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Hello everyone, when I started taking care of my hair, I diagnosed it as high porosity. There are a bunch of more or less scientific tests out there: my hair is high-textured and wavy. When I pulled a single hair through my fingers it felt rough and knobbly. It failed the float test. Finally, it responded to all the products and techniques for high-porousity hair. I would oil it, then do a masque, then co-wash, and sometimes even follow up with a leave in. And my hair would swallow it all up. I'd get lovely little curls and waves.
As I continued with this regimen, and took care to minimise mechanical damage, my hair got healthier and healthier. Then at a certain point I noticed co-washing wasn't working anymore. Conditioner and masques would leave my hair greasy. I was annoyed and having to change my routine. I went back to shampoo, and used very little conditioner, and then none at all. My hair didn't need it or want it.
At that point my partner got a microscope. So of course I decided to take a look at my hair under it. I plucked out a hair and looked at the the root part (newest, healthiest) and the end part (oldest). I was very surprised at what I saw -- both parts were indistinguishable, in that both were perfectly healthy. All the hair scales lay smooth. It looked like those illustrations you see of a healthy hair shaft. I haven't figured out how to photograph a microscope image, but it basically looked like this:
Yes, I was very surprised too. Especially as at the beginning of my hair journey my hair was so brittle that a single hair would be broken (damaged) in several places, and split at the end.
Which brings me to the question: When and why does hair porousity change? In my case the high porousity was caused by damage. However I feel like hair can change due to other reasons too. Babies are born with soft, fine, fluffy hair, and it is often years till the hair gets heavier. Sometimes things change with puberty -- my hair was straight as a pin as a kid, but now it's wavy. Pregnancy can sometimes drastically change hair -- not only making it grow and then falling out, but sometimes the texture of the hair changes. Finally, grey hair has a very different texture.
So what I'm saying is -- whatever your hair porousity is, look out for changes, look at what your hair needs now. One more things: high porousity isn't a bad thing, as long as your hair is healthy. Lots of hair types are naturally high porousity.
Has the porousity of your hair changed? Or does it remain the same no matter what you do? Let me know!
As I continued with this regimen, and took care to minimise mechanical damage, my hair got healthier and healthier. Then at a certain point I noticed co-washing wasn't working anymore. Conditioner and masques would leave my hair greasy. I was annoyed and having to change my routine. I went back to shampoo, and used very little conditioner, and then none at all. My hair didn't need it or want it.
At that point my partner got a microscope. So of course I decided to take a look at my hair under it. I plucked out a hair and looked at the the root part (newest, healthiest) and the end part (oldest). I was very surprised at what I saw -- both parts were indistinguishable, in that both were perfectly healthy. All the hair scales lay smooth. It looked like those illustrations you see of a healthy hair shaft. I haven't figured out how to photograph a microscope image, but it basically looked like this:
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| Source |
Yes, I was very surprised too. Especially as at the beginning of my hair journey my hair was so brittle that a single hair would be broken (damaged) in several places, and split at the end.
Which brings me to the question: When and why does hair porousity change? In my case the high porousity was caused by damage. However I feel like hair can change due to other reasons too. Babies are born with soft, fine, fluffy hair, and it is often years till the hair gets heavier. Sometimes things change with puberty -- my hair was straight as a pin as a kid, but now it's wavy. Pregnancy can sometimes drastically change hair -- not only making it grow and then falling out, but sometimes the texture of the hair changes. Finally, grey hair has a very different texture.
So what I'm saying is -- whatever your hair porousity is, look out for changes, look at what your hair needs now. One more things: high porousity isn't a bad thing, as long as your hair is healthy. Lots of hair types are naturally high porousity.
Has the porousity of your hair changed? Or does it remain the same no matter what you do? Let me know!
