Does your hair dry up super fast after moisturizing? Most likely High Porosity.
Does your hair acquire buildup easily, has a hard time receiving moisture, but the moisture lasts for a long time once moisturized? Most likely Low Porosity.
Neither of these problems? Medium Porosity
Now, that is the real, fast and easy way to know what your hair porosity type is. There are tons of infographics being spread around and websites promoting a FAKE hair porosity test. The sink or float hair strand in water test is not the real way to determine porosity.
In fact, a few scientific resources have spoken out about this, yet this myth is still being peddled:
#1 Lorna Casse, Hair Care Consultant with a Master’s in Chemistry
Lorna did a breakdown about How the Hair Porosity Test is NOT Accurate. She provided 5 detailed reasons why this test is not legitimate.
#2 JC Blogger and UK Scientist at The Natural Haven Bloom
Exposed this hair porosity test myth years ago, yet it still continues to get pushed all over the internet.
She points out that in most cases, your hair will float:
This is because hair is generally covered in oil. This oil is naturally produced sebum and any extra that you may use in your hair care routine will have an added impact. Now oil will always float on water, so your hair floating does not mean that it has low porosity.
You can tell that your hair is porous if it absorbs water quickly in the shower even when it has products on it, but then also dries up very fast. Based on this knowledge you should use products that can seal the moisture before the hair starts to dry completely. Low porosity is harder to tell. If your hair doesn’t soak in the shower very fast. It could be of low porosity or it could be so well coated with products such that they repel the water. Either way, low porosity means that the hair takes longer to absorb moisture but it also retains moisture for a longer time which in the end is not a bad thing.
LORNA CASSE
#3 Sister Scientist a Cosmetic Scientist also debunked this in a video and explained how porosity works.
Hair porosity is your hair’s ability to retain moisture after absorbing water. Making porosity perhaps even more important than knowing your hair texture type. Good thing, you now know the real way to determine your hair porosity.