How to find your type
Wash with your usual shampoo and conditioner, skip leave-in and styler, and let your hair dry without touching it. Then look at strands from the crown, the sides and the nape. Products, a ponytail, sleep and the weight of long hair all stretch the pattern, so a clean, product-free look is the fairest one.
An S-shape that lies fairly close to the head is type 2. A full loop you could wrap around a finger or a marker is type 3. Tight coils or sharp bends smaller than a pencil, usually with a lot of shrinkage, are type 4. If you sit between two, read both pages.
Let what you see steer the wash day
Your type is a starting point; what your hair does after a wash decides the routine. If it drops flat under weight, as looser patterns often do, smaller amounts and lighter layers go further, and a gel or foam usually does more than a rich cream. If it tangles, shrinks a lot or feels dry at the ends, as tighter patterns often do, sectioning, detangling with conditioner in, and a leave-in under your styler are the usual places to start.
Drying and washing follow what you see too. Waves lose their shape when handled while drying, while coils need stretching to show their full length. Wash as often as your scalp and hair need; for Black hair, the American Academy of Dermatology suggests once a week or every other week.
What a starting routine costs, type by type
Each type page builds a wash day from products whose makers say they’re for that type, priced at the makers’ own stores. These are the bottles to buy once: shampoo, conditioner, styler, and a leave-in from 3A up (the wave pages suggest skipping it at first).
| Type | Lowest price per ounce | Middle of the price range |
|---|---|---|
| 2A | $36.93 | $47.50 to try, $177.00 in bigger sizes |
| 2B | $36.93 | $47.50 to try, $177.00 in bigger sizes |
| 2C | $36.93 | $41.49 to try, $114.99 in bigger sizes |
| 3A | $47.43 to try, $74.93 in bigger sizes | $78.50 to try, $189.00 in bigger sizes |
| 3B | $46.93 to try, $83.93 in bigger sizes | $61.50 to try, $238.00 in bigger sizes |
| 3C | $46.93 to try, $83.93 in bigger sizes | $70.49 to try, $254.00 in bigger sizes |
| 4A | $46.93 to try, $83.93 in bigger sizes | $72.00 to try, $267.00 in bigger sizes |
| 4B | $46.93 to try, $83.93 in bigger sizes | $60.49 to try, $199.99 in bigger sizes |
| 4C | $46.93 to try, $83.93 in bigger sizes | $60.49 to try, $199.99 in bigger sizes |
What your type does not decide
Type says nothing about porosity (how quickly hair takes in water), strand thickness (fine, medium or coarse) or density (how many strands you have). A fine-stranded 3C head and a coarse 3C head need different amounts of product, and two people with 4A hair can wet and dry very differently.
Choose amounts from thickness and density, use porosity only as a clue, and let what you see as your hair dries tell you how to style and dry it.
When your hair mixes types
It is normal to have looser waves on top and tighter curls underneath, or tighter coils at the nape and temples. Wash the whole head the same way, then treat areas differently when you style: a little more leave-in where curls are tighter, less where waves fall flat.
Where the 2A to 4C chart comes from
The chart was created in the 1990s by Andre Walker, Oprah Winfrey’s stylist, to market his own product line, and it became the common way people describe curl pattern. It has been criticized for ranking hair and for leaving out density, scalp and the way one head varies. We use it because it is the language people search in, and pair it with what it leaves out.
Updated · The sources for this guide are on our Sources page. Report a changed detail.