Yeah i'm a 3 something too, but my texture keeps changing and its throwing me all off.
i thought i was mostly 3c till i BC'd...now i see that the whoooooole back is 4a. my nape and front are 3c though.I hear ya on this one. I'm 15 months into my transition, and just when I think I know what my hair type is, it changes on me. Last summer, I thought I was mostly 4a, then towards the middle of my transition, I thought I was half 3c and half 4a. Now towards the end here, I'm finding that I'm predominately 3c. Weird ... Lord only knows what's going to happen when I BC.
i thought i was mostly 3c till i BC'd...now i see that the whoooooole back is 4a. my nape and front are 3c though.
cosigning on this! the other day i didnt use a gel or anything, just baby buttercreme, and i got so much shrinkage it was unbelievable. i looked like a 4b by the end of the weekend (3 days without cowashing does NOT work for me, apparently). today i bypassed the noodle head, which i havent used yet, and followed up my cowash by leaving in the vo5, sealing with raw shea butter, and scrunching with garnier fructis curl scrunch gel. my hair didnt shrink but it feels like a helmet.Count me in. 3c natural. Always looking for products that make my curls pop Open to any suggestions TIA
i'm exactly the same way, i thought it was just something i was doing wrong but my hair never really takes to relaxers. it loosens the curls but it's pretty much still just curly after a relaxer and never bone straight. i've even had extra strength relaxer (way back in the day before i was really caring for my hair) and it still never took. i have a pic in my fotki album of my relaxed hair wet, you can def still see curl pattern.
hey first time posting... must say i love this site and this is a really good thread!!
im a natural type 3 something i think i have fine hair and i think it is more 3a/b but im not 100% sure???
like the rest of you have been saying my curls change daytoday depending on how often i wash, what shampoo and conditioner i use, where i let it dry (i never ever blowdry)- if im chilling in my house or if its drying outside which is never good, the wind makes it frizzy!
my new product at the moment which iv used twice and both times i loved the results was the aveda curl enhancer... havent used the shampoo, conditioner yet but my curls were so lovely!
id like to put a pic of my hair up but im not sure how to??? id love to find a hair twin!!
Does anyone stick only to products that are completely free of protein? It seems like this is the route that I have to take since all of them are drying, regardless of what type or where they are on the ingredient list.
Does anyone stick only to products that are completely free of protein? It seems like this is the route that I have to take since all of them are drying, regardless of what type or where they are on the ingredient list.
All of this is me to a tee! There are some times when my curls are brillaint and other times when I'm like erplexed ???? I constantly have to rotate my products cause even when doing a consisitent routine, my curls will suddenly morph into another personality!
And I also have to use nearly a half bottle of conditioner during times. It gets pricey cause I can't use cheap conditioners for too long without it causing dryness. Aubrey conditioners are the only ones I can use consistently long term with good results. Going thru half bottles of GPB or Honeysuckle rose gets a little expensive.
Overall, the unpredictability of my curls is frustrating!
I had the same issue. That is one reason I decided to go natural. I figured what was the point of if my hair still wasn't straight afterwards.
Does anyone stick only to products that are completely free of protein? It seems like this is the route that I have to take since all of them are drying, regardless of what type or where they are on the ingredient list.
As a relaxed head bet touchups I only use light protein 1 or 2 times-2 is really pushing it for me. At touchup the Affirm 5 in 1 reconstructor is used.
As a natural, I never did protein treatments. Only moisture with occasional very small amounts of hydrolyzed silk, soy, wheat like that Herbal Essence Replenishing conditioner in the pink bottle, no ORS packs, etc.
Protein is nothing to mess with for a type 3 head I've learned. One light protein treatment can be too much sometimes My hair also hates any type of cholesterol conditioners- the devil.
I am a 3
I agree with the hair being able to take on many different looks - as a child when my mother never used conditioner on my hair it looked more 4a-ish. In my siggy pic it looks more like a 2 something. With no products it's just a regular 3b/c.
I have learned over the years how to make my hair look like anything from stick straight to 4a/b fro-ish. Then I decided what I want my hair to look like and what type of regimen I want (the simplest possible) and took it from there.
My daily hair do is a ponytail or a single braid or twist. It's kinda boring, but I can't wear my hair down every day because of the wear and tear on my ends.
I tried co-washing, but it didn't work for me - it dried my hair out a lot. Also, my hair stays wet for a whole day (sometimes even longer) and I can't walk around with wet hair 24 hours LOL. Especially living as close to the North Pole as I do Can anyone say frozen curls.
My regimen looks something like this:
I wash once or twice a week. Shampoo once and condition afterwards. While I have conditioner in my hair I finger comb and pull out loose hairs. Then I rinse sloppily to keep some conditioner in the hair. I follow with leave in conditioner and jojoba oil or olive oil. Then I just let it air dry hanging loose while I wear a towel around my shoulders.
At night I usually make a loose braid or a loose bun (I just fold my hair over and fasten with a hair comb). It's difficult to find a comfortable way to sleep, but now I've gotten used to throwing the braid the other way when I turn over in my bed, so I don't have to have it in my face etc.
In the morning I put some leave in conditioner on the ends of my hair and sometimes moisturize with water from my hands. I just wet my hands and then squeeze my hair (the ends) a little to make the curls come back to life.
There are several types of 3:s. My best friend and I have the same hair type, but our hairs are very different and react differently to hair products
Her hair is very soft and the individual strands are very thin, but she has plenty of them - in fact I would say she has around two-three times as many hair strands as I have. When she makes 2 braids they are super thick!
My hair is coarser to the touch (compared to hers) and the individual strands are very thick, like Asian hair. And when I make 2 braids they are skinny But because of my thick strands my hair looks just as thick as hers when I wear it down.
Her hair reacts better to moisture - she can wet it and that just makes it shinier and springier when it dries. If I wet my hair without products it just gets frizzy. In fact, she doesn't need leave in conditioners or hair oil, her hair is oilier than mine to begin with. I think it's the soft, thin hairs that make the sebum travel down her hair shafts better.
Her daughter has a mix of 3 and 4. It is exactly like our hair, but just one grade curlier. She is 3 years old and her hair is already down to her little butt So cute! Her hair strands are soft and silky and very thin like her mother's. She also has a ton of hair like her mom. Her hair was curly at birth.
Her son has pure 3 hair that is very sparse. Cut short it lays down and looks straight. When it grows it's huge loose curls/waves. His hair strands are coarser like mine. He is 6 years old and I don't think his hair will grow in thicker. His hair was very sparse and straight at birth.
I wanted to add that my hair has been all kinds of lengths over the years, but mostly long. When my hair is really short (around 2 inches) it's completely straight and sticks up and out like a MonChiChi. Weird! Maybe because it's so wiry. When it grows longer than that it starts to curl. The longer it grows the more it curls. But it's been the same amount of curl since shoulder length I think.
I was born with straight hair that was long enough for the nurses to put a bow in it. It was down to my neck.