Natural Hair Porosity 101: Know Your Natural Hair!

on



What is porosity?

Porosity refers to the position that your hair cuticle naturally lays. Our hair is covered by a cuticle and it can be in an open or closed position.


Why is porosity important?

Porosity will tell you how your hair reacts to, and absorbs, natural hair products. It will tell you how well your hair holds onto moisture, which can help you figure out a hair routine that works best for you.


What are the different types of porosity?

There are 3 types of hair porosity: high, medium, and low.


High porosity hair is hair whose cuticle is naturally in an open position.

  • It lets moisture in very easily, which causes it to become frizzy very easily.

  • It doesn’t hold onto moisture very well, and it dries our very quickly.

    The raised cuticles have a tendency to tangle up, which makes high porosity hair more difficult to detangle.

(Fun fact: this is my porosity!)



Low porosity hair is hair whose cuticle is naturally in a closed position

  • It doesn’t let moisture in very well, but if moisture does get in it holds onto it very easily

  • Due to the tightly packed cuticles, it is sensitive to heavy or protein-filled products that can build up on top


Medium porosity hair is hair whose cuticle is naturally somewhere in the middle of open and closed, so slightly raised.

  • This hair type has a balanced picture, moisture enters pretty easily and holds onto moisture pretty well.


How to figure out your natural hair porosity?

  1. The natural hair characteristics I just described


  2. The water porosity test

    1. Fill a cup with room temperature water

    2. Get some of your shed hair. Collect it after wash day or when you are styling your hair

    3. Place the hair in the water and let it sit for a few minutes

    4. See where your hair lies in the water

      1. If your hair sinks to the bottom, you are high porosity

      2. If your hair floats, you are low porosity

      3. If your hair is somewhere in the middle, you are medium porosity

    5. Note: The protein content of your hair can throw off the test. Protein-treated hair is less porous and less likely to float. Therefore, I recommend method #1 for learning your hair porosity type






Based on this post, what is your natural hair porosity?

Take care!

♡ Gwen


Watch the full lesson on YouTube!



► WORK WITH ME!

Ready to level up your natural hair regimen? sign up here! https://bit.ly/3ZqEmYT Shop my natural hair products here! https://www.sonaturallygwen.com/p/shop.html