Hair Porosity: What's It All About?

What on Earth is hair porosity?

Let’s tickle your minds today! Hair porosity is the ability of your hair to hold and absorb moisture. It can be largely affected by genetics but also might be altered by external parameters such as chemical processes and heat. In order to fully understand what hair porosity means, you need to know these three layers of the hair:

• The cuticle: The protective outer layer of the hair.
• The cortex: The thickest layer of your hair that contains fibrous proteins and pigment that gives your hair color.
• The medulla: The central part of the hair shaft which is soft.

Discover your hair’s porosity at home

You read it right! You can determine the porosity of your hair at the comfort of your home. Just prepare a glass of water and a strand of your hair, and you’re good to go. Easy peasy, right? Now go get your materials and get ready for some Science! 

To get the most precise result,  it’s better to try this little experiment when you don’t have any product in your hair: 

Start the test by dropping a strand of your hair in a glass of water. When your hair strand floats, it means your hair’s porosity is low. When your hair floats and sinks slowly, it means you’ve got medium porosity. If your hair strand immediately sinks, guess what?  you’ve got high porosity hair!

Low porosity means moisture is hardly absorbed by your locks,  but the little amount your hair does soak up will remain for some time. Normal porosity means moisture is easily absorbed and retained. On the other hand, if your hair is high in porosity, your hair soaks up moisture as fast as it spits it back out. Got curls? Then you know exactly what we mean.

Products that are perfect match for your hair’s porosity

Low porosity hair is quite a common type of hair especially for people with finer/thin hair. Because this hair repels moisture, hydration is a must. You have to deep condition your hair with products that contain light oils like jojoba, grapeseed, sunflower, and sweet almond oil as well as essential root and plant leaf extracts. Wuli’s Matte Balm and Shine Balm are perfect for your low porous hair needs! The balms are enriched with argan oil and jojoba oil, that will nourish fine, flat and limp hair just as well as it brings its style to life .

Lucky bugger you are if you have Medium porosity hair. This type of hair is the easiest to maintain because the cuticles can absorb hair care products easily. With this kind of hair, all you need is good (leave-in) conditioning  – Wuli’s Curl Cream! Our cream that started the Wuli dream will give your hair and scalp the nourishment it needs. Apply it after the morning shower, and watch it go to work keeping your hair on point well into the next day.

High porosity hair sounds like a chore, but we’d be damned if we didn’t look after you folks too! If you have this type of hair, avoid products that contain anti-humectants. Products that deeply moisturise and hydrate your hair are your best friend! This type of hair needs deep treatment, babe. Use products that will lock in moisture in your hair’s cuticles, retains the softness of your medulla and nourish your cortex all at once. Our preferred tools? Sea Salt Spray and Curl Cream combined. These goodies are just what high porosity hair is calling out for.

Bonus tip: use lukewarm to cold water in rinsing this type of hair to help the cuticles to close and retain moisture.

What’s the catch?

We might not usually discuss hair porosity with friends while hanging out but understanding this makes a huge advantage. Knowing your hair porosity can help you determine the right way to manage and take care of your hair. It’s the kind of insight that  leads to stronger-slash-healthier hair, which is what we all want, right? So get ready to get to know your hair’s porosity and search the world for the perfect product you need. Not fun searching for off the shelf products? Select from our range of products that definitely works!

Last tip, if you still feel a little lost in your porosity journey, give us a shout and we’ll connect with you our resident porosity expert Tomi Boon at Curls & Natural Hair.