High Porosity Hair: 5 Tips For Improved Hydration In 2024

Do you know your hair porosity? Maybe not. 

But you probably know your hair’s simple category: curly, wavy, or straight. That category determines how you cut, style, wash, and deep condition your hair. 

But other categories might be just as important to keep your hair looking its best. For example, you may have curly hair, but is it high porosity hair?  

Let’s figure it out.

How To Treat High Porosity Hair

Use Silk Or Satin When Sleeping

Do not use cotton pillowcases when you sleep at night or take naps. This will further dry out your hair and cause breakage. Instead, cover your pillows with silk or satin pillowcases. 

If this isn’t possible, be sure to wrap your hair with silk or satin wraps before lying down to sleep.

Use Moisture-Rich Products

When shopping for hair-care products, read the labels before you buy. You want descriptions that include terms like hydrating and moisturizing on everything from shampoo and conditioners to gels. This helps prevent hair from breaking and any further resulting damage.

Don’t Over-Shampoo 

Shampooing too often strips your hair of its natural, protective oils. This also prevents hair from fully recovering when needed. With highly porous hair, experts recommend using high-porosity hair shampoo only once or twice a week. 

Trim Hair Regularly

Check with a hairstylist who’s an expert in high-porosity hair. Normally, such hair is dry and more susceptible to damage. Therefore, regular trims every four to six weeks prevent breakage and split ends. 

Done properly, trims stimulate growth, and new hair keeps everything looking healthy and bouncy.

Regularly Condition Your Hair

Medium porosity hair to highly porous hair needs consistent moisturizing. So make sure you always condition after you shampoo. Use deeply hydrating or leave-in conditioners to provide your hair with an additional moisture barrier and layer of protection.

Plant-based oils^[1] for high porosity hair, such as coconut oil, vitamin E, shea butter, and manuka honey, are especially helpful. You can apply an oil mask once a week before shampooing.

What Is High Porosity Hair?

Knowing more about hair porosity^[2] is easier if you understand how hair is structured. 

Hair strands typically have three layers: the cuticle, and the hair’s outer layer. The cortex layer is in the middle, and the medulla is the innermost layer.

The cuticles in your outermost layers may be too small to see with the naked eye, but they play a huge role. Cuticles protect much of your hair by controlling how much moisture, product, and chemicals get absorbed.

When cuticles cluster tightly together, moisture isn’t absorbed as effectively. If this is your situation, you have low porosity hair.

When cuticles are too far apart, the moisture in your hair gets in but doesn’t stay in. It disappears before it has a chance to nourish or moisturize your hair. In this case, you have high porosity hair.

High porosity hair may run in families. In addition to genetic factors,^[3] it can be caused by over-processing hairstyles and treatments. This includes chemical straightening, blowouts, bleaching, and more.

When you overdo these treatments, your cuticles lift or separate and can’t protect the rest of your hair. Gaps between your hair shaft and cuticles become more porous than usual.

Signs Of High Porosity Hair

Your hair might have high porosity if it has two or more of the following signs: 

• Your hair feels or looks dry.
• You deal with a lot of frizziness.
• You suffer from easily tangled hair.
• Your strands break easily.
• Your hair dries quickly.
• Products for high porosity hair absorb quickly into your hair.
• It rarely looks shiny.

How To Figure Out If You Have High Porosity Hair

Check out these questions to find out if you have high porosity hair characteristics:

Is Your Hair Dry?

Think about how a sponge works. When you clean up any spill, the liquids get easily absorbed into the sponge. It doesn’t stay in the sponge for too long if it’s a lot of liquid. You must get the sponge into the sink quickly, or it drips everywhere. 

That’s what happens to your hair if it’s highly porous. Water and/or hair products get quickly absorbed but dry out just as fast. You probably have high porosity hair if you must consistently reapply conditioner or moisturizer to get your hair softer or less dry. 

One benefit is that your hair rarely looks wet or greasy. But you don’t want it rapidly losing moisture without retaining the conditioner’s benefits. Read on for ways to seal the cuticles and moisture with the proper hair oils^[1] that nourish your hair. 

Does Your Hair Get Frizzy?

Most people with high porosity hair also complain about frizziness. And not just in humid climates. If your hair dries out and looks messy, even after you’ve shampooed or conditioned your hair, you know what we’re talking about. 

Frizz isn’t fun. Flyaway, swollen strands of hair get that way because of a continuing lack of moisture, leading to dryness. Sometimes using products for hair rich in moisturizing ingredients can prevent your high-porosity hair from frizzing.

Does Your Hair Feel Crunchy Or Rough?

If someone has cuticles that don’t lift or separate, their hair is typically low to medium-porosity. This results in smooth, flat layers of hair. Since you can’t see cuticles, flat or lifted, with the naked eye, you recognize them by touching your hair instead.

Gently take a small section of your hair strands and feel them. Are they rough, crunchy, or bumpy? If so, more than likely, you are feeling lifted cuticles.

Do Your Ends Break Easily?

If you notice some shedding, especially after styling or washing your hair, your hair is probably prone to breakage. This can be a sign of both low and high-porosity hair, so it requires further investigation to know for sure.

Avoid brushing your hair, even when it’s dry, and routinely use deep conditioning treatments. Check with a hairstylist if your hair is also dry, frizzy, and rough. You, too, may have high porosity hair. 

Summary

Use these tips to stay patient if you have dry and damaged hair. Sometimes it takes a few months to get healthy hair again, especially if it’s highly porous. 

Avoid heating your hair and use harsh chemicals sparingly. Air dry and use moisturizing products regularly. This is how you heal and get the most out of your high-porosity hair.

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