The ManicaPost
TEN years ago, I didn’t even know that hair porosity was a thing. I had little idea of what hair porosity was, or how it could be associated with the health of my hair.
Fast forward to today, hair porosity is everywhere.
There are even products that are made specifically for different hair porosity types.
Knowing your hair porosity can be key for achieving healthier, stronger and longer hair!
Knowing your hair porosity is pretty important.
Mastering your hair porosity can guide your choices in everything from hair products and hair style choices to the types of conditioning treatments that you choose to do.
If you don’t learn your hair’s porosity, you may be more likely to suffer from hair loss and have problems achieving your hair goals.
What is hair porosity?
Hair porosity is essentially a measure of how easily water moves in and out of your hair strands. If you have high porosity hair, it’s easy for water to enter your hair, but it’s also easy for it to exit your hair.
As a consequence, people with high porosity hair often have hair that gets dry quite easily.
If you have low porosity hair, it’s harder for water to enter your hair; but once it does, it tends to stick around longer. People with low porosity hair often have a problem with product absorption.
If you have low porosity hair, conditioners and styling products tend to just sit on your hair, instead of being easily absorbed.
Your hair’s cuticle and knowing your hair porosity
A key to knowing your hair porosity is to understand its structure. Our hair strands have a protective layer on the top of them, called the cuticle.
You can think of your hair’s cuticle as a type of shield that works to prevent damage to the underlying hair!
You can think of your hair’s cuticle as being like shingles on a roof or shutters on a set of horizontal blinds.
Characteristics of low and high porosity hair
People with low porosity hair have a tight cuticle, which means that the shingles, or slats of the blinds, lay down smoothly and tightly, without many gaps.
Water, products, and hair dyes have a hard time penetrating this tight cuticle armour.
People with low porosity hair may notice that water tends to “bead up” on their hair when it gets wet.
On the other hand, people with high porosity hair have a more ragged cuticle.
Think of the cuticle on high porosity hair as being like an old roof top, or raggedy blinds that don’t shut right!
The shingles don’t lie down as flat, and the slats of the blinds don’t close all the way. Some parts of the cuticle (shingles) may even be missing.
In high porosity hair, your hair cuticle has lots of gaps in it, where water and products can easily slip in . . . and out!
Here are images of the hair cuticle in low and high porosity hair types:
Knowing your hair porosity
Be aware, you may have low porosity, high porosity or medium (between low and high) porosity hair. Also, on different parts of your head, you may have variations in your hair’s porosity.
These variations can depend on both your genetics and the way that you wear and style your hair.
Also, remember this: Low porosity hair can become high porosity hair if it’s damaged by too much heat, abrasive chemicals or improper handling.
Characteristics of high and low porosity hair:
High porosity hair
Thinner hair strands
Dries quickly after wetting
Tangles more easily
Breaks easily when pulled
Low porosity hair
Products tend to sit on the hair (instead of absorbing)
Hair develops ‘product build up’ more easily
Hair takes a LONG time to dry
Water beads on hair when wet
Hair develops single strand knots more easily
Testing your hair’s porosity:
There are several “porosity tests” floating around on the Internet that are supposed to help you figure out your hair’s porosity. — mdhairmixtress.com.
