Curl types

Curly hair types, 3A to 4C

One chart, six patterns, and what each one actually changes.

The curl chart is a shorthand, not a diagnosis. A number for the family your hair belongs to — 1 straight, 2 wavy, 3 curly, 4 coily — and a letter for how tight the pattern runs inside that family. This page covers 3A through 4C: what a single strand of each looks like, what separates it from the pattern either side of it, and how to work out in about two minutes which one you are looking at.

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What the chart measures, and what it does not

The system in common use came from Andre Walker, Oprah Winfrey's stylist, in the 1990s, and it was built as a way for professionals to describe hair to each other quickly on a set. That origin explains both its usefulness and its limits. It is a vocabulary for the shape of a strand, and nothing else.

The number is the family: type 1 straight, type 2 waves, type 3 curls, type 4 coils. The letter is how tight the pattern runs within that family, with A the loosest and C the tightest. So 3A and 4A are both the loosest members of their family and they behave nothing alike, because the family is the bigger difference by a distance.

What the chart does not measure matters at least as much. It says nothing about porosity, which is how readily the cuticle lets water in and out. Nothing about density, which is how many strands you have per square inch of scalp. Nothing about the width of an individual hair. Two people can both be 4A and need opposite routines because one has fine, densely packed hair and the other coarse and sparse. Treat the letter as the first question you ask, never the last.

It is also completely normal to carry more than one pattern on one head. Crown, nape and hairline commonly differ, and the front usually reads looser than the back simply because it is handled more. Type the section that gives you the most trouble, not the one that photographs best.

Where type 3 and type 4 part company

The dividing line is geometry rather than tightness. A type 3 strand is a spiral: it curves continuously, closes on itself, and holds a recognisable loop that you can see without stretching anything. A type 4 strand at its tightest does not curve so much as change direction — it travels straight for a short run, turns a corner, and travels again. That is why 4B and 4C get described as Z-patterned rather than S-patterned.

That single difference decides most of what follows. A curve spreads tension along its length, so a spiral stretches before it breaks. A corner concentrates the same tension at a point, so an angular strand snaps at the bend. The same geometry decides moisture: a closed loop gives water and conditioner a wall to sit against, while a straight run between two corners gives them nothing to hold on to. Nearly everything people say about type 4 hair being drier and more fragile follows from those two sentences.

4A sits exactly on the line. It is a coil by family and an S by shape — the last pattern with a properly closed loop — which is why it can behave like a tighter 3C on a good day and like 4B on a bad one.

What this chart will not tell you

First, nobody has counted. You will find pages ranking the patterns by rarity, and not one of them is drawing on a population survey, because no such survey exists. If a page tells you your pattern is the rarest, it is guessing, and it is usually guessing in order to sell you something.

Second, this chart starts at 3A. Type 2 waves are a real pattern and they are not written up here, because this shop is not built around them and a page pretending otherwise would be padding. A good deal of what is on these six pages still applies to a 2C — the comb, the towel, the order of operations — but it was written for hair tighter than yours, and you should read it that way.

And one more thing, which is not about the chart at all. Everything on these seven pages is about technique and tools, and there are causes of persistent breakage, thinning or shedding that no technique and no tool will reach — scalp conditions, medication, illness, and hormonal or nutritional changes among them. If your hair is breaking off or coming out in a way that is not improving after a few months of gentler handling, that is worth taking to a doctor or a trichologist rather than to another product.

The chart, 3A to 4C

Six rows. Compare a single dry strand, taken from the middle of the back of your head, against the description in the second column.

Pattern	One strand looks like	Roughly this wide	What it changes
3A hair — loose spirals	A big, soft spiral that closes on itself and stands away from the scalp	Roughly the width of a piece of sidewalk chalk	Holds a pattern easily and loses it to weight. Product load is what flattens it.
3B hair — ringlets	A springy ringlet with real bounce and strong curl memory	Roughly the width of a marker pen	Definition comes free. Silhouette and where the moisture goes do not.
3C hair — corkscrews	A tight corkscrew, packed flush against its neighbours	Roughly the width of a pencil	Density becomes the problem. Reaching the scalp takes sectioning.
4A hair — springy coils	A small, springy S-coil, clearly visible with nothing on it	Roughly the width of a crochet needle	The last closed loop on the chart. The sealing window is short.
4B hair — z-pattern bends	Sharp bends rather than curves — a Z, not an S, with no closed loop	Not measured by width; the pattern is angular, not a loop	Every corner is a stress point and a hook. Tension is the whole game.
4C hair — densest coils	The same angular pattern as 4B, tighter, often with no readable pattern until it is wet	Not measured by width; the pattern is angular, not a loop	Up to 75% shrinkage. Tangles hide inside sections you cannot see into.

How to find your curl type

Five steps, one wash day, and a single strand. The whole test is about removing the things that make a pattern read looser or tighter than it is.

What you need: A piece of sidewalk chalk or a wine cork, for the widest loops, A marker pen, A pencil, A crochet needle.

Wash, and use nothing else
Shampoo, condition, rinse, and skip every leave-in, cream and gel. Product is the main thing that makes this test unreliable: a gel holds a looser pattern in a tighter shape, and a heavy cream drags a tighter one out straight.
Air dry without touching it
No towel scrunching, no diffuser, no fingers running through it. Every touch while hair is drying either breaks a clump apart or pushes one together, and both change the answer you are about to read.
Take one strand from the middle
Not the hairline, which is handled most and reads loosest, and not the nape, which is often the tightest thing on your head. Pull one strand clear from the middle of the back section.
Decide the shape before the width
First ask whether the strand curves into a closed loop or bends at angles. That puts you in type 3 or type 4, and it is much the bigger of the two decisions. If it loops, hold it against objects in descending order — sidewalk chalk or a wine cork for the widest, then a marker pen, then a pencil, then a crochet needle — and the first one that matches the loop gives you the letter. If it bends at angles instead, stop measuring: 4B and 4C are not separated by width at all, only by how much pattern is visible when the hair is dry.
Check a second section
Do the whole thing again somewhere else on your head. If the two answers differ by a letter, that is normal and you have not done it wrong. Work to the tighter of the two, because it is the one that will punish a routine built for the looser one.

Frequently asked questions

How can I identify my curl type?

Wash, use no product, and let your hair air dry without touching it. Then pull one strand from the middle of the back of your head and look at that strand rather than at the whole head. If it forms a loop that closes on itself you are in type 3, and the width of the loop gives you the letter. If it bends at angles rather than curving, you are in type 4. Judge it dry: every pattern reads looser when it is heavy with water.

What are some types of curly hair?

In common use there are six curly and coily patterns. Curly is type 3 — 3A loose spirals, 3B ringlets, 3C corkscrews. Coily is type 4 — 4A springy S-coils, 4B angular Z-bends, 4C the tightest of the three with the most shrinkage. Below them sit the three wavy patterns, 2A to 2C, and above them type 1, which is straight.

Is my hair 2a or 2b or 2c?

If your hair falls in a broad S that lies flat against your head and never comes round to meet itself, you are in type 2 rather than type 3, and this chart does not serve you especially well. Very roughly: 2A is a barely-there bend, 2B holds an S from mid-length down, and 2C waves start at the root and throw the occasional loose curl. Once those loops close consistently, you have crossed into 3A.

What is the rarest type of curly hair?

There is no honest answer to this. The rarity rankings you find online are not built on any census of hair patterns, because none has been carried out. And since a single head usually carries more than one pattern, counting people by pattern would be close to meaningless even if somebody tried.

Can AI tell me my hair type?

A photo-based guess is only as good as the photo, and photos are the least reliable input available here. Length, weight, product, humidity and how recently the hair was handled all change how loose a pattern reads on camera. The strand test above takes two minutes and looks at the one thing the chart is actually about, which is the shape of a single hair.

Works for every pattern

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One thing the chart will not tell you is which of these you need, and the honest answer is that it is largely the same set wherever you landed. The brushes, combs, bars, towels and silk below are not pattern-specific. The differences between the six pages above are differences of technique far more than they are differences of shopping list.