Low Porosity Hair: 7 tips for low porosity 

When it comes to knowing and understanding your hair, it is very important to know your hair porosity level because the strands of our hair are so delicate and needs the right treatment that suits it porosity.

What is Hair Porosity?

Hair porosity is basically your hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture. There are 3 porosity levels which are:

• Low Porosity: doesn’t absorb moisture easily and retains moisture longer when it finally get in moisture
• High Porosity: easily absorbs moisture and easily gives out moisture
• Medium Porosity: a balance between high and low porosity

We’ll focus on low porosity and how to care for it.

Low Porosity hair repels water and acts like a waterproof because the cuticles of the hair are tightly closed and doesn’t easily allow water or any other hair products to be absorbed into your hair shaft in order to distributed the needed moisture to the hair.

 

Characteristics of Low Porosity Hair 

• Hair products tend to sit on your hair instead of being absorbed into the hair shaft. With low porosity hair it’s very difficult for moisture to get absorbed into the hairs cuticles and because of this,  it difficult for most hair products to penetrate and be effective.
• Prone to build ups: when products are applied  to your hair (low porosity) some can get into your hair and the rest may end up sitting  on the top layer of your hair when can  lead to product build-up on your hair and scalp.
• Water beads up on hair
• Hair takes time to get wet or saturated because of the tight cuticles that makes it difficult to get in water. You may notice that each time you want to wash your hair in the shower, you’d have to wait for a longer time before your hair to get wet.
• It takes a longer time for hair to get dry
• Needs heat to open up cuticles before hair could absorb any form of moisture or products.

How to Care for Low Porosity Hair 

1. Use heat when deep conditioning: Deep conditioning with heat helps open up the cuticle layers for product to be able to penetrate the hair shaft easily in order to deliver moisture. You may ask how can you use heat. Heat sources such as steam cap, hooded dryer, steamer.

2. Limit Protein: our hair is naturally made of protein which is good  because it helps strengthen the hair cuticles but when you constantly feed protein to low porosity hair, it’ll result to protein overload because low porosity hair is protein sensitive 

3. Use light products: products with lighter consistency works well for low porosity hair because they have a thinner consistency which makes them get easily absorbed into the hair while products with a thick consistency does not easily penetrate the hair.

4. Use humectants or products that contains more of humectants:  Humectants are hydrophilic substances that draw moisture from the environment to the hair keeping the hair moisturized. They include products such as such as honey, pectin, aloe vera, glycerin, marshmallow root extract, okro gel, etc

Humectants are great for low porosity because they help in keeping the low well moisturised for a longer time.

5. Use the Green House Method: The green house method is used to infuse moisture into the hair strands. It helps to open the hair cuticles and trap moisture in form of body heat or steam which get absorbed into the hair strands for maximum hydration.

It involves the wearing  a plastic cap/ bag to help create a moist and warm environment around your hair and scalp. The humid environment created forces your hair cuticles to open in order  to absorb moisture.

6: Clarify your hair and scalp often: Low porosity hair is prone to a lot of build-up because there is nowhere for the product to go once it is applied. Clarifying your scalp ice or twice a month is ideal for low porosity to get your scalp clean enough to absorb other products

7. Avoid too much products: Too much products on low porosity hair can cause product build-up on the scalp mainly because of the hair’s tight cuticle which makes it so difficult for conditioners, creams and oils to easily absorb. Applying way too much products thickens and stiffens the cuticles layers  and therefore continues to reduce the ability of your low porosity hair to absorb moisture. 

 

Product Recommendation for Low Porosity Hair 

OLEENA ORGANICS ALOE VERA LEAVE IN CONDITIONER

OLEENA ORGANICS INTENSE MOISTURE DEEP CONDITIONER

OLEENA ORGANICS INTENSE HAIR FERTILIZER SERUM

OLEENA ORGANICS SHEABLEND SHAMPOO

 

Related Posts:

Protein Overload: what it is, signs and how to fix it

How to stop Breakage: causes, Signs and Solution

Itchy scalp: causes, signs and symptoms