 Rene and you watching Beyond Rene today and today we're going to talk all about hair porosity. Hair porosity is one of those words that I've never heard of until I got really involved in this curly hair community and turns out it's a pre- Hair porosity is how well your hair is able to absorb and hold moisture. So why do I need to know about porosity? Well, if you want to know what kind of hair products are going to work for your hair, you're going to have to understand your hair porosity or it's going to be frizzy, your choice. Porosity is usually determined by your genetics, but heat and chemical damage can increase the porosity and change your levels. With that being said, there are three different types of porosity levels. There's low, normal, and high. Normal porosity means your hair is just working out fine, you don't really notice any problems with it, it's just kind of doing its thing, it's normal. But I'm going to really focus on high and low today because that's where the problems lie. Let's figure out what type of hair porosity you have. Starting with low porosity. If you have low porosity hair, that means that your hair strands look like this. All the cuticles are extremely sealed and closed shut, so it's really hard to allow moisture to come in. Here's some signs to let you know if you have low porosity hair. One, products that really absorb into your hair, they kind of just feel like they sit on your hair and you often get a lot of product buildup. Your hair does not absorb hair color very easy, takes a long time to actually change the color of your hair and to do any type of treatment. You might notice water beads on your hair when you do your hair wet. You actually see the water droplets just sitting on your hair or takes a very long time for your hair to get completely wet when you're in the shower. Another sign is that your hair takes hours, if not days to dry. Or if you use a lot of products that are like butters and it's just too thick and leaves your hair oily, it might be too much for your hair because of its low porosity. Now before you go, oh okay, I for sure have low porosity. Let me go over high porosity. If you have high porosity hair, that means your hair strands look like this. The cuticle is way more open so it now can absorb moisture really, really easily, but it does not retain the moisture. Easy in, easy out. High porosity hair is also referred to damaged or highly processed hair because now the cuticles are damaged so they are torn making them more open. You also might notice that your hair tangles extremely easy because all the cuticles are getting cut onto each other. If you have high porosity hair, then your hair dries extremely fast. You put in the moisture and next thing you know, it sucked it all up. If you notice that your hair continuously always tends to get frizzy, could because of high porosity. Or if you use products like lotions and milk and they just seem like they just don't work for you, might not be enough for your high porosity hair. Low porosity hair is also known as protein-sensitive hair, and high porosity hair actually likes the protein. So if you can use products with protein or do like a DIY wash using eggs, your hair will love it. Now with that being said, it still gets kind of tricky. I'm trying to figure out what kind of process you have because you might be thinking, well, my hair does take a long time to dry, but it is often dry and frizzy. So what do I have? Well, there are a couple tests we can do. The first test that you might have heard about is the cup test. The cup test means you take a glass of water, you take a strand in your hair, and you just place it in the water. If your hair is floating, that means that you have low porosity hair. It means the cuticles are sealed, it's not letting any moisture in, so it's not sinking to the bottom. If it's normal hair, it's kind of just in the middle floating, just where it's supposed to be. And if your hair has sunk all the way down to the bottom of the cup, that means it took in the moisture and was able to sink really easy because it was able to absorb the moisture really easy. Now, when I did the cup test, I took a strand in my hair, dropped it in the water, and my hair was just floating, and you're supposed to let it sit there for like two to four minutes, see how long it takes to float. My cup's been sitting there for like two days, and it still is floating. Guess my cuticles are extremely closed. So this is something that is really easy that you definitely can try, but I've also heard mixed reviews about this because technically speaking, our hair does have natural oils and oils float in water. So some say that even no matter what kind of strand you put in there, your hair has oil just gonna float no matter what. And then some people say that depends on the temperature of the water because hot water will open up the cuticles, so then it could sink or cold water could close the cuticles, so it'll float. And some say that it has to be on clean hair. So if your hair has product in it, it might just float because of the product. Another porosity test you could try is the spray test. If you get a water bottle with a spray top and you spray your hair, if you notice there are beads of water just sitting on your hair, then you have low porosity hair. It's not letting the moisture in. It's just kind of sitting there, and it's really hard to moisturize your curls. If you spray your hair and the water instantly absorbs, then your cuticles are open and just ready to take in the moisture, so you might have high porosity hair. And the last test you could do is the strand test. So you take one strand of your hair, and then when you move your fingers up and down, if it feels like smooth and straight, then you might have low porosity hair. But if you go like this and you feel like small little ridges or bumps, then that means your cuticles are open and you have high porosity hair. So now that I've given you all this information, where does your hair lie? Does it seem like it's majority of the low porosity things or majority of the high porosity things? Which one is it? I would literally want you to say it out loud right now. If you're really excited out loud, you're cool. Alrighty, now if you said low porosity, let me tell you some tips to keep in mind that are very important when buying hair products for low porosity hair. First of all, when it comes to deep conditioning your hair, you can use some heat to open up the cuticles. This is why you see a lot of deep conditioning products that says to use like a heat cap or let the product sit under a dryer for a little bit because you need to open up your hair shafts. Now it wasn't until I started watching a lot of YouTube videos that I noticed that some girls have hooded dryers just in their house. I'm like, ain't nobody got a hooded dryer just lying around. Another way to use heat without using like a blow dryer is to wash your hair with hot water, then you're getting your cuticles to open up and then you could also heat up your deep conditioning treatments before you put them on your hair. No, this does not mean to bring out the flat iron, don't get crazy. Products wise, it is important to use lighter products to low-prosy hair. Our hair likes things like argan oil, almond oil, and grapeseed oil. Because our hair does get a lot of product buildup, it is good to use an apple cider vinegar rinse every so often to really cleanse the scalp. And last but not least would be to apply the product to damp, not extremely wet hair. If you have high-prosy hair, then I would say to keep your hair soaking wet because it's gonna suck it up in a couple seconds anyways and apply the product while your hair is soaking wet. If you have high-prosy hair, it's also good to layer your products. Now if you watch my videos, you know I always say I like products that just work on their own. I'm a one product type of girl. But then I do get comments from you guys saying one product is not enough for my hair. And maybe it's because you have high-prosy hair and I have low-prosy hair. So if you have high-prosy hair, you're probably going to want to use a leave-in conditioner, a cream, and a butter. Using all three of those is really gonna give your hair the moisture that it needs. But every hair type is different, so if all three is too much, narrow it down to two. The best thing you could do is just experiment. It's also better for high-prosy hair to just air dry. You don't need any extra help with drying your hair by using a dryer because you know it dries super fast. And opposite of low-prosy, if you have high-prosy hair and you're in the shower, you want to rinse your hair with cold water. You just put all this moisturizing conditioner in your hair and you want it to stay in there. So if you close the cuticles and seal them with cold water, it'll last a lot longer. Product-wise for high-prosy hair, you're gonna want to use heavier products like butters, creams. You also want to use oils like coconut oil, jojoba oil, and aloe vera gel. Aloe vera, aloe vera. So now that you've learned all this information about prosities, time to go out and buy products that work for your specific hair type. And luckily, there are companies like Shea Moisture that actually have products that say low and high-prosy slept right on the front page. What I have here is the Shea Moisture Low-Prosy protein-free shampoo conditioner and leave-in detangler. I am currently experimenting with these and I'm gonna give you a full review in my next video. So if you guys wanna see how these products work for my hair and if they'll work for you, make sure you subscribe, push that little button, come back next Sunday, and I will show you exactly how I apply these products and if they work or not. And if you follow me on Snapchat, you might have already seen me apply these products to my hair because I give you guys all the exclusives in my snap and on Instagram. So follow me at Ms. Bianca Renee and I will see you guys next week. Thanks for watching Bianca Renee today.