Knowing my natural hair porosity was my breakthrough regarding my natural hair regime. There are tons of information to help us retain moisture. However, knowing your hair’s porosity can help you to create the best natural hair regime. Believe me.
What is Hair Porostiy?
Hair porosity is the hair’s ability or inability to absorb water and retain moisture. Our hair is naturally porous but the degree of porosity varies. Due to different styles we have worn in the past like relaxer, permanent coloring and harsh styling we have crack the shield of our hair „cuticle“. So our hair became less able to absorb water and hold the moisture in. Older hair is more porous than newer hair.
There are three types of hair porosity: low, normal and high.
Low Hair Porosity:
I would consider my hair as low porosity. My hair is not really able to absorb moisture. The products seem to sit on the hair as the cuticle layers are extremely compact means tightly close. But once the moisture is in, it does not leak out easily. Low porostiy hair looks generally quite healthy but it does not really bounce well. However, the hair is not easy to work with. Sometimes, it repels moisture than to absorb it. In order to let moisture in you have to raise the cuticle.
Normal Hair Porosity
This is obviously the happy porosity where cuticle layers are loser. The right amount of moisture can get in and out easily. The hair is healthy and is able to hold styles for a long periods of time. Normal porosity hair is easy to deal with as it allows normal handling.
High Hair porostiy
High porostiy hair is caused by excessive mechanical abuse like heat-styling tools, sun damage, harsh ingredients, relaxers and colors. The cuticle layer can absorb too much moisture however on the other hand it can also let it out. That means high porosity hair absorbs more water when it is wet but loses even more as it dries. Hair porosity hair is dry and has less shine. Once you have high porosity hair you have to take care as it can easily damage more than in its current state. Keeping this type of hair moisturized is a never-ending story as such hair is always dry.
Why do you need to know your hair porosity?
Knowing your hair porosity is an important factor in creating your natural hair care. This knowledge was my breakthrough. I spent a lot of money and time trying different products and styles however after I did the test and created the best natural haircare routine for me. Because moisture defines and shape your hair. You have to know how your hair reacts to moisture in order to gain the maximum out of your hair regime. That means if you don’t know your hair’s porosity, you won’t be able to find the best hair product that works on your hair to retain moisture. Not knowing your porosity can cause frizzy, breckage, dryness and dull hair. Different degrees of porosity can be found in all Afro textured hair.
What is your hair porostiy?
Leave us a comment below!
4 Comments
I liked this post but how do I find the porosity test? Right now, I feel like my hair my hair retains moisture if I use a sealant (like beeswax, shea butter, etc) after L.O.C. or even just after using leave in conditioner. Otherwise I feel like it sucks in the moisture and gets dry again. I guess that means “highly porose”.
xoxo,
La Deutsche Diva — The Denglisch Blog
♥ German on top ♥ English on the Bottom ♥
Hi La Deutsche Diva, Thanks for your comment. You just need to join our newsletter. After that the Ebook including the test will be sent to you. It could be that you have high porosity hair. But to be sure I would recommend you to do the test.
This article would be better if actual hair regimens were provided for each porosity type.
Hi Stacey, Thanks for reading. You are right. I thought about it afterwards and decided to do a second post :)