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 :-)