What is Hair Porosity, and Why does it Matter?

Has your hairstylist ever mentioned that your hair is very porous? Did you just shrug your shoulder and pick up your people magazine ignoring the comment completely? Not because you didn’t care, but because you had no idea what your hairstylist was referring to. Let me explain what hair porosity is, and why understanding your hair’s porosity can help you make better decisions regarding hair product choices and hair care.

Hair porosity is simply describing the amount of moisture your hair can or can’t hold. Your porosity level can be rated as low, normal, or high, and this all depends on the condition of the hair’s cuticle layers. If you could view a hair strand under a microscope you would notice all kinds of ridges along the strand, kinda like a palm tree’s trunk. The smoother your cuticle layer is the lower your porosity level is. The more ridges you have the more porous your hair is.

So why does it matter if your hair is porous or not? It makes a big difference in the texture of your hair, how you style it, and colour it, and how your hair will react to this. For example, when you apply colour to your hair it opens up the pores on the strand of your hair to absorb the colour. If you are constantly colouring, perming, or using heavy chemicals on your hair then your hair is unable to hold moisture as well. The pores will eventually seal themselves back up, but if you are constantly over-processing your hair, they may never close up. The result is dry, weak, brittle hair. How can you tell if you’ve over-processed your hair? Feel the ends or your hair. Do they feel coarse and brittle? According to Audrey Sivasothy, a beauty blogger on associatedcontent.com, your hair can absorb up to 50% of its’ weight in water. How fast does your hair air dry? The longer your hair takes to air dry the less porous it is. Take notice, are the ends of your hair drying faster than the body of your hair? Having low porous hair is not favorable as well. The problems you may notice with this is your hair will not absorb colour processing as well, and perms may not react to the hair as strongly and effectively. This is all because it is not the cuticular layer is not open to retain styling.

Really what you should strive for is a balance between the two. Hair care is exactly just that. Use these tips above to listen to your hair. Understand and respect when you’ve crossed the line of over-processing it. Because once you reach that level there, and your hair strand is no longer able to restore itself there is no turning back.

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Credit:

Sivasothy, Audrey. “Hair Porosity: Help for Dry, Damaged Hair (part 1).” Beauty. 2007. associatedcontent. 26 Sep. 2007 <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/367189/hair_porosity_help_for_dry_damaged.html?cat=69

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