The reason I don't like hair-typing (not quite a rant)

[peony]

So, I know that hair typing has some usefulness but to my mind it isn't as useful as we might think. Actually, it reminds me of make-up foundation. What do I mean by that? Most mainstream make up companies have a handful of brown shades, and ones geared towards women of color may have a dozen. But we all know that none of them come close to covering the wide range of colors we have from ivory, to cinnamon, to ebony and everything in-between with different undertones, shades, etc. Even custom blended foundation is rarely an exact match. erplexed

I think our hair has the same diversity as our coloring, and being on this board for a couple of months has shown me that more than ever. It makes sense. Given our diverse ancestries: all the ethnicities of continental Africa, American Indian tribes, South and East Asian nationalities, and Europeans that have been part of our geneaology- the results for our hair are reasonably as diverse as our colors. 5, 8, or even 12 categories don't even cover all the textures in my family let alone all of African Americans, or people of African descent generally! So while there may be general guidelines for each category, they can't come close to explaining all that you ned to know about your hair. Because of this I don't think we should ever expect anyone to know our hair as well as we do, even if we can benefit from professional knowledge. Okay, stream of consciousness done.

 

[bludaydreamr]

ITA theses are very good points.

 

[Neith]

Yep... I was saying the same exact thing in anther thread today

I do see how it can help people to know their hair and techniques/products that helps their type of hair...

However, its impossible to type each exact type. There is TOO MUCH diversity across ALL types.

There are literally billions of unique hair types. Every head of hair is different. Even though some heads are similar, you almost never get an exact match.

Just like skin color

It should just be used as a basic guideline imo.

 

[Ramya]

I have yet to see a member who fit the textbook definition of a hair type. Mine doesn't fit either. I just accept all of it the way it is and try not to make it mad

 

[blessedandlucky]

So, I know that hair typing has some usefulness but to my mind it isn't as useful as we might think. Actually, it reminds me of make-up foundation. What do I mean by that? Most mainstream make up companies have a handful of brown shades, and ones geared towards women of color may have a dozen. But we all know that none of them come close to covering the wide range of colors we have from ivory, to cinnamon, to ebony and everything in-between with different undertones, shades, etc. Even custom blended foundation is rarely an exact match. erplexed

I think our hair has the same diversity as our coloring, and being on this board for a couple of months has shown me that more than ever. It makes sense. Given our diverse ancestries: all the ethnicities of continental Africa, American Indian tribes, South and East Asian nationalities, and Europeans that have been part of our geneaology- the results for our hair are reasonably as diverse as our colors. 5, 8, or even 12 categories don't even cover all the textures in my family let alone all of African Americans, or people of African descent generally! So while there may be general guidelines for each category, they can't come close to explaining all that you ned to know about your hair. Because of this I don't think we should ever expect anyone to know our hair as well as we do, even if we can benefit from professional knowledge. Okay, stream of consciousness done.

agreed! and, i'll also go ahead and say there's a hierarchy when it comes to hair types as well and that just contributes to divisiveness in the black community.

 

[Tene]

I agree with this.

 

[beans4reezy]

I agree as well. I've never seen the importance of hair typing in my journey.

 

[Sapphire_chic]

nice post i agree

 

[dachsies_rule!]

LeobodyC5 recently posted a video about how hair typing seems to be just another way to divide our race. I thought it was an interesting view.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbj6u8oC7uQ

 

[isabella09]

Great post. I agree with you and only use it as a general guideline as I find hair typing confusing once it starts to sub-categorize each type and somewhat unnecessary to an extent. I’m varying degrees of 4 something depending upon which section of my hair you look at (being a type 4 something is good enough for me). To be honest, not knowing my specific type in each section of my hair hasn’t hindered my regimen in anyway but knowing the characteristics of type 4 hair and its requirements (moisture/protein balance etc) has helped me enormously.

 

[prettybyrd]

agreed! and, i'll also go ahead and say there's a hierarchy when it comes to hair types as well and that just contributes to divisiveness in the black community.

I totally agree with this! There are women who feel stigmatized by the classification that they receive in the scale, as though one is better than the other.

However, I can't pretend that it's just some socialization issue those women need to get over, because the language used to describe coarser hair is often derogatory.

When you read the language used in the classification descriptions, "kinky" hair is clearly being written about as though it was the "step-child" hair type. I can read it and say, "whatever...that's bunk", but imagine someone whose self-esteem isn't that high, or perhaps she grew up hearing derogatory comments about her hair. It won't be so easy for her to dismiss that language and appreciate her hair "type" <not that she should ever have to!

Wow...there is a whole Psychology of Black Women's Hair issue to be explored here. This is not an easy issue to address succintly.

 

[fyb87]

ITA....I personally don't believe in hair typing. Typing has nothing to do in my opinion with finding out which products to use. Hair texture, thickness and porosity are the ways to determine which products. One person my have type 3 hair, but it's fine, thin and porous. However, another 3c may have coarse, thick and low porous hair. They would most likely NOT use the same products. Curl typing is only really determining the size of the curls only when you think about it.