Have you ever felt like no matter the products or techniques you apply to your hair, it just won’t stay moisturised? Or just keeps on breaking? The answer could be that you haven’t catered your routine to your hair porosity. In this blog post, we’ll be discussing how to cater your hair routine and products to your low porosity hair!
What actually is hair porosity? What does it mean? And why is it important to know this for my natural hair care routine? Are these all questions in your head that you desperately need an answer for?
But don’t worry. Type 4 On A Mission has got you covered once again 😉
Read on for information on the importance of knowing your hair porosity and tips catered to caring for low porosity natural hair!
Disclaimer: This post may contain some affiliate links through which I may earn a commission if a purchase is made using the link.
What is hair porosity?
If you don’t know what hair porosity is and don’t know the porosity of your own natural hair, then make sure to read my previous blog post by clicking here. This goes into a lot more detail on what hair porosity is and how to identify your hair porosity. You can do this by spotting common hair characteristics and patterns in the behaviour of your hair (all detailed here) as well as two tests you can do too. You don’t want to miss out on this crucial goldmine of information, trust me 😉
In short, your hair porosity is its ability to absorb and retain moisture through the lifting and closing of your hair cuticles.
There are three types of hair porosities: low, medium and high.
Low porosity natural hair has tightly compact cuticles, making it hard to take in water, but is retained very well once it’s in there.
An image representing a low porosity hair cuticle.
High porosity hair contains cuticles that are highly lifted, allowing moisture to be easily absorbed. However, these lifted cuticles and pores mean that moisture can be lost just as easily.
An image representing a high porosity hair cuticle.
Medium porosity hair contains some tightly shut cuticles and some open ones. This means people with this hair porosity generally don’t have any issues with gaining or losing moisture.
An image representing a medium porosity hair cuticle
Why is knowing your hair porosity so important?
Knowing your natural hair’s porosity is one of the fundamental elements you must know to cater your hair care routine towards and to help you select products.
It helps you to adopt the right products, treatments and practices to maximise moisture, strength and other goals you might have.
It’s also crucial to know if you’re having issues with moisturising your hair.
Now let me just say this… the basic hydration process is the same for everyone regardless of your hair porosity. Check out my blog post on maximising moisture and hydration in your wash day routine by clicking here. This goes over the process in great detail!
But if you need a quick summary, first, you begin by shampooing your hair. This removes dirt and raises the pH of your hair to lift your cuticles and let water in. Conditioner on the other hand lowers the pH to seal all the moisture and nourishing nutrients inside your hair.
However, after this process depending on your porosity, you may need to make some adjustments to your routine and products for this process to be efficient.
Low porosity routine tips
Naturals with low porosity hair might suffer from product build-up due to the product not being properly absorbed into the hair.
There are two solutions to this. The first solution is to improve the product application whilst the second is adjusting your products for your hair porosity.
Now let’s get started on the advice!
Start on a clean slate!
Because low porosity naturals are more likely to suffer from build-up, starting your hair routine on a clean slate will bring you optimal results 🙂
You can do this by effectively cleansing your hair!
Expert cleansing tips:
- Before you start shampooing, thoroughly saturate your hair with water to remove excess dirt and product. This will help the shampoo work a little easier.
- Section your hair into your desired number of sections.
- Apply shampoo to the palm of your hand and rub palms together to lather the shampoo.
- Apply the shampoo from your scalp down to your tips.
- Work the shampoo into your hair strands for at least 1 minute by smoothing and raking it through your hair.
Overall, applying these tips will give the shampoo the opportunity and enough time to act on the build-up so that your cuticles can be lifted to absorb moisture.
This is especially important if you layer your products a lot, use heavy products or use non-water soluble products such as oils, butter and grease.
This clean slate will aid with product absorption!
Here are some great shampoo products for low porosity hair!
Shea Moisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Shampoo:
A rich formulation of restorative oils to soften and revitalize hair. Infusing hair with intense moisture and shine-enhancing nutrients. Sulphate-free shampoo!
Aunt Jackie’s Moisturizing and Softening Shampoo, Oh So Clean!:
A moisturising shampoo formulation that will get your hair clean!
Heat baby!
The next solution is just as you guessed it 😉 Applying heat!
Heat is every low porosity natural’s best friend.
Applying heat to your hair temporarily lifts your cuticles for better absorption.
Therefore, adding heat when applying products will massively help!
There are different ways of applying heat to your hair and it depends on the product.
Expert conditioning/deep conditioning tips for low porosity hair:
- Cover your hair with a plastic cap when conditioning/deep conditioning. The cap will create a biome of trapped heat and moisture that will open up your cuticles for deeper penetration. Can leave this on for the duration of your shower, or up to 30 minutes.
- If you still need extra help, you can apply heat over your shower cap for deeper penetration. Just use a hooded dryer or a regular dryer for up to 30 minutes!
BaByliss PRO Ionic Hood Dryer:
Height is adjustable for a comfortable experience. Perfect for drying your styles and for applying heat when deep conditioning!
BEAUT’E SEOUL Bonnet Hood Hair Dryer:
It is the perfect accessory to use with your conditioner, hot oil treatments, curl formers, rollers and more! The adjustable side-located drawstring and the chin strap to ensure the hair heating cap does not come off during use.
Revlon Perfect Heat 2000W Smooth Brilliance AC Motor Hair Dryer:
Can use this to insert inside the bonnet hood dryer 🙂 Tourmaline ionic technology enhances shine and helps reduce frizz and ceramic coating helps reduce damage.
Expert leave-in/styling product tips for low porosity hair
- Apply your leave-in conditioner in the shower straight after washing it! The steam and warm environment will allow for better absorption.
- Before doing this you can also emulsify the product in your hands by rubbing your hands together for better application.
- Rubbing the product in your hand and letting friction slightly warm it up will also help with product application.
- If your product is still not well absorbed into your hair after doing the above tips, apply a plastic cap over your head for 5-10 minutes to create a warm, moist environment to temporarily open up your cuticles to allow the product to absorb.
By following all of these expert tips your product will be bound to absorb into your hair and work its magic for you to FULLY reap the benefits!
What type of products should you use on your low porosity natural hair?
In your natural hair product arsenal, you should have these 5 products regardless of your hair porosity: a clarifying shampoo, moisturising shampoo, rinse-out conditioner, deep conditioner and a leave-in or styler.
This is to get your basic hair routine in check! (For more info on this click here)
For low porosity hair, there are a few things you should avoid or minimise the use of in hair products:
Non-water soluble films
Silicones, oils and butter are three of the most popular examples of non-water soluble ingredients that form a film around the hair. This hydrophobic (water-repelling) film can reduce the amount of water that escapes the hair during dehydration, but it can also make it a lot harder for water to go in.
Therefore, it might be counterproductive for you to coat your hair with raw oils and butter or a product packed full of silicones. This is especially true if you don’t cleanse your hair accordingly. Failure to do so will result in an ever-increasing hydrophobic layer of build-up coating the hair.
Now a hydrophobic film PLUS having already tightly compact cuticles is a recipe for Sahara desert dry hair 🙁
Water literally has no chance of being absorbed!!!!!
Sorry, that was dramatic, wasn’t it…. It was just some hyperbole to scare you a little bit 😉
The truth is that you just won’t have a sufficient amount of water entering your cuticles so your hair won’t be sufficiently moisturised. This is why you’ll find that your natural hair gets dry and brittle after a few days or less of washing it!
So, the solution to this is to just minimise the use of silicones and raw oils and butter and to cleanse them out efficiently by using a clarifying shampoo once a month and a moisturising shampoo weekly or bi-weekly. Alternatively, you can cut them out completely from your routine 🙂
Heavy products
If you are suffering from flakes and build-up, it might be because you are using heavy and thick products. Such products include heavy/thick creams, butter and lotions.
Consider switching to lighter products that are more water-based such as light creams, leave-ins, hair milk and leave-in sprays. These are more creamy or watery in texture.
Due to their lighter consistency, they will be a lot easier for your hair to absorb and won’t cause any build-up.
As I Am Classic Leave-In:
A great lightweight option for low porosity naturals. This is full of water-attracting ingredients such as all the plant extracts which is great for low porosity hair!
Mielle Organics White Peony Leave-In Conditioner:
A lightweight spray leave-in that moisturises and conditions natural low porosity hair!
Camille Rose Curl Maker Jelly:
Intensely smooths and defines, while also helping to detangle strands. Penetrates the hair shaft for intense moisture. Great for low porosity hair!
Protein vs low porosity hair
Everybody knows that hair is made up of proteins.
In low porosity hair, your cuticle layer is tightly compact without gaps as the protein structure is well developed.
This means that unlike high porosity hair, your hair doesn’t need the proteins found in products to temporarily fill in the gaps in the cuticles.
This is why low porosity naturals suffer from what we have coined as “protein sensitivity”. You simply don’t need the extra protein, so instead of it strengthening your hair, it’s actually making it weaker through protein overload.
Remember too much of a good thing is not good anymore!
Despite all this, having low porosity hair doesn’t mean you should run away from proteins, you just don’t need it as much. Use protein in your hair when needed a couple of times a year 😉
FYI: Proteins are not the only ingredients you can use to strengthen your natural hair! There are more non-protein molecules that strengthen the molecular bonds for added strength. Find out what these are here!
Camille Rose Naturals Algae Renew Deep Conditioning Mask:
This is a protein free deep conditioner that will intensively moisturise and condition your hair!
Final words
So that’s it… everything you need you to need to know to care for your low porosity natural hair!
You don’t need to apply everything to your routine, just the solutions to the problems that apply to you in addition to the basics of natural hair care detailed here.
We hope we’ve made haircare a little easier for you!
With love,
A type 4 natural ♥
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