Wavy Hair vs Curly Hair - Difference Between Wavy Hair and Curly Hair

The hair shape and size can vary vastly, even if you are sure to buy Indian virgin hair, there are still numerous different products on the market. So in this article, we are going to distinguish two common hair types, wavy hair vs curly hair, what’s the difference between them?

Curly Hair vs Wavy Hair - Difference Between Wavy Hair and Curly Hair

When you want to buy a wig from wholesale hair vendors, understanding the traits of different products can help you find the most suitable model for you. Wavy hair can be fine to coarse but have an obvious S pattern that lays closer to the head, and curly hair can be loose loops or tight corkscrews that are prone to frizz. 

1. Follicles

The first major difference between wavy hair and curly hair is that wavy hair has a different shaped hair follicle, the shape of your hair follicle is what determines your hair texture. A perfectly circular hair follicle means your hair will be straight, the more oval your hair follicle is, the more curl your hair will be, so wavy hair follicles fall right in between straight and curly where we don't have perfectly circular follicles but follicles also are not in the shape of an oval. If your hair follicles are going to be more oval which will give you more of that curly almost spiral appearance. 

2. Shape

The next thing that does make wavy hair different from curly hair is that wavy hair takes an S form, this is the defining attribute of wavy hair, it is an S shape and not a complete spiral, you might find a couple of spirals in your hair but generally, you'll find them halfway down the shaft to the very end, it is very rare to find a spiral from your root to the tip. If you do have spirals from the root to the tip, you probably have curly hair and not wavy hair, generally wavy hair is s-shape, none of these strands form a spiral, they all just look like an S. 

3. Volume

Another trait that makes wavy hair different from curly hair is that wavy hair it generally lays very close to the scalp, a lot of us have flatter roots because our hair does lay close to our scalp, even if you have very dense hair. You'll find that the roots of your hair will lay very close to your scalp and that's just because most of our hair texture starts from our ears down. But whether it is high or low density, curly hair generally does not stick to the scalp unless you have really oily roots, you'll find that your hair will grow outwards and have a little bit more volume than someone who has wavy hair.

4. Porosity 

Porosity refers to the size of the gaps in your hair through which water and other substances can move, it also indicates how fast the moisture moves through your hair. Compared with curly hair, wavy hair is more likely to be low porosity. Curly hair is more porous than naturally straight hair and wavy hair, highly porous hair has a cuticle layer that is raised and open, making it absorb moisture quickly, while with low porosity hair, the cuticle is firmly attached to the hair, which makes it harder to absorb moisture. 

5. Pattern

The pattern is also a noticeable difference between curly hair and wavy hair. This is a major defining trait of wavy hair, it's that pattern is just very inconsistent, it looks different every single day. But you can kind of just do whatever you want to play around, you can use curly hair product, you can blow the hair out straight, it’s up to you. 

There are probably more differences between curly and wavy hair wigs, for example, wavy hair tends to be more easily weighed down than curly hair, and has more natural oils. It also depends on the manufacturer.