Hair Porosity
Care-Free, Hair-Free
There’s nothing more confusing than following all of the steps suggested by popular hair bloggers and vloggers and still ending up with frizzy, brittle hair. Especially when you learn the wonders of sealing with an oil or butter for longer lasting hydration, but still wake up with thirsty strands by the next morning. Well, it may be your hair’s porosity. Even with Identifying those parts of your hair, most times it takes trial and error to get it right so when you discuss something like hair porosity to a newly natural you can see why they immediately have a blank look on their face. You can have low, medium, or high porosity strands and the category your tresses fall into lets you know which products are more likely to give you the best results for styles and keeping your hair healthy.
What Is Hair Porosity?
Hair porosity simply refers to your hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture, and here are three ways to determine where yours falls on the porosity spectrum: low, normal or high.
THE STRAND TEST
Gently stretch a tiny section of curl strands from different areas of your head – front hairline, nape, crown and temple. Place the stretched curl between your thumb and finger and slide it up the hair strand from the tip towards the scalp. If your fingers move easily up the strand and it feels dense and hard, you have low porosity hair. If it feels smooth, you have normal porosity hair. And if the strand feels rough or dry or it breaks, you have high porosity hair.
THE SHEDDING HAIR TEST
Another way to check your hair porosity is to drop hair that’s been shed as a result of combing into a glass of water. If it floats, your hair is low porosity. If your hair sinks slowly, it has normal porosity, and if it sinks immediately, your hair is high porosity.
THE H20 TEST
To determine your hair porosity level using water, spritz a small section of curls with water and watch how your hair reacts – does your hair absorb the water quickly (indicating high porosity) or does it remain on top (indicating a low porosity level)?
Hair with low porosity has a tightly bound cuticle layer with overlapping scales that lay flat. This type of hair is usually considered healthy, and is often very shiny, especially when it's dark in color. Low porosity hair repels moisture when you try to wet it and is hard to process since it resists penetration of chemicals. Low porosity hair is also prone to build-up from protein-rich deep conditioning products, which can leave it feeling stiff and straw-like. Stick to protein-free, daily conditioners with humectants such as glycerin or honey. Use moderate heat with protein-free deep conditioning treatments to help open up the tightly bound cuticle. Low porosity hair requires moisturizers rich in emollients such as shea butter, jojoba oil, coconut oil and mineral oil. It also benefits from humectant products, which attract and hold moisture to your hair. Choose lighter, liquid-based products such as hair milks that won't sit on your hair and leave it oily or greasy.
Hair with medium porosity often requires the least amount of maintenance. The cuticle layer is looser, allowing just the right amount of moisture to enter while preventing too much from escaping. Hair with normal porosity tends to hold styles well, and can be permed and colored with predictable results. Over time, however, these processes can damage your hair and increase its porosity. Occasional deep conditioning treatments with protein conditioners can benefit medium porosity hair, but proteins should not be included in your daily regimen.
High porosity can be either an inherent property of hair or the result of damage from chemical processing, rough treatment or environmental damage. High porosity hair has gaps and holes in the cuticle, which let too much moisture into your hair and leave it prone to frizz and tangling in humid weather. Even simple acts such as bathing, swimming and shampooing can create more damage and breakage due to the sheer amount of moisture highly porous hair can absorb. Be sure to use anti-humectants in climates with high heat and humidity. This will help seal your damaged cuticles and prevent them from absorbing excess moisture in the air.
Because highly porous hair can also lose moisture easily, it's important to use leave-in conditioners, moisturizers and sealers. Layering these products will help your hair hold on to the moisture you're giving it. You can even follow up with a heavy hair butter to help fill the gaps in your damaged cuticles and further protect your hair from losing too much moisture.
When choosing products to use whether it be shampoo, conditioner, or any styling product you should always take the porosity of your hair into account. Using the wrong products can actually be extremely damaging to your hair and you may not get everything that you can out of your hairstyling products. Most products on the market do not even consider your hair porosity, when it comes to these products it is very important that you are giving your hair texture exactly what it needs to flourish. At OrganiGrowHairCo we created each product to cater specifically to the porosity of your hair. Whether it be the shampoo or conditioner, or the many styling products we provide. Not only did we create versions for each product to meet our client needs. It’s all organic-vegan. The difference it makes when you use a product that’s designed for the porosity of your hair is truly phenomenal. You will notice more volume, restoration from past products. More shine and overall health will be visible. Try our products today at Organigrowhairco.com