Hair with porosity issues feel rough, break easily and have no elasticity, giving it a terrible straw look. That is because the hair pores are permanently open, making it harder for it to absorb nutrients and accept hair dyes. It is also more vulnerable to external agents such as wind, sun, and pollution.

To find out if your hair is porous, just take a simple test. Hold your hair and stretch it. Then run your thumb and index finger over your hair. Check for knots or a sand-like texture. If you find that, the cuticles are open and your hair is porous.

What is Hair Porosity?

Hair porosity is the hair’s capacity to absorb and keep water, nutrients and hair product chemicals. You can evaluate the conditions of your hair cuticles – which are the flexible, external layers of your hair fibers.

When your hair is porous, the fibers may be too close, half-open, or too open. This can bring different issues in each hair type – it can break, be dry, rough, frizzy, etc. That will depend on each hair’s porosity type.

Hair is formed by about 7 to 10 cuticle layers. Together, they act like scales forming a “ring” around your hair, protecting it. That determines how much your hair can absorb the nutrients from hair products, as well as moisture.

Porous hair is generally defined by genetics. On the other hand, it can also be caused by external agents – humidity, pollution, chemical procedures, heat, etc. The causing factor doesn’t matter.

What matters is that the more porous your hair, the more frizz, split ends and excess of volume it will have. Those with dyed hair can also have color fixation or faster-fading issues.

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Degrees of Hair Porosity

Your hair can have 3 different porosity degrees – whether its scales are too closed, half-open or extremely open. There’s a treatment for each of those issues. This means hair porosity can be divided into low, medium and high hair porosity.