How To Grow Low Porosity Hair: Helpful Tips In 2024

It’s difficult to keep your hair hydrated, especially if you don’t know your hair porosity. Hair porosity describes how well your hair absorbs and retains moisture and oils. 

Low-porosity hair has a structure that makes it difficult for water to penetrate the healthy hair strands. Your hair doesn’t absorb moisture well and is probably more difficult to style. People with wavy hair, hair that has been over-processed, and even people with natural hair can have low porosity hair. 

Fortunately, there are several things you can do to help, such as hot oil treatments, coconut oil,  better daily care, and biotin supplements.

Here we’ll dive deep into the signs, causes,  and how to grow low-porosity natural hair.

How To Grow Your Low-Porosity Hair & Retain More Lengths

Here are some effective tips on how to make low-porosity hair grow:

Pre-pooing

Pre-pooing is a method of preparing your hair before washing it to prevent the harsh surfactants^[1] in clarifying shampoo from removing the hair strands of their natural lubricating oils. Those surfactants with the “sulfate” suffix are among the harsh ones. You’ll find sodium lauryl sulfate, SLS, and sodium laureth sulfate, SLES, in various beauty products. 

This procedure prevents shampoo’s alkaline action from altering the pH balance of your hair and scalp, which maintains a healthy moisture level.

Massage Your Scalp Regularly 

Massaging your scalp generates more activity in the inactive and dormant cells, which stimulates hair growth by stretching and stimulating the cells around the follicles. As a result of the improved blood circulation to your scalp, your hair may grow faster, stronger, and thicker.^[2]

Moisturizing Techniques

The LCO method, which stands for Liquid, Cream, and Oil, is a great way to hydrate and seal low-porosity hair by layering items in a certain order. Liquid softens the hair cuticle layer, allowing moisture to penetrate. The cream is then administered immediately to penetrate. Once the cream has been applied, natural oils such as argan oil are utilized to seal and lock in moisture. 

Try the LCO procedure every three or four days, ensuring your hair is freshly washed and dried first. It may only be necessary once a week for children with multi-textured hair. However, if your split ends are starting to frizz up, you can apply oil to them more frequently.

Protect Your Hair From Heat Styling Tools

Excessive heat causes your hair to become dry and brittle, which leads to more split ends and breakage. Because your hair is always recovering from dryness, the more you heat style it, the less growth potential it has.

Trim Your Split Ends

Hair breaking and fraying at the ends is something everyone experiences, whether you have low or high-porosity hair. This is because the hair’s tip is too far from the scalp to benefit from the natural lubrication and oil produced by your scalp. You can protect your hair health and maintain it longer by trimming the ends regularly.

What Causes Low Porosity Hair

Here are some of the most common reasons why hair doesn’t absorb moisture well: 

Chemical Treatments

Hair relaxers, perms, and dyes have chemicals that can leave hair with lower porosity. Harsh chemicals can cause the cuticles to lose their natural moisturizer low-porosity hair and become deformed.

Genetics

Hair porosity is significantly influenced by your genetic makeup^[3]. Some people have a genetic predisposition to having hair with low porosity. So if you have a family history of low-porosity hair, chances are you will also have that hair type. 

Improper Hair Care

Your hair’s porosity may change if you don’t take good care of it. When used excessively, wax, gel, and oil-based styling products can coat the hair shaft and block water from penetrating.

External Conditions

Hair porosity can be affected by the environment, such as exposure to harsh weather, pollution, and hard water. Harsh weather and polluted air can dry out your hair, causing the cuticles to close and the porosity to decrease.

Heat Damage

Overusing hot styling products like flat irons, curling irons, and blow dryers can harm hair’s cuticle layer. These cuticles can be permanently damaged and lay flat from repeated exposure to high temperatures, resulting in low-porosity hair.

Low-Porosity Hair Symptoms

Once you learn your hair type, you can take action to care for your low-porosity hair. Watch out for these signs:

Prone To Tangles

Lack of hydrating low porosity hair can cause hair to become dry, rigid, and brittle, making it prone to tangles. The rigidity can result in hair filaments rubbing against one another, causing tangles and knots.

Tightly Closed Cuticles 

Hair with low porosity has cuticles that are flat and closed^[4]. The cuticles in low-porosity hair are smooth and firmly packed, giving the hair a glossy appearance. However, the tight hair structure makes it difficult for water and other hair care products to enter the shaft.

Tendency To Be Oily

Due to its inability to absorb the oil secreted by the scalp, poor porosity hair tends to become greasy. The sebum produced by the scalp, which is meant to lubricate and protect the hair from root to tip, can build up on the surface of low-porosity hair and give it an oily appearance.

Water Resistant

Low-porosity hair is known for its exceptional ability to repel moisture. The cuticles surrounding the hair follicles are tightly closed, creating a physical barrier that prevents water from penetrating the hair shaft.

Prone To Dryness

Since it’s water resistant, low porosity hair typically has a dry, brittle texture. This makes it more likely to break since the hair can’t absorb moisture and nutrients — that’s why it’s so important to moisturize low-porosity hair with a deep conditioner.

Slow Drying Time

Low-porosity hair takes more time to dry than other hair types because it resists water absorption. This trait might be a pain when it comes to washing and styling the hair because it requires more patience and time to dry.

Products Sit On Your Hair

If you have low-porosity hair, you may notice that hair products sit on your hair rather than being absorbed. 

To test it out, you could add an oil or moisturizer to the ends of your hair. You may see that the substance is still on the surface of your hair after half an hour. If you touch it, it may even come off on your fingers. It’s a sign that your hair probably absorbed very little of the product if any at all.

Does Low Porosity Hair Grow Slower?

Low-porosity hair doesn’t necessarily grow more slowly than other hair types. Genetics, general health, and scalp conditions, not just porosity, are more important in determining hair growth rate.

However, low-porosity hair might have its growth hindered by a number of issues. Hair that has trouble retaining moisture becomes drier, brittle, and prone to breakage. Loss of length due to breakage might mask actual growth rates.

Maintaining an ideal moisture balance, reducing breakage, and using the right care routine is best for fostering healthy growth in low-porosity hair. 

Tips For Low-Porosity Hair Caring

You can support the growth and health of your hair by adopting a proper hair care routine. Here are some tips to care for low-porosity hair:

• To avoid buildup and thoroughly cleanse the scalp, use a clarifying or sulfate-free shampoo.
• Look for conditioners that are low in protein and weight so they won’t add extra bulk to your hair.
• Schedule regular deep conditioning treatments to keep your hair healthy and hydrated.
• Reduce your exposure to heat and always wear a heat shield to minimize harm.
• Brush your hair with a wide-tooth comb once it’s dry rather than when it’s still wet.
• Avoid over-manipulation by being gentle throughout the detangling and style processes.
• Protect your hair against environmental factors such as the sun, wind, and cold by wrapping it in a cap or scarf. 

Final Thoughts

It takes time, dedication, and a special hair care routine to grow hair with low porosity – but it is possible. 

The first step is learning what’s causing it. From there, you can take action to reduce damage. This includes using less heat, buying special hair products, and regular deep conditioning treatments. 

It might take some time, but with regular trimming and gentle hair care, you can help your locks grow strong and healthy. 

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