Help with low porosity

[sharicat]

My hair seems completely non-porous! I wash with hot water and CO in an effort to get moisture in there, and I do a hot turban wrap with conditioner on it when washing, and this improves it slightly, but overall my hair is very dry and I struggle to keep it moisturised. Even if I put anything on it when it's dry, it looks nice for maybe 5 minutes then boom! Dry and fly away again.

Over the past year I have tried cones, no cones, various oils (coconut seems to work best) baby oil, and CO. CO has definitely made the biggest improvement.

Does anyone have any advice? Would protein help? I tried cassia and it had a great effect but only lasted a week! Nothing seems to take :(

[Shona]

I have this same problem, and because of that my hair has always been short and broken and damaged even with no heat use or damaging styles. Just from everyday things like carrying a bag!

I will keep an eye on this post :-)

[annamoonfairy]

Have you ever had your water tested for hardness or other chemicals?

[caadam]

I'll have to second annamoonfairy's question.

Mineral deposits from water in the shower can be a possible issue towards the condition of your hair. I've been dealing with the reality of hard water, too, and I'm WO, so you can imagine how difficult that can be. lol The minerals in my water make my hair feel dry and makes it look frizzy. Despite some tricky effort to pull down sebum onto my length, I have to apply jojoba oil to my length, too, and my ends, or else my hair would look pretty funky.

However, it doesn't exactly solve the problem. The minerals are still building up on my hair, so what I do to solve this is by doing lemon juice rinses in order to remove those minerals. I have to say it works pretty nicely so far. My hair feels lighter, not as heavy as it was for the past two weeks, and it's shiny from the lemon. :)

So there's a method to try right there! You didn't list that, so if you haven't tried it, it doesn't hurt to try it now. :D

[sharicat]

I actually live in an area of Scotland renowned for it's soft water, so I don't think it's that! I clarified with a diluted sod bicarbonate rinse a few weeks ago to see if I had any significant build-up and all it did was dry it out :( Would a chelating shampoo help, I wonder?

It's like it's made of teflon or something!

[lilliemer]

I think I may have the same problem, though I am not sure. When I did the test to run your fingers upward along the hair it squeaked, from looking around elsewhere this seems like it may be a sign of low porosity. My hair responds to moisturizing in much the same way yours does (laughing at it and staying super-dry) so I am also looking for ways to remediate it!

Have you had any luck with SMT? I did one this weekend, i believe it made some difference but I still had to oil afterwards to keep the flyaways down. Perhaps it just needs deep moisture on a consistent basis? I had never done a deep conditioner in my life until this weekend, so I will be sticking with the deep treatments for a little longer before writing them off.

[CurlyMopTop]

I also have the low porosity issue. My hair will not absorb moisture without some kind of heat to help raise the cuticle. I second liliemer on the smt. Clarify your hair first, then smt. Make sure that you wrap a hot towel on your head (on top of the shower cap). Then take a couple of grocery bags and put them on your head and tie them. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you need to keep the heat in. This is how I use to do them (I no longer need them) because I don't own a heat cap. Leave it on as long as you can stand it, maybe even overnight. I say to clarify first because with that particular hair type, coatings from shampoos, conditioners, leave-ins and oils have a tendency to build up on the hair much quicker (it doesn't soak in). The coatings on the hair will prevent the moisture from doing its job. Be careful with your treatments though. Fine, low porosity hair can easily become over moisturized. The reason for this is once the moisture is in, it's in!!! You're not going to loose it like someone with coarse hair would. As far as the frizz goes, try taking a little coconut oil and mixing it with FOTE Aloe gel. Mix in your hand and apply to the length and ends of your hair when it's still damp. If your hair is dry on the ends, make sure to leave a little condish. in on the ends of your hair first. Play with the ratio to get what's right for you. Sometimes less is more for us. Good luck and enjoy! :D

EDT: If you currently use silicones, try getting rid of them. They cause crunchy dry ends within one or two uses on my hair. I can't tell you how many trims I've had because I thought my ends were too dry to save just to find out later that it was just silicone build up. ;)

[Anje]

Have you clarified recently? Buildup can definitely stop moisture from penetrating.

You could try protein -- it works for some people, but I tend to think of hair that is highly porous having more benefit from it. Follow it up with a moisture treatment if you do.

I would suggest switching to warm or lukewarm water instead of really hot, at least to see how it works. Hot water tends to be more drying to skin and hair alike. (Some people insist on washing their hair with cold water, but I'm not sufficiently masochistic to try it, let alone recommend it.)

[heidi w.]

I think you may consider visiting a licensed coloritst hairstylist. Not any ole hairstylist. And have them perform a porosity hair test on you, to find out for sure if you have low porosity in your hair. Don't cut your hair, or let them do anything to your hair; simply have the test performed. And have them show you the how-to of a porosity test. Whatever you do, do not perform a protein hair treatment. Porosity issues and protein hair treatments do not mix well.

I also recommend you read online about low porosity, before proceeding with any ideas. What is your hair type? Is it coarser and a bit wavier, for example? This hairtype tends toward a bit more dryness than well moisturized.

http://hairlyobsessed.blogspot.com/2011/08/low-porosity-hair.html

I googled "hair with low porosity?" and received a couple of pages of hits and began reading.....they overwhelmingly caution against applying protein.....so don't do that. Even if the hairdresser suggests it. Tell the dresser to do more homework, and walk out of the joint...

I think you can find how to do a hair strand porosity test online, too.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

I think I may have the same problem, though I am not sure. When I did the test to run your fingers upward along the hair it squeaked, from looking around elsewhere this seems like it may be a sign of low porosity. My hair responds to moisturizing in much the same way yours does (laughing at it and staying super-dry) so I am also looking for ways to remediate it!

This is not a porosity hair test. It tells you nothing about porosity itself, per se. Sorry to have to tell you that. If hair squeeks after a fresh hairwash, it simply means that all the stuff on the hair is gone. Nothing whatever to do with porosity. You can find how to test the hair's porosity online. It's about soaking a strand in water. Low porosity simply means your hair is poked with holes that just soak up moisture, but there's another adjunct that causes the cuticle to not open and receive conditioner or whatever you apply......


heidi w.

[spidermom]

I have come across several sources that say hot water dries out your hair; lukewarm water is recommended. It sounds like the hot water isn't helping the conditioner to penetrate anyway.

I think I've got the opposite - plenty of porosity.

[PolarCathy]

Huh? I've never heard that low porosity would be a problem. :o :o Isn't it porous hair that is usually dry? Sorry if this is dumb but I'm really confused here.

[heidi w.]

I actually live in an area of Scotland renowned for it's soft water, so I don't think it's that! I clarified with a diluted sod bicarbonate rinse a few weeks ago to see if I had any significant build-up and all it did was dry it out :( Would a chelating shampoo help, I wonder?

It's like it's made of teflon or something!

Chelating nor clarifying will help with low porosity. Do not do these things.
Drying hair out after clarifying is a bit common as that is what will happen if one does not replace what's been removed (such as conditioning), particularly if one neglected to replace what's been removed--that is a solid conditioning of the hair session. That's how hair ends up after clarifying. That's the point. To remove everyting off of the cuticle that's sitting on there.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

Huh? I've never heard that low porosity would be a problem. :o :o Isn't it porous hair that is usually dry? Sorry if this is dumb but I'm really confused here.

Dry hair does not mean one has low porosity. Some hair types are by nature a tad drier naturally. The curlier the hair, there's a tendency for dryness, for example. The most common problem for those with long hair is how to balance out between two extremes, top hair that is a bit more oily than one might like (this area of hair is far more affected than length by sebum production from one's scalp) and length which for most newer folks tends to be dry. This is often the reason that a lot of people end up on hair care boards. How do we fix that, help please.

Porosity issues are a different matter entirely. I recommend seeing a licensed stylist, as already suggested above. There is stuff online. I have never really read anything conclusive on how to fix this problem entirely.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

I also linked in a few low porosity posts, or so I thought....hmmm. let me go and doublecheck.

heidi w.