Don't Put Your Child's Hair in a Box

Once you know your kid's "hair type" (3B, 4A, whatever mix of numbers and letters it is), it's tempting to treat it like an answer key. Buy the products made for that type, follow the routine made for that type, and wait for the results promised for that type. But hair type is a smaller piece of a bigger picture.

Hair type isn't the full story

The Type 1–4 system measures one thing: curl pattern. That's it. It doesn't tell you about porosity (how well hair takes in and holds onto moisture), elasticity (how far it stretches before it snaps), strand thickness, or the fact that different parts of the same head can do completely different things. Two kids with the same "type" can need totally different care.

And that's the real problem with hair typing. Knowing your kid's curl pattern isn't bad information to have. The issue is when the chart gets treated like it's the whole story, with more authority than it actually has. (If you want the history behind it, we dug into that in Hair Typing Was Never the Whole Story.)

One chart, many systems

The Type 1–4 chart isn't the only system out there. The FIA system builds on it by adding thickness, porosity and volume. The LOIS system approaches it differently: the letters L, O, I and S stand for the shapes a strand makes, and texture gets sorted into categories like thready, wiry, cottony, spongy and silky. None of that shows up on the standard chart.

If there were one complete way to sort hair, we wouldn't need three different charts. Each one catches a different piece of the picture, and none of them catches all of it.

Porosity helps more than a label

If you want the most useful place to start with your kid's routine, porosity usually tells you more than type does. It affects how products soak in, how long hair stays moisturized and which techniques actually work. That's more than any letter-and-number combo will tell you. Here's what porosity tells you about your child's hair.

What we'd look at instead

You don't need a chart to learn your kid's hair. You just need to pay attention on wash day. Here's what we'd watch for:

• How it handles water. Does water bead up and sit on top, or soak right in? Hair that takes forever to get wet (and forever to dry) usually leans low porosity. Hair that soaks it up but feels dry again by the next day leans high. Our porosity guide walks through what each one needs.
• How it stretches. Gently stretch a clean, damp strand. If it springs back, that's good elasticity. If it snaps right away, it may need more moisture or a little less manipulation.
• How thick the strands are. Roll a single strand between your fingers. If you can barely feel it, it's fine. If it feels like thread, it's coarse. That's what texture actually means, and it changes how much product the hair can handle.
• How different sections behave. Compare the crown, the nape and the edges. It's normal for them to act like three different heads of hair, and they might need a little different care.

Let the chart be a starting point, not a verdict

There's nothing wrong with knowing your kid's hair type. It can be useful when you're shopping for products, but it works best as one piece of information, not a box your kid's hair gets sorted into and defined by.

The takeaway

Simplicity is best. Pay attention to how your kid's hair actually responds to water and product. What it needs, what works, what doesn't. Start there, not with what the chart says it's supposed to do.

Further reading: FIA hair typing (Black Hair Spot) · The LOIS hair typing system (LaToya Ebony) · Hair Typing Was Never the Whole Story