Tip 1: Minimal to no Heat
Your cuticles have already been compromised and you are only risking breakage by using heat. Applying heated tools to your hair absorbs moisture from your strands and for high porosity hair this is ground that shouldn’t even be treaded upon. Remember, improper use of heat on your hair on just one occasion can cause irreparable damage to your strands.
Tip 2: Dry Detangling.
Now since high porosity strands equal weak hair, wet detangling may not be a good option for you. Wet hair, regardless of hair type, is at its weakest state because of some loss of elasticity due to water weight. Add on top of that the stress that is enforced when you are pulling on your strands to detangle knots and you have a high probability of breakage. Just remember when you dry detangle to use your favorite oils, butters or both to aid in the process. Use as much oil as needed to give your strands plenty of slip.
Tip 3: Finger Detangling
With normal porosity strands I am utterly in love with this method, and for individuals with high porosity strands this could mean huge improvements in length and density. Since your fingers are a part of you they literally can feel more tangles within your hair than a comb which might simply break those strands. If you don’t want to completely throw away the wide tooth comb just do some good old fashioned finger action on a tangled section before you use that wide tooth comb. It will decrease the amount of hair you lose after your detangling sessions.
If you have high porosity hair your strands can survive but they’ll need extra help. Henna and protein treatments are a good way to fill in/bind to the cuticle (although they won’t fundamentally ‘fix’ the strand). Make sure you implement a regular routine that really places moisture into your hair since high porosity strands not only can absorb moisture quickly but lose moisture just as fast.
Do you struggle with high porosity hair? How do you manage it?
than you thank you thank you, everytime someone talked about the porosity of their hair, I gave the blank stare b/c I hadn’t a clue what they were talking about and I wasn’t sure if they fully knew either.
I learned that I have high porosity hair and so, I have increased my protein tx, how often I moisturize(every other day) & I do a two step sealing the moisture process…all worth it bc I have already seen improvement in my hair.
Yup, I’m definitely high porosity just based on how quick my hair gets wet and then dry minutes later. But I will do the strand test for good measure.
Informative post. I have implemented dry/damp detangling, finger combing,washing in sections, regular cassia and light protein treatments with great result. My fine, high porosity,medium density is finally retaining length.
Great information. This is a blessing to know! My hair is like this and Juicy Leave In Conditioner by Naturalista Cosmetics really does the trick for keeping my hair moist and strong.
Just did the test, and the verdict is my hair is highly porous! Thanks for some useful steps on what to do next…
Just did the test — my hair sank to the bottom in less than a minute. Thanks for the article! This helps.
Thank you so much everyone. I am so glad you found this article so informative and useful :DDD
My hair started sinking is less than 30 seconds of being in the water. I’ve been considering cutting it all off because I’ve so desperate and nothing seems to help. At least now I know specifically why I’m cutting it all off.
I did the test and my hair floated but it’s always dry. Since my hair is low porosity how do I keep it moiturized?
Just did the test & my hair floats but it is STILL really prone to dryness so I moisture & seal ALL the time, deep condition & do the baggy method for extra moisture .. that helps.
I have low porosity hair too. I finally decided to detox my hair (I used Terressentials Mud Wash) & now I put very little product in my hair so that its easier to get moisture in. Because with low porosity, if I seal(with alot of product), then I cant add any extra water to my hair for the entire week till I wash it, since my hair absorbs very little product. So far, my new regimen seams to be working well. i use 30% of the amount of product I used to use before cleansing my hair and my hair… Read more »
[…] Hair that isn’t porous has a harder time allowing product into through the cuticles because they lay flat as opposed to being raised. Product applied to non-porous hair will sit on the outside of the strand, leading to buildup. Try steaming your hair (in the shower of with a hair steamer) before applying moisturizing and conditioning products. The steam will help lift the cuticles, allowing moisturizing product to get inside. Click here to determine your hair’s porosity level. […]
So if your hair floats, you have either low or normal porosity. But how are you able to tell which is which? You said that people with low porosity hair need to wash their “more frequently” due to product buildup. More frequently than what? Are there other signs that people can use to determine their porosity?
So how would you recommend blow drying a straightening highly porous hair? Whenever I blow dried mine myself it always felt very dry afterwards, and I didn’t want to use grease because apparently it’s not good to flat iron with grease. Should I use like a heat protecting straightening grease?
OMG…This article is definitely what I needed to read. My hair soaks up as soon as I add water on it. So basically once my hair dries, I would need to detangle it and add my essential oils right?
[…] heat usage, and gentler handling. (For more details on these steps, read this earlier BGLH post on “How to Deal with High […]
[…] Hair that isn’t porous has a harder time allowing product into through the cuticles because they lay flat as opposed to being raised. Product applied to non-porous hair will sit on the outside of the strand, leading to buildup. Try steaming your hair (in the shower or with a hair steamer) before applying moisturizing and conditioning products. The steam will help lift the cuticles, allowing moisturizing product to get inside. Click here to determine your hair’s porosity level. […]
I’m so frustrated with my high porosity hair. I have SO many holes up my hair strands. I thought maybe I was washing too much so I cut back to one time per month and ONLY finger detangle.
Some of us just have naturally porous hair. Mine is curly and fine and porous all at the same time my whole life. To compound my troubles my hair doesn’t have the same level of curl throughout. I am 43 and tried everything on the market. I love Keratin, but I’m allergic. About the only thing that helps my natural curl is Olive Oil. It adds weight and manageability.
My hairs all weird! It half sinks, half floats! I’m debating whether I chop it off or not…
No dot chop it all of that means u have normal porosity hair which is fine
I hate the negative undertones of this article. Be happy with what grows out of your head and stop complaining. Learning how to manage your hair is apart of getting to know yourself. I have highly porous hair and I manage just fine. It ain’t that bad, sheesh
you legit just got on my nerves so bad. im not complaining im trying to figure out how to handle it.
Lol right! She really annoyed me with that comment.
I think for those of us with high porosity should use more protein and keep a healthy balance of mositure/protein. And its also real important not to over condition or moisturize. Seems like its all about balance; and sealing shaft wont hurt either.
Either I did the test wrong or I inherited some weird hair! According to the test, I should have high porosity hair, however, some of my hair strands took a minute to sink while the others sunked instantly. Overall, my hair takes a while to dry which is the total opposite of high porosity. Therefore, I’m not so certain about how accurate this test is, but I know my edges/napes are high porosity because they dry faster than the rest of my hair, however, they don’t break easily while dry, lol. It may be because they don’t clump together like… Read more »