Honest coverage
The Andre Walker chart and the texturism debate
Most commercial hair sites sidestep this conversation because it is commercially awkward. We don't, because the smarter half of this site's audience is already asking the question.
What is texturism?
Texturism is a form of discrimination - within communities, and in commercial and media representation - based on hair texture. It operates by implicitly or explicitly ranking looser curl patterns as more desirable, more professional, more manageable, and more worthy of product development and editorial attention than tighter textures.
The concept has roots in colorism and in the broader history of anti-Blackness in beauty standards. Historically, hair-straightening products and processes were sold with messaging that framed natural Black hair textures as problems to solve. The gradual shift toward "natural hair" acceptance in the 2000s-2010s brought with it a hierarchy of its own: looser curls (3A, 3B) were celebrated faster and more fully than tighter coils (4B, 4C), particularly in mainstream media and mass-market product development.
It is not only a Black hair issue - anyone with a looser texture who receives preferential treatment over someone with a tighter texture is participating in a texturist system - but it has its deepest impact on Black women and people of African heritage, for whom the intersection of race and hair has been a site of sustained discrimination.
The Andre Walker system: history and intent
Andre Walker is a celebrity hairstylist who worked with Oprah Winfrey for many years. He developed the hair typing system in the 1990s initially as a practical classification tool for his styling work - a shorthand for communicating texture characteristics to other stylists. Walker later published his system in his 1997 book Andre Talks Hair.
In subsequent years, the system was used to market Walker's own hair care product line - a fact critics have highlighted because the system's framing of Type 4 textures influenced which products he made and which textures he suggested needed "help." Walker notably wrote of Type 4 hair that it "has a lot of potential to be healthy" but is "kinky and quite frankly it's the most difficult to maintain." He encouraged Type 4 users to add "a small amount of chemical relaxer" to "make it more manageable."
Walker has subsequently distanced himself from some of these statements and has stated that his intent was not to rank textures but to categorise them for practical styling guidance. His intent is one data point. The effect of the system - how it was used in product marketing, beauty editorial, and the natural hair community's own internal hierarchies - is another.
Our position
We use the Walker framework because it remains the dominant search shorthand - when someone types "hair types chart" into Google, they are looking for the 1A-4C system. But we use it as what it is: practical shorthand for pattern identification, not a ranking of hair quality or desirability. All 12 types receive equal depth of coverage on this site, and we are explicit that Type 4 hair has been systematically underserved in product development and editorial representation.
Where the critique is strongest
The serious criticism of the Andre Walker system comes from several directions:
It centres straightness as the implicit baseline
The system numbers from 1 (straight) to 4 (coily), with A, B, C moving from 'less extreme' to 'more extreme' within each category. Critics argue this structure implicitly frames straight hair as the default and coily hair as a deviation from it. Walker himself did not frame it this way - but the numbering system's structure does.
Product development followed the hierarchy
For most of the 2000s-2010s, the majority of 'natural hair' products were formulated for Type 2-3 textures. Type 4 users were largely left to adapt routines designed for looser patterns. The launch of brands like SheaMoisture (which began more explicitly serving Type 4), Pattern Beauty, Bread Beauty Supply, and Curl Mix in the late 2010s-2020s represents a correction - but it came decades after the natural hair movement began.
Type 4C in particular was made invisible
Across beauty editorial, product advertising, and even within natural hair content, 4C hair was the most underrepresented. This is not coincidental: 4C is the texture furthest from straight, and a system that implicitly ranks by proximity to straight will produce the least coverage for 4C. The 4C visibility movement - led by creators like Whitney White (Naptural85) - has been a direct counter to this absence.
Mixed textures and the impossibility of one type
The system implies that a person has one type. In practice, most people have two or more textures across different sections of their head. The nape is often tighter than the crown; the edges often differ from the top. The system doesn't handle this complexity well, and the expectation that a person has 'a type' has led to real frustration for people who don't neatly fit one category.
What to read and listen to
These are the primary sources we cite in our coverage of this debate. We link outward because this conversation is owned by the writers, scholars, and creators who built it - not by a reference site that arrived afterward.
Aisle One Beauty: "It's Time to Let the Hair Type Chart Go"
Critical pieceA clear-eyed critique of the typing system's limits and the case for understanding hair outside the 1A-4C framework. One of the most shared pieces on this topic.
Visit sourceOurX: "On Texturism, and the Deep Roots of Hair Typing"
Academic-informedA thorough examination of texturism as a systemic issue, tracing it from the history of colonialism through contemporary beauty marketing. Well-sourced and rigorous.
Visit source99% Invisible podcast: "The Hair Chart"
PodcastAn accessible audio documentary on the history of hair typing, featuring interviews with scholars and creators. Good starting point for listeners new to the debate.
Visit sourceBlack Hair Spot
CommunityCritical community coverage of Type 4 representation, product gaps, and the broader politics of Black hair care. A key community voice on this topic.
Visit sourceNaptural85 (Whitney White)
CreatorThe most-documented 4C hair educator online. Her YouTube channel represents years of practical knowledge that the natural hair community relies on, particularly for Type 4B and 4C.
Visit sourceWhat a 2026 hair-types site owes
Running a general-audience hair typing site in 2026 comes with specific responsibilities:
We will not get this perfect. If you find something on this site that perpetuates texturism or misrepresents a type or community, please tell us. We would rather be corrected than continue publishing something inaccurate.