Hair with high porosity: characteristics and hair care advice

Hair porosity influences the way hair absorb water, oils and hair care products. Your hair porosity can go from low to high. Hair with high porosity easily absorbs water and dry air quickly. It can also respond quickly to hair dyes and chemical treatments, causing unexpected results. A high hair porosity can occur naturally in curly and styled hair or result from damage to the cuticle of the hair.

Hair with high porosity is more likely to become damaged and dry, which makes this type of hair sometimes difficult to take care. Hair care practices such as the superposition of products to seal oils, the use of protein treatments and the limitation of the heat style can help you take care of the hair with high porosity.

Your hair consists of a cuticle, a cortex and a medullary, which all help protect your hair from damage and keep humidity. The cuticle – The most outside protective barrier outside your hair – can be easily damaged by chemical treatments such as permanents, whitening, chemical smoking and color treatments.

Heat style and exposure to ultraviolet light (UV) can also damage the cuticle. Once this happens, the cortex and the marrow of your hair is also at risk of damage. Damage to the hair tree can create spaces or gaps in the stem, increasing the porosity of your hair.

Haute porosity hairs generally contains several empty or spaces in the cuticle. Sometimes this happens when your hair is damaged by treatments and grooming practices. Other times, it is a natural characteristic of the structure of your hair.

Who is most likely to have high porosity hair?

You may be more likely to have high porosity hair if you use chemical processes on your hair, such as permanent or whitening, or if you often use heat to comb your hair, such as using a dryer or curling iron.

Hair of high porosity is also common in people with textured hair or hair that contains many curls and coils. This type of hair structure naturally tends to have raised cuticles along the pileuse fiber. People with African ancestry tend to have hairs with high porosity.

In addition, people with gray hair or light hair and older people are more likely to have highly porous hair.

Hair with high porosity can have various characteristics. A determining line of this type of hair is that it quickly absorbs water, especially in relation to hair with low porosity. Hair with high porosity is also more frequent in people with curly hair or hair or hair damaged by chemical treatments.

The possible characteristics that you can notice in high porosity hair include:

• Seems dry, crepu and brittle
• Quickly absorbs water, hair products and other liquids
• Tends to dry quickly and feels dry to the touch
• Easily breaks during grooming or style
• Loses humidity or hydration at a quick rate
• Accelerated experiences and inconsistent results after chemical treatments
• Accept hair dyes faster
• Seems fresh in color after treatments than less porous hair
• It looks dull and does not reflect the light well

Knowing the porosity of your hair can inform you of the best way to take care of it and why it responds to hair care products, hair drying and treatments as it does. Some laboratory tests are available to test the porosity of hair, such as measuring the swelling of hair fibers in response to water and humidity. However, you can also test the porosity of your hair at home with a few simple methods.

Spray

To perform the spray test, use a spray bottle for SPRITZ clean and dry hair with water. If the water droplets immediately absorb your hair and your hair becomes saturated quickly, your hair is a high porosity. This happens because the cuticle is more open, allowing water to enter the hair tree more quickly. With a low porosity, the water droplets can sit on the surface of the hair for a few seconds before soaking.

Float test

Another option to determine the porosity of your hair is to use the float test. With this method, you take a clean and dry hair of hair and will drop them off in a bowl of water. If the hair flows quickly, it is a high porosity. Low porosity hair will float, while medium porosity hair flows slowly.

Slide test

To use this method, pull a clean, dry hair and slide your fingers upwards along the hair tree from the ends to your scalp. If your hair is high, your fingers will easily move in the hair, but it can be rough with bumps.

Low porosity hair will feel smooth and your fingers will respect the resistance by trying to go up the tense strand. The medium porosity hair will have some resistance.

With high porosity hair, the cuticle of the hair is more open than that of the hair of low or normal porosity. This means that highly porosity hair will absorb chemical products and treatments faster and are more prone to damage. To protect your hair and avoid other damage, you will have to take measures to treat your hair gently. Here are some ways to take care of high porosity hair:

• Seal humidity. If you have high porosity hair, your biggest challenge will be to keep humidity. Superposition of hair products can help seal oils to maintain hydration. Try the LOC method: After shampoo and rinsing, apply a rinsing (L) conditioner, followed by an oil (O) and finish with a creamy style product (C).
• Select the appropriate oils. Researchers have discovered that polyunsaturated oils and avocado oil work well with high porosity hair. Another study revealed that using coconut oil and products with coconut oil can reduce the probability that the porosity of your hair increases.
• Use protein treatments. Hair of high porosity react well to protein treatments because these products help fill the voids of damaged or raised cuticles of your hair. You can also search for shampoos rich in amino acids (protein construction blocks). However, avoid products with humectors, such as glycerin and aloe vera, which do not always work well with hair of high porosity.
• Talk to your stylist before treating your hair. Hair of high porosity reacts quickly and inconsistently to chemicals, such as those used in permanent, hair dyes and chemical smoking. This means that you can get more extreme colors and answers than someone with low porosity hair. Talk to your stylist your hair porosity and how to use chemical processes safely. For example, they can first test a chemical on a small wick of your hair to see how your hair reacts and when to rinse the treatment to avoid transforming the hair too much.
• Protect your hair against additional damage. Since the high -porosity of hair cuticle is already open or damaged, it is important to avoid other damage. Limit the frequency to which you treat your hair with colors or other chemicals, do less heat style and be soft when grooming. Consider covering your hair outside due to the risk of damage caused by pollutants and ultraviolet light.
• Avoid damaging ingredients in hair products. Overall, you should avoid hair care products containing sulfates, parabens, sodium sulfates and silicones. These products can make your hair lose humidity and become dry, which is already a problem for hair of great porosity.

The porosity of your hair is determined by the way your hair absorb water, treatments and hair care products. If you have high porosity hair, the cuticles of your hair is raised or gaps that allow them to easily absorb materials.

People with textured, curly or gray hair and damaged hair are more likely to have great porosity. You can use a spraying, float or sliding test to determine the porosity of your hair. The management of hairs with high porosity implies the superposition of oils and other products, the use of protein treatments and to avoid certain ingredients such as paragones, sulfates and silicones.