How to Identify Your Hair Porosity
Having curly hair is all fun and games until you realize just how complex it is. When it comes to taking care of our hair, identifying and understanding those complexities is just the beginning. When I first started my curly hair journey, I had absolutely no clue as to what I was doing. I didn’t know how to style my hair, I didn’t know how to keep my hair healthy, and I definitely didn’t know what my specific curl pattern was. Once I learned more about porosity, styling my curls and nurturing them became that much easier. Porosity essentially is how quickly or how slowly our curls absorb moisture and how easy it is to lock that moisture in. Let’s break down hair porosity into three different categories: low, medium, high.
Low Porosity- Low porosity curls can be characterized by slow absorption of moisture. In other words, it can take a really long time for water to penetrate the hair shaft. This typically looks like water sitting on top of the hair when trying to get it wet, instead of the hair taking in the water. Low porosity curls have closed hair cuticles which can make it difficult for any nutrients to actually go into the hair shaft. Another characteristic of low porosity hair is that your hair may take a long time to dry once it has absorbed all of those nutrients and moisture. Because of the closed cuticles, it’s hard to get moisture in. But, once the moisture is locked in, it can be hard to get it out causing buildup from over usage of products.
Medium Porosity-Medium to normal porosity hair easily absorbs moisture and doesn’t have difficulty keeping it in. Normal hair porosity has normal cuticles; meaning they’re not closed and they’re not wide open. Think of the letter ‘V’. Low porosity hair has a verrryyyy narrow looking letter v, while normal porosity hair has a normal looking letter v with just the right amount of opening. Normal hair porosity also can be characterized by better definition, shine and curl durability. Normally, women who have normal porosity hair can achieve longer wash day styles because their hair better absorbs the nutrients it needs.
High Porosity-High porosity hair has wide open cuticles (very wide letter ‘v’), making it very easy to absorb moisture and nutrients, but at the same time, extremely difficult to retain this moisture because there’s nothing sealing it in. High porosity hair styles tend to dry faster, but they lack nutrient density because the product doesn’t stay locked into the hair shaft.
What Does It all Mean?
Porosity levels can range depending on the season and the journey you’re on with your specific curls. For example, my hair tends to move from normal porosity to high porosity during the winter months. It took me forever to figure out why I couldn’t incorporate the same hair routine throughout the year. Once I learned that our hair changes, just like our skin seasonally, then it all started to make sense. I was able to then adjust my hair routine depending on my hair porosity.
My Hair on Wash Day
As you can see, identifying your hair porosity is a crucial first step when it comes to learning how to take care of your curls. So what’s next? Learning how to style your curls based on your unique porosity type.
Given that we are all unique, there is no one size fits all styling routine, product routine or even how to keep your curls healthy. Us curly girls have to customize everything! The good news? I teach you how to do all of that in my Embrace Your Curls Academy. This academy not only equips you with product knowledge and styling techniques, but it tailors it specific to your curl type, porosity and density. Not only do you end up learning how to take care of your unique curls, but you also learn to embrace them along the way.
For more details on exactly what’s in the academy, you can click the button below.