Understanding your hair oil type is crucial for choosing the right hair care products and routine, and identifying your hair type between oily, dry, or normal can be straightforward with a few observations and tests. Here’s how you can determine your hair type:
Oily Hair:
- Appearance: Hair looks greasy or shiny, especially at the roots, within a day or two after washing.
- Texture: Hair feels limp and tends to clump together.
- Scalp Condition: Scalp feels oily or greasy to the touch.
- Frequency of Washing: You may feel the need to wash your hair daily or every other day to manage oiliness.
Dry Hair:
- Appearance: Hair looks dull, frizzy, and lacks shine.
- Texture: Hair feels rough or brittle and may break easily.
- Scalp Condition: Scalp can feel dry, tight, or itchy. You might also notice flaking.
- Frequency of Washing: Hair can go several days without washing, and it may still not look greasy.
Normal Hair:
- Appearance: Hair looks healthy, with a natural shine.
- Texture: Hair feels smooth and manageable, not too oily or too dry.
- Scalp Condition: Scalp feels balanced, neither too oily nor too dry.
- Frequency of Washing: You can go a few days between washes, and your hair still looks good.
Additional Tests:
- Blotting Paper Test:
- Take a piece of blotting paper or tissue and press it against your scalp at the crown of your head.
- If the paper shows oil, you likely have oily hair. If there’s little to no oil, you may have dry or normal hair.
- Strand Test:
- Take a single strand of hair and gently stretch it.
- If it stretches and returns to its original length without breaking, your hair is likely normal. If it stretches but breaks easily, it’s probably dry. If it doesn’t stretch much and feels greasy, it’s likely oily.
- Observe Your Scalp and Hair:
- Pay attention to how your scalp feels and how your hair behaves throughout the day.
- Note any changes after washing and as days go by to get a better sense of your hair type.
Don’t confuse your hair oil type with your hair texture (fine, medium, coarse) or type (straight, wavy, curly, coily/kinky). These correlations are explained in another post.
