Mischo Beauty School: Understanding Your Hair Type (A Lesson from Andre Walker)

After reading a few hair forums I was introduced to the concept of "hair type". Yes, I'm a licensed cosmetologist, but I'd never heard the term - neither in cosmetology school, or in my cosmetology textbooks. I guess the closest to "hair type" for me would be hair texture.

Well, after searching for the concept's origination, I learned that Andre Walker (Oprah's hairstylist) was responsible for creating the term. In his book "Andre Talks Hair!", he states:

"Stop reading fashion magazines that tell you there's just one hair type if you're African-American, Asian, or whatever. Forget about race- there's no such thing as "black" hair or "Asian" hair or even "Caucasian" hair. And, please, please, please, let's retire forever those antiquated stereotypes about "good" hair versus "bad" hair. The fact is, everyone has "good" hair - you just have to know how to take care of your hair type."

And so he breaks hair type into the following categories (there are subtypes within each category, such as A, B, C, etc.):

Type 1: Straight Hair: Hair holds no curl or wave, but has lots of shine.

Type 2: Wavy Hair: Hair tends to be coarse, with a definite "S" shape pattern.

Type 3: Curly Hair: Hair is very fine in texture; definite loopy "S" pattern.

Type 4: Kinky Hair: Hair is very fragile; very tightly coiled/curled.

Ok, so there you have it! Now the book is full of tips on solving hair issues, finding the right stylist, choosing a haircut and a whole lot more. I definitely recommend checking it out.

Any questions? Love your hair.