Understanding Your Locks With a Hair Porosity Test

Your hair shouldn’t need an instruction manual, but on some mornings, it would really help. Maybe it takes forever to get wet or drinks up moisture just to feel dry AF soon. Whichever way it goes for you, knowing your hair porosity is a step toward understanding some of these mane mysteries. 

You can learn a lot about your strands at home without booking a one-on-one with a hair scientist (is that even a thing?). A hair porosity test is an easy way to find out right in your bathroom, and we’ll show you how to do one and fine-tune your grooming routine based on the results. 

What’s Porous Hair?

Hair porosity refers to how your strands take in and hang onto moisture and products. The outer cuticle affects this the most. Think of the cuticle as your magnificent mane’s first line of defense. It has overlapping scales that form a protective layer around each strand. When the scales are more open, water moves through easily. But when they’re more tightly packed, getting moisture in takes more work. Suddenly, your hair’s weird relationship with water makes sense. 

Low vs. High-Porosity Hair: What To Watch For

Your hair won't hand you a porosity report card, but it does leave clues behind. Pay attention to how quickly your hair gets wet, how products behave on your strands, and what your hair does when it dries to estimate where you land on the porosity spectrum. 

Low-Porosity Hair

With low-porosity hair, water and products have a tougher time making their way into the hair shaft. They tend to prefer hanging around on the surface.

Here's what to watch for:

• Water takes its sweet time: Your hair might resist getting fully saturated when you wash it.

• Products hang out up top: Oils, conditioners, and other products may sit on the surface of your strands or take a while to absorb. 

• Air-drying becomes an event: Low-porosity hair can take a long time to dry completely.

• Buildup happens easily: Since products stay near the surface, layering on too much can leave some residue behind. 

High-Porosity Hair

What is high-porosity hair? Well, it’s a lot less picky about letting water in. It tends to soak up moisture quickly, but that hydration might not hang around for long, which can leave your strands feeling dry or rough.

Here are a few signs you’ve got high-porosity hair: 

• Water rushes right in: Your hair gets wet pretty quickly.

• Products don’t hang around: It soaks up products fast. 

• Drying doesn’t take forever: Your strands air dry relatively quickly after you wash them.

• Things can get a little rough: Your hair may feel rougher to the touch instead of smooth and shiny.

• Breakage can crash the party: When your high-porosity hair is also damaged, you might notice more breakage. 

How To Determine Hair Porosity

No lab coat, no problem. These popular at-home tests can give you some insight into how your hair handles water.

Water Float Test

Pluck a clean, dry hair and drop it into a clear glass of room-temperature water. In general, low-porosity hair floats, medium-porosity hair sinks slowly, and high-porosity hits the bottom fast. 

This is an interesting experiment to do at home, but your glass of water isn’t a crystal ball. Surface tension, natural oils, and leftover products can all mess with the result.

Strand Test

Take a clean strand of hair between your thumb and index finger, then slide your fingers from the tip toward the root. If it feels smooth, your hair might be low porosity. If it's rough or bumpy, that might mean it's high porosity. Hair that feels somewhere in the middle is likely to be medium porosity.

Spray Test

Grab a spray bottle and mist a small section of clean, dry hair with water, then watch what happens. If water beads and hangs out on the surface of the strand, that points toward low porosity. If your hair absorbs the water more quickly, you’ve got medium or high-porosity strands on your hands. 

How To Care for Low, Medium, and High-Porosity Hair

Once you've got a read on your hair porosity, you can stop throwing random products at your head and hoping for greatness. That said, you probably don’t need to overhaul your whole routine. A few smart adjustments can help you work with the way your mane already behaves.

Low-Porosity Hair Care

We've already mentioned this, but low-porosity hair has trouble absorbing moisture and products. The move here is to keep things light and avoid piling on so much stuff that your hair starts carrying extra baggage: 

• Keep buildup in check: Wash your hair with a clarifying shampoo no more than once a week to kick that leftover gel or pomade to the curb. 

• Go easy on the heavy stuff: Thick butters, oils, and layers of leave-ins can weigh your hair down, so use them less often, or add lighter products to your routine. 

• Give your conditioner some time: Work your conditioner into your wet hair, and let it sit for a few minutes instead of treating it like a quick pit stop in the shower. Low-porosity strands need a bit of extra time to soak up that hydration.

Medium-Porosity Hair Care

Medium-porosity hair generally lands somewhere between the two extremes. Here are a few tips for working with it, not against it: 

• Keep your routine balanced: Cleanse and condition your mane consistently without loading up on extra products.

• Bring in backup: A moisturizing mask or lightweight leave-in conditioner comes in handy if your hair feels drier than usual.

• Adjust as you go: Weather, styling, and your haircut can all change what feels good for your strands, so remember that none of this is carved in stone. The best routine is whatever helps your hair feel healthy. 

High-Porosity Hair Care

High-porosity hair soaks up moisture quickly, but that same hydration makes a quick getaway sometimes. Your mission? Help your mane hang onto the good stuff:

• Make conditioning count: Layer moisturizing products to help your hair hold it in. Try a deep conditioner followed by a leave-in.

• Cool it with the heat: If you regularly use heat tools, give them a break some days. Repeated heat styling can damage the hair fiber and mess with its porosity. 

• Give your strands some TLC: If you’re struggling with frizz or flyaways, try smoothing products to give your hair some much-needed love. 

Give Your Hair What It Needs With Dr. Squatch

Knowing your hair porosity makes it easier to take care of your strands. Once you understand how they handle moisture, you can choose the right products and build a solid routine.

Whatever side of the porosity spectrum you land on, Dr. Squatch’s haircare has you covered. Suds up with our shampoos made with natural ingredients like oat protein, jojoba oil, and honey in manly scents like Pine Tar and Fresh Falls. Then, follow up with a conditioner packed with shea butter and avocado oil. Your mane will thank you. 

FAQ 

Can Hair Porosity Change Over Time?

It sure can. Bleaching, chemical treatments, heat, and environmental exposure can all change the hair fiber and make it more porous. In other words, what your mane needs today might not be what it needs forever. 

Is Hair Porosity the Same as Hair Type?

The idea that hair type and porosity are the same is a myth! Your hair type describes things like your curl pattern and the strands’ shape. For example, you might have wavy or straight hair that’s also fine or super thick. Porosity describes the structure of your hair fiber and how it interacts with moisture.