HAIR POROSITY - All You Need To Know

Porosity is the ability of your hair to absorb and retain moisture. It is the determining factor of how well your hair reacts to hair products. Hence it is important to understand your porosity type to enable you to take better care of your hair.

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How To Determine Your Hair Porosity

Your porosity type is due mostly to genetics but other hair practices like chemical treatments, blow-drying, straightening, and UV rays could all damage the hair and affect the porosity of your hair

There are two simple ways of determining hair porosity.

1.Water Test

This is the easiest way to test for hair porosity

fill a glass with water
Drop a strand of your hair that has been shampooed and dried
If the strand floats then you have low porosity, if it sinks you have high porosity and if it finds its way to around the middle of the glass then it is normal or medium porosity.

2. The Slip and Slide Test

This is done by taking a strand of hair and sliding your finger towards the scalp. if you feel roughness along the hair shaft then it implies your cuticle is lifted, meaning you have high porosity hair. If your fingers move smoothly then you have low porosity hair

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Hair Porosity Types and Recommendations

There are three types of hair porosity as could be determined by the tests above.

1. Low Porosity Hair

This type of hair is usually considered as healthy hair and it has the following characteristics;

Tightly bound cuticles that lay flat
Lengthy drying time
Prone to product build-up.
Oils sit on top of this type of hair.
Hard for water to saturate the hair during washing sessions

Recommendations:

Use Protein free conditioners as they penetrate the hair shaft easily
Apply your conditioner to wet hair
Apply Heat when you condition as this lifts the cuticle to enable effective penetration of hair products.
Avoid oils in hair products as they tend to sit on the hair, opt for ingredients like honey and glycerin.

2. Normal Porosity Hair

Normal porosity kind of falls in the middle and is also called medium porosity hair and has the following characteristics;

Cuticles are slightly raised
Cuticles let in just enough moisture
There is little maintenance needed for this hair type
Has a lot of bounce and elasticity
Hair takes color well
Hair looks healthy and shiny

3.High Porosity Hair

High porosity is the least healthy of the three types of hair. it has the following characteristics

Prone to breakage
Feels dry and coarse
Tends to dry quickly
Gets frizzy easily
Water and moisturizing products are easily absorbed

Recommendations;

since this hair type is prone to dryness, opt for heavy sealants to lock in moisture.

Use lukewarm water on wash days

Use moisturizing leave-in conditioners.

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In Conclusion,

Irrespective of your hair porosity type, you can still achieve healthy-looking hair by first understanding what type you have, then getting products and imbibing habits that benefit your hair type.