hair basics

How to determine your hair type and texture

Written by The RŌZ Team

Expert contributors

Contributed professional interview insights.

Published October 2, 2026
Updated October 5, 2026

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Four hair-pattern families: a straight strand, an S-shaped wave, a looping curl and a compact coil.

Hair type describes the shape your hair naturally makes: straight, wavy, curly or coily. Hair texture describes the thickness of an individual strand: fine, medium or coarse. Curly hair can have fine strands, just as straight hair can have coarse ones.

Knowing both gives you a useful starting point for choosing products, planning a style and explaining what you want to your hairstylist. Below, compare the 1A–4C patterns, check your strand thickness and learn how to use those details in your routine.

What are the different hair types?

The familiar hair-type chart groups hair into four pattern families. The number describes the overall shape, not how much hair you have.

Type Pattern
Type 1 Straight: predominantly straight lengths without a repeating wave or curl.
Type 2 Wavy: bends that form an S-shaped wave.
Type 3 Curly: loops or spirals that turn around themselves.
Type 4 Coily: very tight coils, small bends or zigzag-like shapes.

A, B and C divide those families into smaller groups. Within wavy, curly and coily hair, the letters generally move from looser to tighter patterns. Straight-hair subtypes are usually described by how straight the hair lies and how much bend or body it has.

Hair type chart: types 1A through 4C

Compare the direction your hair takes along its length: does it stay straight, bend back and forth, wind into a ringlet or form a close coil? Use the descriptions below as a starting point. We will look at strand thickness separately.

Illustrated 1A–4C hair-type chart with three subtype columns: S-shaped waves, looped curls and compact rounded or angular coils, plus near-straight strands. All strands have equal line width.
Compare the shape of your hair with these approximate 1A–4C patterns. You may see more than one type.

Type 1: straight hair

Subtype What to look for
1A Hair lies very straight, with little visible bend from roots through the lengths.
1B Hair still looks straight overall, but has a little body or an occasional slight bend.
1C More body and soft bends than 1A or 1B, without the repeating S-waves of wavy hair.

Type 2: wavy hair

Subtype What to look for
2A A loose, slight wave, often more noticeable through the lengths than near the roots.
2B A clearer S-shaped wave through the mid-lengths, usually with a flatter area near the crown.
2C Deep, pronounced S-bends that may begin near the roots; the overall pattern is still a wave rather than a series of open ringlets.

Type 3: curly hair

Subtype What to look for
3A Broad, loose spirals that make complete loops, rather than only bending from side to side.
3B Springy, more compact ringlets, narrower than the broad loops associated with 3A.
3C Small, tight corkscrews, with a narrower spiral than 3B and turns that sit close together.

Type 4: coily hair

Subtype What to look for
4A Very small, spring-like coils with a recognizable S-shaped or looped pattern.
4B Tight bends often described as Z-shaped, with more angular changes of direction than rounded 4A coils.
4C Very tightly coiled or bent strands whose individual pattern can be difficult to see at a glance.

If you are deciding between neighboring wave, curl or coil patterns, our closer look at 2A–4C curl patterns goes further into those comparisons. Here, the next step is to look at your own hair under conditions that make the shape easier to see.

How do you determine your hair type?

Try this on a regular wash day. You are looking for your unstyled shape, not trying to produce a perfect set of curls for the chart.

  1. Wash and condition as usual. Focus shampoo on the scalp, rinse, and use your conditioner. There is no need to skip conditioner to make the observation count.
  2. Detangle gently. For curly or coily hair, work through tangles while the hair is wet and conditioned, using your fingers or a wide-tooth comb. For straight hair, let it dry a little before gentle combing.
  3. Look before you style. After rinsing, notice the shape your hair makes before using styling products, hot tools, rollers or braids. Use your usual leave-in if you need it for comfortable handling.
  4. Check several areas once dry. Blot gently with a towel or T-shirt, then let your hair air-dry if practical. Compare the front, sides, crown and underneath at the back without pulling the strands straight.
  5. Choose a family first, then a nearby subtype. Straight, wavy, curly or coily is a useful answer on its own. If one section looks like 2B and another like 2C, record both instead of forcing a single result.

If you have chemically straightened your hair, assess untreated new growth separately from treated lengths. Permanent relaxers change the hair in the treated area, so washing alone is not a way to uncover its previous pattern.

Can you have more than one hair type?

Yes. Different areas of the same head can have different patterns. Seeing a wave near your face and a ringlet elsewhere does not necessarily mean you have read the chart incorrectly.

Instead of choosing whichever section looks curliest, make a short note of what you see. For example: mostly waves, with a few loose spirals underneath. You can add a number and letter if that helps, but the plain-language description is useful when talking to a stylist, too.

You do not need to make the sections look identical before identifying them. Keep the variation in your description rather than treating it as something you have to correct.

What’s the difference between hair type and hair texture?

In this article, hair type means the pattern: straight, wavy, curly or coily. Strand texture means the diameter of an individual hair, described as fine, medium or coarse. The word texture is also used more broadly elsewhere, so it is worth checking what a chart or product label means by it.

Curly hair is not automatically coarse, and straight hair is not automatically fine. Pattern and strand thickness describe different features. A wide spiral can be made of fine strands; a strand that lies straight can still be relatively thick.

Coarse also does not mean rough or damaged here. It describes a larger strand diameter. If your hair feels rough at the ends, that observation alone does not establish that your strands are coarse.

And a thick-looking ponytail is not the same thing as a thick individual strand. You may have many fine hairs or fewer coarse ones. That difference is about density, which is separate again.

The same curl pattern shown with fine, medium and coarse strand widths. Curl pattern and individual strand thickness are separate characteristics; illustration not to scale.
The same curl pattern with fine, medium and coarse strands. Pattern describes shape; strand texture describes thickness.

How do you determine your hair texture?

A simple finger check can give you a rough sense of strand thickness. Take a clean, dry hair that has already shed, rather than pulling one out, and gently roll it between your fingertips. Focus on how substantial the strand feels, not whether its surface feels smooth.

Fine strands

Fine describes a relatively small strand diameter. In the finger check, the strand may be difficult to feel or feel very slight. This does not tell you how many hairs you have.

Medium strands

Medium falls between fine and coarse. You can feel the individual hair, but it does not feel especially substantial. If you are unsure where the boundary falls, “somewhere between fine and medium” is a reasonable description.

Coarse strands

Coarse describes a relatively large strand diameter. A strand tends to feel more distinct between your fingers than a fine one. It is not a judgment about the hair’s softness or how easy it is to style.

Check a few naturally shed strands. If you are unsure whether they feel fine, medium or coarse, ask your stylist for a second opinion.

You can now put the two observations together: approximately 3A curls with fine strands, or straight hair with relatively coarse strands.

Does your hair type determine what products you should use?

Not by itself. A pattern label leaves out strand diameter, density, hair condition and what you want from your styling. It also does not describe your scalp or your color and chemical-treatment history.

Use those details to ask more specific questions. Is detangling uncomfortable? Do your ends feel rough after washing? Are you aiming for soft movement, more volume or a firmer hold? Those are more useful starting points for a product conversation than assuming everyone with 2A or 4C hair needs the same thing.

When choosing shampoo for a client, Jae-Manuel Cardenas considers color treatment, wash frequency, dryness and texture together.

“Not all hair is the same but all those factors play a huge role in choosing the best shampoo for you.”

— Jae-Manuel Cardenas, Senior Stylist, Ollin Salon NYC

Tell your stylist how often you wash, whether your hair is colored and what feels dry, as well as the pattern you see.

For cleansing, pay attention to how often your scalp becomes oily or your hair gets dirty, rather than assigning yourself a washing schedule from a chart. When choosing conditioning and styling products, include what you already know about your hair’s feel, treatment history and the finish you prefer.

As a practical way to learn, change one thing at a time and keep a note of what you like. A product that suits you does not become the wrong choice just because your best-fitting letter changes from B to C.

What else should you know about your hair?

Density describes how much hair is growing on your head. It is separate from the thickness of each strand and from the size of a curl.

Porosity is another characteristic, related to how hair absorbs and retains water. It is not something your pattern label measures. Our guides to low-porosity hair and high-porosity hair look at that question separately.

For now, keep your description simple: your approximate pattern, the feel of an individual strand, and anything you want help with. You can take that to your next appointment without settling every letter on the chart.

Sources

  1. Pattern descriptions: NBC Select’s hairstylist interviews, Allure’s curl-type guide, and OLAPLEX’s straight-hair subtype descriptions.
  2. Classification and its limits: Callender et al., Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology (2026); Lasisi et al., Scientific Reports (2021).
  3. Strand thickness and density: Anh Co Tran’s strand-texture guide.
  4. Hair-care handling: American Academy of Dermatology, tips for healthy hair, habits that can damage hair, and curly-hair care tips.
  5. Chemically treated hair: Effects of chemical straighteners on the hair shaft and scalp (2022).
  6. Porosity definition: New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists.
  7. Shampoo selection: Jae-Manuel Cardenas, senior stylist at Ollin Salon NYC, provided written answers for RŌZ on October 5, 2026. The shampoo-selection passage quotes and paraphrases his answer about the factors he considers for a client.