Baking Soda and low porosity hair
 

Hi all,
I have been reading around here and there and a response trend I've noticed is that posters are wanting to "fix" their low porosity hair and are recommended to do baking soda "treatments". Baking soda has a pH of 9-10, and wet hair has a pH of 4.5-6.5 (based on your texture and other factors). When baking soda mixes with water, the pH will be at around an 8. So, that is a huge jump in pH, which exacerbates cuticle swelling of wet hair, which then presents as chronic frizziness and tangling. And that doesn't even include the effects it could have on the scalp even days after the treatment.

Maybe my confusion is due to my protective nature of my fine strands, but I am just really curious. I have low porosity hair, and I deep condition (with protein/moisture) weekly with heat and my hair gets all the nutrients it needs while remaining smooth, minimal if any frizz, and is highly receptive to styling.

But even with low porosity hair that is medium or coarse, I don't see this having a benefit, especially when after these treatments, one could experience much more frizziness than they would normally if they just used acid-balanced care products from the jump. I feel like if you have to do a bunch of extra treatments to get your hair to look a desired way, it should make the hair look better, not worse, right? If that's the case, wouldn't a mild texturizer provide a better result?

TIA

You should always follow a baking soda cleanse with an ACV rinse or lemon juice rinse since that will close the cuticle back up and lower the pH level. There are a couple other threads on this. It is the same way you use hot water to open your cuticles and then cold to rinse out and close the cuticles back up.

I have to disagree with you (the bold). As I said in my OP, they are not the same. Baking soda is 10-20x more basic than water (30-50x more basic than wet human hair), and ACV is 10-30x more acidic than wet human hair.

Why use baking soda and ACV which are 2 products that need to be used together in order to "cancel each other out", when you can just use one properly acid-balanced conditioning product that will give better results and not damage the hair shaft over time? Two unnecessary steps are better than one more efficient step?

thx

What is porosity? Why does it matter and does knowing my porosity determine which ingredients work best for me?


Princeton Brooke
Chief Software Engineer
http://apps.facebook.com/princetonbrooke

Porosity is simply how well your hair receives and retains moisture. Knowing your porosity is not as important has hair texture (strand size) in terms of product selection, but it does play a part in maximizing moisture levels (which is related to curl formation and also frizz). Porosity is most relevant to the outcome and performance chemical services (haircolor, relaxer, etc).

Oh....so is that to say you can determine how damaged or not your hair is based on the rate of moisture change over time??

I honestly don't know how to tell if I'm at peak moisture level because I wouldn't dare go 48 hours without conditioning.

Is there a porosity test?
Also, there's mention of cold water rinsing to close the cuticle...does that really seal in moisture and if so....what type of moisture is sealed inside and is that enough than to put additional product on afterwards??

Also, does that have to deal with cones???


Princeton Brooke
Chief Software Engineer
http://apps.facebook.com/princetonbrooke

Yes, generally it's one factor in monitoring/determining damage. You wouldn't have to wait between washes. Just note how long it takes for your hair to air-dry. General rule of thumb: the longer it takes, the less porous the hair is.

There a few other ways to test porosity (just guidelines!):
*strand test, putting a clean dry strand in a glass of water and monitoring how long it takes to sink (if at all). Sinking quickly = high porosity.This isn't that accurate for all hair textures.
*rubbing your forefinger and thumb up the hair shaft. If the shaft if bumpy it's porous; smooth it's nonporous (low porosity) somewhere in between it's normal. Again not really accurate for all hairs (esp tightly curled to kinky curl types). The tighter the curl the more ribbon- or helix-like shape the strand has, so you'd have to stretch the curl and then untwist it before testing.
*wet to dry shower test. How long does the hair take to get fully wet in shower? If it's almost immediate, the hair is usually quite porous. If it takes a while and you feel like you have to wait for the water to penetrate, it's usu. nonporous.
*if the person colors the hair, does the hair take a while to process the color? And how much color does the hair retain? If color takes well and then leeches out, it's really porous. If color doesn't take well at all, then nonporous. If it takes it fine and keeps it, it's normal.

Cold water rinsing: yeah it closes the cuticle somewhat, but if your cuticles are jacked, it won't do much :). So for porous curlies, sealing is more important (oils and silicones act the same way in this instance). Moisture is basically water. Acidifying conditioners (have pH of 3.5-4.5) do the same thing, so you don't necessarily have to do a cold water rinse.

I typed all of that then remembered there's an NC article on the main page *face/palm*

http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/curlchemist-porosity-and-curly-hair

Lots to take in. My hair takes hours to air dry. Like right now it's still wet and often wet after I wake up 8 hours later from sleeping.

I hope that's not a bad thing. I guess I have high chance of low porosity?


Princeton Brooke
Chief Software Engineer
http://apps.facebook.com/princetonbrooke

Yeah I'd say low porosity. Nah it's not bad, if only annoying to have wet hair :) That's why I was wondering why people are trying to change low porosity hair that retains all it's moisture levels naturally. Low porosity essentially equals super healthy hair.

That was an awesome article. I was thinking OK if I can seal the water into my hair like a water balloon then I won't have to do anything to my hair for weeks but I guess that's not what learning about porosity is all about lol

The key benefit of the knowledge is use ingredients that won't shut the cuticle and also that won't open the cuticle too much.

Shutting the cuticle will prevent moisture from getting in whereas opening the cuticle is like peeling away the outer layer making hair weaker and prone to breakage.

The big pointer is not to use harsh soaps when shampooing and that's where most people decide hey no cones means no need for soaps. Makes sense.

I guess it boils down to knowing all ingredients that can be safely removed with just water as I'm sure cones are not the only ones but IDK


Princeton Brooke
Chief Software Engineer
http://apps.facebook.com/princetonbrooke

Basically...using the knowledge can prevent a lot of issues if you just look at it objectively.

Oh and some oils are a pain to remove but not impossible, like silicones (mineral oil being the main one)

Couldn't help myself. You need to be careful in your word selection. Detergent and soap are not interchangeable. Soap is essentially soap--made the cold process way of saponified oils (not sure that anything else is "technically" soap.) It's harsh detergents that you don't want to use on your hair. It's really mild. It's seems that it's the folks with low porosity hair who are the ones who like using the soap/shampoo bars for cleansing the most.

Soaps are drying (higher pH like baking soda), and traditional shampoos are drying (harsh surfactants and/or horrible pH levels), as well as some sulfate-free shampoos (that are also not well-formulated). So people should still avoid harsh cleansing agents that overly disrupt the hair's hydrolipidic layer (cmc + cuticle) and the scalp's acid mantle.

With me being new to having long or just hair of any length I am making many mistakes but learning so much that it's hard to keep it all organized. The article does mention no soaps and no harsh shampoos that contain certain "surfactants" iDK but just in case new thread readers come along:

How Does Porosity Effect the Health of Your Hair
Tonya McKay Becker,
Curl Chemist
http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlre...or/tonyamckay/




Princeton Brooke
Chief Software Engineer
http://apps.facebook.com/princetonbrooke

Right so I will check that out. I'm sure there's an article that focuses on porosity and the right ingredients to use. I think the posted a new one last night.

I was just learning so much on this thread that it all seemed to tie together in my mind. lol

No offense, but this is starting to deviate even further from the topic/intent of the OP. Maybe you could check the NC articles on silicones and the CG method and find some helpful info to answer those kind of questions?

http://www.naturallycurly.com/topics/view/curly-hair-care-methods

Thx :)

Shampoo bars for cleansing were VERY popular about three years ago. Curl Chemist is very anti using them--as stated in the article you posted. Many of us have continued to use them all of that time with no negative effects. I know that there are a lot of others who feel the same way that I do. As I said before, they are probably those with low porosity hair.

The bars that are made using cold process soap method are really mild and non stripping--in my experience. Much milder then any lowpoo I've ever used. I find Deva NoPoo drying (and some other cleansing conditioners for that matter.) But don't find the soap bars that way at all. I find that they are just enough to remove any residual ingredients from the richer type products that I use. I've used them since 9/1/08--and my hair is still low porosity. The information in that article reports research, it just hasn't been my experience. Unfortunately, I find that's true of a lot of what I read in those articles.

Kathymack, do you happen to know the pH of the bars you've used? Just curious. Thx

My pH strips aren't the best--they are less then 8. I used to always do an ACV rinse, but feel that if I'm using products that are formulated correctly for my rinse out and styling, that it should return the pH balance to the right level.

I apologize for taking the thread away from your original post. I will add that my hair just HATES baking soda. Even a 1/4 t in a recipe that calls for a tablespoon makes it hard and straw like.

I totally agree with your initial statement about folks who want to "fix" their low porosity hair. Once you learn what your hair likes and doesn't like, it's really not a problem.