HAIR POROSITY TYPES
HIGH
MEDIUM
LOW
What does hair porosity mean?
Hair porosity simply means how well your hair absorbs water and retains moisture. By determining your hair porosity helps you to decide what products are best suited for your hair.
Common hair porosities are namely: High Porosity; Medium Porosity and Low Porosity.
Please note that people can have a combination of porosities, you just need to determine which category you fall into.
High Porosity / Porous Hair
Hair cuticles layers are wide open. This allows free water intake but loses moisture quickly.
Not able to retain moisture.
Some characteristics of high porosity hair
-
Although moisture penetrates quickly into strands, it loses moisture or is unable to retain it this is because hair cuticles are extremely porous and rose
-
Hair looks dull and feels dry; hair dries quickly. This is usually because the hair has been exposed to environmental stressors
-
Too much heat and dyes causing it to become damaged
Low Porosity / Not Porous Hair
Low porosity hair can be identified when the hair layers are tightly closed together making
it hard for hair to absorb water and retain moisture.
Some characteristics of Low porosity hair:
-
Hair is very shiny
-
Hair does not absorb oils and conditioners easily
-
Becomes greasy and limp easily
-
Hair does not tolerate lots of products added such as oils and conditioners
-
Styling products does not seem to soak in as desired
Low porosity hair is not “bad hair”, in fact; it is easy to maintain it in a healthy condition
with the right ingredients in the right products. It just needs a little TLC and patience.
Medium Porosity / Normal Porous Hair
Medium porosity is when the cuticle layers are compact and flexible,
leaving enough room for hair to absorb water and retain moisture.
Some characteristics of Medium porosity hair
-
It does shine, but not as much as low porosity hair
-
This hair takes dye as expected; the hair tolerates some heat
-
It does not become easily oily even with reasonable amount of oil products or conditioners
-
Lots of volume and retains the perfect amount of moisture.
Mixed Porosity
All hair grows out low porosity and as it grows longer, the porosity may change due to environmental
stressors such as hard water, sunlight heat etc.
Mixed porosity means that some hair have different level of raised cuticles on its length, e.g. low porosity
at roots and high porosity at ends. This happens because unprotected hair ends are more subjected to damages,
hair is dry and suffer from split ends.
HAIR POROSITY TEST
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH
How to do the Hair test
There are many ways to do the hair test, for example: Using a microscope would probably be the most scientific way but, as we know, not all everyday persons has access to one. Luckily we found a sufficient way that is very accurate, with all the equipment right in your kitchen! The FLOATING TEST!
The Floating Test
Step 1. Wash hair squeaky clean to remove built up and let your hair air dry. Try an ACV rinse to remove access built up. Squeeze out excess water from the hair with hands but do not use a towel to dry. Let nature do its job.
Step 2. Do not apply any products such as hair conditioners or styling products after your hair is washed.
Step 3. Use two separate glasses of room temperature water, it can be natural spring water or boiled water that has cooled down to room temperature. Room temperature water is around 20° Celsius.
Step 4. When hair is completely dry, section hair in two and pick hair strand from each section. Drop one hair strand into each glass of water.
Step 5. Do not touch the strand or immerse it into the water. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes long.
The Results
Low Porosity: Hair strand will float
Medium Porosity Hair strand will sink slowly to the middle
Mixed Porosity: Note that there are 2 ways to determine if you are mixed porosity: (a) some hair strands will float at top in glass & some hair strands will sink to the bottom of glass or (b) Hair strand may be lower near the roots (float at top in glass) & porous at the ends (sink to the bottom of glass).
High Porosity: Hair will sink fast to the bottom
HAIR TYPES
Did you know?
*All our products are equally crafted for all hair textures?
*Disclaimer: We highly recommend that you please take the time to follow our porosity test methods step by step to determine your hair porosity BEFORE purchasing any of our "Mane Pre-Poo" products. The last thing we want is for you to purchase a product that is not suited for your hair porosity.
NB! Our hair porosity may change due to environmental stressors, therefore it is advised to please repeat the float test process every six months.