Hair Type Finder
Answer 5 quick questions about your hair's natural texture to find your hair type — straight, wavy, curly, or coily — using the Andre Walker hair typing system, plus care tips for your type.
No photo required — just answer honestly. Looking for cuts that suit your face instead? See hairstyles by face shape.
How the Hair Type Finder Works
From five questions to a suggested hair type — here's what happens behind the scenes.
Answer 5 quick questions
Your hair's natural dry pattern, shine, humidity reaction, wet-strand texture, and shrinkage — the core traits used to tell hair types apart.
Scored across all 4 types
Each answer carries weighted points toward one or more hair types at once. Your five answers are combined into a running score for all 4 types simultaneously.
See your suggested type
The highest-scoring type is shown first. A close second is surfaced if two types score nearly equally, since many people have mixed texture across their head.
Get matching care tips
Your result comes with its subtype range (A/B/C) and care guidance suited to that texture — or browse hairstyles by face shape for a broader styling match.
The 4 Hair Types
Your result will be one of these four hair types — the Andre Walker system widely used across haircare and curly-hair communities.
Straight hair has no natural curl or wave pattern — it falls flat from the roots and typically has the most natural shine, since straight strands reflect light most evenly along their length.
Wavy hair sits between straight and curly — it forms loose, S-shaped bends rather than defined curls, and often has more volume and texture than straight hair.
Curly hair forms well-defined spirals, loops, or ringlets from root to tip. It tends to have more natural volume and is more prone to dryness than straighter hair types, since scalp oils travel less easily down each curl.
Coily (sometimes called kinky) hair has the tightest curl pattern — small, dense coils or a sharp zigzag shape. It has the most shrinkage of any hair type and typically needs the most moisture, since natural oils have the hardest time traveling down a tightly coiled strand.
How to Get an Accurate Result
Hair texture can be tricky to judge day-to-day. These tips help your answers reflect your true natural pattern.
Answer based on freshly washed, product-free hair
Styling products, heat tools, and old product buildup can hide your natural pattern. Think about how your hair looks right after washing with no products applied.
It's fine to have mixed texture
Many people have more than one pattern across their head — wavier at the crown, curlier underneath, for example. Answer based on your most dominant, overall pattern.
Let hair fully air-dry before judging
Wet hair almost always looks straighter or looser than its true dry pattern. Wait until it's fully air-dried with no product before comparing it to the options.
Retake it if your result feels off
A 5-question quiz is a quick indicator, not a measurement. If your result doesn't resonate, retake it thinking specifically about your driest, most product-free state.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about the hair type finder.
How accurate is this hair type finder?
This is a simplified 5-question indicator based on your own observations, not a photo-based measurement. It scores your answers against all 4 hair types and surfaces the closest match — plus a close second when your answers land near the border of two types. Hair texture can also vary across different parts of the same head.
What are the 4 hair types?
This quiz is based on the widely used Andre Walker Hair Typing System: Type 1 (Straight), Type 2 (Wavy), Type 3 (Curly), and Type 4 (Coily/Kinky). Each main type also has subtypes A, B, and C describing finer variation in pattern tightness — for example, 3A is loose spirals while 3C is tight corkscrew curls.
What do the hair type subtypes (A, B, C) mean?
Within each main type (1–4), the letter indicates how pronounced the pattern is — A is the loosest/mildest version of that type, and C is the most defined or tightest. For example, 2A is barely-there waves close to straight, while 2C is frizz-prone, more defined waves bordering on loose curls.
Do I need a photo to take this quiz?
No. This is a question-based quiz — you answer 5 questions about your hair's natural dry pattern, shine, humidity reaction, and shrinkage, and get an instant result. Nothing is uploaded, and it runs entirely in your browser.
Can my hair type change over time?
Yes — hair texture can shift with age, hormonal changes, pregnancy, certain medications, and even climate. It's common for curl pattern to loosen or tighten gradually over the years, so retaking a hair type assessment periodically isn't unusual.
Why does my hair look different wet versus dry?
Wet hair is heavier and weighed down by water, which temporarily relaxes and elongates the curl or wave pattern. Your hair's true texture is most visible once it has fully air-dried without product — that's the state this quiz asks you to consider.
Is this quiz free?
Yes, completely free with no sign-up, account, or payment required. You can take it as many times as you like.
What's the difference between this and finding hairstyles by face shape?
This quiz identifies your hair's natural texture — straight, wavy, curly, or coily — to suggest appropriate care. Our hairstyles for face shape guide instead matches cut and style shapes to your face shape for visual balance. Combining both — your texture for care, your face shape for cut — gives the fullest picture.
Methodology & Scoring Notes
This quiz asks 5 questions about your hair's natural dry pattern, shine, humidity reaction, wet-strand texture, and shrinkage, then scores your answers against the 4 main hair types in the Andre Walker system — straight, wavy, curly, and coily — to suggest the closest match. If two types score nearly equally, the result shows both rather than forcing a single answer.
Unlike our AI face shape detector, this tool has no photo-based or landmark-detection component — hair texture isn't something the facial landmark model this site uses can measure, since it only maps points on the face itself. This quiz is intentionally self-reported instead of pretending to measure something it can't.
It runs entirely in your browser — no photo, sign-up, or upload required — and gives an instant result with its subtype range and care guidance for that texture.
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Disclaimer
This quiz is a simplified, self-reported starting point based on 5 questions — it does not measure your hair like a photo-based tool. Care suggestions are for styling inspiration and educational purposes only, not professional stylist or trichologist advice. For persistent hair or scalp concerns, consult a licensed professional.