Ultimate Guide To Figuring Out Your Hair Type & Which Products To Use

Are you sick of buying countless amounts of hair products that don’t work? Look, I hear you and in this post I’m going to help you get to the bottom of what your hair type is and what product you SHOULD be using.

If you’re new here to my blog, my name is Thomas or better known on the world wide web as Thomas In Action and I’m a hair enthusiast that’s been creating hair content online for over 7 years now.

In that time I’ve become become a certified hair stylist and had the pleasure of working with many brands in the hair & beauty industry including Chaptr Hair by Jordan O’Brian, Tiege Hanley by Aaron Marino, Bhave, Gillete, Manscaped, Everyday Wigs, BluMaan & more!

If you want to check any of those sponsorships out after reading this article you can just click the hyperlinked text and you’ll be redirected to each one.

Ok, enough about me and let’s get back to what’s important, finding the right hair products for you!

The first thing we need to get clear on is yes, some products do indeed suck and don’t work, however, that’s only half the story.

A lot of the time we buy hair products because either someone we trust recommended it to us and said it’s fantastic or the ad we saw on Facebook looked so good in the demo that we just had to try it.

Now, it’s more than likely that the person that recommended the product to us or the brand who created the ad we saw on Facebook had good intentions and wanted us to live our best hair life…

BUT, the one vital step that gets missed is whether or not that product is actually made for the type of hair you have. The reason this is so vital is because hair products are designed to solve specific hair issues.

Example: Curl creams are designed to enhance the curl definition on naturally curly hair. You wouldn’t recommend curl cream to someone with pin straight hair would you? Nope… or at least I hope not haha.

The above example is just an obvious one that I wanted to use to get this concept across to you.

However, from a high level it’s simple to understand that certain hair products are for certain hair types but the reason this topic is SO confusing is because everyone's hair type is different and far more complex than just curly and straight.

And that’s exactly why I’ve made this guide for you so you can finally understand how hair types actually work, how to figure out what your hair type is and what products are most likely going to work for you.

So with that said, let’s get started with 5 main hair type categories.

Hair Type Categories

Before we dive into how to identify your hair type, it’s important to first know what you’re looking for.

In short, there’s 5 main hair type categories that make up a hair type and inside the 5 categories are multiple subcategories that all have their own characteristics.

Example: “Curl Pattern” is a main hair type category and “hair type 3b” is a subcategory that falls under the curl pattern umbrella.

The 5 main hair typing categories we’ll be covering in this guide include:

1. Curl Pattern
Our curl pattern describes how tight or loose our hair looks to the naked eye. From a high level this is measured on a curl typing scale from 1 to 4.

Curl type 1 identifies straight hair, curl type 2 identifies wavy hair, curl type 3 identifies curly hair and curl type 4 identifies coily/kinky hair.

Each curl type also has 3 sub variants ranging from a to c which help us identify the intensity of that particular curl type. To help this sink in a bit better I’ve put a hair type chart below to visually illustrate each type and it’s variants.

We’ll get to what those variants look like on real people later on in the post but for now I just want the concept of this hair type category to be clear first.

2. Scalp Type
Our scalp type describes how much natural oil our scalp produces. To keep things super simple, there’s 3 main scalp types which include the oily scalp, the dry calp and the balanced scalp or as some people like to call it, the “normal” scalp.

Your scalp type is probably the most complex category when it comes to hair typing on a few accounts which we’ll go over in a bit more detail a bit later in this post.

3. Hair Thickness
Hair thickness (often confused with hair density) describes the actual width of each individual strand and are sub categorised from thin, medium to thick.

Strands that are on the thinner side are referred to as fine hair and hair strands that are on the fatter side are referred to as coarse hair.

Hair thickness is also known as hair texture. At the end of the day It doesn’t really matter which terminology you want to use, thickness/texture refers to the width of the individual strands.

4. Hair Density
Hair density is the sister (not twin) of hair thickness. Our hair density describes how many individual hairs there are on our head and are sub categorized from low, medium to high.

People with fine hair and high density look will often say their hair is thick when really their hair is thin and there’s just a lot of it. Hence the confusion between the two.

5. Porosity
Porosity describes our hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture and is defined by how much space there is between the fish-like scales that sit on the cuticle layer of the hair.

The cuticle layer is the outermost layer of the hair and is made of a protein called keratin. The cuticle layer’s natural state varies from person to person and can be altered based on external factors like weather, heat styling or any type of chemical treatment including bleaching, colouring, keratin treatments and so on.

Porosity is measured on a scale from low to high, low indicating minimal space between each cuticle and high indicating larger space.

Later on in this post we’ll cover more about how porosity works. The main focus of this section is to just get our head around the basics.

Hair Types in Review

So now we’ve covered why knowing your hair type is important and the 5 main categories that make up a single hair type, we’re now ready to get into the nitty gritty of each hair type category, how to identify which categories you fit into and what products you should be using depending on the type of hair you have.

It’s a process huh…

NOTICE
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to complete the full blog article by the deadline as there is so much I wanted to write here. I’m still writing the rest of it behind the scenes and until the next segment is ready I thought I should at least leave you with some helpful information.

Here’s a helpful video from Brad Mondo about hair types that should tie you over until I complete this post.

See you soon!

See Video Transcription

Hi, beautiful. You look just as beautiful as the last time I saw you or maybe even more. Who knew that was possible? I didn't. After years of being a hairdresser, I've noticed one major thing. Most people have no idea what their hair type actually is. Is my hair thick? Is my hair thin? Is it fine? Is it coarse? Is it curly? Is it straight? Nobody has any clue. People with fine hair are notorious for saying that their hair is thin. It's not thin. It's fine. Those are two different things.

Today, we're going to review things down to the nitty-gritty details. We're going to figure out what your scalp type is. Is it oily, dry, normal? Do you have high density or low density? Is your hair thick or thin? Is your hair actually damaged or is it actually healthy? And also, what type of wave pattern you actually have. We'll go through everything from straight hair to the curliest of them all and everything in between. Now, this will help you a lot when figuring out what products are necessary for you and what shampoos and conditioners should you buy. And also, it's just interesting to know what your hair type is. That way we can all just figure it out once and for all and be done with it and make me happy. Okay? If you want to figure out what your hair type actually is, then let's do it. Let's get started.

First category is scalp type. Hmm, maybe it's something you never thought about before. Actually, probably most of you guys have thought about it, but I want to review it because people get confused if their scalp is oily or is it dry, or is it just normal. So, let's review oily. Typically, people with oily scalps, if you wash your hair in the morning and by midday or by nighttime, your hair is getting piecey and there's clearly a bit of oil on your hair strand, typically means your hair is on the oily side. In combination with that, if you look at your scalp and by the end of the day, after washing your head, it is really shiny, you can actually feel oil on your scalp means your hair is oily for sure, 100%. And if you have both combined, girl, you probably got a extra, extra oily scalp and you probably have an imbalance of something or you're stripping your hair way too often with shampoo.

Now, let's move on to dry scalps. Dry scalps, well, they look like the Sahara Desert, but besides that, usually got some tumbleweeds going across your scalp, you know, because it's a desert. (beep) Comedy, not my best thing. Typically, dry scalps are sensitive and prone to irritation. Sometimes you also experience what is considered dandruff or a dry scalp. Dandruff is not the only thing that affects dry scalp. There is other things. So, I'm not a doctor. I don't want to inform you on that. But if you have little pieces of white skin sprinkled around your hair, you probably have some sort of dry scalp condition. Your scalp is dry. It can also be itchy, and you can also feel a lot of tension on your scalp like it's tight, like you need to rip it open and stretch it out. If it feels tight, your head's dry.

And now we have normal scalps. Anybody with a normal scalp will not get a buildup of excess oils on their scalp and their hair strands by the end of the day after washing their hair in the morning. And if you don't notice any dry skin or flaky skin on your scalp or your head doesn't have any tension, so on and so forth, everything we just reviewed, if you don't have any of those symptoms, you probably have a normal scalp, which is great. It's the only time I like being normal is with my scalp.

That was the easy bit. Okay? Now, we're going to get onto things that are a little more... You got to think a little bit to comprehend. Okay? Should be simple. Now, moving into hair thickness and hair density. This is the one that makes me so annoyed the most. It's when people confuse the two of these, or just pretend they're both the same thing because it's not. They're actually two different things, not one singular thing, so get it right. Hair thickness is describing the actual thickness of an individual piece of hair on your head. So, if you pull that hair out of your head and you looked at it, is it thick or thin? Then we have hair density, and that describes how big your damn ponytail is. When you pull your hair into a ponytail, is it large? Is it small? That's describing how many strands of hair you have on your head.

Those are the two big things that I want you to remember, hair thickness and hair density because that's the one that people get so hung up on and confused about and like, "Look no, I don't get it." Well, get it. So, thick or thin you ask. What (beep) hair type do you have? Is it thick or is it thin? I know what mine is. Fake, baby.

Now, to measure hair thickness, if you have a piece of sewing thread, I'd recommend grabbing that. Grab a piece of thread, pluck out a piece of your hair, and compare the two side by side. The hair is naturally a little bit more consistent back here and a little bit thinner up here so pluck from back here. If your hair is just as wide as the sewing thread or slightly thinner, that usually means you have thick hair. That's right. You have thick hair. And of course, if your hair is much thinner than the thread, you have thin hair. If you don't have a thread around, you can also take the hair strand, run it through your fingers like this. And if you can feel the hair very much so, usually means you have thick hair. If you can't feel it, you kind of just like rub along it, and if you don't look at it while you do it, you're like, "Am I touching the hair or not?" you have thin hair.

Now, we're moving onto high or low density. To check the density of your hair, pull your damn hair back into a ponytail. Check the circumference. Circumference is the measurement around an area. If you have low-density hair, your circumference of your ponytail will be less than two inches. Medium-density will be two or three inches. And high density is four or more inches in circumference. Another way to figure this out if you can't pull your hair into a ponytail, or if you don't have a tape measure, well, you can look at your hair in the mirror. If you can see your scalp without moving your hair around with your hands, you can just look down and see your scalp, well, that probably means you have low-density hair. And if you can't see your scalp, that (beep) is covered up, honey, like camo in the forest, you got high density. Congrats. I'm jealous. I got low-density, baby. Actually, my doctor told me I had low-density hair so it wasn't a fun doctor visit. I actually kind of had a hard time. We work with what we got.

Next, we're going to learn if your hair is damaged or healthy. People all the time are like, "Dude, my hair so damaged and dry." And I'm like, "Where? There's no one split end on your hair, not one." So, let me give you a few little pieces of criteria that describes damaged hair. And let me try and help you figure out if you actually have damaged hair or you just think you do because people often get that confused. If your hair tangles easily, girl, it's damaged. Yeah, no, if you can't run your hands through it at all times, typically your hair is dry/damaged. If your hair is just not growing... Some people actually just can't grow very long hair naturally. But if your hair definitely has those ends that look a little compromised along with it not growing, your hair is damaged. If you look down at your ends, if you can see that if your hair's long enough, and you look at them and you're like, "There's so many split ends it looks tragic, it looks so scary," damaged hair.

If you pull a piece of your hair and you stretch it out like this, if it stretches, your hair is damaged. If your hair just snaps, your hair is healthy. Congratulations. If your hair doesn't dry for like literally 10 hours and it's not very high density, if your hair is just medium or low density and it takes hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours to dry, your hair is damaged because it's grasping onto that moisture because it has no natural moisture so it needs to grab onto that moisture and hold it for as long as possible. Your hair is damaged. And if it doesn't take that long to dry, it's not damaged.

If when you brush your hair, you're getting clumps of hair coming out, or you're getting just being more than like 10, 15 strands, your hair is probably damaged. And if you're getting less than that, your hair is not damaged. It's so healthy. Wow, good job. Is your hair shiny? Do you look like a well-groomed pony? If it's shiny, your hair is healthy. If it's not, you either need to wash it or your hair is damaged. It's damaged. Okay?

We're onto curl pattern now, guys. Okay, so curl pattern. It's a touchy subject. If you don't get this right, some people get mad at you. 99.99999... percent of people have a curl pattern. Okay? It's very rare that your hair is skin straight. If your hair air dries and there's any like sort of bevel, like literally this much, you have wavy hair. Pretty much everybody has wavy hair. You don't really come across anybody with pin-straight hair naturally. There's three sort of subcategories. There's wavy, there's curly, and there's coily, wavy being the least curly and coily being the most. That didn't really make sense, but you get it.

We're going to begin with 2A. This is the least wavy of them all. You just have that slight little... bend, that little... But not like tight. I have 2A. You got just a little bit of texture. 2B then we're getting into the actual, your hair's actually wavy. You have some wave pattern. Okay? Just a tiny, bit more than 2A. What a weird coincidence. 2C your hair is wavy like this and they're tight. They're like... There's a lot of them, girl. 3A which is just the classic curl. It's like you took a curling iron, but not really. It's a more lived-in natural look. Just imagine like a curling iron curl. 2B, you have those spiral curls everywhere. They're like... And they're much smaller than the previous, 2A. They're more defined. They're curlier. C3, oh, now you've got the corkscrews. When you pull your hair down, your hair expands a lot. It goes back up. The curls are even tighter than 2B. You get the boy, little sections, all curly, all over the place. Beautiful.

Now we get into level four, you guys. This is the coily hair. Okay? This is a little bit more of an irregular wave mixed with an irregular curl. It's a tighter, curlier, wavier sort of hair. Basically, take 2C and 3C and mix them both together, and now we got 4A. That is just a slightly coiled look. And definitely, when you pull it out, it bounces back. Okay? And it's much longer when you pull it out. Now, we have 4B, which is very simple. You guys not going to go into this too far. You just have a little bit of a tighter coil than 4A. 4B is just a little bit tighter. We're getting a little bit more into an afro at this point. And then we have the curliest of them all of all the lands, which is 4C hair. It's magic. It is very voluminous, very coily, very kinky, and very beautiful.

So, those are all the different types of hair you can have and scalp, everything under the sun. I mean, you guys, you want to know what mine is? I have a normal scalp, no dryness, no irregularities. It gets oily, not too fast, not too slow. I have low-density hair. I don't have a tonne of it, girl. The older I get, the more it's going away. I'll miss ya. Bye. I'll see ya later. I also have thin hair. My individual hair strand is on the thinner side. It is much thinner than a piece of sewing thread. I would consider my hair healthy right now. I don't colour it so it's quite healthy. And it's always shiny when I wash it and very soft and supple and just all that good stuff. And my curl pattern is 2A. As you can see, this is pretty much how it dries naturally, the tiniest little like bend, just like a bevel. It's quite straight though. That is my hair type all laid out for you. I hope you guys can figure out yours.

Now, I told you guys in the beginning of this video, I want to help you discover what types of products would be best for your hair. And of course, I am going to recommend my own products because I formulated them. I know what's in them, and I know the ingredients are fabulous and amazing and can do wonders for your hair. And if you're not interested in buying my products, for whatever reason, maybe this will help you discover what products would be good for you elsewhere on the market. Let's get into it.

Okay. First we'll begin with Salty. Salty is an amazing sea salt spray. Oh, what a name, huh? Salty is going to be great for pretty much everybody, but if we are going to get really specific here, anybody from 2A to 4C hair can use this. I do really prefer this for anybody with 2A to 3C hair, okay, just a little bit more on the wavy side. Maybe not people with damaged hair, but people with more normal hair that hasn't been too processed or is totally falling off their head because sea salt can be a little bit more drying. This will give you those amazing, beautifully defined soft beach waves, and it'll make you that like tousled, sexy style.

Electrified Volumizing Foam, great for people who have low-density hair. I can't stress that enough, and for people with thin hair. If you want to expand your hair fibres, this actually does do that. It actually like swells it a little bit. It also gives you amazing heights and amazing hold. So, great for those of you with that kind of hair type. Also, this doesn't matter if you have 4C hair or 2A hair. It works for everybody.

Forcefield Heat Shield, I'm going to say this one is just for everybody, you guys. Everyone needs a great heat protector and this one protects up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. It also includes pro-vitamin B5 so people with damaged hair can actually gain a lot from this. It actually protects your hair from future damage and heals your current damage. Hydromania Conditioning Mist, this is great for everybody, but I will say great for those of you with dryer hair. It doesn't matter how or thin your hair is, or if your hair is low density or high density, doesn't matter. That doesn't make a difference. But if your hair is dry, your hair is damaged, super great. Or if your hair just gets really tangly after the shower. Super great for untangling and just smoothing your hair out.

We have Viper next, smoothing oil. Anybody with anything in the 4A, 4B, 4C category. I love a good oil. We included the best of the best oils in this, smells so sickening. It actually dries into your hair. It doesn't keep your hair looking greasy. You also have that bouncy curl. It won't be weighed down. And also anybody with damaged hair, please use an oil.

BDSM Slick & Define Balm. Oh, anybody, okay, with curly hair, please, you need this. I know this is something that's kind of weird. Like, "What do I really need a slick and defined balm for?" Girl, just read the reviews. Everybody who's gotten it is like, "Why haven't I had this before?" It hydrates. It adds a lot of shine and it defines your curl. So, if you have 4C hair, it's going to really define your fabulous, coily hair. Anybody who has 3A or 3B or 3C hair, it's going to do a great job at defining your curls. Put a little on your finger, twirl it around, get on the ends, and it'll perfectly define your waves without weighing it down, and without making it greasy, and without making it crunchy. This also doesn't matter if you have low, high density, or anything in between.

Club Kid Dry Shampoo. Oh, my low-density girls out there or guys, dry shampoo is your friend, is your best friend, actually. It makes your hair look so much thicker. Mine actually doesn't make your hair gritty either. It actually makes it really soft so you can use it on your clean hair and you'll still feel clean and refreshed, but you'll have extra volume because that powder is living in there, adding that extra height. If you have a dry scalp though, maybe don't use a dry shampoo. Because it is powder, it can make your head drier because it's sucking in all those oils. Also, anyone with oily hair, you guys know, dry shampoo is your bestie too. And powder does a way better job than aerosols in my opinion, just you need to brush it through.

Prismatic Glow Hydrating Mask. You guys, if you have dry hair, (beep) get it, girl. Damaged, dry hair, please use a mask. I can't stress that enough. This has argan and baobab oil. It'll really hydrate really nicely and make your hair so smooth and silky and soft. Don't use this if your hair is low density and healthy because it'll just weigh it down. So, that's not what you need.

Electric Rain Moisture Cream. Now this, I feel like is a one size fits all kind of a product. But if we're going to really try and narrow it down a little more, well, I can't. It is light enough to use on somebody with the finest of hair, also heavy enough to use on somebody who has 4C hair, okay, and needs a lot of hydration. It is buildable so you can apply less and get less hydration, and apply more and get more hydration. But all my products really dry into the hair and don't leave a greasy film on top because they are very high-quality products, so you're going to get amazing protein benefits and oils and all these great ingredients to make your hair super healthy and feel nice and look shiny and luxurious.

Glitterati is like your fun accessory. It's like your fun handbag. Right? This is the stuff that just makes you feel extra and fabulous, just like I do every time I film a video. Honestly, great for any wave pattern. This is going to define your wave a bit. It's going to add glitter and hydration without that heavy, sticky feel. It's also great for blow dry styling so if you have finer hair and you want to get some really nice bouncy curls, and you want to last you a long time, your best friend, and of course, it has a lot of sparkle, which is why it's called Glitterati. So, if you want to have some fun and style your hair at the same time, Glitterati.

Next, we have Wavetec Wave Foam. Another one size fits all, to be honest with you. It is heavy enough to use on 4C hair but light enough to use on 2A hair. I know that makes no sense, but when you touch it, you'll know what I mean because it is a foam, but it is buildable, and it's just a really sick product. So, if you have 2A hair, it'll make your hair a little bit wavier. It'll define your wave a little bit more. It won't add any crunch. It'll also defrizz your hair. It'll add pro-vitamin B5 to your hair. I've had a lot of people with 4C hair use this product, and see amazing results. It makes your hair so light and bouncy. There's no sort of crunchy feeling and it really defines your coily pattern. This won't matter if you have thick or thin hair or low or high-density. It'll work for everybody.

I do have to say one thing though, guys, I'm sorry, but this product is sold out. We're working to get more in stock in about a month. It's coming very soon. We are working very hard over here to make that happen. So, if you guys would like to send out for our email list to be notified when this product is restocked, it is linked below on the product page. You can sign up on there. Put your email in and we will notify you first thing it arrives back in stock and don't miss out.

I hope that helped you discover what products of mine are best for you or help you discover what kinds of products you should look for on the market. I do say mine are the best because I did create them, and I wouldn't have created anything less than the best, but totally your decision. I'm not forcing you to buy anything. I don't want this to seem like an infomercial. I really just want to help you out. That concludes that.

Okay. We went over so much today, guys. I hope you learned a lot and I hope you finally discovered what hair type you have and you can finally tell your hairdresser or your friends, "You know, I have low density actually and I have thick hair. Yeah, I know. It's not a big deal, baby. I also have a normal scalp, apparently." That's my goal for this video, and I hope we accomplished that. If you guys aren't already subscribed, please, goddamn, do it for me. Click the other icon, the bell icon. Yeah, do that too to get notified when I post a video. Make sure you follow me everywhere else. I am like literally everywhere at all times. I'm not tired. Who have said that? Just following me everywhere else. If you guys would like to text me, here is my number. Yes, it is an actual number that I get to actually see your text messages, and I can actually answer you guys. So, I will be answering some of you guys if you text me. You'll also be notified whenever I post a new video and such. If you guys would like to shop XMONDO Hair, check it out. It's linked below in the description or you can head to our Instagram, @xmondohair to check out everything we offer.

Today's Instagram shout-out is Elana. Elana basically said that she coloured her hair blonde a few years ago and this is what it looks like, and she said that her hair fried off. Yeah, it was bad. She definitely regrets it a little bit, and chunks of her hair were falling out. It was really bad. I'm so sorry that happened to you. Now, her hair is dark again and it looks like this and she wants to know if she should go back to that blonde picture. Elana, just do the blonde again, but if your hair is compromised, which you'll learn from this video if it is or not, don't do it because your hair is going to fall out again, and I don't want that for you. I hope that helped, Elana. I can't wait to see what you end up doing.

That is all for today, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to live your extra life. I'll see you next time. Bye, guys.

The Ultimate Guide To Hair Types & Finding The Right Products For You

Hair Type Categories

Hair Types in Review

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