Low porosity hair is not difficult hair or problem hair. It is hair that is easily kept in a healthy condition, strong and elastic. It doesn't need a lot of help to keep its integrity, it needs gentle handling and a little personalized care. So why do people describe having a hard time moisturizing low porosity hair? What are we missing? Why does oil and conditioner seem to sit on top of your low porosity hair, but soak in for everybody else?
We will cover: What low porosity hair is, how hydration with water and moisture-loving humectants is so important, why you might need some extra tricks to get your hair hydrated, and a bunch of other tips to address different goals for your low porosity hair. We'll address external issues like hard water and humidity, and unchangeable issues like individual hair-width and how those interact with low porosity hair.
Note: Healthy, low porosity hair may or may not have the cosmetic attributes you find desirable - that's different than hair-health.
Truth: Well over than half of women in the US color or highlight their hair. Many people heat-style their hair. Hair color, highlighting, and heat-styling all increase porosity. Most hair products are designed for that majority of people - whose hair is not low-porosity. If your hair is low porosity and you have difficulty with too many products - this is why!
Difference between low porosity hair and normal porosity to porous hair: Low porosity hair has the cuticle-covering intact, as well as the lipid (oil)-based epicuticle intact - which protects hair from water and chemicals. Keeping water out - or at least slowing its uptake is good. Fibers tend to weaken when they're frequently given a thorough soaking.
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| Low porosity hair on left. Layer of Defense #1 is the golden-brown outer layer is the epicuticle. Tan middle circle represents the cuticles, hair's rigid Second Layer of Defense, and the dark brown represents the cortex. On right: Porous hair with epicuticle mostly missing, and some cuticles eroded. |
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If your lower porosity hair feels dry, wiry, tangly or brittle - it's lacking hydration and flexibility. Hydrating lower porosity hair takes a different mindset - and a special bag of tricks. If your hair is coarse (individual strands are wide), it may also need additional help with softness and flexibility, something you get from conditioners and some oils.
Don't confuse silky or slippery hair with low porosity hair. That's not necessarily low porosity although it's likely to be low porosity. Low porosity hair is usually more porous on the ends. Maybe just a little more, maybe a lot. Lower porosity hair often needs "porous hair care" on the ends, but a lot less of everything emollient-y than your all-porous-haired counterparts who can use handfuls of conditioner and oil with reckless abandon.
Wetting-speed: If your hair takes a long time to get wet - it's not necessarily low porosity. If your hair is very thick or very curly, it will take longer to get wet. Coarse hair (wider hairs) with a springy character may resist wetting too.
The cognitive process begins with the word "moisturize."
Moisturize: Moisture is water. Not conditioner, not oil. Oils add flexibility, and can help keep moisture in, but oils can't provide moisture.
Hydrate: Provide and maintain adequate water. Ah, now this is what your lower porosity hair needs! Hair contains water - around 10% depending on the humidity. Well-hydrated hair is more flexible, and less frizzy or fluffy than dehydrated hair. Hydration is all about water in and around your hair. Here's a post with more information about how much water your hair holds within the fiber.
Low porosity hair is what we all have as it emerges from our scalps. But for some people, it tends to stay low porosity as it grows unless it is treated very aggressively with high heat or chemical processes. These people have very damage-resistant hair. It seems most common in Coarse hair, but I've seen it in Medium to Fine hair.
Not all hair that acts like it is low porosity is un-damaged. Some hair that is a little damaged still seems to reject oils and conditioner. Especially Coarse-width hair. These tips are for you too. Don't worry about labels, just focus on what works and trust your observations. ©Science-yHairBlog 2023
Porosity isn't always under your control: Low porosity hair and/or silky hair may run in families. It isn't always related to hair-care. Any texture of hair can tend to be lower porosity and any hair width can be low porosity.
Low porosity hair is hydrophobic - it repels water from its surface. Low porosity hair has cuticle scales that lie tightly against the surface of the hair. It does not readily allow water in (when immersed in water), nor does it readily lose the water that is contained within the hair - it does not dehydrate as quickly as porous hair. That doesn't mean it won't get frizzy or limp in humidity or feel dry and tangly in dry weather. It also doesn't mean it feels soft and flexible - hydrophobic simply means that lower-porosity hair does not exchange water with the environment quickly.
Dye resistance: Low porosity hair may be more resistant to hair dye and other chemicals as well, especially if you handle it gently. It's designed to keep everything out. If you do use hair color, especially at home, saving some hairs to do a test-strand (off your head, because you're going to patch-test that color in advance on your skin first anyway!) will help you gauge processing time. Hair that has already been dyed (your length) will probably process at a different speed than the hair that has never been dyed (your roots) because the roots still have that water (and dye) repellant epicuticle.
Interacting with conditioner - the Low Porosity Difference: Lower porosity hair does not have many chipped and broken cuticles sticking up, ready to be broken off with abrasion, so it tends to remain lower porosity. That also means there are fewer binding sites for cationic conditioning ingredients - for hair conditioner - which is one reason it can be difficult to choose a good conditioner for low porosity hair. It also has that epicuticle covering that may prevent conditioners from reaching their target.
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| Red "+" signs indicate (roughly) potential binding sites for cationic hair conditioners in this low porosity, coily hair. |
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| Red "+" signs on this porous hair, where cuticle edges are broken indicate potential binding sites for conditioners. |
Lower porosity hair needs different terminology
When we say want to moisturize our lower porosity hair - we're really trying to say something more complicated - but also very simple.©Science-yHairBlog 2023
We want it to feel soft. We want it to be flexible. We want it to not tangle excessively. We want it to hold the style we put it in. Whereas your porous-haired counterparts can get those benefits with creamy deep conditioners or oils, low-porosity hair may get a limp or greasy or tacky-feeling and unsatisfactory result.
What do we want?!
Lasting hydration
Lubrication (slip) and detangling
Flexibility
Weight but not "heavy" and please, oh please no greasyness and no coated-feeling build-up!!!
Softness
Definition (smooth straight hair, or a discernible wave and curl pattern, tolerable frizz and flyaway index).©Science-yHairBlog 2023
Dose - it's all about dose and application
It's easy to say, "I can't use oils or that conditioner or x, y and z." But sometimes our problem isn't the ingredient, it's the dose. Low porosity hair still needs oils and conditioners, it may need them in smaller doses. Or to have them used before washing our hair instead of after. If you're using a thick, rich conditioner for it's slip (detangling) but it feels too heavy or greasy, look for a lighter-weight conditioner that is more fluid but still has good slip. See the "product list by category" tab on this page for product-ideas.©Science-yHairBlog 2023
Dose - it's all about dose and application
It's easy to say, "I can't use oils or that conditioner or x, y and z." But sometimes our problem isn't the ingredient, it's the dose. Low porosity hair still needs oils and conditioners, it may need them in smaller doses. Or to have them used before washing our hair instead of after. If you're using a thick, rich conditioner for it's slip (detangling) but it feels too heavy or greasy, look for a lighter-weight conditioner that is more fluid but still has good slip. See the "product list by category" tab on this page for product-ideas.©Science-yHairBlog 2023
Low Porosity Hair Hydration How-to
1) Work at the surface of the hair with these tips (for Fine, Medium and Coarse hair): You can do a lot of hair-hydrating to soften, add flexibility and lubrication with products that never need do anything but stay on and around your hair shafts, helping prevent water loss and providing superficial effects.
- Leaving in conditioner: For low porosity hair, leave-in conditioners are used to add lubrication, weight and flexibility and provide softness. We're using it for a superficial effect, as a styling product - it probably won't feel like it soaks in. If you find that leave-in conditioners seem to sit atop your hair, try this trick:©Science-yHairBlog 2023
- Leave-in conditioner trick for low porosity hair: Use leave-in conditioners on dripping wet hair, or apply them and then quickly move your head under and then back out of the shower spray (or pour some water over your hair) for good coverage and dilution. You may not need much leave-in conditioner, and diluting & distributing it with the shower spray can help the product act like a primer (like with painting) - to coat and smooth. Not everybody needs a leave-in conditioner. If your hair needs help with flexibility and softness, or if your hair is coarse, you're more likely to need some.
- Film-forming humectants: Here is a link to a post about these ingredients. Film-forming humectants really are the bee's knees for low porosity hair. Flaxseed gel (linseed) or okra gel, aloe vera gel, pectin, hydroxyethylcellulose, marshmallow root, slippery elm, panthenol, xanthan gum, Hydroxypropyltrimonium honey, glycine betaine (beet extract, sugar cane extract), seaweed extract or Irish moss extract; all these ingredients form clear, flexible films over your hair that trap water near your hair to keep it hydrated or moisturized - but without being creamy or oily. Protein also falls into this category, more on that below. These ingredients can keep hair hydrated extremely well and also have great styling benefits. Hydrated hair is flexible, well-defined and softer. Look in the "Product List by Ingredient Category" page to find products containing these ingredients. Film-forming humectants work in rinse-out and leave-on products. The Best Leave On / Styling Products For Low Porosity Hair contain a balance of film forming humectants, light conditioning ingredients and oils. More conditioner and oils if your hair is Coarse, less if it is Medium or Fine.
- Protein: Hydrolyzed protein for lower porosity hair acts as a hydrating (moisturizing) agent. Protein slows water loss from hair. Depending on the hydrolyzed protein in a product, it can form hair-hugging, water-grabbing films over hairs that trap moisture near your hair, or settle in under and around the cuticles and keep the water in your hair longer. Proteins actively hold on to water so when your hair dries, it is better hydrated than without the protein. ©Science-yHairBlog 2013
- Fine and medium hair can usually tolerate more frequent protein than very coarse hair. Because protein adds some extra support to hair, it can make coarser hair feel rough and dry and abrasive if used too often. This is a link to a post with more about protein.
- Oil choices and oils in products vs. choosing well-balanced products: Oils for leaving on low porosity hair? Sure! But your hair is probably picky about which oils you use.
- Oils may behave very differently in your hair when they are emulsified in a conditioner formula, if oils always seem to leave your hair looking or feeling greasy.
- Like the difference between oil-and-vinegar salad dressing and creamy salad dressing, oil blended into a conditioner may be so much easier to benefit from and not over-apply.
- A little oil on the ends of low-porosity hair can keep them flexible and reduce frizz. Unless your hair is high density or very tangly, use tiny drops. The size of drop you would get from dipping the end of a toothpick in the oil.
- Curl Keeper Slip
- California Baby Conditioners
- Giovanni Direct Leave-in (can use as a rinse-out also)
- Giovanni Nutrafix Conditioner
- Giovanni Smooth As Silk Deeper Moisture Conditioner
- Ovation Volume Conditioner
- Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner
- As I Am Naturally Leave-In Conditioner
- Rainbow Research Kid's Conditioners
2) Work at and beneath the surface of your hair with these tips (especially good for Coarser/wider hairs):
- Oil Pre-Shampoo / Pre-cleansing treatments: <-- Click this link for a post about how to make oil pre-shampoo treatments work with your hair. With low porosity hair - getting a benefit from oil sometimes means knowing some tricks for using it. Using a hair-penetrating oil on your hair like coconut oil, sunflower oil, avocado or olive oil or my oil blend recipe for several hours before you wash your hair can add softness, lubrication and weight to your hair. Detangling power! Because you wash after this treatment, you won't have greasy feeling hair, but the softness and definition remains.
- Trick for using oils on low porosity hair: Use a light touch for an oil pre-wash treatment. Enough oil to add some shine, or maybe a little more to add some weight and make your hair feel a little "dirty." Use this only on the ends if your hair becomes greasy easily. Leave on for 1-6 hours or overnight. Use a good shampoo to cleanse; if you're using a very mild shampoo, you might want to do a second wash with shampoo diluted with water if you used more oil than you needed. If you're a co-washer, be sure to work the conditioner thoroughly into your hair to remove excess oil.
- Whose low porosity hair needs oil most?
- Coarse hair (wide strands)
- Very tangle-prone hair
- Long hair (ends may be a little porous)
- People who live in very dry climates
- Curly hair (especially high-density hair)
- Heat: 1) Heat (used with hair treatments) may increase your hair's porosity slightly - but not in the more aggressive way of acids and alkaline solutions. See this post for more details. Heat gives your hair a greater surface for binding conditioners. 2) Heat liquefies ingredients, and more conditioner will adhere to your hair when you use heat. Use heat with deep conditioning treatments if your hair is feeling extra dry or tangling more than usual. Using heat can double the amount of conditioner that binds to your hair.©Science-yHairBlog 2023
- Steam: Steam combines the beneficial effects of heat (listed above) with an abundance of moisture in the form of water vapor. In the presence of steam and a conditioner, your hair will be plumping up with water and with it will go some of the good things from the conditioner you have put in your hair. Heat increases conditioner binding to your hair, hydrates it to the maximum for even more softening and conditioning. Use a hood or bonnet type steamer or a handheld steamer made for use on hair. Steamers made for upholstery or clothing will produce a lot of steam that is much too hot to be safe for your scalp. Steamers for the face are safer for hair also.
- Steam for deep conditioning treatments or steam in your leave-in conditioner or some oil to lock in the steamy goodness instead of rinsing it out.©Science-yHairBlog 2023
- Deep conditioning: Lower porosity hair does not bond with as much conditioner as hair that is more porous. If your hair needs an intense burst of softness, detangling or hydration, use a deep conditioner, or your usual conditioner with a little oil and whatever else you like added.
- Add heat or steam to the treatment, barely warmer than body temperature is all that is necessary.
- Leave it on 3-5 minutes for hair that is easily over-conditioned or gets too soft, 10-30 minutes for the most intense effect.
- See this post for more details about how to work with heat and timing for deep conditioning.
- Alkaline solutions: You will find baking soda treatments online for moisturizing hair, or increasing porosity. These can temporarily (or permanently) alter your hair's porosity and may change surface texture. But there's more to baking soda than porosity...
- The probable explanation for the positive result some people get with baking soda mixtures is related to surface chemistry as well as porosity. The alkaline baking soda solution likely disrupts or breaks down the "F layer" containing 18-MEA (the lipid-rich epicuticle - see the beginning of this post). Once this has happened, the hair is no longer as hydrophobic (water-repelling). Hair becomes more hydrophilic (water-attracting). It becomes wet more easily. There is a disrupted lipid barrier (the epicuticle was degraded or removed) that was slowing the movement of water in and out. As a result, the hair will bond with more of whichever cationic conditioner you apply. At least the first time you use conditioner after the alkaline treatment. This still isn't porosity, it's surface chemistry. You lose the natural lipid layer and replace it with commercial conditioner. Conditioners have different textural and aesthetic qualities from the oils that were on your hair before. ©Science-yHairBlog 2023
- Mix your baking soda with conditioner to buffer the hair a little - this does protect the hair a little.
- Use shampoo bars or superfatted bar soap instead of liquid castile soap - the oils help protect your hair by adding lubrication.
- If you use liquid castile soap, dilute it with water.©Science-yHairBlog 2023
- The potential problem with using baking soda and soap bars and acid to try to moisturize hair:You'll read online that alkaline solutions make cuticles open and acidic solutions make cuticles lie flat or "close down" too. That is semi-accurate - alkaline solutions force hair to swell. As it swells, the cuticles pop up and there is an exchange of solutes inside the hair and alkaline solution that you applied. Everybody's hair is just a little different - not just the fiber itself, but what we've done to it, where we live and what we've put on it. Is it really possible that everybody's hair will display the exact same behavior in acidic and alkaline solutions? Of course not. Some hair reacts violently to baking soda and some hair reacts (swells) very little. Some hair is in between. If your hair is low-porosity, it's probably not extremely reactive - though the ends might be. Please, please, please do a test strand first!
Please note : Baking soda will dissolve faster in a heated liquid with plenty of stirring. See more at the end about how baking soda changes your hair.©Science-yHairBlog 2023In my experience with hair analyses, it is unpredictable whose hair will swell and thus become more porous in acids and bases (alkaline solutions). Some people's hair is very sensitive to vinegar solution, but not citric acid or vice versa. Some people's hair does not swell in baking soda solution, but does in the lather of a strongly alkaline soap bar. If your lower porosity hair is acid and alkaline-sensitive and you use an alkaline soap bar followed by a vinegar rinse because the soap is supposed to "open" the cuticles and the vinegar is supposed to "close" them, you may have just permanently damaged your hair without meaning to. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Only time will tell. Only your hair "knows" whether it will respond badly to being subjected to acidic and alkaline solutions. If you use a treatment that works well for somebody else and get a undesirable result, don't assume there's something wrong with your hair - there's something wrong with how that treatment interacted with your hair.©Science-yHairBlog 2023Why would you want to increase porosity?: Porous hair tends to respond better to conditioners and oils and has more "grip" so that hairs cling to each other and group together. It tends to be easier to hold a style, volume may be easier to maintain.
Flexibility:
Flexibility is something that is inherent in your hair, in its curl pattern, and in its hydration level. Some people's hair is less flexible because it's internal structure is somewhat more rigid. Examples are very coarse (wide) hair, curly, coily Type 4 hair, some silver white hair. Some of us have areas of different curl patterns or hair-widths that are more "naturally inflexible" or else we have those hairs scattered over our heads.
- To help your lower-porosity hair be more flexible, keep the hydration levels optimal. That means using film-forming humectants, preventing water loss with balanced products which contain film-formers (i.e. plant-based gels), a little oil and/or some conditioning ingredients.
- Meanwhile, give your hair some daily help (or whenever it feels less-flexible) with a hydration spray such as a mixture of distilled water and conditioner and anything else your hair appreciates that might improve hydration like aloe vera juice or a protein additive like Ion Protein Filer. Use this spray lightly to bring moisture and flexibility to your hair and get the water levels back up. Unless the air around you indoors and outdoors is humid all day (tropical or nearly so), your hair will tend to lose moisture to the air.
- For added flexibility, when hair looks dull or begins to spread out and lose definition, feels inflexible, use a little oil (spread a couple drops on your palms and fingers and rub until they shine) on the ends and work your way up. Oil can be used alone for flexibility and definition, or it can go under or over a hydrating spray.
- Conditioner pomade. Rub a little conditioner between your palms and fingers until it's a bit dry and pasty feeling. Use that on any frizzy or inflexible areas - smooth it over sections as though making a ponytail(s), or as though you are pinching and sliding a ribbon between your fingers for smaller sections. The ingredients in conditioners have a very light "hold" and tack unlike oils. This can be done on damp or dry hair.
Avoid dehydration:
Your low porosity hair's ability to protect itself is what everybody else is trying to mimic with deep conditioners and hair repair agents. But still: Don't dry it out! Wear a hat or scarf in the sun and in cold, dry air.
Avoid high-heat styling tools.
Protect your hair while swimming, and when out in the wind.
Use lower peroxide hair color or plant dyes to color hair - or get your hair as healthy as possible to let your natural color be it's most intense.
Wear a silk or silky, smooth scarf, bonnet or "buff" at night to reduce friction and create a little humid environment around your hair - the humidity comes from your skin.
Wear a silk or silky, smooth scarf, bonnet or "buff" at night to reduce friction and create a little humid environment around your hair - the humidity comes from your skin.
Every day give your hair some hydration. If you aren't wetting your hair daily, mix up a spray bottle with distilled water, a small amount of conditioner, or boil the distilled water with marshmallow root or horsetail or nettles. Mist your hair with this to provide water, lubrication and ingredients with lasting hydration to keep your hair supple all day.
Oils can soften and lubricate hair in between washes if it gets that rough or stiff or lighter colored look on the ends. ©Science-yHairBlog 2023
Hard Water: (added May 2016)
If you have hard water in your shower, it can make the water-repelling behavior of your low porosity hair more pronounced. See this post for more details and how to manage hard water and your hair. Minerals in hard water bond to hair just like conditioner does. So there are the hair-lubricating and softening cationic conditioners fighting it out with the hair-stiffening and friction-creating calcium and magnesium carbonates and bicarbonates in your water. Hard water makes your low-porosity hair even less friendly towards oils and conditioners.
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Hard Water: (added May 2016)
If you have hard water in your shower, it can make the water-repelling behavior of your low porosity hair more pronounced. See this post for more details and how to manage hard water and your hair. Minerals in hard water bond to hair just like conditioner does. So there are the hair-lubricating and softening cationic conditioners fighting it out with the hair-stiffening and friction-creating calcium and magnesium carbonates and bicarbonates in your water. Hard water makes your low-porosity hair even less friendly towards oils and conditioners.
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References
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AARTI S. RELE and R. B. MOHILE, 2003
Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage. Journal of Cosmetic Science, 54, 175-192
Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair
Robbins, 1994. 3rd Ed. Springer-Verlag, New York
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Journal of Cosmetic Science Vol. 4 No. 3, 259-273 September/October 1992
Assessment of the substantivity of cationic quaternary compounds to hair by potentiometric titration using the surfactant electrode.
NGHI VAN NGUYEN, DAVID W. CANNELL, ROGER A. MATHEWS, and HANS H. Y. OEI, Redken Laboratories. 1992
Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemistry Vol. 4 No. 5, p. 85-94 1994
Adsorption to keratin surfaces A: continuum between a charge-driven and a hydrophobically driven process.
C. R. ROBBINS, C. REICH, and A. PATEL
Journal of Cosmetic Science, 60, 85–95 March/April 2009
The effects of lipid penetration and removal from subsurface microcavities and cracks at the human cuticle sheath
2003 Current research on ethnic hair
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A. Franbourg, P. Hallegot, F. Baltenneck, C. Toutain,and F. Leroy
MANUEL GAMEZ-GARCIA
Various sources from ingredient manufacturers and suppliers.
5+ Years of experience communicating with hair analysis clients about what works for their hair.
