“My hair is super easy to maintain,” says less than 25% of women across the world. Truth be told, most of us have no idea how we’re supposed to get our hair life together. While a handful of women don’t care to know, the rest of us want to know the secret but don’t know how to go about finding it out. If you want to have long, healthy hair, it all starts by knowing one thing: your hair type. Once you know your hair type, then you can go about actually taking care of it the right way and getting products that can help it flourish. Keep reading to get the scoop on how to  figure out your hair type.  

Hair Typing Test #1: Hair Texture

The first test you can go with hair typing is to determine your hair texture. When you think about texture, you want to know about two things: shape and wideness. The shape is represented by the number while the circumference or wideness is represented by the letter. Numbers range from 1-4 and the letters range from A-C. The lower the number, the straighter the hair and the lower the letter, the looser the texture.

Those with a 1 have straight hair, 2’s have way hair, 3’s hair curly hair, and 4’s have kinky hair. Each hair type has its perks and pitfalls. 1’s have a hard time getting a curl in their hair, but it is also not susceptible to damage. 2’s have a nice pattern, but they deal with frizz. Women of color are usually the ones who belong to the 3 and 4 categories, and although they have the ultimate level of versatility, they also can be prone to more damage. 

In order to figure out which hair type you belong to, pluck one strand of clean hair from your scalp and place on a white surface. Compare your strand to the following chart to determine your texture.

Hair Typing Test #2: Hair Porosity

Now that you know the texture, you can also test your hair’s porosity. Porosity means how well does your hair holds on to moisture. Those with low porosity hair have cuticles that do not like to open up and allow moisture to seep in, which leads to product build-up. If your hair takes forever and a day to dry, you may have low porosity hair. On the other hand, those with high porosity hair have holes in their cuticles, so the moisture that it gets doesn’t stay. High porosity hair is usually damaged and needs to be treated or cut before your hair will properly take in the moisture. 

If you take that same clean strand of hair and put it in a cup of room temperature water, you can test your hair’s porosity, If it sinks instantly, it’s probably high porosity. If it floats for a long time, it’s probably low porosity. If it hovers in between the top and the bottom or takes a while to sink, you could have normal porosity hair. 

Hair Typing Test #3: Hair Density

The last thing you need to know when determining your hair type is your hair density or how much hair you have on your head. High density means your hair is thick and low density means your hair is fine. If you want to know your hair’s density, all you have to do it pull all your hair to one side and see if you can see your scalp through the hair. The denser the hair, the less visible your scalp will be.

Now that you know your texture, porosity, and density, you can now determine the best products to suit your needs. Shedavi has the haircare solutions for every hair type, so let us know in the comments what your type is so we can match you up with the right products!