Hair Porosity

You may have heard the term “hair porosity” and wondered what it means.

Hair porosity is how your hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture; porosity of your hair affects how well moisture passes in and out of the outermost layer of your hair (known as the cuticle). If you have low porosity hair, the structure of your hair doesn’t easily allow moisture to be absorbed into your hair shaft. Making it harder for water to saturate your hair when it’s washed. Because this type of hair tends to repel moisture, it can also be more challenging to process and style.

What are signs of low porosity hair?

• The hair struggles to hold moisture

• Hair doesn’t work with conditioners

• You need heat to activate conditioners

• There is always buildup and dirt in your hair

• You are proun to more dandruff 

• Your hair can be too oily or too dry

• You spend ages drying your hair

• You suffer from staticy hair

Is high porosity hair good or bad?

When you have high porosity hair it can become dull, damaged, broken, weak, tangled, and frizzy. This happens when you use harsh treatments or daily high heat, you can actually damage and remove the outer most layer of the cuticle, making it more porous.

What causes hair porosity?

High porosity hair can be genetic, caused by hair processing and styling treatments like straightening, blow-drying, bleaching, and other chemical applications or over procsessing.

Is low porosity hair bad?

Low porosity hair isn’t as bad as you think even though you have fewer pores on the cuticles (the closest thing to undamaged hair fibres – aka relatively healthy hair) and can do well on a low-maintenance routine.

How do you get rid of low porosity hair -here are a few suggestions:

1. Wash Your Hair Regularly. Washing your hair weekly or every two weeks will keep it free of product build-up and give it another opportunity to absorb some moisture. 

2. Moisturize your hair mid-week. 

3. Seal in Moisture use heat if you can, myself I will do a deep condition once a week. Wrap your hair in plastic wrap and then place a hot towel around the hair and let sit for 10-15 mins. Rinse with cooler water if you can.

4. Cover your hair when you are in harsher weather conditions.