Hair Porosity And How To Care For Your Hair

 

Firstly to determine hair porosity, take a cup of water and place clean, shed hairs inside the water. Wait for 30 seconds and do not touch the cup or hair. If the hair floats, it’s low porosity. If it sinks to the middle of the cup, it’s medium porosity, and if it sinks deep inside, it’s high porosity. Below, we will look at how to care for your hair when you have high or low porosity hair.

How To Care For Your Hair Porosity Type

1. High Porosity

High Porosity hair is either a natural characteristic of hair or caused by damage. Because the hair cuticles are highly raised or chipped, high porosity hair absorbs and loses moisture quickly. It can be challenging to care for hair and keep it moisturized, but some tips can help.

■Close The Cuticle: After washing and conditioning, do a final rinse with an apple cider vinegar mix 1 part apple cider vinegar and 3 parts of water. And before moisturizing and sealing, spray hair with aloe vera juice or gel to help close the cuticle.

■Use Heavier Moisturizers and Sealants: Opt for creamy leave-ins and seal with heavy oils and butter, like shea butter and castor oil, to help prevent moisture loss.

■ Do Protective Styles Using Your Hair: Avoid protective styles using extensions to help retain moisture in the hair. Extensions can pull moisture out of hair, making it drier and prone to breakage, whether synthetic or natural hair.

■ Wash With Shampoo To Remove Build-up From Hair and Scalp: Hair retains more moisture when it’s clean, so limit constant use of co-washes and cleansing conditioners to ensure hair can absorb as much moisture as possible. Incorporate regular protein treatments in regimen: Protein treatments help repair high porosity hair due to damage allow it to retain more moisture.

 

2. Low Porosity

Unlike high porosity hair, Low Porosity hair has tightly sealed cuticles, making it difficult for water even to penetrate the hair. It’s also prone to build-up since products cannot penetrate the hair shaft. To effectively care for low-porosity hair, check out the tips below.

■ Limit Protein, Silicones, and Heavy Oils and Butters: Because low-porosity hair is prone to build-up, you’ll want to avoid all things protein, silicones, and heavy oils and butter. Make sure you read the label before purchasing a product to ensure that it is free of these ingredients or has them farther down the ingredient list.

■ Use Warm Water to Wash Hair: Heat helps open up the hair cuticle, making it possible for moisture to enter the hair shaft. When washing the hair, use warm water to help remove build-up on or in the hair shaft.

Happy hair grooming!