A question on Porosity? Effects of humidity?

[katsrevenge]

I think I'm low porosity. My hair floats in water, running my fingers down the shaft meets very little or no resistance, and it is hard to chemically damage my hair.

But, not so sure now.

I had a heavy shed this summer and lost about a half inch. I'm not worried, I can see baby hairs everywhere already. That's not my issue; but it did lead me to pay some attention to how thin/fat my hair was feeling on a day to day basis.

We've had several days recently with 100% humidity. My hair fattened up. A few days then of lower humidity. Thinner braids.

So I started to measure when I remembered to. (Please note all I have is a sewing tape measure so it is rough and not exact to a teeny fraction.) Each time I did this I made a pony on top of my head (thickest with the new growth) and then measured the hair on top of said pony (not including it).

I did not do it everyday, but over the course of last week I went up 1/4 of an inch, then down almost the same.. and then down a little more and then last night I was back up almost a quarter inch. Our humidity had dipped to around 85 midweek (a tiny bit of not pouring rain weather) but had had periods of 100% to near 100% on each weekend.

For as long as I remember the curliness of my hair has been effected by humidity but I never noticed this thin/thick thing before.

I know oil makes my hair 'fatter' and when my hair is wet it is fattest... does this mean anything? Is this normal? :confused: Am I porous or not? This happen to others?

[luxepiggy]

All hair experiences variations in water content as relative humidity changes. Depending on the ambient humidity, water makes up anywhere from ~5-30% of the hair, by weight. Low porosity hair takes longer to shift to a new equilibrium, but it does eventually.

Bottom line, this is normal and happens to everyone (^(oo)^)v

[katsrevenge]

Good to know I'm not weird and there is nothing wrong!

[torrilin]

My hair comes out as either totally porous or totally nonporous depending on what set of tests you use. I'm not really sure that the typical porosity tests work or make sense for someone with fine hair. My hair acts markedly different in water than my partner's much coarser hair, and same for my sister's mostly medium hair.

And yes, like piggy says, my hair also changes thickness a fair bit. I can range as low as 2.5, and as high as 3".