Hair Type Quiz: What’s My Hair Type, Really?
Hair type describes four separate traits: curl pattern, strand diameter, density and porosity. Standard charts only show the first. The quiz below reads all four in about sixty seconds and returns a code from 1A to 4C, plus the two traits that decide which products actually work on your hair.
Hair typing
Hair Type Quiz
Five questions, about a minute. You will get your type from 1A to 4C, plus your porosity, density and strand texture, and what each one means for how you should be treating your hair.
The 12 hair types
Scoring needs JavaScript. With it switched off you can still read every hair type below and match yourself by eye.
Your hair type
Type 1A
Straight and fine
Poker-straight, soft and very fine. The rarest of the straight types, and the hardest to hold any shape.
Your hair has no bend at all, and each strand is thin enough that curls drop out within an hour or two. Because the strands lie flat, oil travels down them easily, so roots go greasy faster than with any other type.
How to look after it
- Use a lightweight shampoo and keep conditioner on the mid-lengths and ends only.
- Skip butters, heavy oils and rich creams. They will flatten your roots within hours.
- Volume comes from mousse on damp hair, not from product added afterwards.
- Dry shampoo between washes will do more for you than washing more often.
Your hair type
Type 1B
Straight with body
Straight, with medium-width strands and enough body to bend slightly toward the ends.
You sit in the sweet spot of the straight types: enough thickness to hold a style for a while, but still smooth and glossy from root to tip. Your hair takes a curl if you help it, though it will drop by the end of the day.
How to look after it
- A volumising shampoo plus a light conditioner keeps the body without the grease.
- Blow-dry with your head tipped forward to build root lift before styling.
- A texturising spray gives your hair something to grip when you want a style to hold.
- Always use heat protection. Straight hair shows heat damage as dullness first.
Your hair type
Type 1C
Straight and coarse
Straight overall, but with thick, strong strands and a tendency to frizz in humidity.
Your individual strands are wide and sturdy, so your hair holds a style far better than finer straight types do. The trade-off is bulk and a slight coarseness at the ends, plus frizz whenever the air is damp.
How to look after it
- A smoothing or anti-frizz conditioner will do the heavy lifting for you.
- A few drops of light oil on the ends tames coarseness without greasing the roots.
- Ask for weight to be removed at the ends rather than layers added throughout.
- A silk or satin pillowcase noticeably cuts down morning frizz.
Your hair type
Type 2A
Loose wavy
Fine, barely-there S waves that sit close to your head and give up easily under weight.
Your wave is real but delicate. The pattern usually starts around eye level rather than at the roots, and almost any product heavier than a mousse will pull it straight.
How to look after it
- Stay light: mousse, sea salt spray or a foam. Avoid creams, butters and oils.
- Scrunch product into soaking-wet hair, then leave it alone completely while it dries.
- Never brush dry hair. It kills the wave. Detangle in the shower with conditioner.
- Diffuse on low heat, or air dry, then shake the roots out with your fingers.
Your hair type
Type 2B
Defined wavy
Clear S waves through the mid-lengths and ends, flatter at the crown, with some frizz.
Your waves hold their shape well from the ears down but stay flat on top, which can make the overall shape read as triangular. Frizz tends to gather around the crown where the pattern is weakest.
How to look after it
- A light curl cream or gel gives your waves hold without flattening them.
- Let gel dry into a hard cast, then scrunch it out with dry hands for soft waves.
- Clip the roots at the crown while drying to build lift where you lack it.
- Wash less often than you think. Every two or three days suits 2B well.
Your hair type
Type 2C
Strong wavy
Deep waves that start right at the root, mixed with the odd loose spiral, and prone to frizz.
You are on the border of curly. The waves are well defined and begin at the scalp, often with a few genuine ringlets underneath, and your strands are usually thicker than other wavy types. Humidity is your main opponent.
How to look after it
- Treat your hair as curly: co-wash or use a sulphate-free shampoo, and never skip conditioner.
- Apply product to dripping-wet hair using praying hands, then scrunch upward.
- A gel with real hold beats a cream for fighting humidity.
- Dry with a microfibre towel or an old t-shirt. Terry towelling roughens the cuticle.
Your hair type
Type 3A
Loose curly
Large, springy, well-defined spirals roughly the width of sidewalk chalk.
Your curls form big, shiny loops with plenty of natural movement. They are defined enough to look after themselves on a good day, but the pattern loosens quickly if you touch it or brush it out.
How to look after it
- Hands off while drying. Every touch before your hair is fully dry becomes frizz.
- A leave-in conditioner plus a light gel is usually all you need.
- Detangle only when wet and loaded with conditioner, working from the ends upward.
- Refresh day-two curls with water in a spray bottle rather than more product.
Your hair type
Type 3B
Springy curly
Bouncy, well-packed ringlets about the width of a marker or a pencil, with plenty of volume.
Your ringlets are tighter and denser than 3A, giving you real volume from the roots. That density means the natural oils from your scalp struggle to reach the ends, so dryness through the lower half is the usual complaint.
How to look after it
- Layer your products: leave-in, then cream, then gel, on soaking-wet hair.
- Deep condition weekly. This is the single biggest upgrade for 3B hair.
- Diffuse on low heat and low speed rather than air drying, to keep the volume.
- Pineapple your hair on top of your head at night and sleep on satin.
Your hair type
Type 3C
Tight curly
Tight corkscrews around the width of a straw or a pen, packed densely together.
Your curls are corkscrew-tight and grow closely packed, which gives you a lot of body and a fair amount of shrinkage. The tight pattern makes the strands fragile at every bend, so breakage matters more for you than it does for looser curls.
How to look after it
- Never detangle dry. Section, soak, add conditioner, then use fingers or a wide-tooth comb.
- Work product in section by section. Raking it over the top will not reach everything.
- Deep condition weekly, and add a protein treatment monthly if your curls feel limp.
- Protective styles for a few days at a time give your ends a genuine rest.
Your hair type
Type 4A
Soft coily
Tight, springy S-shaped coils about the width of a pen spring, with a clearly visible pattern.
Your coils are tight but they hold a defined, repeating S shape, and they respond well to water, so the pattern pops as soon as your hair is wet. Expect meaningful shrinkage and a real need for moisture.
How to look after it
- Follow the LCO or LOC order, liquid then cream then oil, to trap water in the strand.
- Style on wet hair only. Dry 4A hair will not clump into its pattern.
- Twist-outs and braid-outs stretch the coils and cut down single-strand knots.
- Sleep in a satin bonnet. Cotton pulls the moisture straight back out.
Your hair type
Type 4B
Zig-zag coily
A sharp, angular Z-shaped pattern that bends rather than curls, with a fluffy, cottony feel.
Instead of coiling into a spiral, your strands bend at sharp angles, which is why the pattern reads as fluff rather than as curls. Those angles are natural weak points, so gentle handling matters more than any product you buy.
How to look after it
- Work in four to six sections every time, for washing, conditioning and styling alike.
- Use a thick, creamy leave-in and seal with an oil or butter while your hair is still wet.
- Shingle product through small sections to encourage the strands to clump together.
- Stretch your hair with banding or twists to keep shrinkage and tangling under control.
Your hair type
Type 4C
Densely coiled
The tightest pattern, packed so densely that little definition shows until the hair is wet and styled.
Your hair has a very tight zig-zag that often shows no visible curl pattern on its own, and shrinkage can hide as much as three quarters of your actual length. It is the most fragile of all the types and the most moisture-hungry, but it also holds a shaped style better than anything else.
How to look after it
- Moisture is not optional. Deep condition weekly and refresh with water between washes.
- Only ever detangle soaking wet, in small sections, with plenty of slip from conditioner.
- Definition comes from styling, twist-outs and shingling, not from the hair alone.
- Protective styles plus a satin bonnet at night are what protect your length over time.
Porosity
Low
Your cuticle lies flat, so moisture struggles to get in and struggles to leave once it does. Use lightweight, water-based products on damp hair. Heavy butters will only sit on the surface.
Porosity
Normal
Your cuticle takes moisture in and holds onto it well. This is the easiest porosity to work with, so you can choose products based on your curl pattern alone.
Porosity
High
Your cuticle is open, so water rushes in and escapes just as fast. Seal moisture in with heavier creams, butters and oils, and use protein to help fill the gaps in the strand.
Density
Low
Fewer strands per square inch, so your hair is easily weighed down. Use small amounts of light product and build up only if you need to.
Density
Medium
A balanced amount of hair, which gives you room to experiment with product weight without much risk of flattening it.
Density
High
A lot of hair packed together. Work in sections so product reaches the middle, and expect to use more than the bottle suggests.
Strand texture
Fine
Narrow, delicate strands. Fine hair is the quickest to be weighed down and the quickest to break, so favour lightweight formulas and gentle handling.
Strand texture
Medium
The most forgiving width, strong enough to hold a style and flexible enough to avoid coarseness.
Strand texture
Coarse
Wide, strong strands. Coarse hair takes richer products happily, but it also resists styling and shows dryness sooner.
What Are the 12 Types of Hair?
The 12 hair types are 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, 4A, 4B and 4C. The number is curl pattern, running from straight at 1 to coily at 4. The letter is how tight that pattern gets within its band, from loosest at A to tightest at C.
| Type | Pattern | Air-dried, no product | Usually needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Straight, fine | Flat, no bend, high shine | Root volume, light product only |
| 1B | Straight, medium | Straight with body | Dry shampoo between washes |
| 1C | Straight, coarse | Straight with a bend at the ends | Frizz control in humidity |
| 2A | Wavy, fine | Loose S, close to the head | Light hold, nothing heavy |
| 2B | Wavy, medium | Defined S from mid-length | Salt or texture spray |
| 2C | Wavy, coarse | Wide waves from the root | Anti-frizz, sometimes a curl cream |
| 3A | Curly, loose | Large springy loops | Moisture and a diffuser |
| 3B | Curly, tight | Ringlets around a marker width | Curl cream plus gel |
| 3C | Curly, corkscrew | Pencil-width spirals, dense | Heavy moisture, no dry brushing |
| 4A | Coily | Tight coils with visible definition | Layered moisture, protective styling |
| 4B | Coily, zigzag | Sharp bends, little curl definition | Cream and oil, low manipulation |
| 4C | Coily, tight | No pattern until wet, shrinks most | Maximum moisture, minimum tension |
A complete hair type has four measurements, not one. Curl pattern is the 1 to 4 number every chart shows. Strand diameter is how thick a single hair is. Density is how many hairs grow per square centimetre of scalp. Porosity is how fast the cuticle takes in water and loses it.
What Are the Four Parts of a Hair Type?
A complete hair type has four measurements, not one. Curl pattern is the 1 to 4 number every chart shows. Strand diameter is how thick a single hair is. Density is how many hairs grow per square centimetre of scalp. Porosity is how fast the cuticle takes in water and loses it.
| Trait | How to read it | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Curl pattern | Air-dry with no product, read one strand | Type 1 straight to Type 4 coily |
| Strand diameter | Roll a shed hair between finger and thumb | Fine, medium, coarse |
| Density | Part dry hair, judge how much scalp shows | 148 to 230 hairs per cm2 |
| Porosity | Float a clean shed strand for four minutes | Low, normal, high |
NCBI’s StatPearls puts most healthy adults at 80,000 to 120,000 terminal hairs, and a 2018 trichoscopy study of 166 adults led by Mathew Birnbaum in Skin Appendage Disorders found normal density spanning 148 to 230 hairs per square centimetre. Curl pattern gets the attention because it is the only one visible in a mirror. The other three are why two people with the same 3B result need different products.
How Do I Know What My Hair Type is?
To find your hair type, wash your hair, put nothing in it, and let it air dry untouched. Then read four things: the shape one strand takes from mid-length to end, how thick that strand feels between your fingers, how much scalp shows at your part, and whether a shed strand floats in water.
- Wash and air dry with nothing in it. No towel scrunching, no plopping, no diffuser.
- Read one strand from mid-length to end. Straight is Type 1. An open S is Type 2. A closed loop is Type 3. A tight coil or zigzag is Type 4.
- Roll a shed hair between your fingers. Barely there is fine. Thread-like is coarse.
- Drop that strand into room-temperature water for four minutes. Floating is low porosity. Sinking is high.
Step 4 is the one people skip and the one that changes the most. Product residue makes almost any strand float, so use hair washed clean.
Do I Have 1a, 1b, or 1c Hair?
1A hair lies completely flat against the scalp, has the finest strands of any type, and drops a curl within an hour of styling. 1B is straight with enough body to hold a bend for most of a day. 1C is straight at the root with a visible kick at the ends and frizzes in humidity.
Fastest test: sleep in a ponytail and take it out. No bend is 1A, a soft bend is 1B, a bend plus frizz is 1C.
Is My Hair 2a or 2b or 2c?
2A waves start below the ear, sit close to the head, and brush out straight. 2B waves start around mid-length, form a clear S shape, and hold unless the air is damp. 2C waves start at the root, are wide rather than tight, and frizz before either of the other two.
The 2C to 3A line catches people constantly. A wave that closes into a loop you can put a finger through is 3A. One that stays an open S, however wide, is 2C.
What Are the Top 3 Rarest Hair Types?
Type 1A is the hair type most often named as rarest, followed by 3A and 4C. No study has ever counted hair types across a population, so those rankings are estimates repeated between websites rather than measured figures. The only measured data on hair shape comes from two 2007 studies by L’Oreal Recherche.
Roland De la Mettrie measured hair from 1,442 people across 18 countries in Human Biology. Genevieve Loussouarn’s team at L’Oreal Recherche extended the method to 2,449 subjects in the International Journal of Dermatology. Both produced eight categories rather than twelve, and both found straight hair common worldwide. Neither supports a rarity ranking of the Walker subtypes, because neither used them.
How Do Men Find Their Hair Type?
Men find their hair type the same way anyone does, but short hair hides the curl pattern. Below roughly two inches, a curl cannot complete a full loop, so the hair reads straighter than it is. Judge from the crown or the back, where hair sits longest, or after six weeks of growth.
StatPearls puts healthy growth at 0.35 mm per day, about half an inch a month, so six weeks gives you enough length to read a wave. On short styles, diameter and porosity drive product choice far more than curl pattern does.
How Do I Test My Hair Porosity?
To test hair porosity, drop one clean shed strand into a glass of room-temperature water and wait four minutes. A strand that floats has low porosity and a tightly packed cuticle. A strand that sinks has high porosity and a raised cuticle. Sitting suspended in the middle means normal porosity.
Low porosity needs warmth and light formulas, because heavy butters sit on top and build up. High porosity needs sealing after conditioning, not more conditioning. It is also the only one of the four traits you can change, since color, bleach and heat raise it permanently. That is why lowlights grab faster and fade faster on previously colored hair.
Why Do Hair Type Quizzes Give Different Results?
Hair type quizzes disagree because the type system was never a measurement system. Andre Walker created it in 1997 to help shoppers match products, not to describe hair biology. Quizzes also read what you report rather than what your hair does, and self-reporting is unreliable if you heat-style regularly.
Walker published the chart in Andre Talks Hair! while stylist to Oprah Winfrey, a role he held from 1985 to 2015. It carries no measurements, which is why the 2007 L’Oreal work produced eight categories from 2,449 measured subjects while Walker’s produced twelve from none. A 2021 JID Innovations paper on NCBI adds that mechanical fragility rises with tighter curl patterns, citing Khumalo and Porter, and even that says nothing about your porosity or density.
Use the type as a starting point. Use porosity and diameter for decisions that cost money.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
Is this hair type quiz free?
Yes. No email, no account, no upsell. Results appear the moment you finish and nothing is stored. The quiz reads curl pattern, diameter, density and porosity, then returns a code from 1A to 4C with care notes.
What is the difference between hair type and hair texture?
Hair type means curl pattern, the 1A to 4C code. Hair texture means strand diameter: fine, medium or coarse. They are independent. Someone can have 4C hair with fine strands or 1A hair with coarse strands, and that pairing changes the routine more than either trait alone.
Can my hair type change?
Curl pattern shifts with hormones, medication, pregnancy and age. Going grey changes strand texture, and grey hair is often coarser than what it replaced, which matters when choosing grey hair styles. Porosity changes far more easily, mostly through color and heat.
Does my hair type tell me which shampoo to buy?
Only partly. Diameter and porosity predict shampoo performance better than curl pattern. Fine hair collapses under anything rich whether it is straight or wavy, which is why shampoo for fine hair is a separate category from shampoo for straight hair.
What is 4C hair?
4C is the tightest coil pattern, with no visible definition until wet and the highest shrinkage of any type, often 70 percent or more of stretched length. It is not a damage category or a looser type gone wrong. It needs consistent moisture and minimal tension.
What Should I Do With My Hair Type Result?
Buy for diameter first, because it decides how much weight your hair carries. Buy for porosity second, because it decides whether product absorbs or sits on top. Use the curl number for technique, not product.
If color is next, texture changes how pigment sits, and the hair color app tests a direction faster than a swatch book. Skin depth and undertone decide which shades suit you, which the color analysis quiz handles.