High porosity hair characteristics and care regimen

The truth is, I had never heard of porous hair.

Actually, I should say I had heard of it.

I just didn’t know that I was one of those people that had high-porosity hair.

 

I found out when I went to visit my cousin Alicia a month ago.

She lives 500 kilometers from my city, and she visits me every once in a while.

One night, while we were watching an episode of Black Mirror on Netflix, she stared at me, almost with a face of terror and said:

•  Cousin, you have to urgently do something with your porous hair. And urgent is right now. 

And right then, without any anesthesia, I received the news that my hair was very porous.

 

Do you want to know what the characteristics of highly porous hair are?

And if you have it, do you want to incorporate a hair care routine so that your porous hair looks healthy and full of life?

That’s exactly what I’m going to tell you today.

 

 

What are some of the characteristics of high porosity hair

Highly-porous hair is characterized by having open cuticles along the hair fibers.

This is the first thing that my cousin noticed in my hair.

 

These open cuticles absorb a lot of moisture, for example, when we wash our hair.

So, logically, you may think that it should look hydrated.

But that’s not the case.

 

Because even though it absorbs the moisture more quickly, the hairs are unable to retain it.

And also, as it absorbs the moisture, it absorbs all the damaging elements in the air.

 

 Like dust, ultraviolet sun rays and even the ingredients of hair products that are good for this type of hair. 

That’s why my hair looked dry and fragile.

If I touched it, some of the hairs would end up between my eyes without using even the minimum amount of pressure.

 

It wasn’t shiny.

And that had to do with the internal structure of the hair that is formed by sulfuric bonds.

Once they become too separated, they aren’t able to reflect the light.

That’s why it looks opaque, even though you apply oil to make it look shinier.

 

And lastly, I noticed that even though I did nutrition treatments, after a few hours, it looked the same, because it was unable to retain the moisturizing ingredients of the products.

 

Now you know what the characteristics are of porous hair.

But maybe you still have doubts and can’t recognize if your hair is porous or not.

I suggest then that you do a test.

Do you agree?

 

Do you have porous hair? Find out right now

The floating test.

 

No that you know if your hair is porous, it’s time to get to work.

But let me warn you about one thing.

You will need patience, time, and knowledge.

The patience and time will depend on you.

The knowledge, on me.

 

Because, I’ll tell you absolutely everything that I learned about caring for porous hair.

Wouldn’t it be cool to get some big, shiny curls that are full of life?

 

 Then, all you need to do is adopt completely different hair care habits that what you are using now. 

But before I tell you about the care regimen for porous hair, let’s look over the factors which factors make it so our hair ends up that way.

 

What are the causes for hair to become very porous?

 

Bad news.

Heat from the flat iron or hair dryer can cause havoc in porous hair because high temperatures boil the water molecules within the cortex and end up producing that famous frizz.

 

If dye and bleaching products get to the stalk of the hair, which usually happens, your hair can adopt a porous appearance.

 

If you detangle your hair using a lot of force or you pull at it as you brush it or you dry it roughly after brushing it, you are walking down a bad path.

Friction wears out your hair fibers and exposes them to all the aggressive factors of the environment.

 

Type 4 hair, meaning, hair with curls in the form of ringlets or an afro are already genetically prone to having high-porosity levels.

 

Care regimen for porous hair

For example, Shea Moisture has a line completely dedicated to his type of hair.

 

Your hair needs proteins, but with high-porosity hair, you need more proteins because most of them easily escape with moisture.

 

Frequent protein treatments will help you strengthen your hair, limit shedding, and diminish breakage.

 

I suggest using a protein treatment once a month if we’re talking about a light protein treatment.

For stronger protein treatments, the best is to do one every six to eight weeks.

Protein treatments fill the spaces between the sulfuric bonds of our hair, uniting the external texture in porous hair.

 

Even though we all know the importance of deeply nourishing any type of hair, in the case of porous hair, it’s a vital matter.

You can find many on the market, but it’s important to differentiate between the functionalities of each one.

Deep conditioners intensely hydrate the hair and repair it. Generally, they are used once a week.

 

In most cases, highly porous hair experiences some type of trauma that caused the cuticle to open drastically and remain open, losing humidity.

Put aside the flat iron and the hair dryer as much as possible.

 

This is extremely important to seal the cuticles and so that it doesn’t lose moisture.

 

When the cuticles of our hair remain open, they are much more susceptible.

It’s important to use good quality conditioners and to softly datable the hair to not cause breakage.

Apply the conditioner between your fingers and distribute it carefully in your hair, trying to detangle it as much as possible before using the comb.

 

There is a very important factor that I want to add to this list.

To restore the health of your porous hair, you will need a lot of patience.

I’m telling you this from experience.

 

 After including all of these care habits, I could see visible results only after six months.  

Hair is fixed from the inside out, that’s why the changes on the exterior of the hair will be seen last.

 

But that doesn’t mean that your effort will be in vain, nor that your hair isn’t getting better.

 

It’s like when you have a wound, the scar comes later.

With hair, the same thing happens.

But persevere and you will triumph.

 

At least I was able to achieve it.

Today, my hair looks great; they detangle easily.

They have a surprisingly natural shine.

They are able to retain moisture from the moisturizing treatments.

And my curls are defined without frizz.

 

And you? How did you combat the porosity of your hair?