Are you struggling with unexplainable dryness and breakage? Do products just sit on top of your hair? Does your hair take forever to get soaking wet? Perhaps you have low porosity hair.
13 Hacks for Managing Low Porosity Hair
I struggled with dryness and breakage for quite sometime. During my trial and error phases of learning how to manage low porosity hair, I tried just about every technique possible. I was searching for lasting moisture and decreased breakage. Here are 13 hacks for managing low porosity hair!
Clarify and Chelate
Low porosity hair and product buildup behave similarly. Both cause the hair to feel dry and appear dull, thus your first step to diagnosing and managing porosity should be to clarify and chelate. Often times, stripping the hair down of product buildup and mineral buildup is all that is required to restore moisture to your hair. After you have clarified and chelated the hair, grab a few pieces of shed hair and set them aside to fully dry for later use.
Determining Your Porosity
The next step is to perform the wet strand test on the fully dried shed pieces of hair to determine porosity. This test is not 100% accurate but it will give you a good baseline. Gently drop a piece of hair in a cup of water. If it floats for longer than 5 minutes, you have low porosity hair. If it sinks after 1 to 2 minutes, you have high porosity hair. Hair that sinks around the 3 minute mark is normal porosity. Porosity can differ throughout your head and it can even differ on a piece of hair. In times past, I’ve had strands to partially float and partially sink. That then means, the strand was dealing with both low and high porosity. Crazy right. No matter what the wet strand test concludes, always go with a regimen that generates the best results for your hair.
Change Your Regimen
After determining porosity, you need to make proper changes to your regimen to address your hair care needs. For high porosity hair, increasing protein treatments are ideal because it patches up the cuticle damage along the hair shaft that allows moisture to quickly escape from the hair. Protein treatments are merely a temporary fix for damaged cuticles, thus continued use of protein is required to keep the cuticles properly patched up for the hair to hold onto moisture.
For low porosity hair, the cuticles are close so tightly that it’s hard for moisture to get in. Therefore, using heat when deep conditioning is ideal because it forces the cuticles to open and thereby absorb moisture. Heat is a way to force feed moisture to your hair.
Low Porosity Hair Misconception
Many believe Roux Porosity Control is the answer to fixing low porosity hair. In fact, the opposite is true. Roux Porosity Control is a low porosity hair nightmare. It is formulated to close the cuticle and make them lay flat(ter). Low porosity hair has closed, flat cuticles already, thus Roux Porosity Control just closes the cuticles tighter which makes it even harder for moisture to absorb into the strands.
Installing a Water Filter
Hard water can deposit all sorts of minerals on the hair. My low porosity hair is dry on its own, I don’t need any help in this department. Therefore, a water filter is a great investment to filter out impurities that might cause hair dryness.
Limiting Protein Usage
Knowing what protein treatments is best for your hair and at what interval to use them is key. Otherwise, you’ll end up with dry hair. I now use protein once a month as someone with low porosity hair. Those with high porosity hair, should consider using a light protein reconstructor with each wash day.
Deep Conditioning with Heat
Heat opens up the cuticles to allow moisture to penetrate the hair strands. Moist heat is a double dose of hydration because the moisture found within the water droplets add even more moisture to the hair during the deep conditioning process.
Moisturizing/Sealing Wet Hair
Failing to moisturize and seal on wet hair gives moisture the opportunity to escape my strands. And once it’s escaped, it’s hard to get it back. Lock that moisture in while the hair is still soaking wet by applying your leave-ins immediately when getting out of the shower.
Using Quality Products
Quality products are effective and hydrate my low porosity hair with ease. Quality products doesn’t mean expensive products. I am using products that work straight out the bottle. I no longer rely on halfway decent conditioners that need doctoring up to be effective.
Know Your Ingredients
For me, glycerin, aloe vera and wheat protein are very much hit and miss for my hair. All three make my hair dry and brittle. Therefore, I try to avoid them when and where possible but it’s becoming increasingly harder because these ingredients are in almost every product that I’m interested in.
Apply Deep Conditioners from Root to Tip
Often we forget about the hair closest to the scalp. It needs love too!
Limit Your Use of Silicone Based Products
Simply put, they block moisture. While you cannot avoid them totally, try avoiding them beyond your shampoo and conditioner. Note: Let me just say, silicones are not all bad. They offer slip and can be a great ingredient to have in your product. Silicones usually create issue and cause build-up for those who use sulfate-free shampoo. Silicones should be removed with sulfate shampoo.
Sulfate Shampoo is Not the Devil
Somewhere along this hair journey, sulfate shampoo has been given a bad name. Many top bloggers have sworn off the use of cleansers with sulfates. I’m here to tell you, your hair will need sulfates at some point to remove product buildup that causes dryness. For those of us with low porosity hair, having a clean slate to work with each wash day will help the deep conditioner penetrate the hair much better. I’m pretty sure someone will say, my hair never needs sulfates and my response will be – great! However, I get a number of complaints on the regular about dry hair and 99.99% of the time the dryness is a result of product buildup that resulted from using sulfate-free shampoos.
This is the first blog I’ve seen that addressed porosity for relaxed hair. I will report back my results as I’ve already washed and moisturized my hair.
Hey Reese! I need to add more info on porosity as you’re right, now many blogs focus on that aspect. Please report back. I’d love to hear your feedback.
Hey Reese, how’s the hair?
This was very informative I will try this wet strand testto see where my hair is at.
I’m glad it was helpful. Hopefully you can get to the bottom of your porosity.
Hi, very nice and informative post about low porosity hair!
Thank you, Chance.
Hello..Thanks for the tips. I’m also curious to know what type of shampoo and conditioner do you use? As I have just learned that I have low porosity hair! Thats very valuable info indeed!
Hi Margie, I alternate my shampoo and conditioner based on what I’m liking at that moment. Have you had a chance to check out my faves?
http://adaybyjay.com/about-me/product-faves/
This is very informative, is it okay to use protein based leave in and moisturizer daily for low porosity hair. ?
Thank you Maryam – I wouldn’t. My low porosity hair is very protein sensitive so I tried to use protein only as needed.
Hello, so glad that I found this on Pinterest! I have low porosity and very dry hair. Great information.
This article is very informative! I have a few questions .My hair is 4b/4c low Porosity hair. Since my natural journey I’ve been taught to LCO and lock in moisture on DAMP but not wet hair. My question is that is this true? I would moisturize on damp hair and add my products (Shea moisturize “No protein leave in detangler” , Shea moisture “Curl enchanting smoothie (has silk protein” ..is that bad for LoPo hair?) , and finally an oil mixture of my choice.) When I’d moisturize at night, I’d wake up in the morning and pull my bonnet off.. My hair is completely dry and looks as if I didn’t moisturize it. How can I fix this problem? I’ve tried to do the bagging method but it’s very uncomfortable to do every night. 🙁
Hello Nique, thanks for visiting. When was the last time you clarified your hair to remove buildup. Perhaps we start there and troubleshoot.
What worked for my LoPo relaxed hair was a mixture of grapeseed oil, argan oil, jojoba oil with a drop of Jamaican castor oil … rubbing small amount from root to end to each section of my head and scalp.. followed by a good scalp massage… then taking a very little bit more grapeseed oil only… and rub on hair from root to ends to lock in the moisture cured my dryness, split ends…and sealed in moisture hair feels and looks great. (all of the oils are cold pressed). I recommend using clarify shampoos only every 6 wks if washing your hair every 2 weeks. I hope this helps someone…
Thank you for sharing. Hopefully, it will help someone. Grapeseed oil didn’t do much for my hair although I know it’s great for the hair. I had to use it in an oil blend but sealing with it only didn’t do much.
pls can i sprinkle water and then add oil to my hair i have low porosity
Hi Joan, did you try to the sprinkle method and did it work?
I read your article. It has helped me a lot to understand the porosity of my hair. your work is good keep it up as well! I have a question? If I use coconut oil on my hair. So will it be absorbed into my hair. My hair type is low porosity hair.
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