Do you ever wonder why a product works for you but not for your daughter? You ask questions like, “but we have the same hair texture, why is her hair always dry?” It might be that you have different hair porosity.
Hair porosity is how well your hair is able to absorb and hold moisture. It is how the cuticle (the flexible outer layer of your hair) determines how easily moisture and oils pass in and out of your hair. Knowing this will help you tailor the right products to use in your hair.
How do you check the porosity of your hair?
There are two methods:
Float Test: To do this, take some strands of ‘freshly washed’ hair from a comb or brush and drop them into a glass of lukewarm water. Set your timer for 4 minutes and wait. Your hair will float if it has low porosity and will sink if it has high porosity.
The Slip’n’Slide Test: Take a strand of hair and slide your fingers up the shaft (toward the scalp). If you feel little bumps along the way, this means that your cuticle is lifted or damaged and you have high porosity. You have low porosity hair if your fingers slip smoothly upwards.
The Best Ways to Care for High and Low Porosity Hair
Knowing what your hair porosity is will help determine how you can easily manage your hair and the kind of products to use for your hair and your child’s hair. The right care and the right products can make your hair healthier and even increase your confidence.
For high porosity hair
Having highly porous hair means your hair takes in moisture easily. On the flip side, it also means it loses moisture easily. To manage it better:
1. Layer your hair with a leave-in conditioner, hair oil, moisturisers(optional), and seal with heavy hair butter. This will help your hair hold on to the moisture you give it and protect it from losing too much moisture.
2. If you live in a country with a very hot or humid climate (e.g. Nigeria) ensure to include the use of anti-humectants like Shea butter. This will help seal your lifted or damaged cuticles and prevent your hair from absorbing excess moisture.
3. You can also look for products with silicones in them, packaging usually has “anti-frizz” or “anti-humidity” highlighted on the front. As most silicones are not water-soluble, they prevent the moisture in the air from penetrating your hair shaft and causing your strands to expand and contract.
4. Ensure anti-humectant is the last product you apply to the hair as a sealant.
For low porosity hair
Having low porosity hair means your hair repels moisture when you try to get it wet, as the hair cuticles are tightly bound. This also means your hair will be hard to process (e.g. relaxers or texturisers) because it resists penetration of chemicals. Low-porous hair also has a stiff and straw-like feeling when there is a build-up of protein-rich deep conditioning products. To manage it better:
1. Stick to protein-free, daily conditioners with humectants such as glycerin or honey. You can also make your own daily conditioning mix. Humectants are beneficial to low-porosity hair because they attract moisture from the atmosphere to your hair. Apply this first so the hair shaft can open up to absorb moisture before sealing it in with a moisturiser or hair cream.
2. Use moderate heat with protein-free deep conditioning treatments to help open up the tightly bound cuticles.
3. Choose lighter, liquid-based products such as hair milk that won’t sit on your hair and leave it oily or greasy.
All these might seem like a lot of information, but you can take them one step at a time. First, determine your hair porosity and your child’s hair porosity (ensure you do the tests separately). Once you know this, you can follow the guide for the ingredients your hair products should have. I suggest you ransack your home for any hair products and read the ingredients, chances are you already have some of these in the house and slowly get on a healthy and informed natural hair journey with your child.
Thanks a lot