Hair Porosity 101 & 3 Easy Hair Porosity Tests! | BiancaReneeToday 

I wish I could have someone just come & do a hair analysis on me... I start thinking I know my hair but then I don't & feel unsure. The struggle.

"Say it out loud" Me: "i don't know"

Hair will float because of surface tension. If you want to use the hair floating as a method for porosity detection, you need to push the hair down past the surface and see if it floats back up.

Hair porosity is a great tool to use to determine what techniques to use on your hair. Porosity is literally a measure of how porous a thing is. When you think of pores, you think of holes. The strand test is useful because it is a quick way to see how water passes through the “holes” or open cuticles of your hair stand. So if your hair strand takes on the water and goes to the bottom of the cup, it is highly porous, or high porosity. If it floats it has low porosity because the cuticle is not open or porous. Damaged or chemically treated hair is typically highly porous because the processing causes it to damage the cuticle. Although, some folks have naturally highly porous hair, even when it is not damaged. Most naturals will find that their hair is low porosity, this can be a good thing, it means the cuticle is intact and the hair is strong. This can be a bad thing because it can make it hard for nutrients to penetrate the strand. In order for your products to penetrate a low porosity head of hair, you have to manipulate the cuticle with heat. Very simple concept. So unless you are dcing with heat, that product is just sitting there and never really penetrating the strand. For this reason low porosity gals tend to get product build up which can cause breakage. Another thing to consider when doing the strand test: water has a property called viscosity. That means the surface of the water likes to “stick” to itself. So when you do a single strand test, the strand may not be heavy enough to pass through the surface of the water and will seem to float. Do not mistake this for low porosity hair, simply give the strand a gentle push past the surface of the water and then see what it does.

I'm really baffled rn honestly I feel like I have both 😂

I have high porosity. Last week I tried to deep condition, my hair looked amazing the next day, the day after my hair went to being a dry Sahara desert.... sigh

Tip for the water test Poke your hair a little bit until it gets under water. Because if you don't do anything then the water tension will prevent the hair from sinking. :)

You can have high porosity hair without damage. It can actually be just your hair! I was born this way man.

Where my high hair porosity gang at ??

Lmao when she described low porosity I was like oh okay maybe and then she went on to high porosity and I was like “wait, switch!” 😂😂

Now I am HIGHLY confused 😣😣

“Ain’t nobody got a hooded dryer just lying around!” 😂😂😂

Low porosity...... like if u have low porosity hair like me

Low porosity. And giiiiirrrrrlllll...Shea Moisture's Low Porosity line is sent from the GAWDZ themselves. Hallelujah! I feel like I'm waking up to Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" every day since purchasing this line. 3c/3b ON FLEEK! Yas!! I can't keep my hands out of my hair.

I always thought I had low porosity hair. Just did the water glass test and my strand shriveled up and hit the bottom of the glass in seconds!😭 15 years natural and I’ve been wrong all this time! Thanks for the informative video. 👍🏾

My hair floated it the cup but then when i feel a strand of hair i feel ridges, but also when i spray my hair with water i can see water droplets, but also my hair is super dry and frizzy and needs heavier products, but also my hair takes forever to dry. SOOOOOO im just confused

this is so why I love this channel! this video just made me understand why my braids never stay weeks and the roots are just full of frizz!!!! high porosity hair is definitely my hair type! thanks Bianca

I grew up with a hooded dryer in my house, lol.

Ain’t nobody just got no hooded dryer lying around 🤣🤣🤣 But apparently they do 💁🏾‍♀️ ❤️❤️❤️

I’ve heard you should do the porosity tests on freshly washed hair so that the product and oil build up become a non-issue. That way the result may be closer to the truth.

Ugh it's so annoying because I feel like I have both lol

Medium porosity😂 I feel like I have both.

I’m even more confused now . My hair does absolutely all that 😂😂 like I just wanna have cute natural healthy hair ! Not all that extra stuff ☹️

I'm in the transitioning stage and still doing my homework, this helped me alot. Thanks

I have low and high.

I'm naturally curly with high porosity hair. I need a GOOD moisturizer to KEEP my hair curly throughout the day!!

My hair has all the signs of high porosity hair except that when it’s wet (like fully wet not just from light mist. as soon as a decent amount of h20 touches it though- it’s *soaked* soaked.) it usually takes a real long time to fully dry out. Hair washing in the evening is an absolute no-go. Has to be morning or early afternoon

Yeahhh I’m one of those girls with a hooded dryer 😂 found it in my moms shed

You remind me of Melinda Warner from Law and order SVU

I am so excited I found you! you are adorable and informative! I have a 13 year old biracial daughter who had super soft curls until she began hitting puberty a few years ago. she has refused to wear her hair down since because unfortunately we do not live in a diverse area and she does not like the attention her hair gets. I have tried so many product lines over the years and watched videos and read blogs to no real change...my daughter recently has wanted to start wearing her hair down and natural but it is a mess from years of wearing it in a tight bun day & night. we do use the shea moisture line and do apple cider vinegar rinses...after watching some videos recently, I believe she may have protein overload and i believe she has low porosity hair. I have tried to instill in her that her natural hair is beautiful and I want her to feel proud of who she is and love herself. if you have any advice for us, I would be grateful! I am going to have her watch some of your videos too!

This really helps a lot now that I know what accidental products I bought. Turns out, they're all right for my hair and I think it's safe to say I have High Porosity hair. Thanks!

I had zero knowledge about porosity for years and years, but I finally found Briogeo curly cream and use it on WET SQUISHY hair, then immediately follow it with Briogeo heat protection anti frizz. I don't use any heat products, but the sun is hot- hot- hot! I love these products! My hair was low porosity pre cancer treatments, but the curls did come back (with a few odd "whoopies" in my bangs 🙄). It is now very high porosity and the heavier creams work better for my curly pattern. My cousin has coiled hair, and she thinks I am full of it for buying the cream products I do, LoL. This is good information.

I said my porosity out loud and started laughing when you called me cool 😂😂

So my hair floats, has beads when I spray, takes a long time to get fully wet, and it's thick. But it has a bumpy texture and tangles easily so what am I???

This was the BEST explanation of Hair porosity~ Now I actually know what I'm working with! High Porosity all day! Thanks for the info Sis!!! Your hair......#HairGoals~ Beautiful!

You just answered 99% of my questions about my hair. THANK YOU!!!

I am LITERALLY in the middle. Some days I'm high, some days I'm low. I do use Shea Moisture and am currently using the Argan oil and Almond milk smooth and tame shampoo/ conditioner. I also oil my hair once every week; I mean dripping saturation, with a combination of: almond oil, coconut oil, sometimes shea butter, castor oil, black jamaican castor oil, kalonji oil and pure peppermint oil. I leave it in for 1 or 2 days then shampoo and condition. I've also been using a new product: OYIN handmade juices and berries hair tonic as my daily leave-in. I LOVE it! I've been oiling for 2 months and have seen a huge difference in my hair. Oyin I've been using for a week and my hair has never been softer. I've done the ACV rinse once last month and will probably do it again next month.

She has such a great personality. 😁

I think all woman planning on transition to natural should watch this video,I learnt so much in just 10 minutes and will save you a lot on experimenting with products that dont match your hair type

Low porosity it is. Time to try the cold rinse at the end to get rid of the frizz. *still new to curly hair and currently experimenting*

My hair strands are super bumpy but my hair takes hours to air dry and butters make it look so greasy. I'm 3a/b, does anyone else have this problem?

Girl... you literally just gave me everything I need! Like every time a question popped up in my head you just immediately answered them. THANK YOU for doing all the research for me. GOD BLESS YOU CHILD! (btw I totally yelled out "high porosity" when you asked us to... I'm cool. ToT

This makes so much sense. I’ve notice that I have an easier time washing my hair when I use really hot water. I’m pretty sure from one of the tests that I have low porosity. Thank you so much this video was so helpful

My hair soaks up moisture like a sponge, takes forever to dry and it floats in the middle of the water, I'm pretty sure my hair is medium porosity.

Wow, instant followed and subscribed!! You have no idea how much this has helped me!!!!! 😭 I've learned so much about my hair from just this video. EVERYTHING MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW. To products, applying, etc. Thank you times a thousand. Forever subscribed! Can't wait to hear more!

You look so pretty in the thumbnail B😍

Wow. I thought I was high porosity and I’ve done the float test twice. But apparently that’s not reliable. I noticed I was getting a lot of product build up recently and the thicker products would slightly work but then if I reapplied it , there came the build up. So i tried spraying my hair with water. My ends took it in a little but the rest of the hair just had beads of water sitting there. 😳😳 this explains so much! Thanks Bianca!!

I knew it! I have a patch of hair directly in the center front of my hair that is a completely different texture than the rest of my hair. Its smoother and when I do braid outs or twist outs, it doesn't hold the curls easily. It comes out kind of wavy curly and looks really smooth. I tried the strand test just now where u go up and down on the strand with hair from the front and hair from the rest of my hair and the hair in the front was really smooth while the rest has the bumpy feel. So I have low porosity in the front part and the rest I think is high porosity. Its good to know the reason y that hair is different but now I have to invest in protein treatments and stuff to try to fix the rest of my hair😭 I barely have enough money to get the little products I do have🥺

I have like, pieces...? Like, individual curls with their own porosity

I’m pretty sure my hair is high porosity :/ moisture in, moisture out.

My strand of hair actually, not only sat on top of the water, the little part of the strand that was below the water had water droplets/bubbles on it! (yikes, plus when I run my fingers along the strand of hair, its totally smooth, unless there is probably a single strand knot at the end. Talk about closed hair shafts). All this time I thought I had High porosity hair. The one good thing I was doing, was using an apple cider vinegar rinse each week, prior to washing/cowashing my hair, to cleanse all the product build up from my hair weekly. Thanks for this video. Its very helpful!

About how fast or slow the hair dries, I think temperature plays a huge part in that. When I am in the UK, my hair takes soooo long to dry. In Nigeria, it literally dries faster than I can say my ABCs. I washed my hair today (in Nigeria), it took only a couple of minutes to dry, the temperature was 39°c. I believe people living in tropical regions would agree.

High porosity , I use a lot of different oils. creams etc. Coconut and kukui oils work great. I stay away from any products that contain alcohol, mineral oil and sulfates.

2:22 The way I checked off everything on that list. My hair has all that. 😭😂 Now I know what porosity my hair is and what to do with it now! So thanks for the video! 😄

Your the bestess Bianca !!!! I’ve let my hair grow out, I’m naturally curl 2c curl. I knew nothing about curly hair and you have taught me so much!!

I liked this video, not because it answered the question about porosity, but because it posed the question. Most of know and have experienced that a hair product that works wonders on one person does not work at all on us. I think porosity may be one of the crucial elements. I also feel that the porosity of my hair varies with the health of my hair. As I watched the video I remembered times when I was getting dominican blow outs to the point I felt I had no porosity. And other times when I was keeping my hair in braids when it seemed extremely porous. It appears that the question of porosity is a good way to gauge the health of your hair and the products you should use.

I am high porosity but heavy products are a NOOOO cuz I’m also fine hair low density lol the struggle

Your hair looks lovely. Great, bouncy curls! Thank you for this info.

I did mine, I have not washed my hair in three days as of right now and it just laid on top of the water! So then I washed the two strands I used from different sections of my scalp, with my Shea Moisture curl and shine shampoo, rinsed them off, put them back in the bowl of water and now parts of the strands are at the bottom of the bowl and parts of the strands are in the middle just floating, not sitting on top like it was! So I would wash your hair before trying this💖 #curlyhairforlife💓😍

Wow I've been a little confused about this whole thing because each time I put my strands in water it'd do something different...now I am 99% sure I'm high porosity. My hair tangles like crazy, it absorbs products so well but gets dry after 2 days. I used to be a swimmer and I'd straighten occasionally but I do think most damage is from the pool. It's getting better though!!! My hair is getting more and more normal as time goes on. Yippee! Only thing that doesn't fit is my hair takes for freaking ever to dry....but maybe just cause I have a lot.

When she was describing high porosity test I was like “Yh that sounds like my hair” then I did the cup test and my hair was floating on top of the water 😭

Honestly as soon as I think I’ve figured my hair out the next minute I’m questioning it all over again.

Thank u i just subbie to u. Never saw u before today. I was glue to WATCHING u. Trying to learn all i can for my very kink , dry, hair. I have grown it out for ten years & am so tempted to put in a perm. I have bee. Tidying my hair up for 10 years with scarfs. Now i am ready to wear it out. grace to all

This is the best video on curly hair that I've seen. I am definitely low porosity.

I feel like I have both so I’m just gonna combine.

After all that I'm still confused, I have to spray my hair with water many times before it gets wet so is that low porosity?but my hair dries pretty fast I think in about a hour 1/2, My hair is always frizzy though so I still don't know

No questions on my part! I definitely have low porosity hair! My "virgin" hair (that's supposed to take color very easily) ... didn't, even my hairdressers complain that my hair takes *forever* to dry, it's difficult to get my hair completely wet to wash it. Thanks for the tips!

Thank you so much... I finally found out what me and my daughters hair is... I'm high with my 5 year old and my teenagers are low.... I appreciate this so much... ❤❤❤❤💯💯💯💯💯

When she said “heat damage can increase porosity” well lmao I have a high porosity

My hair is normal porosity. It has always taken color and (curly) perms well, so... A lot of people these days claim to be low porosity, but that cup test is way inaccurate. If your hair has been permed in the past and it took the perm well, or the color, then there you go, it's normal porosity.

We had a hooded dryer growing up even though we were low-income. It was a hair-care regimen staple. When I lived in a dorm one of the first things I did for my hair was purchase a hooded dryer. It was the natural thing to do. Now I just use a heat cap 🤷🏽‍♀️

I think I’ve learned that at this moment, my hair is half and half. My ends are damaged from YEARS of dye, and bleach. Whereas the roots and upper midsection don’t have that type of damage. Trying the last two tests on both sections, I’d say my hair is primarily low porosity, however the ends while water beads, it absorbs faster than the rest of my hair, and dries faster than the rest, no matter the method.

SM Low Porosity line was horrible for my hair. The shampoo STRIPPED MY HAIR (in my Yuri voice) and the conditioners did not condition even with sitting under the dryer. I guess it works for some body but not for me. In fact SM products do not work on my hair AT ALL.

Thank you for this BOMB video ! Thanks for being to the point and very precise

It takes me 20 minutes to blow dry my hair but 3 hours for my hair to fully air dry. I have thick or voluminous hair, which has a lot of frizz. When I try and use a little bit of lotion (on the ends or a little bit higher than the ends but not roots because my hair gets oily easily) It stays frizz-less for like a minute then goes back to being frizzy. I use to have super super fine hair. My hairstylist would always say your hair is so pretty and fine. Then I got older and my hair is not fine anymore well it's not really dense. My hair does not hold that much curl either. You could put the tightest curls in my hair then in 3 hours, they would fall out. My mom would curl my hair (using a 1-inch barrel) then spray it with hairspray and in 20 minutes they would fall out. I could go 2 days without washing my hair before my hair gets oily at the roots. I honestly don't know which one I am. I feel like I am both but I lean more towards the low porosity side.

i have a hooded dryer....was definitely needed when I wore dreads (for 10 years) -- took forever to dry. Cut it off about 18 months ago, but I still love to use my hooded dryer. Best $100 bucks ever!

Definitely high porosity!!

The hair on top of my head and sides are high porosity but the back of my head is low porosity it’s the worst

I've tried to learn about this stuff before but it's been too confusing. You explained it all this so well! Thanks so much! 😍😃

I definitely have high porosity hair! Now I'm 100% for sure. I met every single one of the high porosity test. Now I can take better care of my hair. Thank you! So now I'm going to go give my self a good hydrolyzed protein treatment!

Im so confused! My hair floats when I do the water test, but I feel ridges and bumps on my strands. My hair dries quickly too but I also see water beads sitting on top of my hair. Hellllp? Lol

Well I'm confused. My hair dries really quick when I wash it. It's smooth to touch, but floats on top of the water in the hair porosity test. I'm not sure of I am low or high porosity.

Took me several months and mainly this video to figure out my hair is high porosity. I didn't think it was low but based on how she explained everything I'm now completely sure it's high.

I just subscribed because you were informative, humorous, and pretty!!!

Im so confused 😭😭 my hair is just squeaking when i run my fingers over it! I feel some ridges but not on my whole head.

I'm sorry gurl but the reason why your hair was floating was because of the water surface tension even the most high porosity hair would have floated on there when you lay it on there like that so u gotta dunk it in

Thank you for breaking this down I'm new to all this and want to get back to being consistent with the maintenance of my hair as I've been natural for years and love it, again thank you!

High porosity! I couldn't even wait to finish the video I paused, pulled out a few strands and did the water test. It sank right in 😀. Thank you it has really been helpful info!

I feel the ridges and bumps but the water is beading in my hair.... SOS

I feel I have a mixture of low and high. My hair takes 4 hours to air dry and its only above the shoulders, when I spray water it sits there or drips. But in the shower it gets wet really fast it loves coconut oil but if too much then it gets greasy and it holds only up to 2-3 days before needing to wash and product build up. It feels like the roots are greasy and the ends dry, previously one product was enough for me and that was coconut oil, now it takes 3 products for the same results! So where do I stand?

This video helped so much! I think I'm a Low to medium porosity. I have been seeing girls on youtube put on a bunch of gel into their hair and when I tried that it worked okay be after only a few days my hair felt so grows. I also can't stand putting my products on soaking hair damp hair seems to be better. Or if I put a product on my hair in sections like I see some girls do I can get weighed down too. When I did the water test for my hair most of it sat on the water but like one strand sank a bit. Thank you!!

Wait.....I love the work you're doing and I'm only one video in....🥺🥺🥺🥺 I got so overwhelmed when people started mentioning porosity when I was researching bleaching my hair I got scared cause I didn't know, THANK you for demystifying!

Thanks for the video! I have a question: My thick hair does exactly as you said for low and high porosity hair. Low: The butters I put on it just sit on top and makes it extremely oily and takes hours to dry that up. High/ my hair tangled easily within strands and I have to use oil to detangle the ends. It also dries water out super fast. That said, how would I know what type of porosity hair I have if it falls between these two? Also, my wash and gos have been wash and no’s lol probably b/c of the porosity thing. My hair is super curly wavy where the back curls perfect but the front looks like leaves of a willow tree 🤷🏾‍♀️

This was so helpful! Thank you! As soon as I had a question, she answered it!

I know the video is older, but it helped me a lot! I now know I have high porosity hair. No wonder my hair loves the Shea Moisture Jamaican black castor oil leave-in. No more breakage and it grew about 5 inches this year! It pays to know your hair. Oh, I have the bumpy ridges on hair strand. Like you said it loves protein as well.

I have very low porosity😂 If I'm in the pool and go under water I can come back up and my hair will still be dry!

I bought a hair steamer for my high porosity hair. I also use distilled water and vinegar when shampooing and steaming my hair...stopped doing the tap water over a month ago; the changes are noticeable. Before, my hair would go stiff and dry, even after a conditioning and application of anti-frizz serum. My hair would look like a dead squirrel's tail, after a day. Now, my hair stays smooth, and lustrous. I don't even have to put it in a ponytail or cap at night.

You are sooooo on the point with all the facts about low density hair. I can't speak on the high porosity. But either way, thanks for the info. Great video 👍🏽

I feel like I have low porosity hair. I have been trying to grow my hair out for years and it never seems to get any length. Do you have any tips on hair growth?

Is it possible to have low porosity on top and high on the bottom area??