Coarse Hair Meaning

Coarse Hair Meaning Understood...

You’ve probably heard your own or another person’s natural hair referred to as “coarse”.

Girl my hair is so coarse I can’t comb through it!

Honey, her hair is so coarse and knotted it looks crazy.

Because I have coarse hair, it takes so long to style.

Naturally coarse or just dry?

If you think your hair is naturally coarse, first make sure that it is actually not dry, and has a proper protein-moisture balance. Once that’s settled, recognize that there is nothing wrong with your coarse hair! Just make sure you keep a healthy scalp to allow an environment where your natural sebum can travel down your hair strands to provide natural moisture.

These statements all have different implications about coarse hair. The first use of coarse makes it seem like a texture that is difficult to comb, the second use implies coarse hair is unbecoming, and the third conveys that coarse hair is thick and dense, creating longer styling times. So does the term coarse, when used to refer to natural hair, mean one’s hair is thick, dense, kinky, dry, or something else?

What coarse hair DOES NOT mean

Coarse doesn’t mean your hair is dense. You can have a whole lot of hair, or not that much hair, and still have coarse hair.

Coarse doesn’t mean your hair is thick. You can have thin hair strands that are coarse, as well as thick hair strands that are coarse.

Let me explain. For women with kinkier hair that seems “coarse” or “hard” in nature, the first step to hair health is proper moisturization. Typically, women with this type of hair have lower hair porosity, meaning that it is harder for the hair to retain moisture. This simply means that we need to use specific combinations of products to achieve prime moisture, mainly water followed by products with nourishing essential oils.

Prior to applying any product, you should use warm water to open up your hair cuticles. This way, your hair will be ready to retain the moisture from whatever product you use next.

PRODUCTS FOR “COARSE” HAIR MEANING

I recommend these styling products for kinkier hair textures:

Alikay Naturals: All of these products are made with the best natural ingredients and mostly list water as the first ingredient. They smell great, and are all fairly affordable, ranging from $10-$19.

Naya Naturals Shea Fusion Line: This line of products is created by an entrepreneur in Ghana with locally sourced shea butter. It’s a very underrated brand with wonderful products for daily moisturizing and styling.

Oyin Handmade Hair Dew: Oyin Handmade has all around great natural products, but this particular one is great daily moisturizer for those of us with kinkier hair types.

Coarse doesn’t mean your hair is kinky. You can have curly coarse hair, coily coarse hair, and kinky coarse hair.

Coarse doesn’t mean your hair is dry. You can have adequately moisturized hair that is still coarse.

What exactly does ‘coarse hair’ mean?

Let’s start with some fundamental background info: Green Beauty’s Complete Hair Typing Syste

For anyone who isn’t familiar with this hair typing system, Green Beauty takes into consideration curl pattern, texture, hair density, thickness, and porosity.

Curl pattern refers to the shape of your curl.

Texture refers to the looseness or tightness of the curl.

Density is the volume (high or low) of hair strands you have.

Thickness is the size of the hair strand.

And porosity is how well your strands hold onto water.