Recently I read an article on leaf.tv that stated that there is actually a new or ignored hair type with a 5A-5C. In all my years of studying natural hair and dealing with my own, I have never heard of that type so I was naturally curious.
You can read that article here, but I will be quoting from it throughout this post!
According to the post, the hair type of 5A-5C isn’t really that new but has been ignored by general media because we never really talk about it within the context of hair typing.
With regards to texture, and I quote “when the hair is classified as 5A, it has been chemically treated with a texturizer or relaxer to slightly loosen the curl. 5B hair is often tightly coiled in its natural state. In order to be considered 5B, the hair has to have been chemically straightened. 5C hair is also chemically altered to a more relaxed state than when it is natural; there is the risk of overprocessing at this stage.”
In order to be considered 5B, the hair has to have been chemically straightened. 5C hair is also chemically altered to a more relaxed state than when it is natural; there is the risk of overprocessing at this stage.”
With regards to curl pattern:
A 5A hair texture forms an S pattern when stretched and textures 5B and 5C have less of a defined curl pattern and may form a Z pattern when stretched. However, when the hair has been chemically straightened, the natural curl pattern is altered.”
There are other details about the ‘hair type‘ not having a natural shine and being very fragile all of which is somewhat true of relaxed hair.
In my opinion, this is ridiculous, relaxed hair or chemically altered hair using texturizers should be treated as chemically processed hair and not as a natural hair type to be added to the hair typing chart.
The hair typing chart was created to define the curl patterns of hair that naturally emerges from your scalp.
The shape of your hair strand is determined by genetics and the shape of your hair follicle leading to hair that varies from straight to curly, to z patterns or kinky.
Adding a hair type with an attempt to further define how chemically relaxed hair behaves is confusing and misleading.
To be honest I would prefer not to get hung up on hair typing at all, because as your most professional stylists will tell you, the only hair types that matter is ‘coarse’ or ‘fine’. If your hair is fine in width regardless of hair type, it might be porous, it will require that you do not use a ton of heavy product to weigh it down, you should use protein often to strengthen it.
If your hair is coarse or thicker in width it may be low porosity or normal, it can handle thicker products and you can use protein based on the fragility of the hair.
Defining relaxed hair as a hair type implies that your hair grows out of your head chemically treated and that statement alone makes the hair type unnecessary.
Have you ever heard of the hair type 5A-5C? Did you dismiss it as ridiculous or do you think it has a place on a chart?
