Have you ever spent money on a new hair product, only to find it just sits on your strands or makes them feel dry and brittle? The secret to finding your perfect hair care routine might not be your curl pattern or texture, but your hair porosity. This simply refers to your hair’s ability to absorb and hold onto moisture. Knowing your porosity level is like having a manual for your mane.
The Simple Float Test for Hair Porosity
One of the easiest ways to get a quick idea of your hair porosity is the float test. Start with a few strands of clean hair that have been washed and dried without any products. Drop them into a glass of room-temperature water. Let the glass sit for a few minutes and watch what happens. If your hair floats at the top, you likely have low porosity hair. If it sinks slowly to the bottom, you’re probably in the medium porosity range. Hair that sinks quickly often has high porosity.
What Your Hair’s Behavior Can Tell You
Your daily hair experiences are also great clues. Notice how long it takes for your hair to get fully wet in the shower? If water seems to bead up and roll off, taking a long time to saturate, that’s a classic sign of low porosity. On the other hand, if your hair soaks up water almost instantly and then dries very quickly, it might be highly porous. High porosity hair also tends to tangle easily and can feel dry even shortly after conditioning.
Caring for Your Unique Porosity Level
Once you have a sense of your porosity, you can choose products that work with your hair. For low porosity hair, which has a hard time letting moisture in, use lighter liquid-based products and gentle heat when deep conditioning to help open the hair cuticle. If you have high porosity hair, which absorbs moisture easily but loses it just as fast, look for richer creams and butters. Ingredients like shea butter and natural oils are excellent for helping to seal that moisture into your strands.
Figuring out your hair porosity takes the guesswork out of your routine. By listening to what your hair is telling you, you can finally give it the moisture it truly needs, leading to healthier, happier hair days.