I need help regarding wavy_hair and curly_hair, what makes the difference between them? Aren't they the same? Or one implies the other?
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I need help regarding wavy_hair and curly_hair, what makes the difference between them? Aren't they the same? Or one implies the other?
The difference is in the size and shape of the waves/curls. No, they are not the same. No, one should not imply the other. Unfortunately for taggers, though, human hair texture exists on a spectrum rather than being neatly divided into distinct types, so there will always have to be some degree of individual discretion involved in determining which tag to use. It usually isn't too hard to describe hair as wavy or curly, but there is a significant gray area in between where either term may be justified.
For reference, here is a visual guide to one of the more commonly used systems for classifying hair. Many of the images of hair on Danbooru are drawn with enough detail to fit into these categories. For instance, post #3299132 is closest to 2b (wavy), post #2756338 is 2c bordering on 3a (very wavy / slightly curly), post #1239431 is 3b (curly), and post #3294631 looks like 3c (curly).
There's one major caveat: a lot of "curly" hair in anime art looks more like straight hair that has been styled. Hair that's been curled into ringlets like in post #1686343 and post #3078774 doesn't really fit into any classification scheme because that isn't something hair naturally does on its own.
I would use "curly hair" for hair that naturally forms loops or ringlets throughout it's length as it hangs or stands, and "wavy hair" for hair that has a natural or consistent bend, but oscillates back and forth instead of looping. I'd say post #1235239 or post #3214028 is pretty prototypical for "wavy", and something like post #3061902 or post #2916135 prototypical for "curly".
Naturally wavy or curly hair is very rare in Asia, so most characters you see with it will be foreign or have their hair artificially curled or permed (often you see the latter with middle aged characters, like the second example above). An afro like that on Ronald McDonald or Bob Ross would also be clearly "curly" to me.
Something like "drill hair" is sort of in between with large swooping loops for only part of the hair instead of tight natural ringlets everywhere. I agree with iridescent slime that it should just get it's own tag, and leave "curly" and "wavy" for either natural hair or for hair where the whole thing has been permed to have the same texture.
Our usage appears to really be all over the place though unfortunately. For example, I wouldn't consider post #3464493 curly, or maybe not even wavy since the bulk of the hair is straight. It might be a very loose drill hair, but even that's pretty weak. We currently have it tagged as curly though.
As an interesting side-bit, Nadia from Fushigi no Umi no Nadia was intended to be modeled to be African, and, hence have naturally curly hair, but the animators thought it looked weird and was hard to draw, so they ended up giving her straight hair instead.
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