Low porosity hair vs High porosity hair
Updated: Feb 7, 2021
What is hair porosity?
Porosity is a measurement of how much moisture (i.e water) your hair can absorb and hold. Your hairs porosity is determined by your genetics, but chemical processing and heat can impact it too.
Low porosity hair has a compact cuticles, which makes It difficult moisture to get in, but once it’s in, it’s hard to escape, whereas as high porosity hair has gaps and holes in the cuticle, allowing moisture to easily pass in and out.
How do you know which type of hair you have?
Simple you can try the float test – take a strand of clean hair (as products on your hair can impact the results of the test) and place it in a cup of water for a few minutes. The lasting position of the hair will tell you what type of hair you have. If your hair floats at the top of the glass you have low porosity hair and if your hair sinks to the bottom you have high porosity hair. Now you know how your hair reacts to moisture, you can start to take care of it the right way, for maximum strength and length! #byebyeTWA
What do I need to know about low porosity hair?
Low pro hair is hard to process and is prone to product build up – story of my life!.
Research shows that we should try to avoid protein heavy products as they tend to make your hair feel like straw – oooh so that’s why my hair used to feel awful after using hair mayonnaise (yak!). Instead, we should be using products that contain humectants i.e glycerin or honey – these are substances that will keep your hair moist!
Choose light products like Shea butter, Jojoba oil, Sweet almond oil and Coconut oil. It should be noted that Coconut oil very controversial as it is very heavy and tends to sit on the hair- all things us low pro gals need to avoid and my experience of using it, is that despite my hair being oily to the touch, its actually dry (strange!). You should also try liquid based products instead of heavy products that just sit on your hair but don’t actually penetrate it. Which brings me to #LCO…liquid, cream and oil. Research really suggests this is the best approach for low pro hair and I’ve being trying it for the last year and my hair finally feels strong and I got my hangtime.
What do I need to know about high porosity hair?
High Pro hair is prone to getting tangled in humid weather and dry in dry weathers, however there are some quick tricks you can do! Contrary to low pro hair, lasses with high pro hair should look to avoid humectants. You want to look for anti- humectants which will prevent moisture from getting into the hair, this will be a blessing on those humid days. You want to also use leave in conditioners and heavy hair products to fill those naturally occurring gaps in the cuticles.
For more information see the below