Hair porosity isn’t really something that a lot of people just casually know about. If you are a haircare fanatic, then you might know about it. However, not a lot of casual hair care users understand what hair porosity is and what type they have. But did you know that this information is actually very important and will improve your hair care routine immensely?

Knowing your hair porosity can change your routine completely. You may be using products or doing some things now that aren’t the best for your hair texture. To customize the perfect care routine for your hair type, you must know if your hair is low porosity or high porosity.

In this article, we will first focus on high porosity hair. I’ll be giving you some tips and tricks on how to tell if you have high porosity hair and how you can care for it properly. So, let’s start with:

How to Tell If You Have High Porosity Hair

Your History

The biggest factor in determining if you have high porosity or low porosity hair is your hair’s history. Has it been dyed, bleached, or treated at all? If it’s virgin hair, chances are you have very low porosity hair. However, if you’ve done any of the hair alterations mentioned above, then you will likely have high porosity hair.

Something to note is that porosity is not just high and low. It has levels and depending on the amount of damage you’ve done to your hair, your texture can be medium porosity or very high porosity. That’s because damage creates little gaps and holes in the cuticle which increases your porosity levels. If you just experience normal daily damage such as sun damage, pollution, or free radicals, you’ll most likely have medium porosity hair. If you do regular heat damage to your hair, color, perm, or bleach it, you will most likely have high porosity hair.

The Texture

An important thing to note is that you can also have high porosity hair even if you haven’t done any damage to your hair at all. If you have curly hair, there’s a good chance that your hair is more porous aka high porosity. You will be able to feel your hair’s porosity by running it in between your fingers.

Take a piece of your hair, pinch it, and run your hand down the length of it. Low porosity hair will feel very smooth and thick. That’s because the cuticle is sealed tight and there are no holes or damage. High porosity hair will feel rougher and thinner because of the thinner and more porous cuticle.

Moisture and Product Absorption

Another major way to tell your hair’s porosity is by observing the way it absorbs moisture. And I don’t mean moisturizing products like conditioners and such. It’s as simple as observing how water is absorbed into your hair.

Low porosity hair is sealed tight and has a difficult time absorbing moisture. But that’s because it also locks moisture in, so you really don’t have anything to worry about there. When you wet low porosity hair, you will notice that it doesn’t absorb the water easily and it will just sit on top of the hair. You know when you’re shampooing and you have to drench your hair in water for ages before it actually gets wet? That means you have low porosity hair.

Now, high porosity hair is the exact opposite. Since your hair’s cuticle has holes and gaps in it and is more porous, it will absorb moisture much more easily. This also means while your hair absorbs moisture easily, it will also lose that moisture even easier. If you spray your hair with some water and find that it is absorbed super easily into your hair, that means you have high porosity hair.

How to Take Care of High Porosity Hair

It just comes with the territory that unfortunately, high porosity hair is a little more high maintenance than low porosity hair. This is because the nutrition in your hair is quickly absorbed and let go of. You will need a good moisture-protein balance to maintain the health of your hair. Don’t be scared! As long as you have the right routine, your hair will be a-okay.

Moisturize

Now that you know that high porosity hair absorbs moisture and lets go of moisture very easily, you’ve gotta incorporate more of it in your everyday routine. Leave-in conditioners, deep conditioners, and hair oils are going to be your best friend. It’s just a daily cycle of letting your hair absorb the moisture and having it naturally wear away until your next wash day and you can get some moisture in again.

Bring Back Some Protein

High porosity hair has a thinner and compromised cuticle. Protein is needed to rebuild those bonds and make your hair stronger. Many people tend to neglect their hair’s need for protein because the most common assumption is that hair just needs a ton of moisture. But oh no, you must not forget about protein especially with high porosity hair! There is a much higher chance that high porosity hair can get overloaded with moisture which is not the best thing either. Just make sure that you are getting the right balance by observing the way your hair acts. When your hair is overloaded with moisture, it will become very soft and fragile with no elasticity. If this happens, just get some protein in pronto!

Repairing and Sealing Treatments

High porosity hair will benefit greatly from treatments that repair and fill in the cuticle to seal it up. Since high porosity hair is damaged and prone to damage, a hair repairing treatment will help keep your locks strong, healthy, and nourished. Sealing treatments are a great way to mimic the effect of low porosity hair. A good keratin sealing treatment will make sure that the gaps and holes in your hair are sealed up so that moisture stays locked in and external damage doesn’t affect it easily.