What is Hair Porosity?
Hair Porosity is a term that is used to describe how well your hair is able to absorb and retain moisture and oils.
First let me explain to you a little about the 3 layers of the hair shaft it will help you to understand the hairs structure a little better.
Here are the 3 layers in a hair shaft!
- The cuticle is the outermost layer of your hair. It comprises individual cuticles that overlap each other, imagine the tiles on a roof.
- The cortex is the middle and thickest layer. It contains fibrous proteins and pigments that give your hair its color.
- The medulla is the central, innermost layer of the hair shaft.
- Low Porosity
- Normal Porosity
- High Porosity
If you have low porosity hair, it means the structure of your hair doesn’t easily allow moisture to be absorbed into your hair shaft. This can make it harder for water to saturate your hair when it’s washed, but more importantly it can make styling and processing challenging!
Let’s take a closer look at the characteristics of low porosity hair, as well as some tips and advice on how best to care for it.
Signs of Low Porosity:
- Cuticles are closed
- No moisture
- Considered resistant hair
- No absorption (products sit on your hair)
- Hair color ( doesn’t take to color well)
- Water beads sit on your hair
- No volume
- Takes forever to dry
- Everything warm works well!
- Put product on in the shower (moisturize in the shower)
- Work in smaller sections when detangling
- Use light weight products
- Extra creamy products is a no no
- Prone to product buildup
- Boo! Hair Poo isn’t good for you!
- Humectants (particularly glycerin) is good for you
- Your protein sensitive
- Skip a leave in and use a hair milk /styler
- Rinse hair with warm water after wash and conditioner
- Doesn’t retain moisture
- Damaged or highly processed hair
- Tangles so much
- Dries very fast
- Frizzy
- Rarely looks shiny
- Absorbs products quickly
- Is prone to breakage
- Leave in, Hair cream, Hair butter
- Rinse with cool water after wash and condition to close cuticle
- Extra creamy Products
- Eggs are good for high porosity
- Likes protein
- Don’t use hair milk
- Heat up your deep conditioner
- Avoid sulfates, parabens, silicones, and sodium laureth sulfates. These ingredients can pull a lot of natural oil from your hair.
- Minimize heat styling. You can also use heat styling appliances on a lower heat setting and use a heat protecting product on your hair.
- Floats: If it floats, you may have low porosity hair. It means your hair has a hard time absorbing water. Low porosity types can make their hair absorb product easier by applying minimal heat while they add moisture.
- Stays in the Middle: If your strand of hair remains in the middle, you probably have medium porosity hair. It means your hair is normal, and you don’t have much of a problem getting your hair to hold moisture and nutrients.
- Sinks: If your hair sinks, you may have high porosity your cuticles are open, and you have no issues absorbing all the moisture your hair can handle. But then you quickly lose it. Also, your hair can be vulnerable to harmful chemicals and damaging toxins, because the hair shaft is continuously exposed.
- Hair moves easily but feels hard and dense (thick) - Low porosity
- Hair feels smooth - Normal porosity
- Hair feels rough, dry, or breaks - High porosity