05/20/2026
Yes, some curl types ARE better than others. PERIOD…
At least, that’s what the system you’ve been using since forever was built to make you believe.❌ And it says a lot more about our industry than it does about your hair. ⬇️
The 1A to 4C system was created in the 90s by Andre Walker, Oprah’s hairstylist, to market his own product line. A hairstylist who watched an entire generation of women internalize a hierarchy about their own crowns.
Here’s what nobody talks about enough👇🏾
1. The system literally built a hierarchy:
1A at the top, straight. 4C at the bottom, tightly coiled, kinky. The closer your texture is to a European standard, the higher your number. That’s texturism, echoing the colonial logic that told Black women their hair was unprofessional, undesirable, and needed to be fixed.
2. Most people have multiple curl patterns:
Nape, crown, temples all do different things. Wavy, curly, coily are patterns, not identities. A pattern tells you almost nothing about what your hair needs.
3. Porosity changes everything, and the system ignores it:
Low porosity means products sit on top. High porosity means your hair loses moisture as fast as it absorbs it. This determines which ingredients work. The chart? Doesn’t mention it once.
4. Density is just as important:
Low-density hair collapses under heavy products. High-density needs more to coat every strand. Same pattern, completely opposite routines.
5. Elasticity tells you if your hair is actually healthy:
Stretch a damp strand, if it snaps you need moisture. If it won’t bounce back, you need protein.
6. Strand diameter is also missing:
Fine and coarse strands with the same pattern need completely different formulas.
➡️ So NO, there is no best curl type. Just YOUR hair, with its own needs, history, and language. A number and a letter were never going to translate that.🙅🏾♀️
That’s why we built our Curl ID Quiz. A diagnostic that maps your porosity, density, elasticity, strand diameter, curl pattern,hair goals. The right ingredients, products, how to layer them, and a complete routine built around all of it.
Comment CURL ID and we’ll send you the quiz. �