The Big 3 of Knowing Your Hair & Why It Matters, #1-Porosity

It's no surprise that proper haircare goes under the radar behind the face of trending hairstyles and products promoted in films and by idolized celebrities. Meaning that for the most part, you would see women following whatever product or haircare routine their 'promising' best friend or actress swears by, and men would throw the whole need for a routine away and stick to a general head & shoulders line with wax/gel on occasion.

Now, it's important to know that haircare does NOT have to be an overpriced add-in to your expenses, nor is it 'unnecessary' or limited to the needs of events. SELF-CARE in whatever form, is NOT a luxury - it is a NECESSITY. The price on a product does NOT always reason for its quality and not every routine, hairstyle, product, or even washing schedule promoted by figureheads in the media works for everyone, give or take general hygiene rules that do apply to everyone.

Now the question is, HOW do you know what WILL work and benefit YOU, and what DOES NOT? Well, knowing what you need to take care of your hair is knowing what you have.

For now, let's start off with talking about porosity.

POROSITY

Now this tells you of the following things: how prone your hair is to BREAKAGE, how QUICKLY it ABSORBS MOISTURE, how LONG it can RETAIN MOISTURE, and how much it NEEDS MOISTURE.

LOW POROSITY

This level or porosity means that your hair is more at risk for :

• Product build-up
• Breakage / Excess Hair fall
• Need for Excess Moisture
• Taking Longer to Absorb Moisture, and Shorter to Retain It.

Ever wonder why your hair of the same pigment as a friend's fell out when you dyed it with the same products and hers didn't? Or why you tend to need to apply more moisture-friendly products after a shower or else your hair will just feel dead? How about when you feel like your hair is moisturized one second, and dry the next, or when you apply a lot of product to make up for it and your head ends up feeling like it's drowning in a build-up that just takes too long to get absorbed? Or in most cases, why your hair falls out or breaks when you tie it in tight and or straining hairstyles?

Well it could be a dermatologically inherited thing or something you need to get checked out, or most often, your hair is of low porosity and you aren't taking care of it accordingly.

MEDIUM POROSITY

This is the IDEAL level of porosity, and is defined as being able to absorb moisture quickly and retain moisture for a longer amount of time. This is because the cuticles are not too open or too close together.

People with this level of porosity often find it easier to style their hair as they are less at risk and or likelihood of hair fall, breakage, and product build-up. Since this is the middle boundary between low and high porosity, people with this level of porosity don't find their hair drying too quickly or too slow as their hair is able to accept and retain the moisture 'just right'.

HIGH POROSITY

This refers to a hair porosity that allows oils, water, and other moisturizing elements to be more quickly absorbed into your hair compared to that of low and medium porosity levels. This level of porosity poses the advantage of absorbing moisture quicker and retaining moisture for longer than other porosity levels as well.

The only flip-side to this that can push you to see why the medium porosity level is the easiest to work with is considering how slow high porosity hair takes to dry. And by taking longer to dry, I'm not talking about just taking an hour to dry, I'm talking hours and perhaps even a day to completely dry. Which as you can imagine, needs to be cared for accordingly to those circumstances.

TO TOP THE BENEFITS OFF...

KNOWING YOUR HAIR POROSITY

HELPS: avoiding buying products / using treatments that dehydrate and or cause product build-up in your hair - in other words, helps you moisturize your hair accordingly without harming its health. Overall reduced frizziness and dryness when taken care of accordingly. This also helps when considering hair bleaching and or hair dye as you will know how much your hair can handle before breakage / falling out; and what to expect with the excess thirst for moisture after doing so.