My hair has Low Porosity.
Instead of viewing it as a bad thing, I’ve actually come to like that about my hair. But it definitely made things more… interesting when I was a new natural.
First of all, there are a few who are of the opinion that the lower hair’s porosity, the ‘healthier’ it is. And I can see this point. Since damage and chemically altering the hair strand raises its cuticle layers permanently (high porosity), it’s easy to conclude that undamaged, unaltered, and therefore ‘healthier’, hair will have lower porosity.
The question is, with all these tightly closed cuticle layers, how do we get moisture inside the hair strand?
This is a bit of a misleading question. Since Moisture = Water, and water has a molecular weight of only 18 g/mol, its molecules are small enough to penetrate hair on its own. If they weren’t, your hair would never get wet, water would simply slide off. So, the real problem is how to keep the water in, and what keeps the water in. At rather, keep it in for as long as possible.
Many people like to use oils to ‘seal’ in the moisture. For me this is a waste of time. I learned quickly that oils cannot seal in water. Even some of the lightest oils I’ve used have a molecular weight of over 500 g/mol. So, water molecules are small enough to ‘get around’ those larger oil molecules and evaporate as usual. What’s left behind is the sticky oil coating on the strands. This is a nightmare for a person with low porosity. For us, things that coat the hair only make the hair hard and dry. Not Good!
So, I’ve listed a couple of things below that have helped me tremendously. Hope they help you too!
1. One solution is to combine a water-based conditioner with a low molecular weight conditioning agent which can also penetrate the hair. I won’t go into detail about those because I’ve included them in this post (see #2- Emulsifiers). The emulsifiers listed in that post are cationic (positively charged), and they adhere to the hair strand and resist wash off. So they can help ‘hold’ the water in longer. And because they are lightweight and not occlusive (moisture blocking), they won’t make hair hard or dry. In fact, they do the opposite. This is why they are already included in our FlaxCare products as opposed to a lot of other emulsifiers or heavy oils.
2. Another thing to consider is adding a humectant to your rinse off conditioner, if it doesn’t have one. Glycerin, in small amounts, is a good choice. It has been shown to lift the cuticle layers to allow conditioner to penetrate the strand. But be careful not to add a lot, as it can make the hair feel gummy or sticky. And I also don’t recommend it in leave in products, because it can keep the cuticle lifted and allow faster moisture evaporation. But you don’t have to stick with glycerin. Honey, aloe, honeyquat, agave, etc. are all good humectants. Pick one that meets your needs.
Of course, there are many other tips for moisturizing low porosity hair, but I feel that these two things have helped me the most. If you have more to add, please feel free to do so.
FlaxCare Essentials 