Your hair is a living organism and has the ability to tell you exactly what it needs to perform at its peak, you just need to know what to look for and how to listen. Understanding your level of porosity is crucial to obtaining your hair health and desired results.
But what the heck is “porosity” and the relationship between that and the root word “pores”?
Your hair is actually little tubes covered in follicles that act like shingles on a roof. Not unlike your skin, the pockets inside this tube-like structure that create space are called “pores” and the ability of these individual tubes to soak up and retain moisture is called “porosity”.
There are three levels of porosity: low, medium and high and lucky for us, finding out what level of porosity you have is easy to do and treating your hair accordingly is even easier!
Let’s first define the levels of porosity:
Low: Your cuticles are tightly closed and do not absorb moisture very easily.
Medium: This is the baseline for healthy hair. The cuticle pattern is loose enough to let moisture in and tight enough to retain absorbed moisture. The more able to balance the moisture your hair absorbs, the healthier your hair is.
High: Your cuticles are wide open and while they allow the maximum amount of moisture in they can’t retain (or hold) any of it. High porosity hair is often dry, brittle and prone to breaking.
Do not fret. The porosity of your hair can be changed, but first you need to really understand what level your hair is at.
Try these simple tests to determine your level of porosity and then we can map out a clear path to hair health based on your results.
Test One:
- Get a clear glass of room temperature water.
- Cold water will close cuticles and warm water will open which will skew results
- Take a strand of your hair and put into glass
- Monitor what level in the glass your hair drops too.
- Floats: Low Porosity
- Slowly Sinks: Medium Porosity (normal)
- Immediately Sinks: High Porosity
Test Two:
- Take a few strands of your hair in your fingertips
- Run strands through thumb and index fingers from end towards scalp
- Smooth: Low to Normal Porosity
- Rough: High Porosity
Recommendations by Porosity
Low- You need to open up those cuticles to receive needed moisture.
Start with a hot Oil Blend treatment and then Aloeba Daily Conditioner as a lightweight leave-in & your routine conditioner.
For added moisture use Deep Conditioning Treatment every 3-4 washes. While highly nourishing, heavier conditioners can weigh down low porosity hair if used too frequently.
Medium- Your hair is at optimum porosity and the key is to maintain balance between protein & moisture.
Use a protein packed conditioner, Too Shea! Extra Moisturizing Conditioner, as your routine conditioner.
When additional moisture is needed, scrunch out the crunch or do a heat treatment with our Oil Blend.
High- Your cuticles are wide open so you need to create a seal that will keep your moisture in.
Use our Deep Conditioning Treatment to deeply penetrate moisture and then finish with Oil Blend to create a seal that will keep all that moisture inside.
The key takeaway here is to get to know your hair. The more you know about your porosity level will allow you to specifically choose products that will work the best for you and produce the best results.