How to Determine Your Hair's Porosity

What Is Hair Porosity?

 Hair porosity determines your hair's ability to absorb moisture. The porosity of your hair affects how well oils and moisture pass in and out of the outermost layer of your hair, known as the cuticle.

Types Of Hair Porosity

If you have low porosity hair, your hair may struggle with holding or maintaining moisture.  High porosity hair has a smoother cuticle, which allows it to absorb moisture more quickly and hold and maintain this moisture longer.  One of the main low porosity hair characteristics is that the cuticles of your hair are too close together, so when you style your hair it may become dry quicker than you expected.

Signs or examples of low porosity hair include: quick moisture loss, products do not absorb well into the hair, hair takes a long time to dry, hair requires a significant amount of conditioner to detangle or styling products to style.  Low porosity hair may also experience more build up and feel oily, dirty or heavy due to product sitting on top of the hair as opposed to being absorbed.  Low porosity hair is typically most sensitive and should avoid products containing silicone.

Medium porosity hair better absorbs moisture  allowing products to better distribute and penetrate through the hair strands. 

While high porosity hair absorbs moisture quicker, the more open cuticle can leave hair looking and feeling more dry, frizzy, and tangled.  Signs of high porosity hair also include air-drying quickly, absorbing a lot of product, and a dull lifeless appearance that lacks shine.

How to Test Hair Porosity

Here’s how to test your hair’s porosity so you can customize your hair care routine for maximum results and a more moisturized mane.

To conduct simple hair porosity test at home, it is best to test completely clean hair, free of any products. After shampooing, and detangling, pull few strands of your hair from your comb or brush, and add the strands to the glass of water.

Low porosity hair immediately floats. If you have medium porosity hair, you'll see it start to float, then the hair will sink to the bottom of the glass. One of the signs of high porosity hair, is that the strand won’t float at all— it will just sink to the bottom.

No matter what your hair porosity is, there is a perfect product that can help restore balance and  maintain the health and condition of your hair.   

Best Products for Your Hair Porosity Type

Now that you know how to check your hair porosity, it is time to determine the best products for your hair porositytype. Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Length Retention collection is silicone-free and is a fantastic haircare system for high and low porosity hair.

Silicone products can block moisture from entering the hair follicle due to the barrier they create. This can be disastrous for high and low porosity hair that needs hydration to avoid damage. Instead, reach for silicone-free naturally formulated products like Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Length Retention collection made with deeply penetrating powerhouse ingredients like Cocoa Butter to moisturize and protect, and Biotin to strengthen and resist breakage.

For low porosity hair, using the Length Retention Hair & Scalp Oil as a pre-shampoo treatment to make it easier to absorb and maintain moisture in your strands. 

Medium porosity hair types benefit from applying moisture daily in order to keep hair balanced and more manageable.  Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Length Retention Leave-In Conditioner hydrates, detangles and perfectly preps hair for styling.  This rich, creamy leave-in is the perfect moisture refresh for dry hair in-between wash days.

For high porosity hair, use a Length Retention Shampoo and Conditioner along with deep conditioning treatment like Palmer’s Length Retention Biotin Pack or Length Retention Deep Conditioner to maintain healthy hydration and elasticity in order to help block brittleness, breakage and split ends.

Now that you better understand your hair porosity and how to care for it, perfecting a regimen tailored to your type will improve your hair’s health by leaps and bounds! Learn more about Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Length Retention collection to customize the perfect porosity specific regimen for you!