po·ros·i·ty
- The state or property of being porous, or permeable to fluids and outside influences.
- A structure or part that is porous and capable of being penetrated.
- The ratio of the volume of all the pores in a material to the volume of the whole.
There are two methods you can use to determine the porosity of your hair, but before we get into that, heres a quick break down on what hair porosity is and also, why it's important for you to determine yours.
WHAT IS HAIR POROSITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Knowing your porosity allows you to treat and manage your hair most effectively with the right routine for your strands. It is the first step in managing your curl routine so you can get both the styling results you want but the health results as well!
Hair porosity is basically referring to your hair's ability to absorb and retain moisture. The porosity of your hair affects how well moisture passes in and out of the outermost layer of your hair, known as the cuticle.
Porosity can be broken down into three categories: low, normal, and high. Low porosity hair has cuticles that are bound very close together, normal porosity hair has cuticles that are slightly less bound, and high porosity hair has cuticles that are more widely spread out.
Knowing the porosity of your hair allows you to treat and manage your hair most effectively with the right routine for your strands. It is the first step in managing your hair routine so you can get both the styling results and the health results you want as well!
HOW TO DETERMINE POROSITY?
Okay, so know we know what porosity is and why we need to know the porosity of our own hair, lets get into how to do just that!
There are two ways you can determine your hairs porosity and we've listed them below:
1. The Float Test:
Take a couple of strands of hair from your comb or brush and drop them into a bowl of water. Let them sit for 2-4 minutes. If your hair floats, you have low porosity; if it sinks, you have high porosity and if it floats for at least a minute before slowly sinking then it means you have a normal porosity.
2. The Slip'n'Slide Test:
In this slightly less popular test, you 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 and that you have high porosity. If your fingers slip smoothly, then you have low porosity hair.
TO CONCLUDE
So that's it, you should now be able to work out exactly how to determine your hairs porosity using either of the tests above. The next step will be for you to find out what steps you need to take to ensure maximum moisture based on your level.
Until then, let us know below which test you tried and what porosity level you are.