Curly Biracial Hair Curly Hair Care

Low Porosity Hair: A Secret to Healthy Biracial Hair

low porosity hair care on biracial hair

I can’t even tell you how many hours I’ve poured into learning how to care for biracial hair… but it’s a lot! I’m not complaining, though: my kids have the most beautiful curls and making sure they grow up loving their mixed hair is worth every minute. In addition to having a curly hair routine that focuses on moisture retention, products that are good for them and styles and braids that retain length, there are a few other unique lessons in this journey of multiracial kids.

Learning hair types and curl patterns aren’t the only ways to healthy biracial hair for our mixed kids! Did you know there’s a thing called Hair Porosity that we also need to be mindful of? Here is everything we know about low porosity hair, including hair porosity definition, characteristics, how to test hair porosity and changes to our mixed hair care routine to properly moisturize low porosity hair. Pull up a chair, pour a glass of juice and get ready for a bunch of curly hair talk!

What is Low Porosity Hair?

As a mom to multiracial children, I’m excited by all the new ways to understand and care for my mixed girls hair. All the great information out there to properly care for biracial hair is just one reason I love the natural hair movement! I didn’t always understand how porosity impacts textured hair until recently. Once I started learning more, we made a few changes to our routine and saw benefits right away. So if you’re wondering what is hair porosity, here it is in a nutshell…

The most helpful hair porosity definition is also pretty simple: porosity is how well your hair is able to absord and hold moisture.

There are 3 types of porosity – low, medium and high – and yours will determine the best curly hair care products and regime for you. The structure of the outer layer of your hair is what determines how porous your hair is. Low porosity hair has a tight cuticle layer, making it difficult for moisture to penetrate (and escape). High porosity hair is the opposite – it has gaps in the cuticle, allowing moisture to easily pass in… and out. My mixed kids both have combinations of normal to low porosity hair, meaning the hair cuticles are closed against the shaft allowing less moisture (such as water and conditioners) to be absorbed.

curly hair on multiracial kid with low porosity hair

5 Low Porosity Hair Characteristics

So what does low porosity look like in mixed hair? Here are 5 signs of low porosity hair:

  1. Looks healthy but lacks elasticity+volume: This is my girl all the way! Her hair is super healthy (and actually has plenty of volume), but the shrinkage is real. Once wet, her hair is easily 5 inches longer.
  2. Takes a long time to get wet/absorb water: hair takes a long time to get drenched and water droplets bead on the hair.
  3. Takes forever to dry: once its wet, low porosity hair takes forever to dry! Whenever we do a protective style in her biracial hair (like braids or twists), it’s often still wet even after a full day.
  4. Product build-up: when a product is applied to typical low porosity hair, it just “sits” on the surface vs absorbing it.
  5. Frizz: low porosity hair will be frizzy because of lack of moisture. My daughter has a full head of mixed hair where you can find all variations of high and low porosity strands of hair. The hair at the hairline is less porous (and has a different curl pattern_ then the hair in the back. 24 hours after wash day with deep conditioning, I can tell exactly which sections contain less porosity than others.

The Hair Porosity Test

Taking a hair porosity quiz might be fun but learning how to test hair porosity with one of these simple methods is just the beginning! The most common signs of low porosity hair are decent ways to figure out your hair type, but those of us with mixed race families know that nothing is ever that black and white.

In our household, there are three heads of curly hair and more hair types than you can imagine. In terms of porosity, my curls are high/medium, my boy’s curly hair is medium/low and my daughter has varying levels of low porosity hair. I did each of the three hair porosity tests on all of us, but not one was completely straightforward. Basically, curly hair is as unique as the head it sits on! Use these tests and the research you learn, in combination with your experience and intuition with your curls, to inform any adjustments to your mixed hair care routine or the products you use.

I made up this porosity chart to help us remember what to look for! Here are the three tests below…

#1 Water Cup Test: Drop a strand of clean hair that has been shed (from a brush, etc) into a glass of room temperature water. Making sure the hair is clean is important because any oils or products previously applied to the hair will impact how this test works. Watch it for a minute. If the hair floats, your hair is low porosity. If it sinks immediately, you have high porosity hair. And if it slowly sinks, you are a medium or normal porosity level.

#2 Strand Test: Run your fingertips over a single strand of completely stretched curl. If your finger moves easily up and down and the hair shaft feels strong and smooth, you’re low. With high porosity hair, you’ll be able to feel the cuticles as you slide up and down. Use this test on various parts of your hair will your curl types differ.

#3 Spray Bottle Test: Spring sections of your hair and see how it absorbs (or doesn’t absorbs) the water. Quick absorption indicates high porosity hair. When you can see water droplets “sitting” on top of the hair, your curls might be low porosity.

hair porosity test with biracial hair

Our New Low Porosity Hair Care

When it comes down to it, learning how to fix porous hair is about moisture retention. Like I tell my little girl all the time, “moisturized hair is healthy hair and healthy hair is beautiful.”

However, adopting a low porosity hair regimen has meant changing up our routine in a couple significant ways. We’ve learned how to moisturize low porosity hair using, wait for it…. heat. Yes, you read that right: HEAT.

Especially with kids, heat isn’t a common suggestion… but it makes sense! We now use only warm water in the shower and because our bathroom is small, it naturally gets quite steamy. Using heat and steam to open the cuticles allows moisture to be absorbed easier. I’m now in the market for at-home hair steamers to improve our deep conditions. If you have one you LOVE, please let me know! Some people also use hair dryers, but we’re still a too young for all that.

We’ve also started to warm conditioners by sitting the bottles in hot water for 1 minute before application.

This has made the biggest difference! We’re currently testing the Shea Moisture Low Porosity product line and will link our review here when it’s live in the next week. These photos were taken on wash day using Shea Moisture and a styling product. Her hair is about 80% dry here, but the curl definition is already super promising!

Lastly, we also changed our schedule for how often to wash low porosity hair. Whereas before we washed less frequently, we’ve learned that product build up is a serious issue for hair that is prone to porosity issues. We wash once/twice a week now and use apple cider vinegar as a cleanse when the hair feels stiff and less elastic.

Our Best Low Porosity Products for Curly Hair Post is HERE! All our favorite products for low porosity hair and our multiracial kids in one article.

Oils for Low Porosity Hair

Lastly, we needed to understand how our curly hair products impacted results. Why waste good money on hair products if they just sit on top of your hair and don’t get soaked in?! In general, the best oils for low porosity hair are lightweight ones like grapeseed and Argan oils. Coconut oil is a heavy oil and may not work to moisturize your hair.

Hair milks and light creams are also good products to try with low porosity hair. It might be time to rethink your leave-in conditioners.

We also learned that it was imperative to be mindful of the amount of protein was in our hair products. Low porosity hair naturally contains too much keratin protein and is resistant to moisture. They are “protein-sensitive”. By adding additional protein to the hair, it can become stiff and brittle causing breakage. Heavy deep conditioners are the worst for us, too.

This video from Abena of Embrace Natural Beauty is the best representation of my daughter’s hair and our hair routine (maybe one day we’ll do our own video! Ha!). My daughter’s hair absorbs water exactly like Abena’s and we also have to section and squeeze the same way to get the hair completely wet. Separating hair into small sections is key to ensuring low porosity hair receives moisture. Abena’s comparison of warmed vs room temperature conditioner was AMAZING and totally convinced me the extra step was necessary. I also learned about “using force” to force definition. Check it out…

Lessons In Biracial Hair

The moment I gave birth to my mixed girl, I dedicated myself to learning and teaching her about healthy, curly hair. I’m a curly girl too, but my mom (with straight hair) never took the time to learn how to care for my hair and I’ve only learned to embraced it as an adult. I love my mom, but I want better for my multiracial children.

So excited to finally share our best low porosity products for our little ones….

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