4c Hair Guide: How to Care and Style Your Stunning Natural Hair

Table Of Content

• Comments on “The 4C Hair Type: Everything You Need to Know (With Video Illustration)”
• Love Beauty and Planet Black Tea Kombucha & Red Ginger Conditioner
• Emerging Hair Typing Systems
• Type 4 Hair: What the A, B, and C Means and How to Care for Them All
• How to Choose 4C-Friendly Hair Products
• Wash-and-Go
• Messages About Love & Relationships

Say goodbye to split ends and hello to nourished, hydrated curls. Leave it in for at least 10 minutes, then rinse and style hair as desired. 4C hair's unique characteristics, like the aforementioned shrinkage, tight curl pattern, and dryness-prone shaft, are all clues pointing towards the best way to care for it. With a routine that caters to your hair type's unique needs, your strands are sure to thrive.

Comments on “The 4C Hair Type: Everything You Need to Know (With Video Illustration)”

Kinky, coily, curly, wavy, and straight hair can also be stressed by heat styling, coloring, or chemical treatment and may need some extra TLC, so damaged is a hair type too. If you're a member of the natural hair community, even if it's not your hair type, you're well aware of 4C hair. This hair type lends itself to a range of different styles, and it can tolerate a variety of products from gentle to rich. Still, "conditioning the curl is key both in the shower and post-shower" advises Nelms.

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Love Beauty and Planet Black Tea Kombucha & Red Ginger Conditioner

Protective hairstyles like braids, twists, and dreadlocks are perfect for 4C strands. Since dryness and breakage are common issues, a good deep conditioner should be a staple in your hair care arsenal. If you’ve determined that you do have 4c hair, it’s crucial to note that this hair type is more prone to dryness, breakage, and tangling. Thankfully, the discussions for a more inclusive hair typing system never cease, and they’ve led to the recognition of diverse hair types, including 4c hair.

Emerging Hair Typing Systems

Limit the use of heat-styling tools like flat irons and blow dryers, as excessive heat can lead to dryness and damage. If you must use heat, apply a heat protectant and use the lowest possible setting. Consider protective hairstyles like twists, braids, buns, or wigs to minimize manipulation and protect the ends from damage. You need hydrating, intensive moisturizing products to continually deliver much-needed moisture to your strands, but there are also a few tricks you can use to amp up hydration. 3C hair is the curliest subtype of type 3 hair, and it’s hard to miss. We love OGX Locking + Coconut Curls Air Dry Cream for 3B hair – it’s light, but with enough moisture and nutrients to satisfy and quench your curls.

Type 4 Hair: What the A, B, and C Means and How to Care for Them All

Keep scrolling to determine your exact type of curl and styling tips with the help of our handy chart and expert-approved tips—you're going to want to bookmark this one. As the daughter of a long-time hair stylist and salon owner, she’s spent most of her life as a guinea pig for new color and cut techniques. Writing for respected publications like Forbes and HuffPost, she’s committed to bringing her passion for great hair to the masses. Bantu knots or Zulu knots are an easy protective style for 4C hair. You probably know the challenges of managing 4C hair all too well, but we’ll quickly address some of the main issues that come with this hair type below. It’s not impossible, although it can be a little challenging, especially for natural 4c hair.

Hair Strand Sizes

You will reap amazing benefits when you deep condition 4c hair every wash day. You can also make a DIY leave-in conditioner spray by mixing water and some leave-in conditioner in a spray bottle and spritz your hair whenever it starts to look dry and dull. The best way to know if you have 4c hair and not 4a or 4b is by closely examining the shape of your hair’s curls. Hair porosity refers to how well your hair absorbs and retains moisture.

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Everything you need to know about curl types.

Posted: Wed, 06 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

"Type 4 hair is the most coily out of all the hair types," Sultan adds. What separates 4C hair from its fellow subtypes is its distinctive zig-zag pattern and spring factor, which is between eight to 16 inches. 4C-type hair is very tightly coiled and spongy, like a picked-out afro.

For best results, you should go to an experienced stylist, avoid braiding or twisting your hair too tightly, and take them down roughly four to eight weeks after getting them. 4C hair has a spiral texture, but the spiral might look miniature. If hearing terms like 4C or even 2B/3A sound foreign, that's OK.

Messages About Love & Relationships

Go back to basics with simple box braids with or without extensions. You’ll be able to tame and protect your strands by weaving them into equally-sized hanging braids using a box grid formation on the scalp. If you’re brushing your hair to detangle, it’s always best to do it when your tresses are wet or damp because they’re more flexible and easier to work on. Reducing breakage and damage as much as possible will allow your hair to grow longer. Limit the use of heat and experiment with heat-free styling tools like flexi rods and hair rollers.

You can do this by using 4c hair moisturizers or conditioners formulated for daily use every day. These should be lightweight to ensure they won’t weigh down your curls. The curls of 4a hair are easily distinguished by their S-shaped pattern. On the other hand, high-porosity hair can absorb moisture well but lose it faster.

They bind and hold your hair to prevent unnecessary breakage from friction. Your 4C strands have a coarse texture, so each strand is thicker than a thread. This coarseness may make your strands feel a little rough or wiry to the touch, but it also provides extra damage protection naturally. You might be a 4B instead, or have characteristics of both 4B and 4C.

4A hair is soft to the touch, and even though it tends to be dry like most Type-4 hair, it retains moisture better than 4B and 4C hair. 4A hair is usually easy to style, especially when using the right products. That’s why, for example, the hair textures at the top of your head might be slightly different from those growing in the back.

Because there are so many possible genetic combinations stemming from mixed-race relationships throughout history, it’s common for a person to have more than one Type 4 curl pattern. After rinsing your hair, you can use an oil like coconut oil on damp hair. Coconut oil has the ability to penetrate your strands, allowing it to condition from within. If you want to seal it in moisture, lock it in with a sealant oil like castor oil, which sits on top of the hair strand.

But putting in the effort should be well worth it to achieve lustrous curls. These can draw out the natural moisture of your hair, making it drier and more prone to damage. If you have short 4c hair, you can put it up into a high, loose ponytail and let the curly ends stay upright to create the pineapple bun style. Pay more attention to using protective styles like braids, twists, Bantu knots, and box braids. You’ll just need to be extra patient and gentle when detangling and styling to avoid further breakage. Aside from adding much-needed moisture, the process helps reduce frizz and damage.