Let's Talk Hair Porosity
The must-know facts about hair porosity. You may have heard the term hair porosity and had no idea what it actually means. We hear you.👂🏽
As we all know, no two curl patterns are alike, it's necessary to know the porosity level of your own to get the most out of your curl routine. In lament terms, understanding the porosity of your hair is the FIRST step in managing your specific curl type with the proper product regimen, so you get poppin' curls results every time (well...we all have those #badhairdays).
What is hair porosity? 🤷🏽♀️
In the simplest way we have come up with to digest this terminology is, Hair Porosity, refers to your hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture. There are three ways to determine where your hair falls on the porosity spectrum: low, normal or high.
Honestly, this is one of the more confusing hair concepts, but with an understanding of the various hair porosity types- namely low porosity and high porosity- you can transform the way your hair behaves and how it responds to certain hair products.
This is the answer to why your hair gets dry like the Sahara, is thirsty for your curl cream, or is easily weighed down by a hair moisturizers and butters, which has a lot to do with whether you have porous hair (or the type or porosity you have).
While it make sense to assume that your hair porosity is directly related to your curl type, this isn't always the case.
How do I know what kind of hair porosity I have?
Before your next wash and go day, take a hair porosity test and find out how to adjust your routine based on how porous your hair is. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to find out with a quick hair porosity test (clean the test hair first with shampoo and rise to remove any product buildup).
#1 - THE STRAND TEST🍝
Take a strand of hair and slide your fingers up the shaft (toward your scalp). If you feel little bumps along the way, this means that your cuticle is lifted and that you have high porosity. If your fingers slip smoothly, then you have low porosity hair.
#2 - THE FLOAT TEST 🎈
Take a couple of strands of hair from your comb or brush and drop them into a bowl of water. Let them sit for 2-4 minutes. If your hair floats in the middle, then you may have normal porosity. If it sinks, you may have high porosity, and if it sits on top of the water, then is has a low porosity.
#3 - THE H2O TEST💧
To determine your hair porosity level using water (Tip: Try this with cold, warm and hot), spritz a small section of your hair with water and watch how your hair reacts – does your hair absorb the water quickly (indicating high porosity) or does it remain on top (indicating a low porosity level)?
Which hair porosity do you have?
Do you have high, low or normal hair porosity? Comment below⬇️
Keep an eye out for the next few blogs! We will be answering your questions about how to care your hair porosity types.
xoxo,
Su ("Sue") Beauty