What Cares For Low-Porosity Hair?

Do you spend time changing your routine and hair products because your hair no longer reacts to care? Does your hair remain dry and greasy regardless of the care applied? Your hair may have low porosity. We explain what care and tips to adopt for low-porosity or low-porosity hair.

How To Recognize Low-Porosity Hair?

Hair porosity is its ability to absorb moisture.

1. Low porosity/low porosity: the scales of the hair fiber, also called the cuticles, are closed, and they are very tight. The treatments do not penetrate, they remain on the hair fiber’s surface, and the hair is a little greasy due to the accumulation of styling products.
2. high porosity/porous: The hair has very loose hair fiber scales. Treatments pass through like a sieve, and the hair fiber does not absorb them.
3. Medium porosity: The hair has the scales of the hair fiber half open. The treatments pass and are preserved.

There are two methods to know the porosity of your hair, the glass of water and the back of the hair. Take a glass of water more than half full, and lay down a few strands of clean, freshly washed hair without styling products. Wait about 2 min and watch the result.

If your hair floats on the surface of the water, your hair is low porosity. If they sink to the bottom of the glass, the hair is highly porous. The second method is to take ONE hair and slide two fingers from the tip to the root. If you feel roughness, it has very open scales, and the hair is highly porous.

Why Is Hydration Not Absorbed?

The scales of the hair fiber are very tight, the hydration cannot be absorbed, and the care remains on the surface. Hair feels dry and feels greasy from care buildup.

What Cares For Low-Porosity Hair?

The goal is to adapt the care and the right gestures to help open the scales to absorb the care. The hair fiber needs light care, penetrating, moisturizing, and heat. The heat will help spread the rankings. On shampoo day, rinse the hair with lukewarm to hot water (not too hot); during the break of a deep treatment, oil bath, and mask, put on a heated helmet or a self-heating cap.

To help maximize the warmth of the self-heating cap, blow the hot air of a hair dryer on low heat for a moment. Be careful; cover the self-heating cap with a scarf to avoid surprises with the hair dryer’s heat. The heat will be multiplied and conserved to facilitate the opening of the scales during the treatment break. Among the light vegetable oils:

1. Abyssinia
2. argan
3. jojoba
4. kukui
5. macadamia
6. grape seeds
7. yang

Moisturizers should be chosen according to their moisturizing agent. There are three moisturizing agents, emollient, film-forming, and humectant. The latter will be interesting for low-porosity hair because it attracts water and retains it in the fiber. Among the humectants are vegetable glycerin and honey. 

Any moisturizing product such as a mask and leave-in care (hair milk, leave-in conditioner) must contain a humectant. Some humectants are also emollient, like aloe vera. Choose hair products containing glycerin, honey, and light vegetable oil with a fluid texture. Use a clarifying shampoo once a month to remove all styling residue.

Tricks To Help Open The Scales

1. Hot water
2. baking soda
3. Green clay

Baking soda and green clay (more alkaline products – high Ph) alkalinity will promote the lifting of scales. Clay is drying, and bicarbonate is aggressive. They should be used once a week at most, not at the same time or in the same treatment. When washing hair, rinse with warm to warm (not too hot) water. The heat will promote the opening of the scales. During your routine in your water spray bottle, add warm to hot water.

Recipe: In a spray bottle of water, pour 90ml of mineral water + 10 ml of vegetable glycerin, shake, then spray on a portion of hair, massage well, then seal in moisture with two to three drops of vegetable jojoba oil. This method is favorable for very curly to frizzy hair.

Avoid Low-Porosity Hair

1. Butter and heavy vegetable oils (avocado, olive…) will weigh down and keep the scales closed.
2. Products based on or containing silicone which will weigh down the hair fiber (silicone should be avoided for all porosities)
3. Apple cider vinegar – the acidity will further tighten the scales
4. Lemon juice – the acidity will further tighten the scales
5. cold water – will tighten the scales further
6. too regular protein care

Read Also: How To Limit Hair Breakage?