Smooth coils and/or kinky coils (pics) - What do you have?

[FlowerHair]

I have kinky curls that have a myriad of different curl sizes and bends on each strand. One strand can start out straight, be tightly curled for while then bend in the shape of an L and then be wavy towards the end.

I don't have the type of uniform spirals that many 4a's have that just spring back to the same shape if pulled. If I pull my hair long enough, the curl drops/straightens. I think that's also due to my thick, stiff strands.

One day I'll take some pics without product...but that would mean I'd have to wash my hair right away again directly afterwards and that's a lot of work...

 

[SEMO]

I'm too scared to let my hair airdry with no product (I don't do WNGs) ! Talk about a tangled mess! But I'm willing to try one day...
I have kinks not curls. I also have fine strands, medium density (borders on large), 4b texture cottony (no real definition) / kinky coils in the middle, 4a size satiny spirals at the nape.

I understand. I do wash n' go's but I've never let my hair air dry with no product on it. All the no product pics I have are on freshly washed/rinsed hair that is still soaking wet. Then I proceed to put product on my hair.

I'm not even sure what my hair would look like. I have a really, really dry patch of hair at the back. So I've never wanted to not put product on my hair. But I think I will do this, just to see what happens. I can always re-wet it and add products.

eta:
Okay so I decided to try it out. The first two pics are how my hair looks air dried with product. The middle pic is my hair wet with no product in it (after a deep conditioner treatment). And the last two pics are my hair air dried with no product.

It seems that without product my hair dries up funny, and to all kinds of different lengths(I don't know what was going on with that one really long piece of hair ). I would have to stretch my hair out to camoflague it. I don't think I'll be going the no product route anytime soon.

Just to note:
The only manipulation I did was using my Goody jojoba paddle brush to detangle in the shower. It kinda made my hair form waves in the back.

 

[tocktick]

I have kinky curls that have a myriad of different curl sizes and bends on each strand. One strand can start out straight, be tightly curled for while then bend in the shape of an L and then be wavy towards the end.

I don't have the type of uniform spirals that many 4a's have that just spring back to the same shape if pulled. If I pull my hair long enough, the curl drops/straightens. I think that's also due to my thick, stiff strands.

One day I'll take some pics without product...but that would mean I'd have to wash my hair right away again directly afterwards and that's a lot of work...

A lot of my coils don't spring back either. The smaller ones tend to spring back but the bigger ones will stay elongated if I pull them. My hair "moulds" easily to manipulation. When I used to do flat-twists, I could take them out after 30 secs and my hair would have pretty much taken on that the flat-twist out texture. No clue if that's unusual though.

 

[vainღ♥♡jane]

i think i have a bit of both. my coils were smooth most of the time, and kinky when i was somewhere with hard water. the last pic shows my coils kinky with hard water.​

 

[FlowerHair]

A lot of my coils don't spring back either. The smaller ones tend to spring back but the bigger ones will stay elongated if I pull them. My hair "moulds" easily to manipulation. When I used to do flat-twists, I could take them out after 30 secs and my hair would have pretty much taken on that the flat-twist out texture. No clue if that's unusual though.

I think it is unusual
My hair moulds easily too!

 

[MsGoody531]

Oh... GREAT... If someone could tell me what is on MY head.. It would help me out ALOT...

After being in the sewin for almost 3 years.. When wet, I was terrifed that I had NO LENGTH... Cause it looked like the attached pics, but then the FLAT IRON BLESSED my hair and that calmed my fears. I didn't even realize hair could shrink that much after I saw mine.. I know I don't Look APL lengthat at all..

I am so glad I am not alone..

 

[BlaqBella]

I think my hair is pretty weird. It forms a lot of kinky spiral/curls on the sides and at the back. The crown area is textured, but straight. I classify it as kinky curly, 4a. It's definitely not smooth. I know exactly what you mean by smooth though.

Wet hair no product










Semi Dry



Dry w/product

Weird??? Girl your hair is lovely!!

 

[ladylibra]

This is a spinoff on the curly/kinky/coily thread. My hair is primarily cottony in overall appearance. But there are a couple of sections that want to act differently.

One section is where devil's horns would be, on either side of my head. This tiny section can make perfect spirals:

The hair at my nape is different. I've always known this, but since joining hair boards, I've paid more attention. That hair wants to clump up to form kinky spiral curl, though it usually doesn't do a good job of it. Every once in a blue moon with enough conditioner and minimal combing, though, it will. You can see bends along the length, like the famous Teri's curls, and unlike the perfect coils above.

So what do you find on your head? Smooth spirals/waves/curls? Or kinky ones?

Both, I think...

Interesting post mwedzi... your head is a lot like my son's! He has that perfectly-coiled texture at his "devil's horns" and what I call the knot at the back of his head.

Silvergirl's hair seems like it would classify as smooth. I'm thinking because her curls are so defined and frizz free even w/o product. Mine would be extremely poofy and frizzy.

Wow, look at that pretty coil. It reminds me so much of a pen coil. Your hair is amazing mwedzi.

I guess my hair is kinda smooth spirals/curls/waves but I think my curls are highly textured and frizzy so I'm not sure I'd classify them as smooth. Actually I think I'm unclear of what would classify as smooth coils, any examples?

Well, that seals it. My 3c hair is not smooth - without product, it's poofy, frizzy and huge. The 4a hair would be closer to smooth coils - with or without product, they look and feel the same. But "smooth" and "silky" are not the same. I would classify my hair as thready - it's definitely soft, but not silky.

 

[Nonie]

If I do not disturb my hair but just wash it let it be, it forms coils/kinks/naps/small curls that look like this:

When I disturb it by combing it, it looks like wool, a cloud:

 

[silvergirl]

i soo dont agree, sry ladylibra lol. but i either have the rarest 4a hair in the world or i have 3c hair. the very back half of my hair is pencil sized curls and the top half are mostly bigger curls. the majority of 4a hair i see doesnt look like mine at all with product, with product my hair tends to look like 3b sized curls. and my hair without product is what 4a might look like after product is added. i really cant believe that every 3c is poofy without definition because mine isnt, unless i do something to make it so.

thats would be like saying all type 1 hair is smooth, or all type 4 hair is kinky. it just isnt....

maybe our definition of smooth and silky are different , in my posts when i mentioned smooth i was referring to the silkiness of the strand, the shiny apperance, defined curl pattern an whatnot...

ETA: oh sry (again) ladylibra.. i just reread ur post an realized u were talking about ur own hair. i totally missed where u said "my 3c hair"...... pls dont hate me ... lol

 

[SoAnxious12]

my hair is very fine and very silky and unless I totally undo my curl pattern (excessive brushing, combing or blow out) I always have defined curls/coils. I wish I had a pic of my towel dried hair co-washing, the curls are practically the same w/ product.

 

[Ediese]

my hair is very fine and very silky and unless I totally undo my curl pattern (excessive brushing, combing or blow out) I always have defined curls/coils. I wish I had a pic of my towel dried hair co-washing, the curls are practically the same w/ product.

Very pretty texture! Your curls/coils look similiar to mine when wet, but your hair is silky/fine while mine is kinky/coarse.

 

[TaraDyan]

I have combo hair ... in every way:

• Curl size: front and sides are 3c / back is 4a
• Strand size: front and sides are fine / back is medium
• Texture: front and sides are smooth and silky / back is kinky and frizzy in texture

Dry hair with product (pulled back into a ponytail, the 3C curls overlap the 4a ones):

 

[yamilee21]

What would a smooth coil look like?

I guess like the first picture Mwedzi posted... the curl going all one way, instead of bending and going in another direction at one or more points.

 

[aquajoyice]

You have Beautiful hair! I have like 3 different textures in my hair. The front has a looser curl pattern that can even be described as waves, the middle are straight up coils that are thick and prone to becoming frizzy, the back of my head has smaller coils that roll up. I'm currently texlaxed but on a stretch and this is what I see at 15 weeks post. I'll come back and re-post when I hit 6 month mark.

 

[LynnieB]

My hair is kinky and the only time it looks not-as-kinky is when doing Teri's method. It also molds very, very easily and if in twists, braids or rollersetting it will have a tendency to straighten it out.

Teri's method results:
http://public.fotki.com/IsItOnlyHair/textureshair-typing-/fleeing-curosities-/soulglo6.html
http://public.fotki.com/IsItOnlyHair/textureshair-typing-/fleeing-curosities-/coil.html
http://public.fotki.com/IsItOnlyHair/textureshair-typing-/fleeing-curosities-/soulglo.html

The orange shirt is wet, conditioned, detangled hair taken out of the bantu knot for the pic.

Yellow shirt is freshly shampooed, not conditioned, no leave-in. It dries into a big frizzy, s-wave, coily dandelion.

I have no idea if it's cottony or thready and there's a mix of med. and thick strands and definitely some real wiry ones too. The back is alot kinkier than the front and has more "texture" to the strands.

 

[snillohsss]

Im not sure what mine are. They can frizz out pretty easily. Other times, they are quite defined.

I am going to say mine are kinky smooth!

 

[NerdSauce]

All of my hair either looks like the hair in your first picture, or the hair in your last one. I think the bulk of my hair is like the hair in your last one.. It wants to coil, but can be disrupted by combing, and it sometimes forms those weird bends. I have no z-shaped strands, but I do have some that are randomly larger in diameter.

 

[Platinum]

There are so many beautiful heads of hair in this thread. Great job, ladies!

I cannot give a clear definition of what my hair is like because I haven't seen my natural hair in almost 30 years. I'm transitioning now (14 1/2 weeks post right now) so I'm totally excited about going natural. I did a few 6 months stretches before but I don't think I can give an accurate answer until I have more NG or become completely natural.

Keep up the good work, Everyone! I'll be back in 6 months to a year with my answer and a few pics.

ETA: I haven't relaxed my nape since Nov.'08 and that texture seems similiar to Nonie's.

 

[DDTexlaxed]

OMG! Gorgeous hair, ladies!

 

[Nonie]

I guess like the first picture Mwedzi posted... the curl going all one way, instead of bending and going in another direction at one or more points.

Does someone have coils that bend and go in different directions?

Do you mean like how a phone coil sometimes appears to have some of the coils bend in a different way instead of following the same pattern? Isn't that from manipulation?

 

[ladylibra]

^^^No, I think mwedzi and others are saying that is the pattern the hair naturally follows without manipulation.

ETA: oh sry (again) ladylibra.. i just reread ur post an realized u were talking about ur own hair. i totally missed where u said "my 3c hair"...... pls dont hate me ... lol

No problem, I was just going to reply and say, "No I was just speaking for my crazy hair!" Certainly not all hair is exactly the same.

 

[Nonie]

^^^No, I think mwedzi and others are saying that is the pattern the hair naturally follows without manipulation.

Someone asked what is the difference between smooth coil and kinky coil and I realized too I didn't really know. The response was a smooth coil goes in one way instead of bending this way and that way. So I wondered what that looks like. My hair coils but if I try to make it stand upright it will flop ie bend. But the hairs follow the same pattern so that if you were looking at the ones say along the edges that can hang down, they would appear not to bend at all and to go the same direction.

Since I understand kinky to be small curls, I thought kinky coils were tiny coils and then smooth coils were just coils that aren't kinky small like yours.

 

[Ms_CoCo37]

I'm still trying to figure my hair out. The whole back half and sides are like the pic in my siggy, but the crown is thicker and all over the placeerplexed

 

[Ozma]

I hope you can tell me. My curls have no definition and little discernible pattern in some places.

This is my dry hair with whipped gelly and water.

 

[dynamic1]

My hair has a little of everything. I have smooth tiny spirals (4a), kinky spirals (3c/4a)...some are satiny and others thready. Unfortunately, I have very different types sitting right next to each other with sections of 3b along the back perimeter and dead smack in the middle of my hook. They do not play nicely together. Some of the spirals are shiny without product while others are frizzy or cottony. Some of the looser sections are not uniform all the way down without manipulation. If I put gel or leave in in those sections the spiral curls become more uniform.

 

[ladylibra]

Someone asked what is the difference between smooth coil and kinky coil and I realized too I didn't really know. The response was a smooth coil goes in one way instead of bending this way and that way. So I wondered what that looks like. My hair coils but if I try to make it stand upright it will flop ie bend. But the hairs follow the same pattern so that if you were looking at the ones say along the edges that can hang down, they would appear not to bend at all and to go the same direction.

Since I understand kinky to be small curls, I thought kinky coils were tiny coils and then smooth coils were just coils that aren't kinky small like yours.

Ah. Well... I took it to mean a "smooth coil" in that respect is more like a spiral curl (only tighter). As opposed to a coil that twists back and forth, not in a perfect spiral.

Disregard the other post, I dunno what that was about.

 

[Kirei]

I think my hair is pretty weird. It forms a lot of kinky spiral/curls on the sides and at the back. The crown area is textured, but straight. I classify it as kinky curly, 4a. It's definitely not smooth. I know exactly what you mean by smooth though.

Wet hair no product










Semi Dry



Dry w/product

Shut up!!! You so like stole my hair texture! I have a hair twin!! *I'm doing a dance*

I will have to find a pic ofmy hair wet and post for you, it look exactly the same!

 

[RedVelvet310]

I have a mixture of smooth and kinky coils. The front and side are smooth(ish) 3c coils, the back is kinky 4a coils. When I say "smooth" it's pretty relative, not as smooth as some of the pictures posted here, but in comparison to the kinky coils, their pretty damn smooth

 

[aa9746]

Kinky coils