Learning your hair type, please comment!!

I had an interesting convo last night with a fellow natural sis and friend and wanted some of you ladies to weigh in.

So last night a friend of mine tells me about a twitter convo she had with another one of our friends. That friend had tweeted that since going natural in September, she had discovered she had had three different hair types. My friend who called me said she didn't believe her, because she felt unless a woman has (a) BC'd or (b) transitioned for at least two years, there's no way she can tell her hair type.

Now I personally believe this isn't true, because I haven't had a relaxer since July 2009, and with my new growth, I've been able to determine my own hair type. Friend #2 also informed Friend #1 that she was judging her hair type off of her new growth and not the relaxed hair. But Friend #1 said even though you may not be getting relaxers anymore, the chemical still has affected your scalp and years of training your hair to be one way, takes longer than a couple of inches to determine hair type.

So ladies... can anyone weigh in on this...???

i'd say that since july 2009 your hair that has been affected, has grown out. i'm guessing the stuff that's grown in late 2009 and 2010 should be your true hair texture.

now, your turn. how did you prevent breakage so you can make it almost a year transitioning?

even if people are transitioning, it's hard to know your true hair type(s) until all chemically treated hair is off your head. this can mean doing little mini chops or doing a BC all at once to get rid of all the chemically treated hair.

@LilyFlower8604 Great question!

Interesting..I have toyed around with the idea that some areas in my hair could be "scab hair" because of chemical damage. (It's only been 4 months since my BC) However, I have heard some ladies say that there is no such thing; "scab hair is just an excuse some naturals use because they don't want to accept the true texture of their hair." I think this could play into LilyFlower8604's question as well.

At what point, be it transitioning or after your BC, will you be able to identify your true texture.

HappyCurly wrote:i'd say that since july 2009 your hair that has been affected, has grown out. i'm guessing the stuff that's grown in late 2009 and 2010 should be your true hair texture.

now, your turn. how did you prevent breakage so you can make it almost a year transitioning?

Preventing breakage... very carefully, lol. It's an exhaustive process, but I clip my ends regularly, every 4-6 months I take about two inches off. Condition well to strengthen the hair. Keeping it either braided or in twists to avoid knotting. I have much more shedding than breakage though. I'm still torn between doing some type of chop at my 1-year mark, or forcing it to go two years so I'll have at least neck-length of hair when I do make the chop.

thanks! i've done a bad job at preventing knotting.

HappyCurly wrote:thanks! i've done a bad job at preventing knotting.

LOL, I didn't become any good at preventing it until one horrible experience had me taking scissors to my head. Detangling under water with a conditioner with slip is key. I also make a point to sleep with my hair in some type of braid or twist, after styling/cowashing more than two days later.

ok i will try sleeping like that. sometimes i am not so good at putting my hair to bed, and i don't put anything on it, just lay down! i've had to cut out more than a few tangles!

Well, I"m four months into my transition and I know that I"m on the low c, high 4 curl pattern-- although which of these I'm unsure. For the record, I do believe in scab hair. There is a patch in front of my head that had a weird way of tangling and drying out inexplicably. I would always apply just as much if not more product to this area, but it just wouldn't cooperate. But now I don't have that problem after reaching the 2 inch or so mark (unstretched) of new growth in the front.
The reason why I believe this is scab hair is not because it wasn't a texture I wasn't happy with, I was perfectly fine with having the texture of my hair but I didn't understand the dichotomy in the moisture levels or the fact that it was an abrupt change in pattern meaning-- it's literally a patch! smack dab in the middle of other similarly textured/porous hair. Now that I've seen the new growth change the state of this patch the only other reason I'd be able to find for the initial state of this part of my hair is heat damage.

Muz wrote:But you'll only know once the relaxed ends are gone, because those ends stretch your natural hair quite a bit just by hanging on

Exactly what I was going to say.