High Porosity Hair – What is High Porosity Hair?
When you are a newbie natural or have been natural for a while and hear about high porosity hair and moisture retention, questions such as “what is high porosity hair?” are not far from your lips.
Need to know more natural hair words?
We understand that navigating some natural hair jargon and ideas can be a hair-raising (literally and figuratively) experience. NaturalHairZone.com is here to answer all your high porosity hair questions to allow you to have a successful natural hair journey. We will be digging into all thing’s high porosity.
In this article about High Porosity Hair we will discuss the following
1. What exactly is High Hair Porosity?
First and foremost, hair porosity is the ability of hair to absorb and maintain moisture.
Hair with hair porosity can absorb the most moisture into the hair strands but also, by the same token, lose this moisture quickly.
This is the “easy come, easy go” porosity type – and a main characteristic of this hair type is excess frizz. This porosity type can be a challenge when it comes to retaining moisture.
Causes of High Porosity Hair
High porosity hair can be due to the genetic hair type of a natural or as a result of external manipulation practices such as heat treatment, chemical damage and environmental factors, i.e., UV damage.
Some naturals believe that your hair type, for example, 4C hair, is key to understanding how your hair retains moisture.
However, at Na Ha ZO, we believe that knowing your best high-porosity hair practices is key to introducing adequate moisture to your hair.
2. How do I Know my Hair Porosity?
There are three different ways in which you can determine your hair porosity:
Firstly, The Float Test
The Float Test will require you to pluck a strand of hair from your roots (or your comb, as long as it is an unbroken strand from root to tips) and drop it in a glass of water.
If the strand absorbs the water straight away and sinks to the bottom, you have high porosity hair. If it floats on top, you have low-porosity hair.
Secondly, The Feel Test
The Feel Test requires you to feel your hair – that is, take a strand and slide your finger along the strand, up towards your scalp.
If you feel little bumps along the hair shaft, then it means that your cuticle is lifted and you have high porosity. If your fingers slip smoothly, then it means that you have low porosity.
Lastly, The NaturalHairZone.com Porosity Test
The Na Ha ZO Test is simply a question-and-answer test.
Based on how your hair had reacted in the past, you can assess and ask yourself (or ask a friend) a few basic questions.
Should you tick most of the following boxes, you are mostly high porosity:
- Your hair strands air dry quickly
- Products are easily absorbed into your hair
- Your hair gets wet easily
- You have frizz
Alternatively, you can do all three tests to make sure.
Caring for natural hair is something NaturalHairZone.com has a lot of experience with.
Whichever case, once you know your hair porosity, the next stop is what products suit your hair type if you are high porosity.
3. What are the Best High Porosity Hair Regime Practices to Incorporate?
To get the best out of your high hair porosity hair, you should include most, if not all, of the following hair routines.
Hack #1 – Use Anti-humectants
Use Anti-humectants if you have high porosity hair, steer clear of any humectants.
These products, like glycerine, honey, and molasses, draw moisture from the atmosphere. Using these products will cause your hair to frizz, especially in climates with high humidity and heat.
Rather, use anti-humectants, like gels and other products, that can seal in the moisture and your cuticles to prevent them from absorbing excess moisture in the air.
Hack #2 – Leave-in Conditioners
Leave-in conditioners are the go-to for any high-porosity hair natural.
This is because as this hair type loses moisture as quickly as it absorbs it, it is important to seal the hair cuticles with leave-in conditioner, allowing the moisture to be further trapped close to the hair shaft. High porosity naturals can also benefit from using heavy butters to further seal in the moisture.
Hack #3 – Protein Treatments
Protein treatments are great for high-porosity hair. This more especially if the reason for the high porosity is damage.
By introducing this treatment, the structure of the hair can be strengthened.
However, follow the instructions carefully, for leaving protein treatments too long can leave your hair high and dry.
Also, please proceed cautiously regarding protein treatments, as not all high-porosity hair reacts positively to regular protein treatments.
Be sure to carefully monitor how your hair behaves and decides how often to introduce this into your regime.
Hack #4 – Deep Conditioning Treatment
Deep Conditioning Treatment needs to be a regular in your routine, ideally weekly, as it allows moisture to be introduced into your strands in concentrated dosage.
Once this becomes a consistent part of your regime, you will surely see less frizz and breakage in your hair.
Hack #5 – Heat Protectant
Owing to high porosity hair’s tendency to lose moisture, incorporating too much heat or consistent heat into your regime is a recipe for dryness and frizz.
Should you decide to use heat, be sure to use a heat protectant to protect your hair from heat damage, and this should be one of the non-negotiable essentials in your bathroom closet.
This is one of the many ways that deal with the question of how to prevent heat damage on natural hair. #16
In the same vein, when washing your hair and for the final rinse, make sure you use cool to cold water, which cold water is key in closing the cuticles, thus trapping moisture in the strands.
Are you dealing with thinning hair?
Hack #6 – PH Perfect
To ensure you are working with the correct PH, it is important to use products that work with and adjust the PH of your high-porosity hair and that flatten the raised hair cuticles, sealing in the absorbed.
In this regard, products like ACV and Aloe Vera are great for high-porosity hair.
Hack #7 – Use the Right Products
As a high-porosity hair natural, you must be sensitive to how your hair reacts to certain products and tweak your hair product regime accordingly.
Starting on your natural hair journey?
Great products are oils and butters that are heavy to trap the moisture further onto the strands, such as castor oil, shea butter, coconut oil and olive oil.
Managing High-Porosity Hair
What have you done to manage your high-porosity hair? We would love to get your comments below.
