Finding Your Hair Type: A Simple Guide to Building the Right Routine

If you've ever wondered why a product your friend swears by does nothing for you — or worse, makes things worse — hair type is usually the missing piece. Hair care isn't one-size-fits-all, and once you understand your own texture, thickness, and porosity, choosing the right products stops being a guessing game.

Here's how to figure out what you're actually working with.

Step 1: Identify Your Texture

Texture refers to the shape of your hair strand, and it generally falls into four broad categories:

• Straight — hair that dries with little to no natural bend

• Wavy — a loose, S-shaped pattern, especially noticeable when air-dried

• Curly — defined spirals or ringlets

• Coily — tight, springy curls with a lot of natural volume and shrinkage

The simplest way to check: let your hair air-dry completely without any product or styling, then look at the natural pattern it falls into. Many people actually have more than one texture throughout their hair — that's completely normal, not a sign you're doing something wrong.

Step 2: Check Your Strand Thickness

This is different from how much hair you have overall — it's about the width of each individual strand. Take a single strand and roll it gently between two fingers.

• If you can barely feel it, you likely have fine hair.

• If you can feel it clearly but it's not particularly stiff, you're probably medium.

• If it feels thick and sturdy, you likely have coarse hair.

Fine hair tends to get weighed down easily by heavy products, while coarse hair often needs richer formulas to feel properly moisturized.

Step 3: Test Your Porosity

Porosity describes how easily your hair absorbs and holds onto moisture, and it makes a bigger difference in product choice than most people realize. A simple way to test it: take a clean, dry strand of hair (shed from a brush is fine) and drop it into a glass of water.

• Floats near the top? That's low porosity — your hair resists absorbing moisture, so lightweight products tend to work better, and heavier ones can sit on top without sinking in.

• Sinks slowly, staying somewhere in the middle? That's medium porosity — generally the easiest to work with, since it absorbs and retains moisture fairly well.

• Sinks quickly? That's high porosity — your hair absorbs moisture fast but also loses it quickly, so richer, more emollient products usually help retain hydration longer.

Step 4: Factor In Your Scalp

Your scalp and your strands don't always match — plenty of people have an oily scalp with dry ends, or the reverse. If you're not sure where you land, notice how your roots feel by the end of the day versus how your ends feel after washing. (If you haven't already, our Scalp Health 101 post is a good companion piece here, since scalp condition plays into which products actually work for you.)

Putting It Together

Once you know your texture, thickness, porosity, and scalp tendency, you can start choosing products that actually match what your hair needs, instead of what's trending.

Fine hair or an oily scalp tends to do well with lighter, balancing formulas — something like the Clarifying Shampoo with Rosemary & Mint cleanses thoroughly without leaving hair weighed down.

Fine hair that needs more body often benefits from a dedicated volumizing formula, like the Volumizing Shampoo & Conditioner, which adds fullness without the heaviness that can come with richer, more moisturizing formulas.

Coarse, dry, or high-porosity hair usually needs deeper, more consistent hydration — a Hydrating Shampoo & Conditioner, paired with a weekly Hair Mask for extra nourishment, tends to make a noticeable difference here.

Curly or coily textures often benefit from leave-in products that add moisture without disrupting curl pattern — a lightweight Leave In Conditioner can help with detangling and softness without weighing curls down.

A Common Mistake to Avoid

The biggest one: choosing products based on what worked for someone else's hair, rather than your own texture and porosity. A rich, deeply moisturizing formula that transforms coarse, high-porosity hair can leave fine, low-porosity hair looking flat and greasy — and a lightweight, volumizing formula that's perfect for fine hair may leave coarse or dry hair feeling under-moisturized. Neither product is "better" — they're just built for different hair.

The Bottom Line

Your hair isn't hard to care for — it just needs to be matched to what it actually is, not what a trend or a friend's recommendation assumes it is. Once you know your texture, thickness, and porosity, choosing the right routine gets a lot simpler.

If you're not sure where you land, or want help picking products that actually fit your hair, come ask in our VIP Community on Facebook — happy to help you figure it out.