What is hair porosity?

Porosity is your hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture. It’s measured in three ratings: low, normal, and high. Your hair’s porosity level is determined by the condition of your cuticles, or the outermost layer of your hair strands. These cuticles can be damaged by excessive heat and chemical treatments.

So, damaged cuticles = bad porosity.

Why should you care? Knowing your hair porosity will help you choose the right products that will work for you and keep your hair healthy. You can put the most expensive, best product ever created on your locks, but if you have low porosity, your hair won’t be able to receive or absorb any of the nutrients in that product. Talk about a waste of time and money!

How to measure your porosity

Option #1 –

Place a single strand of your hair in between two fingers. Slide your fingers up the strand of hair toward your scalp. If your fingers slide up smoothly, you have hair with low porosity. If you happen to feel some bumps on the way up the hair shaft, then your cuticle is raised and you have high porosity.

Option #2 – 

Fill up a cup of water. Find your hair brush and take one or two strands of your hair out of it, then place them in the cup of water. If the hair strands float, you have low porosity. If they sink to the bottom of the glass, you have high porosity. And if they linger in the middle of the glass, you have normal porosity.

What do the measurements mean?

Low Porosity

If you did the tests and found out you have low porosity, this means that your cuticles’ scales are closed shut so tightly that they’re not taking in any water or moisture. This explains why those strands would float in a glass of water, because they’re not absorbing moisture, getting heavier, and sinking.

So if you use moisturizing products but don’t feel like they’re making any difference, this is the reason why. If your hair has low porosity, it will resist oils and moisture like no other. What should you do about this huge hair nightmare? You need to use products with ingredients that will raise your cuticles to a healthy level, bringing your porosity back to normal.

Normal Porosity 

If you ran the tests on your strands and found out you have normal porosity, congratulations, you have healthy hair! Now the struggle is to keep it that way, because hair porosity can definitely change over time.

Avoiding heat and chemical treatments is a great way to start protecting your hair. Normal porosity is the goal we should all be trying to reach, because it means that your cuticles take in just the right amount of moisture for an extended period of time.

SEE ALSO: Protective Hairstyles – Transitioning from Relaxed to Naturally Curly Hair

High Porosity

Did you do the tests and find out you have high porosity? If so, this means that your strands contain tears and holes that allow too much moisture to come in. This is why they sank to the bottom of the glass, if you chose to do that test.

Having high porosity means that your hair absorbs moisture too quickly and is prone to frizz. Oddly enough, high porosity hair can also lose moisture extremely easily. So although it absorbs a lot of moisture, it doesn’t hold on to it for too long.

How to repair your porosity 

In order to repair your hair’s porosity, which is something you should consider if your rating was low or high, you need to focus on strengthening your locks. You need a product that will eliminate breakage and replenish your strands. The Quinoa & Bamboo Hair Repair Collection is a great option because it works for all hair types to get your porosity back to normal.

This trio of intensive hair care products contains active ingredients like biotin and bamboo extract that reverse the cycle of damage. This collection reinforces your hair’s internal structure by delivering instant hydration. We highly recommend you try it if your porosity ranked anything but normal!

Still have questions on hair porosity? Leave a comment below and we’ll answer your questions.

http://blog.designessentials.com/articles/need-know-hair-porosity/