What's my porosity?

[virtuenow]

From what I've gathered from this post, I have high porosity hair. I could not understand what "hair doesn't get wet" meant, but have just resolved that it just means that isn't me. My hair sucks in water and quickly dries.

Question, in general, does high porosity hair respond well to steam treatments and/or protein treatments?

footsie It means hair doesn't "feel" wet. My hair dried out so quickly that it never felt wet. I was convinced it wasn't getting wet. High porosity hair responds very well to protein.

 

[Jetblackhair]

@Jetblackhair It sounds like high porosity. Running your finger down the strand and discerning the "roughness" of a raised cuticle is a learned art. It may not be obvious to someone not familiar w/the feeling. But quick drying is a dead giveaway (as Charles Ramsey would say).

Thanks virtuenow, I new something was off with determining my porosity and I thought my hair drying quickly had more to do with it than anything else. Lol, dead giveaway...When I saw that phrase I thought of that Charles Ramsey song!

 

[Jetblackhair]

@Jetblackhair, I have a different take from @virtuenow. To me your hair seems to have either low or normal porosity. The only thing from what you have described that hints at high porosity is the quick drying. But normal porosity hair doesn't stay wet for as long as low so depending on who's counting the minutes, it may be fast for you.

Why I say normal porosity is that that hair will float first then sink. If the hair is coated with product it may never sink. When you say it takes long to get wet, could it be you realize this when getting ready to wash it? If so, could that be because you have product on it? Also if you are a CWer and a no poo-er, then it means your hair is always coated until you clarify, which would make normal porosity hair take long to get wet because of the coating it has.

Thanks @Nonie. When I did my porosity test, it was done on clean product free hair. When washing my hair I just let the water run on it for some time before I add my shampoo. I use shampoo & I clarify, not really a co-washer. I do have product on my hair from applying moisturizers & oils during the week. As long as I have been on my hhj, it has always taken my hair some time to get wet. I have to "open up" my hair to saturate. It doesn't seem like my hair wants to fall into a porosity category, it's all over the place.

 

[McQuay30]

footsie It means hair doesn't "feel" wet. My hair dried out so quickly that it never felt wet. I was convinced it wasn't getting wet. High porosity hair responds very well to protein.

virtuenow, does high porosity have an effect on the styles holding? I beleive my dd is cottony and high porosity " i think goes together anyway", i style her hair in twist with a gel for a week and at the end of the week untwist her hair and the twist out last only a day.

 

[Ari8]

With or without product, my saturated hair is dry in about 2 hours. If my porosity is really off, for example, because I'm over-moisturized, it can dry even faster than that. And I have DENSE hair. The 'float test' never worked for me, btw - my hair never sinks.

I also experience the feeling that my hair is never "wet," though not as badly anymore. I wet my hair under the sink yesterday, however, and within minutes (seconds?) my hair was already dry again. I had to keep rewetting it so I could style it. I used to think this meant I had low porosity hair.