Although Mr. Walker's system sparked controversy due to his use of the word "Kinky" to denote African or Black hair, it deserves our applause for encouraging a better understanding of one's hair and in a way, it has served as a call to action to product manufacturers as over the years, consumers, particularly those with Curly, Kinky and Nappy hair types, are no longer accepting traditional products and suggestions regarding hair care as the norm.

For these women brushing one's hair 100 times per night or shampooing daily are no longer an ideal to strive for because as the naani hair typing system will show you, what's best for one hair type may be detrimental to another.  In short, hair typing should not be regarded as divisive but rather a system of empowerment and understanding for those of us whose needs have long been avoided and ignored by the hair care industry.

Before we begin, let's briefly discuss the results. 
If you have "Curly Hair," it's not just curly.  It can be Curly(3) overall AND these curls can be Loose(A) AND your individual hair strands can be Medium in size (M)

while your hair as a whole maybe Normal (N).  When we put this type together we get a distinct hair type classification - 3AMN or  - Curly, Loose, Medium, Normal.

This article will explain how to ascertain your Hair Typing number and once you know this number, we will discuss in future articles how to go about maximizing your hair's beauty, health and style.  

Please note that where you see an S or O in bold and underlined, it means that the letter is capitalized.  So for example, a (capital) S means that the curls are easily visible (large) and elongated.  A (lowercase) s in regular text means that the curls may require closer inspection and are more compact.

So let's begin...


There are five basic types and each type is denoted by a number.  This method caused much controversy as many assumed that the lower the number (1), inherently implied that type 1 was better than type 4 (we are instituting a type 5).  The reality however is that this typing system is not hierarchical with respect to better or best.  It is however hierarchical in terms of degree of curl and curl behavior.  In other words, the lower the number the less curly your hair.  If curly is bad, then yeah, being designated a type 5 sucks for you.