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Home | Beauty | Hair
Are You In Touch With Your Hair Type? 
By: Mary Givens
It might surprise you to discover that human hair can be found in 10 different varieties. There are 4 main hair types and each one of those can have up to 3 subtypes. All that variety can lead to confusion when it comes to buying the proper hair styling products.
The first type of hair is straight hair. This kind of hair is resistant to damage and styling because of more cuticle layers. The cuticle layers are what give the shape to the hair. The extra protection of straight hair is also a curse because it resists styling and shaping. Additionally, straight hair that gets damages is usually easy to break and it dry.
There are 3 varieties of straight hair. They are fine, medium and course. Fine hair is shiny soft and usually very thin. Medium hair has a good amount of body and texture. Course hair is the thickest and as such is most resistant to being styled.
The next hair type is wavy hair. This hair is not quite straight and not quite curly. The strands of hair typically form S patterns in the waves. This kind of hair can be tough to curl and it may refuse to bounce at all.
There are 3 separate kinds of wavy hair. Just as with straight hair, wavy comes in fine, medium and course. The fine kind is actually able to be straightened or curled in normal circumstances. Medium hair has a harder time with styling and sometimes gets frizzy. Lastly, course wavy hair is very prone to frizzing and is very difficult to style.
Our third hair type is curly hair. It is normally quite soft and fine. The single strands definitely form an S pattern. Wavy hair has a lot of bounce when stretched. It also has a lot less shine than wavy or straight hair. When it is humid, this kind of hair is easily frizzed and the curls get tighter.
Curly hair only comes in 2 different subtypes. There is loosely curled hair and tightly curled hair. The loose variety is almost straight when its cut short and when grown long it makes big curls that can even be shiny. Tightly curled hair appears almost as cork screws. One thing worth noting is that some people with curly hair have both types in various places through out their head.
The last kind of hair is called kinky hair. It is curled really tight, can be wirey and it almost always is very fragile. Kinky hair is not very shiny but it can have a subtle sheen to it. It is very soft and very easy to break because it has a low amount of cuticles. All of that adds up to hair that is quite difficult to grow long.
There are only 2 subtypes when it comes to kinky hair. They are S pattern and Z pattern. That refers to how the strands look when stretched. S type hair has a bit of moisture to it naturally. Z type hair has the least amount of moisture of any hair type.
Knowing exactly what type of hair you have is important for two reasons. First, it will help you make better choices when it comes to buying the right styling products (shampoo, conditioner, etc). Second, knowing your type well may help prevent you from trying to force something on your hair that is really against what nature intended. For example if you have really tightly curled hair you may not get the best results trying to straighten it with a hair straightener. And conversely if you have course straight hair, you are naturally going to have challenges trying to curl it.
Article Source: http://www.uberarticles.com/articles
Marcy Givens is a hair care enthusiast who wanted to learn about the wild variety of hair care products. She has some useful free tips and secrets for selecting the best Sedu straighteners and Chi flat irons.
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