You were told you had "curly" hair all through adolescence, a saleswoman called you "kinky" last year, and you read "coily" everywhere. All three words describe fibers that behave differently.
It's not a question of vocabulary for specialists. A routine designed for curls leaves coily hair dry after two days, and the same routine applied as is to fine curly hair weighs it down from the first application. Knowing which texture we're talking about means knowing how much to use and which motions to avoid. For the method itself, our step-by-step tutorial details the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.
In my class, there was a bit of everything: curly, kinky, and coily hair. And yet we all had the same foundation, the braids done by our mothers and aunts on Sundays. It was as I grew up that I understood that texture didn't change the motions, only the quantities.
Ghana Elin, founderTwo fiber shapes, one family
Curly hair and coily hair belong to the same large family, that of textured hair. What separates them is one thing, from which everything else follows: the way the fiber coils as it leaves the scalp.
On a curly hair, the curl forms a regular spiral, visible to the naked eye, from a loose spring to a tight corkscrew. You can see the pattern without having to look for it, and you can also see the length: the strand falls roughly where it is supposed to fall.
On a coily hair, the fiber changes direction much more often, in very tight spirals or zigzags. From a meter away, the pattern disappears and you can only see a dense, uniform mass. You have to isolate a strand and look at it closely to see the design, which is often remarkably regular.
It is not a difference in quality, nor in original strength. It is a difference in geometry, and this geometry has very concrete consequences.
How shape affects your hair day to day
The first consequence is the distribution of sebum. It is produced at the root and travels down the shaft, following the fiber. On a wide spiral, it slides without difficulty to the ends. On a fiber that changes direction every few millimeters, it never makes it to the end. The ends of coily hair are therefore structurally less protected than those of curly hair, which has nothing to do with a lack of maintenance.
The second is fragility. Every curve is a point where the fiber thins slightly and where it bends when you handle it. The more curves there are, the more weak points there are. This is why the same motion, a comb passed over bare hair for example, leaves curly hair pretty much intact and breaks coily hair. Our article on the tool that really detangles explains when the comb can go in without damaging anything.
The third is shrinkage, and it is the most spectacular. Curly hair shortens moderately as it dries. Coily hair can appear twice as short as it is, to the point that many women think they are stuck in their growth while the length is there, simply folded in on itself. This is a subject in its own right, which we detail in why coily hair shrinks.
Differences at a glance
| Curly hair | Coily hair | |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Spirals visible to the naked eye, from spring to corkscrew | Very tight spirals or zigzags, pattern barely visible from a distance |
| Shrinkage | Moderate | Significant, the length appears much shorter than it is |
| Dryness | Real, especially on the ends | Marked along the entire length, sebum does not travel well |
| Fragility | Moderate | High, the fiber thins at every curve |
| What we adjust | A small amount, applied to damp hair | A more generous amount, section by section |
Classifications and their limits
The most widespread system places curly hair in type 3 and coily hair in type 4, with subcategories labeled A, B, and C depending on how tight the pattern is. It is a convenient reference for talking to each other, especially online, and it has served many women who had no words to describe what they had on their heads.
Its limit quickly becomes apparent. First because one head almost always carries several textures: the temples and the nape are frequently tighter than the top of the head, and this does not indicate any problem. Then because the type says nothing about porosity, that is, the speed at which the fiber absorbs water and releases it. Yet it is porosity, much more than type, that determines the hold time of a treatment and the amount of product that lasts. See porosity, an essential element of your routine and what is my coily hair type.
Type is therefore a starting point, not a final classification. No one styles a number.
Recognizing your own
The observation is done on a clean strand dried without anything. Any product applied beforehand fakes the result, because a cream elongates the curl and a gel tightens it. After washing, therefore, let a strand air dry, without touching it, and see what appears: a wide, visible spiral points toward curly, a very tight spring or a zigzag toward coily.
Then compare the resting length and the length stretched between two fingers. The difference measures the shrinkage, and it often says more than the pattern itself. Do the exercise in at least three places, nape, temple, and top of the head, because the result will rarely be identical.
One last point, often overlooked: damaged fiber loses part of its pattern. Bleached, relaxed, or broken lengths do not give a reliable reading. In this case, it is the regrowth, on the first few centimeters, that indicates the real texture.
What changes in hair care, what doesn't
The answer is often surprising: almost nothing changes. The Rituel Texture® is the same for both textures, in the same order and at the same pace, every seven to ten days. Detangling with a Chadian comb opens the session on dry hair, the Hydrating Detox cleanses in two steps, The Repair Mask sits for ten minutes under a shower cap, then Man Dol's Comb passes over hair still coated in mask. Protective drying is done after applying The Styling Cream, in small sections and with constant movement.
What changes is the quantities and patience. On curly hair, a dab of cream is enough and the application can be done in a single motion, smoothing from top to bottom. On coily hair, more product is needed and especially section-by-section work: a cream applied on the surface of a dense mass never touches the heart of the hair, and dryness returns the very next day.
A correction is necessary here, because it is everywhere. You do not seal hydration with an oil or butter applied last. The Styling Cream helps maintain the hydration provided during washing, and it is what closes the session. A drop of light oil can complete it on the ends, between two routines, if they pull. It is not a step, it is an addition.
Frizz, finally, is not treated the same way depending on the texture: on curly hair it generally signals a curl that has lost its definition, on coily hair it is most often the sign of a dry fiber or dry handling. See reducing frizz.
The most frequent reading errors
- Applying a routine designed for curls to coily hair: too little product, no sectioning, dryness from the second day.
- Loading fine curly hair with heavy butters and oils, then concluding that they can't handle anything.
- Treating the whole head the same way when two or three textures coexist there.
- Judging your texture on a strand still coated with product, or on damaged lengths.
- Choosing a treatment based solely on the mention "curly hair" written on the bottle.
