A question you might not have thought about, or (if you have highly porous hair) might already know a lot about!
Do you know your hair porosity? And if so, do you know how to care for it properly?
In this blog we will cover:
- What hair porosity actually is
- The different hair porosity types and characteristics
- How to find out your hair porosity type (we even have a fun little test you can do)
- How to care properly for your hair porosity type
What is hair porosity?
Hair porosity, in simple terms, is effectively how absorbent your hair is. If your hair is able to soak up moisture very easily, it is known as highly porous. If it doesn't do this, then it has low porosity. Obviously, if it is somewhere in the middle of this scale, it has medium porosity.
High porosity hair however, does not mean that it retains the moisture it soaks in, quite the opposite; because the hair is highly porous, it means that it loses moisture more quickly than medium or low porosity hair does.
To understand this better, it is useful to know a little about the hair structure. (You can read more detail about hair structure here.)
Each strand of your hair is made up of three layers:
- cuticle: the outermost layer
- cortex: the middle layer
- medulla: the innermost layer
The outermost layer of your hair shaft is made up of tiny cuticles (think of overlapping roof tiles). These cuticles are what control the amount of moisture that is allowed in and out of the hair strand.
If these cuticles overlap tightly and are close together, it prevents moisture from being absorbed and released. This is low porosity hair. If the opposite is true, and the cuticles are far apart, moisture easily gets into the hair, but is also easily lost. This is high porosity hair.
Hair porosity can be genetic and can be to do with your hair structure. For example curly or coily hair tends to be more highly porous as the cuticles can't lie flat around bends in the hair and tend to be more open and spread out.
Hair porosity can also be impacted by environmental factors such as heat styling, treatments and chemicals. Treatments like bleaching, blow drying and straightening can damage the cuticles and cause them to lift or separate, causing your hair to become more porous than it might have otherwise been.
What are the characteristics of high porosity hair?
- Can be frizzy (especially on humid days)
- Prone to breakage / tangles easily
- Hard to make it look 'shiny' / can often look dull
- Usually on the drier side
- Air dries quickly
What are the characteristics of low porosity hair?
- If sprayed/ splashed with water, water beads can form on surface rather than sinking in
- Often shinier/ silkier than high porosity hair
- Can appear oily/ greasy
- Difficulty styling; will revert to usual style quickly even with product
- Air dries slowly
Find out your hair porosity type
The test is really simple. All you have to do is take a strand of clean hair and place it in a bowl of water. Check out how to do this on my recent instagram post here.
The results:
High porosity hair will sink to the bottom quite quickly
Medium porosity hair might float for a little bit and then slowly sink to the bottom
Low porosity hair will float for quite some time before very slowly sinking (if at all).
How to care for your hair porosity type
Now you know your hair porosity type, here's how to look after it properly.
High porosity hair:
When it comes to high porosity hair, the trick is preventing further damage to the cuticles of your hair. Some hair care potions and lotions will claim to 'reverse' this damage; this is not possible. You can however, use butters and oils to help protect your cuticles and prevent the getting worse.
Shampoos that contain proteins are your friends here. Proteins will help fortify your hair strands and prevent further damage and breakage. It's also imperative to detangle/ brush your hair before getting in the shower and getting it wet. If you have coily hair, you might want to avoid dry brushing, but instead use your fingers or a wide toothed comb and oils/ conditioners to help detangle before a shower. Your hair is at its weakest when wet and brushing after or during your hair wash will only result in more damage. It's essential to avoid harsher surfactants (cleansers) in shampoos, so stay away from sulphates, especially SLS and SLeS if you have high porosity hair.
Conditioners that contain oils or butters are also great for your hair. Your hair will easily absorb these oils and (if the conditioner is formulated well) it should protect the cuticle and help smooth the down to reduce moisture loss.
Avoid hot water in the shower as this can also lift the cuticles on your hair strands leaving them open to more damage. Likewise, finish with a cold water rinse to close them all down before getting out.
Use a soft cotton top or cloth to squeeze dry your hair instead of rubbing with a towel. This will again help prevent breakage and damage.
Low porosity hair:
Low porosity hair can be susceptible to lots of product build up as it's not as easily absorbed by the hair. Therefore a clarifying shampoo is great to help give your hair a deep clean and remove excess product. Avoid protein rich products as these are unnecessary for low porosity hair and can cause a protein overload which can have the undesired effect or brittle dry hair that breaks easily. Likewise, avoid shampoos and conditioners that contain silicones as these will likely not be absorbed at all and will cause serious build up, leaving your hair looking dull and flat.
Look for products that contain humectants such as glycerine or hyaluronic acid as these will attract and trap moisture. Equally, lighterweight oils such as almond or argan oils can better penetrate low porosity hair and instill some moisture into the shaft.
Heat can be your friend! In order to open up the cuticles, you can use steam or hot water to lift them slightly before applying a conditioning treatment. This will help the conditioner to penetrate the hair. Rinse off with cold water to help seal it in!
Medium porosity hair:
As with all things in life, if you are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of hair porosity, you might need to do a bit of experimenting to find what works for you, but generally you won't need anything too specialised to care for your hair well.
Generally your hair should have a good balance of oils and moisture so avoid over-washing as this could strip your hair of its oils too much (2-3 times a week is usually a good rule of thumb).
Avoid things that could damage your hair and turn it more into a high porosity hair type. This includes too much heat styling (use a heat protection creams if you are going to do this) and dying/ bleaching the hair. Be gentle with it and squeeze with a cotton top or cloth to dry rather than rub with a towel.
You can also think about applying oils/ butters, just to the ends of your hair that might be older/ more damaged and therefore likely to be more porous that then top or mid-lengths of your hair. This will avoid product build up, but can also prevent breakage/ drier split ends.
So there you have it! Different hair porosity types and how to care for them all effectively. I hope you found this useful. Do drop us a comment if there's anything else you'd like us to research or write about!