Types of Siamese Cats: Which One Is Yours?

The short answer

The first question is shape: does your cat have the round head and stocky body people call applehead, or the long tapered wedge the show bench rewards? The second is color: seal, chocolate, blue, lilac, or an extension color like lynx or red point.

The two answers don't depend on each other. A wedgehead can be a seal point. An applehead can be lilac. Keep the axes separate and the whole "types of Siamese" confusion dissolves.

Why "types" means two different things

Most articles about Siamese types flatten the two axes into one list. The top result on Google right now, a 12-type listicle, names twelve colors and never mentions head shape once. Useful if you wanted a color chart. Useless if you're holding a round-headed, heavy-bodied cat and wondering why it looks nothing like the svelte show cat next door.

Registries made this worse in a specific way. Through the mid-1900s the CFA show standard drifted toward an extreme wedge: longer head, flatter skull, thinner body. Breeders who preferred the older, rounder look kept their lines going anyway, and over time the folk labels hardened: applehead, traditional, classic, old-style. The World Cat Federation eventually gave the old look its own breed name, Thai.

So when someone says "type of Siamese," they might mean a body shape that registries don't officially recognize, or a color that they do. Both are real answers. They just answer different questions.

Body type: the classic split

Here's the honest framing up front, and it matters more than anything else on this page: neither CFA nor TICA recognizes applehead, traditional, or wedgehead as official categories. Registries recognize breeds and colors. The body-type split is a breeder and owner vocabulary, useful for describing what you see, not for proving anything on paper.

With that said, here's what people mean when they use the terms.

Applehead / traditional Siamese

Round head, full cheeks, and a visible dip where the nose meets the forehead instead of one straight line. Body is stocky and muscular, legs proportionate rather than long, eyes rounder and often set wider. These cats generally look heavier than they are. If you've seen a Siamese from a 1950s photo or an old Disney film, this is that cat.

Applehead is a nickname, not a breed. It's commonly reported to have started as a put-down from show breeders in the 1950s, aimed at the rounder-headed cats that were losing on the bench. The breeders it described adopted it. The Traditional Cat Association, which is a breed club and not a registry, still campaigns for the look under names like traditional and classic.

Wedgehead / modern Siamese

This is the CFA standard, and the CFA's own wording is specific: the head is a long tapering wedge starting at the nose and running in straight lines to the ear tips, the skull is flat, the profile is one long straight line with no dip at the nose. The body is described as graceful, long and svelte, a tubular shape where the hips are never wider than the shoulders. Ears strikingly large. Eyes almond shaped and slanted.

If your cat's profile looks like a straight ruler from forehead to nose tip, you're looking at the modern show type. That profile is not a flaw in your cat. It's the written standard the largest registry judges against.

Classic / old-style (the middle ground)

Between the two sits a cat with a moderately wedge-shaped head, a slight nose break or none at all, and a body that's athletic without being tubular. Some breeders use "classic" for exactly this middle ground. In some federations this cat is registered as a Thai rather than a Siamese, which we'll get to below.

If your cat sits between the two descriptions and you want a single sentence to hold onto: rounder than the show standard, sleeker than the stereotype.

Color points: the four registry colors

CFA recognizes four Siamese colors, and the descriptions below come straight from the CFA breed standard. All four share one eye rule: the eyes must be deep, vivid blue. Any other eye color is a disqualification in the show ring, not a preference call.

Seal point

The darkest and the original. Body is an even pale fawn to cream, warm in tone, and the points are a deep seal brown, the darkest brown the breed comes in. Nose leather and paw pads match the points. Seal was the only recognized Siamese color when CFA first registered the breed in 1906. Blue followed in 1934, chocolate in 1952, lilac in 1955.

One aging detail worth knowing: Siamese darken with age. A ten-year-old seal point often carries a body color closer to milky coffee than cream, and the standard explicitly allows for this.

Chocolate point

Ivory body with no shading, points in a warm milk-chocolate, nose leather and paw pads cinnamon-pink. Chocolates are lighter than seals, and the contrast between body and points is softer. Kittens can be hard to tell from seals until the points darken, which happens over the first year or so.

Blue point

A cool-toned cat: bluish white body, deep blue points, slate-colored nose and paw pads. Blue point reads gray on first glance, which is exactly why people mix it up with lilac.

Lilac point

The palest of the four. Body is glacial white with no shading, points are frosty gray with a pinkish tone, nose and pads lavender-pink. The usual test against blue point: lilac is the warm gray, blue is the cold one. Side by side under the same light, you'll see it. Side by side under a warm bulb, you might not, which is one more reason photos make this harder than it sounds.

The extension colors: red, cream, lynx and tortie

Siamese also come in red point, cream point, lynx point (tabby striping in the points), tortie point (tortoiseshell patches mixed into the points), and combinations of those. Here the registries part ways, and this is where most color confusion starts.

In CFA, those colors are not Siamese. They belong to a separate breed called the Colorpoint Shorthair, which CFA recognizes in 16 colors across three classes: solid, lynx and parti-color. A red point with CFA papers is a Colorpoint Shorthair on paper even if it looks exactly like what most people would call a red point Siamese.

In TICA, the Siamese breed standard accepts a longer list of pointed colors directly, so red-pointed and lynx-striped cats can carry the Siamese name there. Same cat, different paperwork, depending on which registry you ask.

Practical version: if your cat has red or striped points, it's a pointed Siamese-type cat whose official breed name depends on the registry. If it came with CFA papers naming Colorpoint Shorthair, that's your answer, and no visual check changes it.

Which Siamese is my cat? A four-step check

This is the part the twelve-type listicles can't give you, because it needs both axes. Work through the steps in order and grade each clue as you go. None of this proves lineage. It narrows what you're looking at.

Step 1: the profile. Look at your cat from the side, ideally in a photo taken at head height. One straight line from forehead to nose tip, no dip: strong clue toward the modern wedge type. A visible stop or break at the nose, rounded forehead: strong clue toward the old-style, applehead direction. Lighting flattens profiles, so check two photos from different days before trusting one.

Step 2: the body. Long, tubular, legs long and slim, hips no wider than shoulders: moderate clue toward modern. Stocky, round, muscular, feels heavier than it looks: moderate clue toward old-style. Wet fur and winter fluff have fooled better observers than us, so judge a dry, relaxed cat.

Step 3: the eyes. Deep vivid blue: consistent with a registered Siamese of either body type, and with most pointed cats generally. Green, gold, or aqua eyes: strong clue that this is not a purebred Siamese on paper. Aqua specifically points toward Tonkinese ancestry, green toward Oriental or a mix. This step filters more cats than any other.

Step 4: the point pattern. Solid seal, chocolate, blue or lilac points: consistent with CFA Siamese. Red, cream, lynx striping or tortie patches: points toward Colorpoint Shorthair under CFA rules, or TICA Siamese, or a mix with pointed ancestry.

Add the grades up. Two strong clues plus consistent colors is a confident read. A single moderate clue is a guess, and we'd rather tell you it's a guess. For a fuller picture of where your cat lands against 62 known breeds, our what breed is my cat page runs a photo check against 40+ visual markers, and the breed chart gives you the side-by-side basics.

Siamese vs look-alikes

Fuller breakdowns live in our comparisons of Siamese vs Tonkinese, Colorpoint Shorthair vs Siamese, Balinese vs Siamese and Oriental Shorthair vs Siamese, plus our guide to cats similar to Siamese if you're trying to place a pointed cat that isn't quite any of these.

One registry footnote: the Thai, the old-style body type under its own breed name, is recognized by the World Cat Federation and a handful of others. Under CFA or TICA rules, an old-style cat without Thai papers is simply a Siamese with a rounder head, or possibly no papers at all. The name on the certificate is the registry's decision, not the cat's.

A note on the vocabulary

Applehead, traditional, classic, old-style and wedgehead are descriptive labels from the breeding community. They are not categories in any CFA or TICA standard. Registry papers never say applehead. If a seller offers you an "applehead Siamese with papers," read the papers: they'll say Siamese, or they won't be CFA papers at all.

And since body shape can't certify lineage no matter how confidently anyone labels it: the lineage-grade answers are registry papers and a DNA test. We break down what a cat breed DNA test can and can't tell you, including where visual checks stop.

FAQ

Q: How many types of Siamese cats are there? Two different counts, because "type" covers two axes. By body shape, breeders commonly describe three: applehead or traditional, classic or old-style, and the modern wedgehead. By color, CFA recognizes four Siamese colors, with more pointed colors living in its Colorpoint Shorthair breed. TICA's Siamese standard covers a longer color list.

Q: What is an applehead Siamese? A Siamese with a round head, full cheeks and a stocky body, matching the breed's older look before show standards favored a longer wedge. It's a community nickname, not a registry category, and it's commonly reported to have begun as a show-ring insult in the 1950s. The cats it describes are often Registered Siamese with rounder heads.

Q: Is an applehead Siamese a purebred Siamese? It can be, and often is. The label describes head shape, not lineage. CFA and TICA don't recognize "applehead" as a category, so papers on an applehead cat would read simply Siamese. If lineage matters to you, check the papers or run a DNA test, because no head shape proves ancestry either way.

Q: What's the difference between traditional and wedgehead Siamese? Head and body, in one glance. Traditional cats have a rounded head with a nose break and a stockier, muscular body. Wedgehead cats follow the CFA standard: a long tapering wedge with a flat skull and straight profile, on a slim tubular body where the hips never widen past the shoulders. Both are Siamese; only one matches the current show standard.

Q: What color points do Siamese cats come in? CFA recognizes four Siamese colors: seal, chocolate, blue and lilac, each with deep vivid blue eyes. Red, cream, lynx and tortie points belong to the separate CFA breed Colorpoint Shorthair. TICA accepts a longer color list directly under Siamese, which is why the same pointed cat can carry different breed names in different registries.

Q: Can a Siamese have green eyes? Not under CFA rules. The Siamese standard requires deep, vivid blue eyes, and any other eye color is a disqualification in the show ring. A pointed cat with green eyes is more likely an Oriental, a mix, or another pointed breed. Eye color is one of the strongest single clues in our four-step check above.

Q: Is a Thai cat the same as a Siamese? Close, but on paper it's its own breed. The Thai is the old-style Siamese body type recognized as a separate breed, first among them by the World Cat Federation. Under CFA rules that same rounder-headed cat would compete as a Siamese or carry no papers at all. Same ancestry, different registry decisions.

Q: How can I tell which type my Siamese is? Run the four-step check: profile first, then body build, then eye color, then point pattern, grading each as a strong, moderate or weak clue. Profile and body give you the body-type axis. Eyes and points give you the color axis and screen out look-alike breeds. Photos in daylight beat photos under warm bulbs every time.

What to check next

• Siamese breed profile for temperament, size and care, beyond the type question
• How much a Siamese costs if you're buying, including what breeders charge for different looks
• What breed is my cat for the free photo check
• The breed chart if you want all 62 breeds side by side

This information is for educational purposes only. If you need a definitive answer about your cat's breed, consult a registered pedigree or a DNA test.