HAIR POROSITY🤔

Hello Afro Family!

Today we are going to be learning about hair porosity. I hope you are as excited as I am!This was my first attempt in trying to do some  graphic designing 😂! It can only get better from here. Now lets turn to the topic on hand...

Hair Porosity is the ability of your hair to absorb and retain moisture. It can easily be seen in how your  hair retains the water that is put in it during the washing  process. The hair either absorbs the water immediately or  the water sits on top of the hair for a while before penetrating through the hair strands towards the scalp.  A hair strand which is scientifically known as a  hair shaft has a protective layer known as a  cuticle. The gaps between the cuticle determines the hair  porosity. These gaps can either be shut or open, depending on how your hair retains moisture. If your cuticles are shut or the gaps on your cuticles are flat then you have low porosity hair. If the cuticles on your hair shafts are open then you have  high porosity hair. Some people have medium porosity which means your hair cuticles are not completely shut or too open. The are the luckiest people. Below is a picture of types of cuticles according to porosity.

Why do you need to know the porosity of your hair? I believe  hair porosity is  the most important aspect of our hair, whether your hair is relaxed or natural like mine. This is exactly why I chose it as  my first topic. The ability of your hair to absorb or retain moisture (hair porosity) determines the way you maintain  your hair and the products that you use in your hair. This will also determine how much moisture and protein your hair can handle. My hair texture and density may look completely identical to yours but our hair porosity may differ. Simply put, if you do not  know the porosity of your hair you are stopping or delaying its growth and you are doing that by using the wrong products. Such mistreatment may cause protein and moisture overload which breaks your hair as soon as it starts growing. The different types of hair porosity will be discussed in the next blog, in depth with the type of products you should be using. 

How will you know which hair porosity you have? I am going to list five ways you can test your hair porosity. The reason I am listing five is because, doing one may not give accurate results. To be on the safe side do three. 

1. The cup/glass test`:  

You will need a glass full of water, some shed hair from a comb or a brush and a timer. You are going to put the shed hair into the glass and let it sit there for 5 minutes. If your hair sinks its high porosity,  if it floats to the top its low in porosity and it sinks right to the middle its medium porosity. It is best to take different hair strands from different parts of your hair because like me you might have different porosity levels on the same head. 

2. The body test:

Get in the shower and drench your whole body and hair to see which one dries up first, between your body and your hair. If your body dries up first, you have low porosity( your hair has to take hours and hours otherwise its medium porosity). If your hair dries up first you have high porosity. I personally do not encourage this test though. Its accuracy levels are pretty low. 

3. The strand test: 

This is the easiest of them all and its accuracy levels are high.  Slide up to view the picture of the different cuticles according to porosity. Feel strands from different parts of your hair. Take each strand from the root to the ends and feel them, if the strands are bumpy, you have high porosity. If the strands are smooth you have low porosity. If the strands are not too smooth or too bumpy you have medium porosity.

4. The spray bottle test:

You will need to fill water in a spray bottle. Lightly spray the water on your hair for results. If your hair absorbs the water immediately its high in porosity and if the water just sits on top of the hair, then you hair low porosity. 

5.Shower test: 

This time drench only your hair with water in the shower. If your hair absorbs most of the water, you have high porosity hair. If the water  takes some time to be absorbed into your hair and you even have to open your hair to let the water in you have low porosity hair. 

I will be posting my porosity test results on one of the tests and show you how to do it visually on Instagram. The handle is Ntombi Moekwa.

That is it for today Afro family! I hope this was helpful and if it was please comment below. Please do not forget to subscribe and follow. To follow please press the arrow and then the options gadget and the you will find my profile and click follow!