Hair Porosity and Why It's Important!

Knowing your hair porosity is more important than knowing your hair type. It is more important because you will understand why your hair absorbs or does not absorb moisture, and moisturizing your hair is essential to having healthy hair.

What is porosity?

Porosity is the measure of your hairs ability to absorb moisture. Hair strands have outer layers -or cuticles, that are laying flat, raised, or neither flat nor raised. For a better understanding, think of one of your hair strands as the roof of a house, and the cuticle represents the shingles on the roof. If the shingles (cuticles) lays completely flat it's hard for water to enter or escape. This explains what low porosity hair is like. The cuticle lays flat, so it is harder for water to enter or exit the strand. If the shingles (cuticles) are completely raised then water can enter and escape easier – this explains high porosity hair. In normal porosity hair, the shingles (cuticles) are neither completely flat nor raised, but at an angle to allow moisture to enter and stay there.

How can I find out if I have low, high or normal porosity hair?

To test your hair porosity, take a strand of hair (make sure it is shed hair, not breakage) from your brush or comb and drop it into a glass or bowl of water. Observe the strand of hair for a couple of minutes. If your hair is floating you have low porosity hair, if the hair floats in the middle you have normal porosity. If your hair sinks to the bottom you have high porosity hair. See picture below.

What should I do if I have low hair porosity?

If you have low hair porosity that means your hair is resistant to moisture. It does not necessarily mean that your hair is unhealthy either. You should use lighter based products. Wash and condition your hair with warm water and deep condition under a hooded dryer. Heavier products will just sit on top of your hair and will make it look very oily and greasy. You won't have to moisturize daily because that will cause product build-up.

What should I do if I have high hair porosity?

If you have high hair porosity that means your hair easily loses moisture, so you will have to layer products to ensure that you retain moisture. Again, this does not mean that your hair is unhealthy, it just means that you need to help your hair retain moisture. You will have to moisturize often, daily if you can :-)

What's My Hair Type?!

(Artwork by Keturah Ariel)

Is hair typing important? When it comes to products and styling, YES! I believe that knowing your hair type is important because you will know which products and styles work best for your hair, you will know what regimen works best and you will know how to care for your hair!

Wash and Go

Before I knew my hair type, I thought that my hair could do what others could. Like wash and gos for instance, I have about 85% of shrinkage (See picure below) so my wash and gos will not look like someone with type 3 hair. After finding out what my hair type was I started watching tutorials and taking tips from women with my same hair type. I have type 4 hair. I have types a, b and c.

Crazy shrinkage

Hair Type Chart

**When figuring out your hair type, it is best to have freshly washed hair with no products added to it. Then compare your strands to this chart** I will be focusing on hair types 3 and 4.

Examples of hair types

Type 3 hair: 

3a:  Strands are well defined, curls are loopy and hair is prone to frizziness.

• Too much product can weigh your hair down. Use products that are lightweight.
• Use a t-shirt for drying your hair instead of a towel to minimize frizz. 

3b: Curls are well defined.

• Styling creams and styling milks will give more definition and less frizz
• To refresh and moisturize hair use a hair milk

3c: Has a defined corkscrew shape.

• Stretch hair by doing bantu-knot outs, twist-outs, flexi rod/perm rod sets, banding, braiding etc..

• Deep condition often to retain elasticity and moisture

Type 4 hair: 

4a: Has a defined "S" shape curl pattern

• Co-wash with a moisturizing sulfate-free cleanser
• Use butters to maximize wash-and-gos, twist-outs etc..

4b: Has a "z" shape pattern and can have shrinkage up to 75%.

• Use LCO, LOC or LOCO methods to keep coils moisturized (I blogged about it here)
• Pre-poo with raw natural oils (olive oil, coconut oil etc..)

4c: Very tight coils. Has less definition than 4b texture and can have shrinkage up to 75%+

• Use a detangling co-wash, and moisturize daily using the LOC, LCO or LOCO methods
• Use curl-defining products
• Stretch hair by doing bantu-knot outs, twist-outs, flexi rod and perm rod sets, banding, braiding etc..

**Styling Tip: Because type 4 hair is so coily, sebum (natural oil produced in the glands of the scalp) can't travel down strands of your hair easily, so you will have to moisturize daily to ensure you don't have any breakage. Dry hair=breakage and split ends. 


Remember to sleep with a satin bonnet or sleep on a satin pillow case at night to protect your hair while your sleep!

Popular Moisturizing Methods!

I get so many questions about what I use to moisturize my hair.. (I vlogged about it here, questions 5 & 6), so I decided to share the different moisturizing methods here on my blog.

The LOC Method:


L: Leave-in or liquid

O: Oil

C: Cream

1. After washing your hair, part your hair into sections (I like to part my hair into 4 sections and then I create smaller sections within each quarter) and apply leave-in (or you can use water, since your hair is already wet after washing you shouldn't have to apply more water, but you can if you want).

2. After applying your leave in or water add the oil and massage that through.

3. Then after applying the oil apply the cream.

4. Repeat steps until you have finished your whole head then style as desired, or you can style as you go!



**Choose a leave in and cream with water as the first ingredient!



I have tried the LOC Method but I prefer the LCO Method because it works best for my hair.  The LCO Method is the same concept as the LOC, but the cream and oil are switched so the oil would go on your hair last instead of the cream.



The LCO Method:



L: Leave-in or liquid

C: Cream

O: Oil



Repeat steps 1-4 but apply the
cream before the oil.

The LOCO Method:

L: Leave in or liquid

O: Oil (penetrating oil, i.e avocado)

C: Cream

O: Oil (a heavier sealing oil, i.e castor oil)

Repeat steps 1-4 for the LOC Method then add a heavier sealing oil.