How can you tell your hairs porosity?

kashly · 01-09-2011, 10:12 AM

How do you know if your hair is porous or not???

Rimi · 01-09-2011, 11:56 AM

You could try the porosity test:

Put some strands of hair (clean with no product) in a bowl full of water (lay them on top of the water). If they sink to the bottom then your hair is highly porous, if they stay in the middle it's "normal", if they float it has low porosity.

Storm_N _Mom · 01-09-2011, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RiMiDa

You could try the porosity test:

Put some strands of hair (clean with no product) in a bowl full of water (lay them on top of the water). If they sink to the bottom then your hair is highly porous, if they stay in the middle it's "normal", if they float it has low porosity.

Yep, I did the water test. After 2 minutes my hair still floated on top of the water & continued to do so for days--lol.

I recently paid for a hair analysis that confirmed that I have low porosity hair, but also stated I had fine hair when I thought my hair was medium or even coarse.

If you wish to find out your hair texture, porosity & elasticity, check out Curl Wizard. For $19.99 you get a profile that tells you what type of hair you have in the aforementioned categories along with a listing of products to try. I think you can purchase the hair analysis sans the product listing for $9.99.
Curl Wizard - CurlGenie Profiles

kashly · 01-09-2011, 08:38 PM

You just lay them there? you dont try to sink them or anything???

nms · 01-10-2011, 06:33 PM

Okay, I'm going to sound like an idiot, but when I just laid a strand on the water, it floated; when I gave it a little nudge downward, it sunk; when I played around in the water a bit to see what would happen, it rose back to the top. So I'm a little

.

pedaheh · 01-13-2011, 08:53 AM

For me the float test did not work. My hair floated for days and there is no way I have low porosity.
The best way to find out is to send your hair into the link mentioned above. I figured mine out by reading this link.
Porosity and Curly Hair | NaturallyCurly.com
The quick drying time refers to hair without conditioner and styling products. These can greatly extend the drying time.
Your stylist may be able to help you figure out your porosity.
Another test is the strand test on livecurlylivefree.com. This was another dud for me. My hair is way too fine to feel, let alone feel small differences in the cuticle. This test does work for some people. But IMHO just because you don't feel anything, it does not mean you don't have porous hair. The openings in the cuticle are very small. See this quote from this link.
THE NATURAL HAVEN: Part 2 of 2: Porosity - Can you fix it?

Quote:

The cuticle can be raised slightly (it takes very sensitive instruments to detect this – the distance can be as little as one millionth of a meter). Running your fingers down a strand to feel for a raised cuticle is simply not possible unless you have severely damaged hair.

HTH

SpookSquad · 02-07-2011, 08:56 PM

Thnx so much for this thread, I was just wondering if I was doing that stupid bowl test wrong, because my hairs never sank, and I'm pretty sure I have high porosity. I mean, I must. Water evaporates from my hair within minutes. I can go from a wet head to almost completely dry within 20 to 30 minutes, just air drying.

nes223 · 04-15-2011, 01:00 AM

I'm still a little confused. When I do the strand test my finger doesn't catch and doesn't feel like it would break or anything but it doesn't just glide up super fast either. It makes like a squeaky noise. Also I saw a mention here about how long hair takes to dry..does that help in figuring out what I am? Even without anything in my hair I'm still looking at 1hr+ and with product its an all day thing. I'm so confused!

Greatcurls · 04-15-2011, 07:45 AM

I did the strand test several times and found out that I have the three types of porosity, but my hair is mainly porous. (I also have the three textures as well.) Without a detangler, ladies with low porosity seem to have little to no tangles, while ladies with high porosity hair state their hair tangles easily. This is even after using a detangler. Ladies with normal porosity use a detangler or even water just once and their hair seems to stay detangled. HTH