A Word on Texture

My sister asked me a good question this morning: was it normal for her hair to be two different textures?

You can see that my twists in the front
are looser, while the strands in the back
seem to naturally coil better into each other.

I found myself wondering the same thing when I first transitioned. Why was the crown of my head thick and tightly coiled, the back loose and wavy, and the front semi-straight? As I learned more about our different textures of hair, I found that it is perfectly normal for curlies, and quite common, too.

Now, post-pregnancy, my hair texture might have changed even more due to hormones. I'm not sure because I didn't start my hair growth journey until after I had my daughter last October. In any case, I have heard that hormones (both during and after pregnancy, maybe even while nursing) can affect the texture of your hair. Not exactly sure how much science is behind that though.

Due to my different textures, I've found that I prefer to wear my hair in styles that create a uniform pattern throughout my head, such as twist-outs and braid-outs. Braid-outs yield the best results for me when I'm looking to blend textures. Since my hair has such a loose wave in the front - in fact it's actually straight in some areas, more on that later - I like to set those areas in smaller twists or braids. That way, when I take the twists or braids out, their pattern still matches that of the more coily sections of my hair.

When I do choose to wear my natural texture by using a curl-defining product, I usually end up having to pull back the front because the texture is just so different from my mostly tightly coiled head.

Whether you have two textures or five, no need to fret. Try starting with twist-outs and braid-outs. These are simple protective styles that yield wonderful results.