Saturday, January 10, 2009

Getting it straight: Coarse vs. Fine


Tara asks, " Why does my friends type 4 hair get straighter and stay straighter than my type 3 hair if we use the same heat setting?"

Hey Tara,
The outcome of your results actually have more to do with your hair texture, rather than the type.
You may be surprised to learn that your hair is likely more coarse than your friends. That is, the measure of the circumference of your hair strand is larger than hers. Coarse hair is stronger and less susceptible to damage. It tends to resist processing and straightening.
Conversely, fine hair is very easy to process and is most susceptible to damage from chemical, heat and daily styling. Medium or normal hair doesn't carry any special tendencies (so lucky).
One person can have a mixture of textures on separate areas of their head. You can also find the various textures throughout all hair types. However, a large percentage of type 4's commonly fall into the fine-normal category. Of course, we all know of some exceptions.