Hair porosity: Do you know your hair porosity type?
Our hair is part of our identity, and most of us wish to keep it shiny and healthy and try to develop the best haircare routine. One of the essential things in maintaining a healthy hair look is to identify the types of hair porosity. Allowing your hair to have the proper care routine helps your hair hold moisture and let the ingredients penetrate the hair. Hair porosity is associated with the hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture. If you’re wondering why it’s hard to keep your hair moist or even the opposite or why some of the recommended hair styling products don’t respond as expected, you may want to read further and find out why.
To put it simply, hair porosity implies the capacity of your hair to absorb moisture; in other words, your hair can let chemicals and substances pass through hair passages.
Hair has three layers: the cuticles, the cortex, and the medulla. The cuticles are the protective layer of our hair, the cortex is the thickest layer of hair that contains fibrous proteins and the pigment that gives your hair its colour, and the medulla is the soft, central part of the hair shaft.
Hair needs enough hydration and moisture to stay healthy, and for this, the closer the hair cuticles are together, the more difficult it is for the hair to get moisture; similarly, the wider the cuticles are spaced, the more complex the process of retaining moisture is.
Now that we know enough about the definition of hair porosity let’s dig into different categories of hair porosity:
Low porosity: when the cuticles are tight together.
Medium porosity: cuticles are less tightly spaced.
High porosity: cuticles are more widely spaced.
Low-porosity hair can hardly hold moisture, so it doesn’t respond well to hair oil and dyes. The process of air drying hair is longer compared to the other two categories. Water will not sit easily on hair when washing, and it’s more difficult for moisture to penetrate the hair shaft.
In hair with medium porosity, moisture can penetrate the cuticles easily, responds well to hair dyes, no longer needs to air dry, and is easy to style. Moreover, those with medium hair porosity are suggested to have a healthier, shinier look.
In contrast, high-porosity hair is prone to breaking and damage easily. It dries quickly, hair products are quickly absorbed, and it can look frizzy and dry. Most importantly, moisture is absorbed easily into the hair shaft, yet it won’t last long.
Experts recommend applying conditioner for low-porosity hair and letting it sit on your hair for a while before washing. Use ingredients such as glycerine, apply hair oils, and use protein-free conditioners. Additionally, you can use apple cider vinegar to remove debris and unclog cuticle pores.
Further, for high porosity, it is suggested that you use ingredients like shea butter and protein-based products and wash your hair with lukewarm water.
And for medium or optimal hair porosity, follow a regular healthcare routine!
Now the question is how we can test our hair porosity type:
For the test, which is called the float test, you need a glass of water! So, take a glass of water and put a clean strand of your loose hair in it. Give it a few minutes, and then if the hair floats at the top, it shows low porosity. If it sinks slowly and floats somewhere in the middle, it’s medium porosity, and if it sinks straight to the bottom of the glass, it’s likely to be high porosity.
Moreover, it is argued that some factors affect our hair porosity, including genetics, sun exposure, haircare routine, age, hair stylers, and frequency of hair dyeing. Other factors we can consciously monitor to keep our hair healthy include hair bleaching, hair washing frequency, heating, styling products and straightening. We must moderate the use of hair stylers and avoid overwashing, as it directly affects our air health.
In a nutshell, porosity implies the hair’s ability to keep moisture. There are low, medium, and high porosity hair categories; as noted above, low porosity hair is moisture resistant, medium porosity is optimal, and high porosity absorbs moisture quickly but cannot retain the moisture long. Knowing our hair porosity level helps us choose the best treatment and haircare products and adopt the best fitting haircare routine; by adding the proper products, we guarantee a shiny, healthy hair look and maintain balanced moisture.
