In the 1990's, Oprah Winfrey's stylist created The Andre Walker Hair Typing System named after himself. Today it is popularly known as The Hair Chart which classifies hair using numbers and letters (1A-4C). It is personally known to me as foolishness.
For years this chart has plagued the natural hair community by forcing naturals to try and place their curl pattern in a box. It has tricked naturals into believing that their whole hair care routine should be based on what their hair type is. Did you know the average person has more than 1 hair type? So, by that logic you'd have multiple hair routines for different sections of your hair.
What I'm about to say next is all facts. Professional hair stylists do not use this system to care for your hair. They use factors like whether your hair is fine or coarse, high density or low density, and how healthy your hair is.
Think about it, 2 people can have 4a hair but one of them can have fine, low porosity, low density, slightly damaged hair. The other one might have coarse, high porosity, high density, optimally healthy hair. These are the factors that determine whether you should use thicker products or lighter products. These factors help to determine what your weekly hair regimen should be.
The fact of the matter is The Hair Chart is way too broad to be taken seriously. So, if you've been struggling to put together a regimen based on your hair type I'm here to set you free.
The biggest problem naturals have is moisturizing their hair and as a result they struggle with breakage, length retention, and confidence.
Tips for moisturizing your hair:
- Wash your hair often. Product buildup is actually a huge cause of dryness.
- If you have low porosity hair, apply your leave-in conditioner in the shower. This helps the product absorb into your hair better. (and makes it sooo soft)
- If you have high porosity hair, layer your products to keep moisture from easily escaping your strands.
- Switch your products. If your leave-in conditioner isn't keeping your hair moisturized for at least 4 days it's time for a new one.
- Understand that moisture doesn't last forever. You don't need to moisturize your hair everyday when you're using the right products, but your hair will not stay moisturized for 30 days on it's own.
Moisture is the life of your hair and if your hair is on it's last leg grab Kapri's The Cure styling bundle.