Why should you know your hair type? Well, it pretty much determines your whole hair care routine and what products you should be using. Different hair types, textures, and porosities all require a different kind of care and it’s important that you’re doing the right thing for your locks. It saves you money and it saves you from having to try out numerous products to find one that suits your hair.

So, what is your hair type? Here are a few tricks you can use to figure that out.

Hair Type

Your hair type is the shape of your hair shaft. Straight hair has a circular follicle while curlier hair types have an oval shape. This is the easiest category to determine just by looking at your hair and seeing how it falls naturally.

Straight

You’ll know you have straight hair when your hair has absolutely no wave to it. It falls stick straight without any S-shapes in the strands.

Wavy

Wavy hair and curly hair can often be interchanged. One way to tell if you have wavy hair is to pick up a “curl” and see if it forms a ringlet or if it forms an S-shape. If it’s an S, then you’ve got wavy hair.

Curly

Curly hair will have those fully formed ringlets. To check if you have these, you can take a curl and see if it can naturally wrap around a lipstick tube or a pen without any manipulation. If you have bigger curls, try this on a bigger circumference such as a brush handle.

Coily

Coily hair is extremely tight curls that form z-shapes as opposed to loose ringlets. You’ll know if you have coily hair if you can wrap your curl around a knitting needle without any manipulation and if your hair seems to grow wider or taller as opposed to longer.

Hair Texture

Hair texture determines the actual thickness of one strand of hair. You can have either fine, thick, or coarse hair.

Fine

You can use the same test for each kind of hair texture. Simply pinch one strand between your fingers and run your fingers down gently so you don’t pull on the hair. If you can barely feel anything or don’t feel anything at all, you have fine hair.

Thick

For thick hair, you’ll know if you can feel the strand between your fingers. It will feel significant and noticeable but still smooth.

Coarse

Coarse hair will feel very thick and a little rough between your fingers.

Hair Porosity

Hair porosity determines the structural integrity of your hair and how it absorbs moisture. You can have either low or high porosity with whatever hair type or texture you have.

Low Porosity

There are a few ways to know if you have low porosity hair. For a full guide of figuring out if you have low porosity hair and how you can care for it, check out this article. However, the quickest way to test it is to shower and observe how your hair absorbs water. If it absorbs water fast and takes a very long time to dry, you have low porosity hair.

High Porosity

We also have another detailed guide on how you can tell if you have high porosity hair and what care it needs. However, the easiest way to tell is to do the same test as low porosity hair. Take a shower and see if your hair absorbs it quickly and dries quickly. If it does, you have high porosity hair.

Now that you know how to determine your hair type, start customizing your hair care routine to have your hair look and feel its best.