Part 5: Understanding high porosity hair

I’ve always wondered why some products works for my hair and not for my daughter’s hair. That was before I heard about hair porosity. Turns out, I have high porosity hair and Azaria has low porosity hair. It looks the same but is totally different. I soon learnt to try different products and methods with her hair than with mine.

Last week we had a chat about low porosity hair. This week I will give you the low down on how to care for high porosity hair.

First things first, lets do a quick recap on what high porosity is.

With high porosity hair your cuticles are raised other than the compact cuticles you’ll find in low porosity hair. Raised cuticles means that moisture easily enters into the hair follicle. Because of this, it also looses moisture real quick too. This also causes your hair to dry quickly and makes it feel dry as well. Heat styling and chemicals such as hair dye can also cause cuticles to loose elasticity resulting in raised cuticles. The challenge with high porosity hair is to keep the moisture in. Here are some tips to assist in doing so. This type of hair tends to tangle easily due to the cuticles getting caught on each other. You will also find that it breaks easily because of the dryness.

Here is the best way to care for your high porosity hair:

Cleansing

• Don’t use harsh cleaners. It will strip your hair further from its natural oils.
• Co-washing your hair may work better to cleans your hair.
• Try pre-pooing your hair with a good oil before starting with your wash process.

Conditioning

• Apply conditioner on damp hair.
• Deep condition often. It strengthens the hair.
• Use a thick conditioner to help make the detangling process easier.

Sealing

• Seal with thicker oils to keep the moisture from leaving escaping the hair. Oils like olive, coconut and castor oil are good examples.
• Make use of butters. It will help with keeping your strands hydrated for longer.

Other products & methods

• Always rinse your hair with cold water. The closes the cuticle a bit.
• Do protein treatments as apposed to deep conditioning treatments. Hair is made of Keratin which is also another word for proteins. By using protein treatments, it “fills the gaps”.
• Try adding an egg to your conditioner. This will serve as protein.
• Layer your products. Make use of the LOC or LCO method when styling

If you have done a porosity test and you have highly porous hair, make use of these tips and see if you find any changes to your hair.

I hope this helps you on your natural hair journey. Leave all your questions in the comment section below. Also, if there’s any topic you want me to post about, let me know.

Till later.

other posts in this series:

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