended up in a bob shape. I never got past SL until going natural.

I think this is an interesting topic. When I first joined hair boards I thought texture was the biggest thing driving how my hair responded to products/techniques. But I've found that strand size and porosity seem to matter more.

 

[*~*Afrolicious*~*]

I have fine hair and I am MBL. I keep my hair up 85% of the time and moisturize all the time.

 

[D.Lisha]

Medium coarse right here!

Sent from my iPod touch using LHCF

 

[MaraWithLove]

I voted coarse, that's what most of my strands are. However I do have medium strands in the back 1/3 of my head.

 

[ms.blue]

http://naturalhairinfo.com/1/post/2012/01/the-importance-of-your-hair-type-thickness.html

Reading this has me confused. I think my hair is medium strands that differ but according to this blog my hair is a mixture of mostly coarse and medium strands w/ a sprinkle of fine hair (around the temples). My friend who does my weaves said I have thick strands but not heavy density which now makes more sense.

 

[longhairdreaming]

I think the majority of my strands are medium with a few medium-fine and medium coarse sprinkled throughout.

 

[coolsista-paris]

i have fine hair. after being natural for 4 YEARS ive only understood that now...i always thought all black people had thick strands. well im correcting my mistakes and listening more to my hairs needs.

 

[PinkSunshine77]

My hair is thick, but I found that my hair's individual strands are fine.

 

[princessnad]

Fine strands. Medium to low density.
Sucks

 

[SmilingElephant]

WOW there's a lot of fine stranded individuals up in here according to the poll!

I've been examining and re-examining my strands this week and yeah...i'm medium-coarse...with medium/low density. The front and crown of my head is thinner than the back and sides of my head. The coarseness of my strands make my hair look thick. Yay secret agent hair!

 

[sweetypoo705]

I am a medium girlie

 

[mzteaze]

Definitely fine to medium fine hair here.

Explains why my weekly protein treatment works.

 

[Shay72]

I have fine hair. I didn't know that until I came to this board. I use a lot of protein in my reggie. My hair loves it.

 

[Lita]

I have combo hair..The front strands are med-fine the back center is fine-corse..The back sides are all the above...



Happy Hair Growing!

 

[coyacoy]

Fine hair checking in....i use protein weekly and biweekly henna....my hair needs it for strength otherwise it breaks off something terrible.

With that said i have been battling breakage off and on since december and have tried everything it seems to manage it but nothing has proved to be sustainable so i just purchased Komaza care's hair analysis service. I need to be certain of my hair type and exactly what condition it's in so the analysis is right on time .

Received the packet yesterday and will be mailing in my sample Tuesday. Can't wait to receive the report and recommendations!

 

[Meritamen]

I'm not to sure how thick my strands are... I think they are mostly medium around the majoity of my head and fine on the crown and edges (the hair there is very fraigle.)

 

[greenandchic]

Fine hair checking in....i use protein weekly and biweekly henna....my hair needs it for strength otherwise it breaks off something terrible.

With that said i have been battling breakage off and on since december and have tried everything it seems to manage it but nothing has proved to be sustainable so i just purchased Komaza care's hair analysis service. I need to be certain of my hair type and exactly what condition it's in so the analysis is right on time .

Received the packet yesterday and will be mailing in my sample Tuesday. Can't wait to receive the report and recommendations!

coyacoy - What kind of protein do you use? Is it possible that the breakage could be protein overload since you use it so often?

 

[cynd]

Thanks OP, this is very useful. I have very, very fine hair and very low density and I thought that would make it even harder to achieve length. Great to see so many on here have been successful. I'm still relatively new to all things hair and don't yet trust myself to recognize what's going on with my hair, but it seems to me that my hair doesn't like too much protein. I can get away with using moisturizers with protein but I always shed hair immediately after using Apoghee 2 min. for instance.

 

[youwillrise]

me to my hair: awwwww yeah baby, you're soooo fiiiiine
my hair to me: sorry for being so easily breakable ((sad face))
me to my hair: s'okay baby. it's always gonna be you and me and a little protein.



hahahaha....okay....i have too much time on my hands. someone give me something to damn do.

anyway...

i use a good amount of protein. i use a strong protein in the form of hydrolyzed keratin (diluted with water) as a spray every week on wash day. some of my other products also have some protein (silk protein, collagen). i do make sure i moisturize enough to balance it out, but my hair thrives on protein for sure.

 

[Embyra]

HMMMMM looking back at those pics my hair is def thicker than it is medium prob why i can rip through my hair without alot of damage

I read this and it makes alot of sense to me

People with fine hair have more hair follicles on their head. Thick hair covers a larger area so there are in fact fewer hair follicles on the head than with fine hair. Each hair follicle has its own natural oil supply. Since there are more fine hairs, fine hair has more oil sources. Thick hair produces the same amount of oil per follicle but thicker hair absorbs more oil and there are fewer oil follicles which means there is less oil production compared to a scalp with thin hair. As a result, thick hair is often described as 'dry' and fine hair is often described as 'oily'.


Explains why my hair will never be without me adding some kind of oil to it and other people like nonie can do just fine without hair oil or any product

 

[Embyra]

http://www.philipkingsley.co.uk/hair-types

really good article

 

[coyacoy]

coyacoy - What kind of protein do you use? Is it possible that the breakage could be protein overload since you use it so often?

Hi greenandchic...i don't think that's it since the breakage started when i was on a low/no protein reggie...the protein boost helped significantly with minimizing the breakage but honestly i think the splits had progressed more than i realized and when i trimmed it wasn't enough so they traveled up...now i am trimming a bit every week or every other week to get rid of them all which i think I've just about done...maybe another 2-3 trims and that should do it ....i use komaza care protein strengthener every couple of weeks and follow with a MC dc....i also use aubrey gpb and typically follow that with a MC dc as well...once all the splits are gone i'll really be able to gauge whether there is an issue with my reggie of if i just had too many damaged ends that needed to be cut....

 

[iri9109]

my hair is dense/think, but the strands are really fine.
it breaks/splits/ssk's very easily, esp. edges & nape, and i dont think i retain as well as i would if i had thicker/coarser strands.
my hair is picky about protein, but i try to use a light protein atleast every 2 weeks, and henna 1x a month.