Baking Soda?

[LittleOgre]

I have different reasons to wanting to use baking soda. See... My hair is low porosity and by low I mean even my hair repels water and it takes a while for my hair to actually feel wet. One day I decided to rub baking soda on my hair because I heard that it basically damaged the cuticles aka raises them permanently. So I tried that and it did work! I only used it once but now my hair has an easier time drinking up moisture. Is this strange to you? Or a dumb idea for me to purposely damage my hair to gain a higher porosity. My hair still struggles to suck in moisture but at least it has an easier time taking in water. Products still tend to sit on my hair. I might try it again.

[Zesty]

I would not. It does damage the cuticle of your hair, which will eventually impede length gains, and the pH of baking soda is just wrong for your hair and scalp (too alkaline as opposed to acidic). I would look up ways to work with low porosity hair instead of trying to change it to higher porosity by brute force.

[Joules]

Just read this article: http://blog.kanelstrand.com/2014/01/baking-soda-destroyed-my-hair.html

In short: yes, using baking soda on your hair is a very very dumb idea.

[lakhesis]

If you have low porosity hair, there are other ways to "force" moisture into your hair by slightly lifting the cuticle ... from something basic as just using plastic bag to cover your hair while having a treatment on (traps heat from your scalp) to using actual heat cap. I have one of those and although I only use it on low heat it works really well. I've also seen those that you put in the microwave first so you are free to move while using it, plus they looked cute :)
Some people even invest in steam caps, but I don't know much about those.

[lapushka]

LittleOgre, if you are looking for alkaline products to "raise the porosity" (if they can do that), then why not use soap bars instead of BS? I think that is a much better option; and you can always do an ACV or plain vinegar rinse after washing.

Maybe also it has nothing to do with porosity, cutting through oil/grease is something a clarifying shampoo does and maybe it's about that. Do you oil your hair? If so, I would stop oiling the scalp and favor milder cleansers. Seems like a much better idea, if you haven't tried this already.

[akurah]

I think part of the problem with baking soda is it does more than raise the cuticles, it damages the actual structural integrity. If your goal isn’t long hair and you’re just here to hang out and talk about hair, then it probably doesn’t matter much if you want to use it, but if your goal is long hair, I would look into experimenting with something else because it will cause your hair to break off.

[spidermom]

Skin, including the scalp, depend on an acid mantle to maintain good health. Disrupting the acid balance with baking soda will make your scalp more vulnerable to fungal infections. Not worth it.

[MusicalSpoons]

Right, baking soda aside, here are a couple of reliable, scientifically-written articles about porosity which you will most likely find illuminating, OP:

http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/moisturizing-low-porosity-hair.html

Though you probably want to read this article first:

https://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hair-porosity-how-to-measure-sort-of.html

You'll probably want to click on the 'hair porosity' tag on her blog too - it's tremendously informative :)


Btw, it just occurred to me to ask: are you absolutely certain the characteristics you ascribe to low porosity are definitely not caused by anything else, such as build-up? (I don't know much about how build-up behaves, but in the most simplistic thinking I wondered whether a layer of products might repel water to any similar degree.)