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The Hair Type Quiz: What Hair Type Do I Have?
Twelve questions, no photos, about four minutes. You answer area by area — front, crown, nape, sides — so a head with more than one pattern gets an honest result, including "somewhere between 2C and 3A". Alongside the letter you get your three axes: strand thickness, density and a first read on porosity, with the answers that produced each.
Your answers stay in your browser — nothing is uploaded, and there's no email or sign-up to see the result.
The short answer
What is my hair type?
Hair type is described two ways at once. A curl pattern — 1 to 4 for straight, wavy, curly or coily, plus A, B or C for how tight — and three axes: strand thickness, density and porosity. Most heads carry more than one pattern, so a result can be a range rather than a single code.
How this quiz works
What this quiz does differently
In-between results are allowed
Each of the four areas — front, crown, nape, sides — gets its own answer, and every answer grid has "somewhere between" cells at the boundaries people ask about most. When your areas disagree, the result is a range like 2C–3A with the answer that tips it, not a coin flip.
No products attached
The result page has no products, no brands and no email box. It tells you what your pattern and axes mean; what to buy is your call.
Same answers, same result
Scoring is a set of plain rules, not a model that drifts. Give the same answers twice and you get the same pattern, the same badge and the same reasons, every time.
One observation baseline
The quiz asks about hair washed, product-free and air-dried — the same baseline the widely used charts assume. If you can't look at it that way today, you can answer from memory and the result is labeled as such.
Why a range instead of a single letter
The chart draws twelve boxes; heads don't grow in boxes. A range names the two neighbors you sit between and hands you a two-minute check to settle it at home. That's more useful than a single letter you'd doubt as soon as the next quiz said otherwise.
The twelve types
The 12 hair types at a glance
One line each, with the everyday object the curl width matches. The full description, the boundaries with neighboring types and what each means for care are in the guide.
1A
Straight from root to end and lies flat; a curl from a tool falls out within hours.
1A in the guide1B
Straight with some body or a bend toward the ends; no repeating S.
1B in the guide1C
Mostly straight with a loose bend or two; brushes straight in one pass.
1C in the guide2A
A loose S that starts below the ears; the roots lie flat.
2A in the guide2B
A clearer S from nearer the roots that holds its shape when dry.
2B in the guide2C
A defined S from near the root, with a few open spirals that don't close.
2C in the guide3A
Loops 2 cm across or wider — sidewalk chalk or bigger.
3A in the guide3B
Ringlets between 1 and 2 cm across — about a marker.
3B in the guide3C
Corkscrews up to 1 cm across — about a pencil — packed close.
3C in the guide4A
Coils half a centimeter or less — a coffee stirrer; wet strands gather into small coils.
4A in the guide4B
Very tight and densely packed; wet strands gather loosely, no coil shape holds.
4B in the guide4C
Very tight and densely packed; wet, it stays one dense mass.
4C in the guide
Between two types
Why you might be between two types
More than one pattern on one head
Ringlets, looser waves and near-straight sections all in the same hair is the common case. The crown is often finer and looser, the nape tighter, the front pulled straighter by habit. A single-answer quiz forces you to pick one; this one asks about each area and reports the disagreement instead of smoothing it over.
Styling state
Hair that's blow-dried straight, set on rollers, or grown out from a relaxer answers for the styling, not for how it grows. The quiz asks how you usually wear it so the result can say which one it's describing — and treats recent bleach, chemical straightening or daily heat as a reason to hold off on a curl reading.
Wet versus dry
Wet hair reads looser and more defined than dry hair — "4a when wet and 4b when fully dried" is a common report. That's why every question here is about fully dry hair, and why the type 4 cells describe how strands gather when wet as one observation rather than the whole answer.
The boundary between each pair of neighbors — what to look for and where it usually shows — is in the hair types guide.
Four minutes, twelve questions, no photos
Answer about hair washed, product-free and air-dried, and you get your pattern, your three axes and the answers behind each.
Sources & limitations
Style Look Lab method and limits: the twelve codes come from the Andre Walker typing system, and that system is disputed. Wikipedia's article on it says it has been "criticized for not taking into account the full variation in density and scalp types or that people's hair can vary on different parts of their heads," and Health.com runs an Editor's Note on its own hair type guide saying the research behind hair typing is limited. A, B and C also have two definitions in circulation: some sources read them as strand thickness, this quiz reads them as tightness. Which answer moves which code, the range and confidence rules, and the thickness, density and porosity readings are internal — there is no validated questionnaire-to-type reference data behind them, and nobody outside this site has checked them. Styling state, bleaching or heat, and how long the hair is all change what the same head answers, so a reading taken on wash-day hair and one taken on styled hair can land in different places.
- Wikipedia — Andre Walker Hair Typing System — Its Evaluation section records the standing criticism of the 1A–4C chart; it does not validate this quiz.
- Health.com — What Is My Hair Type? — Carries an Editor’s Note saying research on hair typing is limited and reads A/B/C as strand thickness rather than tightness.
Asked before you ask
Common questions
Is my hair 2A, 2B or 2C?
The difference is where the S starts and how well it holds dry: 2A starts below the ears with flat roots, 2B starts nearer the roots and holds its shape, 2C adds a few open spirals. The quiz asks this area by area; the hair types guide walks through each boundary.
What are the 12 hair types?
1A, 1B, 1C for straight; 2A, 2B, 2C for wavy; 3A, 3B, 3C for curly; 4A, 4B, 4C for coily. The number is the family, the letter is how tight the pattern is within it. The quiz tells them apart by curl width against everyday objects — chalk, a marker, a pencil, a coffee stirrer — and, for type 4, by how strands gather when wet.
Can I have more than one hair type?
Yes, and it's the usual case rather than the exception. Most heads carry two or more neighboring patterns, often finer at the crown and tighter at the nape. This quiz asks about four areas and reports a range or a main-plus-secondary reading when they disagree.
Do I need a photo?
No. Every question is something you can see or feel in a mirror. Nothing is uploaded, and there's no sign-up or email to see the result.
Why don't you ask if my hair is coarse or fine?
Because those words mean different things to different people — many people say "coarse" for a tight pattern, not a thick strand. The quiz asks you to roll one strand next to sewing thread instead; the strand's width against the thread is the reading, whatever you'd call it.
Is this different from a curl type quiz?
It answers the same question — what your curl pattern is — and adds the three axes that decide how products behave: strand thickness, density and porosity. It also allows in-between results, which most curl type quizzes don't.