Testing Your Hair’s Porosity

Here’s how to test your hair porosity:

Hair porosity is your hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture. Knowing your hair's porosity can help you choose the right products. 

Hair porosity is typically divided into three broad categories:

• Low Porosity: Cuticles that are close together.
• Medium Porosity: Cuticles that are less tightly bound.
• High Porosity: Cuticles that are more widely spaced.

DETERMINING HAIR POROSITY

With clean hair, place a few strands of loose hair into a bowl of water, and over a few minutes observe how the hair reacts to the water. If the hair sinks to the bottom rather quickly, you may have high porosity hair. If the hair seems to float in the middle of the bowl of water, it has normal porosity. If the hair floats on top and doesn’t sink much, it may have low porosity.

Characteristics of Low Porosity Curly Hair 

• Curls take a long time to dry. 

• Products tend to build up on curls rather than absorb.

• Natural oils don’t readily penetrate, but rather sit on your hair. 

• Curls take much longer to get fully saturated when you wet them. 

Characteristics of Normal Porosity Curly Hair 

• Curls are full of bounce and elasticity. 

• Requires very little maintenance.

• Easily accepts and retains moisture inside the cuticle.

• Holds styles well and can be colored with good results. 

Characteristics of High Porosity Curly Hair 

• Curls easily absorb water, however, it requires more products. 

• Curls often look and feel dry

• Curls are often frizzy. 

• Curls dry quickly.