If you are familiar with the natural hair care world, you have likely come across the term “Hair Porosity”. Understanding your hair porosity is crucial in your hair growth journey. It guides you in determining how to care for your hair, crafting your own hair regimen, choosing the right products, and everything in between. In this article, I´ll be sharing with you briefly all you need to know about hair porosity. Let´s dive in.
Hair porosity simply refers to your hair´s ability to absorb and retain moisture. Imagine that you have two different clothing materials: wool and silk. If you wanted to clean and dry your wet table, which one would you choose? I bet you would choose the woolen material.
You would choose the woolen material simply because of its ability to absorb moisture. Both of them are good clothing materials, but they function differently and should be handled and used in different ways.
Just like clothing materials, hair has the ability to absorb and retain moisture. Yours may be like woolen material that absorbs moisture easily or silk material that takes more time to absorb moisture.
Let´s find out where your hair belongs.
Types of Hair Porosity
Hair porosity is divided into three types. We have high, medium, and low porosity hair.
High Porosity Hair
This type of hair absorbs moisture very easily but struggles to retain it. High-porosity hair has open cuticles, allowing for easy penetration of moisture and hair products. High-porosity hair can result from heat damage, environmental factors, or chemical damage. It can be dry and also prone to frizz.
How to care for High Porosity hair
1. Protein treatments
Proteins are very beneficial for high-porosity hair because they help fill in the hair cuticles, reduce porosity, and increase strength. So if your hair has high porosity, try to get more protein-based products instead of moisture-based products.
However, when applying more proteins, you must be careful not to go overboard. Too much protein can cause stiffness and breakage of hair. There has to be a balance between proteins and moisture.
2. Avoid the use of harsh chemicals
Harsh chemicals like relaxers and dyes can further damage hair and make it even more porous. You want to minimize the use of any harsh chemicals on your hair.
3. Regular deep conditioning
It is essential to deep condition your high porosity hair. Deep conditioning helps to nourish, strengthen, and moisturize the hair.
You can choose a deep conditioner that contains heavy butters and oils such as Shea butter.
4. Minimize the use of heat
Excessive heat can cause serious damage to high porosity hair. Reduce the use of heat styling tools such as flat irons, curling irons, etc.
Medium Porosity Hair
This type of hair is found mid-way between high-porosity and low-porosity hair. It has a balanced ability to absorb and retain moisture. Even if medium hair porosity is balanced, it must be properly cared for.
How to care for medium porosity hair
1. Moisture and Protein balance
Make use of both protein-based and moisturizing products to support the health of your hair.
2. Avoid Excessive Heat
To maintain a balanced porosity level, you must avoid excessive heat on your hair. If you must use heat, use a heat protectant alongside to avoid any heat damage.
3. Deep Conditioning:
Deep conditioning will help to nourish your hair, strengthen the hair, and moisturize it. This will help it maintain its porosity without becoming too high or too low.
4. Gentle Handling
Hair with medium porosity should be handled gently. The hair should be handled carefully from washing to detangling, styling, and everything in between. You can check our previous posts to learn how to wash and properly detangle your hair.
Low Porosity Hair
This type of hair has very tight cuticles, so it does not allow moisture or products to penetrate easily into it or escape from it easily. It is often shiny and smooth to the touch but can be very prone to product buildup.
Caring for low-porosity hair requires intentionality. If you have low-porosity hair, you may think that a particular hair product is not “working” for you, but the actual problem is that the product is not penetrating the hair.
How to care for low porosity hair
1. Use lightweight products
Due to the tightly sealed hair cuticles, using heavy products may prove futile, as they are unable to penetrate effectively. Opt for lightweight products and oils, as they promote moisture absorption and prevent product buildup.
2. Use clarifying Shampoos
Occasionally, use a clarifying shampoo in order to cleanse your scalp from products buildup.
3. Avoid excessive use of protein-based products
Proteins are very important for hair care. But if you have low porosity hair, you have to limit the amount of proteins you apply to your hair.
Too much protein can make hair more resistant to moisture, leading to stiffness and, ultimately, breakage.
4. Avoid heavy butters
Heavy butters like Shea butter should be avoided. Instead, use light oils such as argan oil, grapeseed oil, etc.
5. Use moisturizing products
One of the biggest challenge of low porosity hair is the inability to get moisture in. This is why it is very important that you consider getting moisturizing products (shampoos, creams, etc.) for your hair.
Also look out for products that contain ingredients such as glycerin, honey, or aloe vera. All of these help to attract moisture into the hair.
If you are still confused about how to know your hair porosity, I´ll give you a guide on how to check below:
HOW TO TEST FOR HAIR POROSITY
I would say, that there are no hard and fast rules while testing for hair porosity guys. I personally employ more than one method, and instead weigh in on all my options. That being said, the most popular test that people swear by, is the float test. I must say though, that using this test solely might give you results that are not entirely accurate. It is however a very useful test when combined with other test results. You could check an Initial post on the website by TSJ on discovering your hair porosity for a more detailed approach.
DISCOVERING YOUR HAIR POROSITY
The float Test
1. Wash your hair (carrying this test out on dirty hair can alter your result)
2. Dry your hair, and then remove a few strands from different sections of your head. (Make sure the strands are similar in thickness)
3. Fill up a glass with water and drop the hair strands into the glass of water.
Results
a. If the hair strand floats on the surface of the water, this shows that you have Low-porosity hair.
b. If the hair strand moves slowly towards the bottom of the glass, it shows that you have medium porosity.
c. If it moves quickly to the bottom of the glass, this indicates that you have high porosity hair.
No matter your hair porosity, adequate knowledge on how to care for it is what will give you the healthy hair you desire. Try out this test, know your hair porosity, and care for it as you should. Your hair will thrive.
