Have you ever checked the porosity of your hair and found out that you have porous hair? I am sure a lot of thoughts must have emerged your way since then.
High hair porosity does have some disadvantages and this might annoy you a little bit. and this disadvantage makes you all question many things. One of the common ones is –
Does porous hair hold color?
Yes, porous hair holds color. But being in the middle it is sometimes in a may or may not situation however it is better at holding color than non-porous or high porous hair.
Right now, it can confuse you and that is why let us learn about porous hair in detail.
Table of Contents
What is porous hair?
Before knowing about porous hair let us learn about what porosity is. Porosity is the ability of the hair to absorb moisture. This depends on the structure of your hair. so, as the porosity of the hair increases the ability to absorb moisture also increases.
Non porous hair are the ones that are newly grown and healthy hair. These hairs keep all the oils and water on the outer side including the hair color. The pigment doesn’t get inside at all even if you have blonde hair the hair will have to be treated really well for coloring.
Porous hair is the hair that gets loosen up due excess usage of harsh chemicals or those who are exposed to heat and sun. Hence, the cuticles loosen up. The protective layer over the hair starts to split. And because of the loosened protective layer all the oil, water and color are easily absorbed by this type of hair.
High porous hair is hair whose cortex starts to weaken, it looks frizzy and weak and can absorb all the oils, water and color very quickly. The hair is damaged in a way that it loosens the amount of keratin in and creates a gap in the hair. split ends are also the effect of high porous hair.
Does porous hair hold color?
Dyeing on porous hair is not a huge task. Your hair will absorb the color just in the right time and will also hold the color properly.
Even though having porous hair is not a good sign, it is a plush situation when you are coloring your hair.
One of the drawbacks of having porous hair is that due to several heat tools or chemical products the texture of the hair becomes uneven due to which some of your hair hold color while some do not.
However porous hair is considered to be best when it comes to hair color.
How does hair color reacts on non-porous and high porous hair?
Non porous hair does not absorb any color. So, if someone has non porous hair he/she has to get their hair treated for getting it colored for perfection. As mentioned above the reason for it is that non porous hair is the newly grown healthy hair which has a protective layer on top. This protective layer does not let any water, oil or color penetrate into the hair and hence it is not able to hold the color.
Now, there is a totally different case with the high porous hair. Color absorbs very quickly in a high porous hair because of the open shaft and loosened cuticle. For this reason, the hair color should not be left on the high porous hair for a longer period.
How to test the porosity of your hair?
There is not a fixed method of testing porosity of your hair. porosity can be tested by various methods. you can test the porosity of your hair very easily at your home by these three simple methods
1. Texture test
For these tests all you have to do is to take a strand of your hair. pinch the strand and move your finger from up to down their length.
If your finger slides easily both upward and downwards without any disturbance then you have non porous hair.
If the finger feels some texture and has mild difficulty in and the movement is not that smooth and you may have porous hair.
If the finger is stuck and can feel a lot of texture and open scales then you have high porous hair.
2. Stretch test
You need about 10 strands of wet hair for this test. This does not mean that you start breaking your hair from the scalp. you can collect your wet strands that shed during washing hair.
Now take a scale or a ruler and stretch the hair against it.
If your hair stretches 30 to 50% and returns to its original length then you have non-porous hair.
In case the hair stretches but does not return back then you have porous hair
In case of high porous hair your hair will not stretch to even 30% and break.
3. Float test
Since porosity is your hair’s ability to let in water, you can also use water to test it. Pull a strand of clean, dry hair off of your hair brush and drop it into a glass of water.
If your hair is NON-POROUS then The hair’s natural oils are trapped inside, letting it float.
In the case of POROUS, the hair lets water in slowly and eventually sinks.
Whereas, if your hair is VERY POROUS: The hair lets water in immediately and quickly sinks.
