How well do you know your hair?
We have different ways that we can use to describe hair types.
You can consider factors like thickness, fullness, or curly patterns.
Is that all?
What about porosity?
How are the moisture absorption and retention capabilities of your hair?
Today we will focus on highly porous hair, which soaks up moisture easily and loses it quickly.
Here is a complete guide on high porosity hair, including what it is, how you can identify it, and above all, how to grow it healthy.
WHAT IS HIGH POROSITY NATURAL HAIR?
Each of your hair strands consists of the cuticle, cortex, and medulla. Cuticles are the outermost layers in the hair shaft, responsible for protecting the inner ones.
They control the rate of water, product, and chemical absorption and retention in the hair shaft.
High porosity hair often has widely-spaced cuticles or damaged cuticles that are full of pores.
Therefore, they will soak up moisture quickly but will not retain it long enough to nourish your hair.
Because of this low water-retention ability, high porosity hair will exhibit the following signs:
– Looks and feels dry
– Tangles easily
– Beaks easily
– Tends to be frizzy
– Air dries quickly
– Looks dull
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE HIGH POROSITY HAIR?
Apart from noting high porosity hair characteristics, you can also take a simple and easy float test by following this procedure:
1). Shampoo and rinse your hair to get rid of product build-up, and allow it to dry naturally
2). Fill up a glass or bowl with clean water
3). Drop a single strand of your hair in the water, then watch to see how quickly your strand sinks to the bottom
A highly porous hair will always sink quickly to the bottom compared to medium and low porosity hairs, which will float at the middle and the top respectively for a while before dropping gradually.
Alternatively, you can determine your hair porosity by doing a slide test or the product application test, as explained in this article.
You are wondering why your hair is highly porous?
Well, high hair porosity is often genetic.
However, that is not always the case. Bad hair handling, as listed below, will also predispose your hair to high porosity:
1). Frequent use of heat styling tools
2). A lot of sun exposure
3). Prolonged use of chemical treatments
4). Using abrasive styling products
5). A lot of swimming in salty or chlorinated water
6). Regular hair shampooing
7). Handling hair harshly like excessive brushing or wearing tight ponytails that may shear off cuticles
HOW TO GROW HIGH POROSITY HAIR
From the above signs, we realize that highly porous hair will tend to have a slow growth rate.
Therefore, you need to know how to grow it naturally.
Remember, our goal here is to reduce or reverse the hair cuticles’ damage to help your hair retain moisture for growth.
So, what are the home remedies for high porosity hair?
1) Use protein treatments
Protein treatments help restructure the hair shaft of high porosity hair by patching up its gaps resulting from open cuticles.
A healthy dose of protein will strengthen your strands, making them uneasy to break; hence, promoting growth.
Besides, it will add glossiness to your hair, improving its appearance.
2) Detangle your hair regularly and gently
Highly porous hair is prone to tangles because of the uneven surface throughout your hair shaft brought by missing or lifted cuticle layers.
The result is your strands latching on each other, creating knots.
Tangles often lead to hair breakage, hence hair loss.
Since you aim to grow hair, you will have to get rid of the knots by detangling. Make sure the process is gentle to avoid exerting tension to your strands and damaging the cuticles.
Apply serums to add a lot of slip and use widely-spaced combs for easy gliding through the strands.
Finally, yet significantly, normalize brushing your hair when it is wet.
3) Avoid harsh treatments and hot styling tools
Using too harsh treatments like chemical relaxers or products with drying agents on highly porous hair will reap off some of the cuticle’s outer layer, increasing its porosity.
Excessive heat will equally harm the cuticle by stripping off its moisture.
A healthy cuticle support flourishing of healthy hair strands. Therefore, please protect it from chemical treatments and heat for your good.
4) Adopt the LOC method
Since high porosity hair has difficulty sealing in moisture, the LOC method will be its best medicine.
The routine involves the layering of hair products in a specific order to maximize water retention. Read more about this technique here.
5) Deep condition weekly
Natural hair strands require moisture to look alive. However, high porosity hair does not retain its moisture easily.
Therefore, you need to condition it deep at least once a week to restore water and nutrients that would otherwise be lost. Use natural products like Aloe Vera or black castor oil for best results.
6) Protect your high porosity hair
High porosity hair is always fragile; so, avoid subjecting it to wear and tear.
Steer clear of over styling and over-brushing your hair. Instead, wear protective hairstyles to minimize hair manipulation.
You can also utilize satin scarves/bonnets and pillowcases for sleeping to retain moisture that would otherwise be absorbed by cotton fabrics.
They will also reduce the formation of tangles, hence preventing hair breakage.
DOES HIGH POROSITY HAIR NEED PROTEIN OR MOISTURE?
If you have incredibly porous hair, it is quite apparent that your hair cuticles are damaged.
One easy way of restoring them is by using protein treatments to fill the gaps and make your hair smooth.
Besides, one of the signs of high porosity hair is dryness.
Dry strands are always fragile and dull-looking.
Therefore, they demand moisture treatments to restore their hydration.
Now, what exactly does this kind of hair need?
Is it moisture or proteins?
Well, it needs both!
If your strands are drier than usual, do more of moisture treatment. If it is weak and brittle, give it protein treatments.
But don’t freak out…
Once you figure out your hair porosity, you will already be past half the battle.
Try to remain optimistic when you find out your hair is highly porous because no problem under the sun lacks a solution.
Check out the hair growth eBook for more tips on how to grow high porosity hair naturally.
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