Hair Care Tips for High Porosity Hair
Hair Care Tips for High Porosity Hair. Hair porosity is a term that’s used to describe how easily your hair is able to soak up and retain moisture. Depending on how porous your hair is, it may be classified as having high, medium, or low porosity.
If you have high porosity hair, it means that water, oils, and other types of products can be easily absorbed by your hair. On the flip side, because your hair is highly porous, it may not be able to retain moisture as well as other types of hair.
If you want to get a better understanding of highly porous hair, how to care for it, and the types of products to use, this article may have the answers you’re looking for.
What is high porosity hair?
To understand hair porosity, it helps to know a bit about the hair’s structure.
Each strand of your hair is made up of three layers:
- cuticle: the outermost layer
- cortex: the middle layer
- medulla: the innermost layer
The outermost layer of your hair shaft consists of tiny cuticles that are too small to see with the naked eye. These cuticles protect the inner layers of your hair by controlling how much moisture, as well as products and chemicals, can be absorbed.
If the cuticles are too close together, it can prevent moisture from being soaked up. This is known as low porosity.
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If the cuticles are too far apart, it has the opposite effect: Moisture can easily get into the hair, but it doesn’t stay long enough to nourish and moisturize your hair. This is high porosity hair.
High porosity hair can be genetic, which means that it runs in your family. Many times, though, it’s caused by hair processing and styling treatments like straightening, blow-drying, bleaching, and other chemical applications.
What are the characteristics of high porosity hair?
You may have high porosity hair if your hair:
- looks and feels dry
- tends to be frizzy
- tangles easily
- is prone to breakage
- air dries very quickly
- absorbs products quickly
- rarely looks shiny
So what is high porosity hair?
Hair Care Tips for High Porosity Hair “Hair porosity refers to how well the hair is able to absorb or hold on to moisture,” explains Marisa Garshick, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist and assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Cornell-New York Presbyterian Medical Center. “It often is a function of the cuticle, the outermost layer of the hair, to determine how much moisture passes in and out of the hair which can determine how porous your hair is. Different types of hair processing, such as heat, coloring or chemical processing, may impact hair porosity.”
What are the characteristics of high porosity hair?
If you have highly porous hair, you can expect lots of frizz, especially during humid weather, dullness and tangles. Your hair will also likely be prone to breakage and damage, and may look and feel dry.
How can you tell if you have high porosity hair?
Hair porosity falls into three categories: Low, medium and high.
- “Low [porosity means it’s] difficult for moisture to penetrate and also difficult for moisture to escape,” says Brandie Devillier, platform educator at the Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute and certified color educator at Elevate Hair. If it takes a long time to blow dry, that’s a key indicator of low porosity. Low porosity hair can also be resistant to coloring, like gray hair.
- “Medium porosity can accept moisture and release moisture easily,” Devilllier says. The hair cuticles are not tightly woven together and in general absorb products and moisture well, making it easier to care for.
- High porosity means the cuticle layer of the hair is open and could have breakage. This type will dry quickly but it’s prone to frizz and feels very dry. High porosity hair often “looks dry and brittle, it is weak and breaks easily,” Devillier says.
How to determine your hair porosity
Figuring out which type of hair porosity you have can make styling and keeping your hair healthy a lot easier. “There is an easy, old school trick to test your hair porosity at home,” says John Kahen, M.D., Chief Hair Surgeon and founder of Beverly Hills Hair Restoration. “Brush through clean hair, and gather the strands that shed naturally. Drop the hair strands in a glass of water and if they float, the hair is low porosity. If the hair sinks slowly after floating, it is medium porosity, and if the hair sinks instantly, it is high porosity.”
What causes high porosity hair?
Though hair porosity is largely determined by genes, it’s unknown exactly how that works, according to Trefor Evans, Ph.D., Institute Fellow at TRI Princeton. “It’s a very complicated question,” he says. “How your hair grows is down to your body’s physiology and there are so many things that control the body’s physiology.
How to care for high porosity hair
When it comes to high hair porosity, the goal is to lock in moisture, smooth the cuticle layer closed and keep damage to a minimum. Here are some tips for caring for high porosity hair:
- Condition regularly – This is key to help restore and retain moisture. Use a deep conditioner or hair mask at least once a week, and leave it on for 15-20 minutes to allow it to penetrate the hair cuticles.
- Finish your shower with cold water – Cold water helps to close the cuticle layer and lock in moisture from your conditioner or hair mask.
- Apply a leave-in conditioner – When it comes to high porosity hair, there’s no such thing as too much moisture! A leave-in can help provide on-going moisture throughout the day.
- Seal in moisture – After applying your leave-in conditioner, seal the cuticle closed with an oil or serum. This not only locks in critical moisture, but also leaves the hair smoother, shinier and easier to manage.
- Avoid harsh treatments – Frequent color-processing, bleaching or chemical treatments all require lifting the cuticle, which in turns increases your hair’s porosity.
- Reduce heat styling – This also causes further damage to the cuticle layer. If you are going to heat style, though, make sure you 1) always use heat protection and 2) never go above 350 degrees F to prevent further damage to your cuticle.
Best products for high porosity hair
- Color Security Conditioner – Weightless hydration and easy detangling made with color-safe ingredients and built-in heat protection; available in fine-to-medium and medium-to-thick.
- Money Masque – Made with natural humectants that instantly penetrate and hold moisture deep in hair’s core. Works in as little as 5 minutes.
- Coconut Cocktail – Ultra-hydrating leave-in conditioner (with built-in heat protection) turns straw-like hair to silk in just ONE blow dry.
- Extra Strength Dream Coat – Ultra-powerful humidity-blocking, anti-frizz treatment for extremely dry/dehydrated porous hair and curly/coily hair. Super light spray treatment infuses hair with moisture and seals outer cuticle tightly to make hair humidity-proof. Delivers glassy-smooth, frizz-free results that last 3-4 shampoos.
- Pop + Lock – Combines the conditioning benefits of an oil with the shine power of a serum; smooths the cuticle closed to help lock in moisture.
- Heat Protectants – All Color Wow treatments and stylers – from our hydrators to volumizers to frizz busters – come with powerful built-in heat protection, so you can style without compromising the integrity of your hair.
