Help me figure out my porosity

[PixieP]

I'm really struggling to determine my porosity, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out :D

When doing the floating hair in a bowl of water-test, my hair does not sink, even after 10-15 minutes they don't sink. I don't feel like my hair takes a long time to get properly wet; maybe a minute? But my hair takes about 2 hours to airdry on a warm, slighly windy day (I timed it today, I normally don't pay attention). My hair feels a little bit rough when my pull upwards on a strand; not bumpy, but not entirely smooth either. It's rougher at the bottom half though, the top half of the strand is usually smoother. My hair seems to like protein treatments + SMT; it doesn't feel miraclelously different, but I don't have the effect of hair disliking protein either. A wet strand breaks pretty cleanly, doesn't stretch much.

I'm thinking normal? But I've only read about this for about an hour so XD

[lapushka]

I'm really struggling to determine my porosity, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out :D

When doing the floating hair in a bowl of water-test, my hair does not sink, even after 10-15 minutes they don't sink. I don't feel like my hair takes a long time to get properly wet; maybe a minute? But my hair takes about 2 hours to airdry on a warm, slighly windy day (I timed it today, I normally don't pay attention). My hair feels a little bit rough when my pull upwards on a strand; not bumpy, but not entirely smooth either. It's rougher at the bottom half though, the top half of the strand is usually smoother. My hair seems to like protein treatments + SMT; it doesn't feel miraclelously different, but I don't have the effect of hair disliking protein either. A wet strand breaks pretty cleanly, doesn't stretch much.

I'm thinking normal? But I've only read about this for about an hour so XD

2H is nothing. Mine takes 8H and I have normal porosity. It is only ever low porosity if your hair withstands coloring and other chemical services like that.

It's safe to assume it's normal porosity.

[meteor]

Water-test is not that reliable, IMHO, due to surface tension, coating on hair, etc, etc. Wendy tested it out on the Science-y Hair Blog: http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/12/testing-float-test-for-hair-porosity.html and http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2015/02/hair-porosity-float-test.html

The best test for porosity is gas sorption (True porosity measurement of hair: a new way to study hair damage mechanisms: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18818850 , http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2008/cc059n04/p00303-p00315.pdf), though, of course, it's not something that can be done outside of lab conditions easily.

However, if I remember correctly, your hair was color-treated a few times? If any bleach or developer was used in the past, it's pretty safe to assume that the color-treated ends have higher porosity than your virgin hair.
That could explain why the hair responds well to protein treatments and breaks easily without stretching much and feels rougher at the bottom half.

Other forms of damage, for example from UV rays (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18818850) or even just abrasive combing (http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2008/cc059n04/p00303-p00315.pdf, p. 314), etc... all increase porosity, as well, which is why the closest cm to the scalp typically have lower porosity than hair at the very ends.

[PixieP]

Yeah my ends were bleached twice to do an ombre two years ago, and before I started henna (Spring 2013) I used chemical dye on my hair. So I figured that's why it's rougher on the ends.

I'm quite amazed that my hair isn't high porosity, considering I did a bleach job on it this spring. I guess Olaplex works!