We all end up doing it: an online test, comparing three photos, a verdict in two characters. 4C. Then comes that strange moment when you search for what this code is supposed to allow you.
It deserves an honest answer. Classification by type is a useful reference for talking about hair, but it is not a diagnosis, and it does not determine a routine. Here is where it comes from, how to recognize the three patterns of type 4, why you very probably have several of them, and the two criteria that really determine what your hair needs. As for the method itself, which is the same for every texture, our step-by-step tutorial details the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.
No one in my childhood in Guadeloupe would have known what type their hair was. The codes did not exist, and the women who styled our hair did not need them: they looked, they touched, they adjusted. At the salon, I still never ask a client their type. I ask them to tell me their hair story, and that is the answer that teaches me something.
Ghana Elin, founderOriginWhere the 4A, 4B, 4C scale comes from
The scale from 1A to 4C was proposed by American hairdresser Andre Walker in the 1990s. It classifies hair according to the tightness of the curl: straight in type 1, wavy in type 2, curly in type 3, coily in type 4, with each type divided into three subcategories labeled A, B, and C. Its success is due to a genuine service rendered. Before it, millions of women had no words to describe what they had on their heads, other than adjectives borrowed from the texture of others.
Its weakness lies in its construction. It is a visual scale, established by eye, and it places the tightest pattern at the end of the last category. Nothing justifies this order: it could have started with 4C. Yet this final position created a hierarchy that no one had decided, in which the coiliest texture implicitly becomes the most "difficult".
This is not the only way to classify hair, either. Dermatology has proposed a method based on measurements rather than by eye, applied to populations around the world, which describes hair shapes without ordering them (Loussouarn et al., International Journal of Dermatology, 2007). Simply remember this: the grid you use is a convention, not a law of nature.
Reference PointsRecognizing the three patterns
The three subcategories describe the same thing viewed at three degrees of tightness. 4A forms small S-shaped curls, visible to the naked eye without having to look for them; it is the loosest of the three, and the easiest to define. 4B forms a zigzag with marked angles rather than a spiral, with significant shrinkage and break points where the fiber bends. 4C coils so tightly that the pattern becomes difficult to distinguish, even up close, and gives the hair its appearance of a dense cloud.
A counterintuitive detail changes the way you measure out products: 4C hair is very often composed of fine hair. It is the number of hairs per square centimeter, density, that produces the impression of thickness. Treating it as a thick material leads to weighing it down with butters it does not need.
| Pattern | What you see on an isolated strand | The point of caution |
|---|---|---|
| 4A | Small S-shaped curls, easily visible | Definition holds well, but the lengths still dry out |
| 4B | An angular zigzag, the fiber changes direction sharply | Breakage is concentrated at the angles, hence very slow detangling |
| 4C | Coiling so tight that the pattern is barely discernible | Often fine hair under high density: use light amounts |
As for the boundary with type 3, it depends on one thing, the tightness of the curl, and it is blurrier than it seems. We covered it separately in coily hair or curly hair, with what this difference in shape changes in daily life.
MethodObserving your texture without making mistakes
Most women get the type wrong because they observe at the wrong time. A hair coated in cream stretches, a hair loaded with gel tightens, a wet hair does not show its pattern at rest. The only observation that does not lie is done on a clean strand, air-dried, without the slightest product.
Isolate this strand, look at it closely and from the side, then note what you see. Repeat at the nape, the temple, and the crown of the head: this comparison will teach you the most, much more than the code itself. There is one case where the exercise does not yield anything reliable, that of damaged fiber. Bleached, previously relaxed, or very broken lengths have lost part of their pattern. In this case, only regrowth, on the first few centimeters, indicates the real texture.
This shape is actually determined long before the hair is visible. It is programmed in the bulb, under the skin, and depends on the geometry of the follicle (Thibaut et al., British Journal of Dermatology, 2005). No treatment applied to the length changes it: a product can lengthen or tighten the appearance of a curl, never change the hair that will come out tomorrow.
RealityOne head can have several textures
This is the rule much more than the exception. The nape is frequently tighter, the temples thinner and more fragile, the crown more flexible. Three different patterns on the same head do not signal any problem, any imbalance, any deficiency. This is also the reason why an online test gives a different result depending on the photo submitted to it.
Trying to fit into a single box therefore has little point. What does have point is identifying the most fragile areas to treat them differently: smaller sections, slower detangling, less tension when styling, more product where the fiber drinks faster. A head of hair is treated by zones, and this is true regardless of the code assigned to it.
MisunderstandingShrinkage is not a flaw
Shrinkage, which is also called shrinkage, discourages more than anything else: you leave the shower with lengths falling down your back and find yourself, two hours later, with hair that seems to have lost half its length. Many conclude that their hair does not grow, while the length is there, simply folded in on itself.
However, it is a favorable sign. A fiber that shrinks as it dries is an elastic fiber, capable of regaining its shape after being stretched. A head of hair that no longer shrinks has most often suffered thermal or chemical damage that has broken this elasticity. The most marked shrinkage is logically found on the tightest patterns, without having to see it as a gradation of quality.
If you want to know your real length, stretch a wet strand along a ruler rather than relying on the mirror. And for the days when you prefer to see it, our stretching methods detail how to achieve this without damaging the fiber.
The Bottom LineWhat your type does not tell you
Here is the limit that matters, and the one we talk about the least. Knowing that you are 4B says nothing about what your hair needs, because the pattern describes a shape and needs depend on behavior. Two criteria weigh significantly more.
The first is porosity, that is, the speed at which the fiber absorbs water and releases it. It is what determines the richness of the treatments and the frequency with which they need to be renewed. Two women classified as 4C, one with low porosity, the other with high porosity, do not have the same routine at all, even though they have the same code. Our article on porosity explains how to identify it at home.
The second is density, associated with the thickness of each hair. This pair determines the amounts of product and the size of the working sections: a dense and fine head of hair requires many sections and little product, a less dense and thicker one exactly the opposite. This is very concretely what changes from one woman to another at the time of maintaining hydration.
The Rituel Texture®, on the other hand, does not change from one texture to another. The six steps follow the same order, at the same pace of seven to ten days, from detangling with a Chadian comb on dry hair to the final application of La Crème Coiffante. What is adjusted are the quantities and the time spent, not the sequence. It is precisely because the method is stable that it is not necessary to know your code to start.
The pitfalls of classification
- Choosing your products based solely on the 4A, 4B, or 4C code, without looking at porosity.
- Judging your texture on wet hair, or even loaded with cream or gel.
- Seeing 4C as a naturally more difficult texture, while it is the maintenance that decides.
- Applying the same gesture everywhere while ignoring the more fragile areas, the nape and temples.
- Reading a code obtained on bleached or previously relaxed lengths.
You know your code, but not your needs?
Our experts look with you at what the classification does not say: porosity, density, fragile areas, and what this changes in your routine.
Book a consultationFrequently Asked Questions
How to determine my hair type?
Can you have several types on the same head?
Can my hair type change?
Is 4C more difficult to maintain?
Do you need different products depending on the type?
3C or 4A: what difference?
Go Further
Sources
- Loussouarn G. et al., « Worldwide diversity of hair curliness: a new method of assessment », International Journal of Dermatology, 2007.
- Thibaut S. et al., “Human hair shape is programmed from the bulb,” British Journal of Dermatology, 2005.
