Hair Porosity

Kandy

Hair Porosity

I hear so many people ask the question, "What curl type does my child have?" This is good to know, but when choosing products to buy to moisturize your hair, porosity is more important to know.

Porosity simply put, is referring to the hair and it's ability to absorb moisture, and determines how damaged your hair is. So why is this so important? Because you may be dishing out money on the wrong products and still experience issues, which equals a waste of your money! 

High Porosity means your hair allows a lot of moisture in. 

Low Porosity means that your hair is resistant to moisture. 

The simplest way to test your hair's porosity is to take the "Floating Hair Test" 

1.) Take a couple strands of your shed hair, and drop them into a bowl of water.

2.) Let them sit in the bowl for 2-4 minutes, do not touch or disturb them. 

3.) Observe the hair, if your hair is floating on top of the water, you have low porosity. If your hair is sinking, you have high porosity.

-Normal and low porosity hair will stay afloat for 2 minutes.-

-The higher the porosity the faster it will sink.-

Now what?....

High porosity hair needs protein. The hair strand has tiny holes, that occurred because of some damage being done to the hair examples: chemical services (relaxers, texturizers, bleaching, coloring that involves lifting the hair with hydrogen peroxide and/or ammonia, etc), environmental factors, or harsh and rough manipulation from combing, brushing, etc. Light protein can fill in those holes. The protein is like a patch job, there is nothing that will totally fix the damaged hair. But knowing how to prevent further damage to the hair is important.  High porosity hair can have a tendency to absorb HUGE amounts of moisture. So much that the hair can start to become frizzy. Breakage can occur if the hair is allowed to absorb an excessive amount of moisture.

Low Porosity hair needs help to retain moisture. Humectants and heat, will help to condition and moisturize their hair.  A sign of that would be it takes a while for the hair to actually "feel wet" when water is poured over it. For kids, and those who do not want to use a hooded dryer for heat. Put a shower cap over the hair while conditioner is on it. Then place a hot/warm towel over the shower cap. The towel is heating up their hair. Or you can place a winter hat over the shower cap, after 20 minutes the body heat will warm up their hair. Another way to heat their hair, is to let the steam from the shower heat up their hair, give them a portable video game, or etc, and have them sit in the bathroom with the door closed, the steam will heat the hair.

-So is what type are you?