How to know my hair porosity ?

Understanding your hair porosity is key if your goal is to grow long, healthy hair. If you suspect you have high porosity hair, what signs should you look out for?

High porosity hair is very porous. It absorbs moisture very easily. This type of hair also loses moisture very fast because it has large open pores.

Below is a summary of high porosity hair characteristics to look out for if you are trying to determine your hair porosity:

High Porosity Hair Characteristics;

Hair feels dry most of the times
Rapid moisture loss
Hair tends to be Frizzy
More prone to breakage
Gets wet very easily
Hair tangles easily
Rarely looks shiny
Absorbs products very easily
Hardly gets greasy
Lacks elasticity
Hair porosity is categorized as either low, normal, or high. The more porous your hair is the more moisture and oils it will absorb.

Your hair strands have three layers; the cuticle which is the outermost layer, the medulla, the innermost layer, and the cortex which is the middle layer. (1) In high porosity hair, the cuticles are too far apart which means that moisture applied can get in very easily.

In the next section, we will analyze in detail the high porosity hair characteristics summarized above.

Are you suspecting your hair is Low Porosity but aren’t very sure? Then you need to look out for the typical low porosity hair characteristics that we shall cover in this article.

Low porosity hair has compact cuticles that overlap over each other making it harder for water and other products to deliver moisture into the hair shaft.

Here are 11 Low porosity hair characteristics :

Hair takes time to get wet
Products tend to sit on the hair
Heat is needed for better moisture absorption
The high tendency for product build-up on the hair
Hair takes time to dry
Water beads up on hair
Higher probability of getting dandruff
Hair resists color treatments
Hair needs to be clarified for better moisture retention
Hair reacts better to humectants
Resists conditioners