To ensure that you’re caring for your hair the best way possible, you need to determine what it needs to grow healthy and strong.
Knowing what the porosity of your hair is will help you understand how to care for it.
First of all, what is porosity?
Hair porosity is about how your hair absorbs and retains moisture.
The porosity of your hair determines how well oils and moisture pass in and out of the outermost layer of your hair.
Do you know what your hair porosity is?
Here’s a simple test to determine what it is.
Shampoo and rinse your hair to remove any product build-up.
Fill a glass with water.
Once your hair is clean and dry, drop a single strand of your hair into the glass of water.
Watch the strand to see if it sinks to the bottom of the glass, floats at the top or lingers in the middle.
Here’s how to figure out your hair porosity from this test.
If the hair floats at the top, you likely have low porosity hair.
If the hair stays somewhere in the middle of the glass, you probably have medium or normal porosity hair.
If the strand quickly sinks to the bottom, you likely have high porosity hair.
So what does it all mean?
If you have low porosity hair it’s hard for water to saturate your hair, it takes a long time for your hair to air dry and hair products don’t absorb easily.
Medium porosity hair air dries quicker, doesn’t take too long for your hair to air dry, holds styles for longer and looks healthy, shiny, or glossy.
Hair that tends to break easily, dries quickly and absorbs are characteristics of high porosity hair.
Here’s how to treat low and high porosity hair.
Low porosity
Use protein-free conditioners.
Apply conditioner to wet hair.
Look for ingredients like glycerin and honey in shampoos and conditioners.
High porosity
Use leave-in conditioners.
Shampooing and conditioning with lukewarm water.
Look for ingredients like butters and oils in your hair products.
Watch how to test hair porosity here: