Drop the strands of hair in the water and wait about 3 to 4 minutes. If your hair floats on the water, you have low porosity hair, if it sinks to the bottom of the bowl you have high porosity hair, if the hair kind of hangs out in the middle of the water, then you have normal porosity hair.
The Test Explained
Put simply the more holes you have in your hair the more likely it is, that your hair will sink, and the more sealed your cuticle layers are the more like likely your hair will float.
When conducting the test do it on dry hair free of oil or anything that might essentially ‘make’ your hair float so that your results are not obscured in any way.
Low porosity hair means that your hair has the ability to seal in moisture naturally but on the flip side it also means it isn’t easy for your hair to accept the moisture you add to it either. The structure of the hair is unique in the sense that the cuticle layers overlap each other creating a tight web of sorts.
Usually low porosity hair has an excessive accumulation of protein which can be quite healthy until your hair gets dry and refuses to accept any moisture you give to it.
High porosity hair is on the opposite end of the scale. It means that the layers of the hair have gaps and holes for a variety of reasons; the natural curve of the hair, over manipulation, chemical treatments or environmental factors.
Normal Porosity hair is smack dab in the middle and is pretty easy to maintain because moisture can flow in and out with relative ease and maintaining the levels in your hair is a breeze.
In terms of long hair aspirations it genuinely does not matter at what level of porosity your hair is. Of course it’s important to find out so that you can correct either high or low porosity to more normal levels and increase your growth potential.
Claire says
Hello, I’m new to the world of hair care, decided to start my hair journey. I did the porosity test but I’m confused as my strands sank then floated a minute after does this mean I’m high porosity or low?
NADIA says
Due to the fact that the majority of African-Americans have multi DNA we have so many different types of hair in our heads we go from non poros to high porosity on one head of hair so the treatment can be tricky. The best thing that I have learned the more natural and milder the ingredients in the product the better. To harsh is too bad. I have been natural for over 45 years and love it! At sixty will a full head of hair no bald spots!
Santos says
Hello. When I did the test my hair was in and out the water,but it stayed mostly flowing on top. What is my hair Porosity?
Bilkisu says
my hair is high porosity because it my hair sank after a minute