The at-home test that actually shows your pattern
A quiz can estimate your hair. This is how you confirm it. The single most reliable way to see your real wave or curl pattern is to take away everything that hides it, then simply look. No products, no tools, no money. It takes about two minutes of doing and a couple of hours of leaving your hair alone.
The main test: wash, don't touch, observe
Wash it clean
Use a clarifying or gentle shampoo and rinse fully. Apply no leave-in, cream, gel, mousse, or oil. Product either weighs waves down or holds curls up, so it hides the truth.
Squeeze, don't rub
Gently squeeze out excess water with a towel. Do not brush, comb, rake through with your fingers, scrunch, plop, or diffuse. Nothing.
Let it air-dry, fully, untouched
Walk around, live your life, but keep your hands out of it. Touching hair while it dries breaks up the very pattern you are trying to see.
Read a section near your crown
Once completely dry, look at a piece from the middle of your head, where hair is least weighed down and least damaged. A loose S is wavy. A spiral or corkscrew is curly. A tight coil or zig-zag is coily.
Compare the loop width
Hold one curl next to a household object. Wider than a highlighter leans looser (a). About a marker or Sharpie is the middle (b). A pencil, a straw, or tighter leans tighter (c).
Two quick add-ons
Density: how much hair you have
Look at dry, unstyled hair in the mirror. If you can easily see your scalp, that is low density. Somewhat visible is medium. Hard to see scalp at all is high density. Density decides how much product weight your hair can carry before it goes flat.
Strand width: how thick each hair is
Roll a single shed strand between your fingers, or compare it to a sewing thread. Barely there is fine. About like the thread is medium. Thick or wiry is coarse. Fine strands need lighter products; coarse strands can take richer ones. This is separate from density, you can have fine strands but a lot of them.
Porosity: use the spray test, not the water glass
Porosity is how easily your hair takes in and holds moisture. It is a useful starting direction for choosing products, though not a fixed identity. Here is the test worth doing:
Start clean and product-free
Any oil, leave-in, or silicone will fake the result, so the hair must be freshly washed and dry.
Mist a small section with plain water
Watch for five to ten seconds.
Read what the water does
Beads and sits on top leans low porosity. Beads, then absorbs after a few seconds leans medium. Vanishes almost instantly leans high porosity. Try a couple of spots, including near the roots.
The water-glass "float" test
You may have seen the trick of dropping a strand in a glass of water to see if it floats or sinks. Skip it. It mostly measures surface damage, not real porosity, and a trace of oil, silicone, or hard-water mineral changes the result. It has never been scientifically validated. Treat any result as noise.
Source: Lab Muffin Beauty Science (cosmetic chemist, PhD)Educational, not medical advice. Self-typing is imprecise by nature. If you have scalp irritation, sudden shedding, or hair loss, please see a dermatologist or trichologist.