Curly vs. Kinky: How can you tell?

[cocoberry10]

Bumping this!!!

 

[glamazon386]

Someone asked in another thread what the difference between a 3c and a 4a is. I can't precisely quantify it, but I think that this is a lot of what makes the difference. The malleability of the hair and the relatively easy ability of it to take on VERY different looks from kinky to curly and even wavy depending on the type of 3c. 3bs have this characteristic too, but I think it's more pronounced in a 3c. My hair looks very different depending on what I decide to do with it that day.

And I think this is partly because 3c wasn't originally in Andre's system. The people at Naturallycurly.com added it because they felt there needed to be another step to fill the big gap between 3b and 4a. I think that's why 3c causes so much confusion and overlap with 4a. My hair behaves and feels like a type 3 with products and styling techniques but it clearly looks like a type 4 when left to airdry naked and unmanipulated. I can't even really go by my curl size because they are bigger than a coffer stirrer or pen spring (4a) but smaller than pencil or straw circumference (3c) and on top of that I still have two different sizes mixed throughout. The bigger clumps/curls also shrink less if I let my hair airdry with no product.

If I comb all the curls out of my hair it can look like a 4b. When wet and curly it can look like a 3c or 4a and when pulled back soaking wet it can look like 3b or 3c because of that loose section in the front. They have type 4's listed on their site under kinky types but I wouldn't describe all 4a's as kinky. Maybe 4bs but not all 4as or 3cs (and many 3c people have coarse and/or kinky hair). I wouldn't describe my hair as kinky. It's not coarse, tangly or wiry either.

 

[Mortons]

That is not true. There are people w/ hair that has no defined pattern. I'm talking about individual stands not the whole head. It does not form coils at all.

Does anyone have any examples of this? Because I'm not sure I understand how that could work.

 

[Kurlee]

I don't really think it matters. If you hair curls, its curls. Regardless of curl size or silky or "fuzzy" it is.........