Porous Hair Part 2: Goals and Strategies

Science-y Hair Blog © 2011 by  Wendy M.S. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

There is a main goal for managing porous hair, regardless of curl pattern and hair-diameter, to resist dehydration, weakness and breakage: Increasing hydrophobic behavior. This means your hair absorbs water gradually, and retains moisture longer.

As hairs emerge from our heads, they are hydrophobic - water repelling. They tend to absorb water into the hair shaft slowly. This is the result of: 1) Undamaged cuticles forming a nice tight barrier. 2) The lipid-based epicuticle covering the cuticles that repels water and other chemicals is intact and doing its job. 

Porous hair tends to not have an epicuticle fully present - especially with hair that is highlighted, dyed, sun-damaged, or heat-styled. And porous hair tends to have chipped, cracked, or missing cuticles. As a result, porous hair is hydrophilic (water-loving) because the proteins hair is made of tend to absorb water readily without their cuticle and epicuticle covering.

Porous hair (Above). Blue arrow - water can enter under broken cuticles.

Green arrow - all cuticles have broken away, leaving the cortex of the hair 

fiber un-protected.

Right: Low porosity hair. Cuticles are smooth and multiple layers

are intact. This hair is well-protected from water and hair products.

Porous hair cannot protect itself from water and other chemicals as well. On the positive side - this means that porous hair plays well with oils and conditioners. 

On the negative side, it may take extra care to prevent dehydration in porous hair. And on the aside-side, the fact that permanent hair dye also makes hair more porous also means that it makes it easier for the dye molecules to be leached out - so if you want to preserve your hair color you absolutely must pay attention to managing porosity.

Left: Low porosity hair.                 Right: Porous hair.

Pretend this is a hair we've sliced through. The dark brown represents the central cortex. The light brown second layer represents the cuticle layers. Cuticles are hard, protective and overlap like shingles on a roof. They are covered by a lipid (oil) based epicuticle which is attached to the cuticles (lightest brown outer ring). In the porous hair, the epicuticle has been mostly removed through mechanical, heat, chemical or UV damage. Portions of cuticles have also been eroded. The porous hair soaks up water (and anything else) readily.

Strategies/Goals:

1. Hydration:  Add moisture, keep moisture. Moisture is water. Hair requires around 10% water content in order to be flexible and resist breakage. If the relative humidity is lower than 40-50%, it can be difficult to maintain that moisture level in hair, especially in porous hair.
• Humectants: Moisture-retaining ingredients that hold moisture in and around hair include: Glycerin, Panthenol, Amino acids, Hydrolyzed proteins, Sodium PCA, Lactic acid, Hyaluronic acid, Propylene glycol. 
• Squish to condish: Manually work moisture into your hair like you would mix batter when baking. Don’t leave dry spots! This assures good coverage with conditioner as well.
• Water-based products: If you go a few days to a week between washes, and it won’t mess up your hairstyle, apply water-based products (or watered-down styling products, leave-in conditioner) or a misting of water with products to bring moisture.
2. Flexibility: Flexibility is partly a byproduct of hydration. When hair becomes dehydrated, it loses its ability to bend and change shape gracefully and in an organized manner. Flexibility is also partly a byproduct of ingredients/products that create lubrication and softness. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2023
3. Porosity management: Because porous hair absorbs and loses water more quickly than lower porosity hair, hair can swell rapidly when wetted. Swelling with water causes stress to the hair, which can weaken it over time. Managing porosity can help hair stay strong and resist breakage.
• Oil pre-wash treatments: With a hair-penetrating oil for at least a few hours before washing to slow down the absorption of water into hair. These treatments take a little practice (oil choice, amount to apply, time left on hair), but are so affordable and beneficial. These links have more information (how-to) (troubleshooting)(choosing oils)(penetrating vs. lubricating oils). Oil treatments also provide lubrication and softness!
• Protein: Proteins can prevent moisture-loss from hair, and also prevent fast water-absorption during washing to help hair behave in a less-porous way. Protein treatments work well, and so does protein in rinse-out and leave-on products.
• Pre or Post-wash deep conditioning: Deep conditioning can prevent water-loss from hair if humectants are in the product, and absolutely add softness and lubrication for less-porous behavior.
4. Lubrication: Conditioners and oils in products help reduce friction and static, create flexibility and are important for hair that feels healthy and resists further cuticle damage.
5. Softness: Conditioners and oils soften hair through ingredients like fatty alcohols (those are oil-derived thickeners such as Cetyl alcohol) that add a “plush” feel to hair, through their ability to create flexibility and lubrication.
6. Sealing in moisture: This word-choice suggests hydration, though it alludes to flexibility and softness, right? Do we need a separate layer or step or product to seal in moisture? Not unless you WANT (or need) extra steps or layers or products. Choosing products with humectants - especially film-forming humectants (I have a whole post about those) helps seal in moisture. Choosing products (conditioners, styling products) with oils will contribute to reducing water-loss (sealing moisture in). If you use oil in the process of styling, you are adding not only to the moisture barrier, you’re also increasing flexibility, which is part of that “well-hydrated” feeling. 
7.  Protect from the elements: 
1. Use a hat or cover your hair in the sun, and/or use a UV protectant. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2023
2. Put on a hat or hood in cold, windy weather that covers your hair. Or cover your hair in hot, dry wind.
3. In dry indoor conditions, use film-forming humectants and emollients (leave-in conditioner, oils) to maintain flexibility and hydration. Or make regular use of protein or deep conditioning or oil treatments if you don't use leave-on products.

Preventive Maintenance: ©Science-y Hair Blog

• Before chemical services (highlights, permanent color), use treatments that reduce porous-behavior such as a hair-penetrating oil pre-wash treatment, or a protein-rich product. Either one may help slow uptake of water-based chemical hair treatments that would otherwise soak into the more-porous ends more quickly and do more damage. Use it in the last wash or next-to-last wash before chemical processing.
• Before high-heat styling, use a heat protectant (you can find a list of ingredients and some products here) to prevent water loss and reside cuticle-cracking and chipping that worsens porosity. Use a deep conditioner (or leave condition on longer) either before or after high-heat styling. If you’re going to straighten your hair - maybe before. If you are heat-curling, maybe after. Here is my heat styling and heat-protectant post for ingredient ideas.
• Going into a protective style: If you plan to wear a protective style for an extended time, hydrate hair well going into the process, and make sure hair can be adequately re-hydrated in the style to avoid dehydration - especially the exposed areas (surface of the style, loose ends).

Regular Maintenance:

• Choose products with humectants - they are even beneficial in shampoos.
• Schedule oil pre-wash treatments when your hair needs them.
• Use protein in products or treatments as often as your hair benefits from it.
• Re-hydrate your hair before bed and/or in the morning if your hairstyle allows. Sleeping = pressure and friction.
• If your hair is loose, apply a water based product or mist, and use emollients (conditioner, oil) as needed for additional flexibility, assure even application. Cover hair at night if your scalp and hairstyle allows.
• If your hair is in a protective style, use a water-based product with emollients lightly, assuring hair is evenly treated, especially the ends - extra attention with emollients on loose ends. Cover hair at night if your scalp and hairstyle allows. ©Science-y Hair Blog 2023

Deep Conditioning:  Deep conditioning Covers all the Bases - Softness, flexibility, lubrication, hydration. It can be tricky for fine/thin hair.

• Use heat to increase intensity - body-heat by wrapping with a towel, or added heat.
• Leave on longer than 10-15 minutes to increase intensity (with or without heat).
• Add oils to increase softness (oils increase adsorption of conditioner).
• Links to deep conditioning posts. Part 1, Part 2

Steam-use: 

Some porous hair may be Coarse or have a texture that doesn’t feel like it is hydrates easily to become flexible and stay that way (some Type 4 hair, some silver hair). This is a good case for using steam. *Safety warning* Only use hair-steamers, facial steamers, steam-sources labeled as safe to have near skin.  Steam provides moisture and heat at the same time. It causes gentle swelling of the hair but also supplies water. 

Steam can work well for:

Deep conditioning (before or after washing)

Styling: Apply products and steam them in, whether hair is to be worn loose or in a protective style.

It’s difficult to describe the benefits of steam in words. It has the benefits of heat in deep conditioning, but it does more. It can coax hair that doesn’t want to pull together to do that. Hair that tends to be weightless can gain weight and density and “clinginess” (the good kind) in steam - especially with hydrating products applied. And it can keep it longer because of the steam-use.

Predisposition to porosity?           ©Science-y Hair Blog 2023

Is some people’s hair predisposed to becoming porous (unrelated to hair-care)? Yes, for reasons you can and cannot control.

Things that make hair more likely to become porous:

• Scalp eczema / Seborrheic dermatitis, Contact dermatitis (See this page for more information)
• Psoriasis (See this page for more information)
• Fine-to-Medium width hairs - the flexibility may result in cuticle damage in some hairstyles.
• Curly hair textures
• Tight curly and Kinky hair textures - the nature of the hair-fiber when making turns within the fiber (kinking) and curves of the whole fiber (curling) creates vulnerabilities at the curvatures and torsion points where cuticles may accumulate damage that results in increased porosity.

Porous hair Part 1 can be found here.

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