Taking Care of High Porosity Hair in 2025

High porosity hair is prone to breakage, dryness, and tangling, which means it requires extra care and attention. The first step to managing high porosity hair is understanding whether your hair falls into this category.

In this article, we describe high porosity hair, how to know if your hair is high porosity, and share a healthy high porosity hair routine to keep your strands strong, moisturized, and manageable.

Let’s start 2025 with healthy, thriving hair.

What Is High Porosity Hair?

High porosity hair is hair that absorbs water, oils, and generally, moisture. At the same time, high porosity hair is hair that loses moisture pretty fast. Why? Well, the hair cuticles in high porosity hair have multiple gaps and spaces. However, since cuticles help with hair moisture retention, having gaps and spaces prevent them from holding moisture back and this leads to rapid loss.

On the one hand, the rapid absorption of high porosity hair allows products to penetrate easily. On the other hand, the same products can evaporate just as fast they are absorbed.

Causes of High-Porosity Hair

Mechanical damages from combing, and tight hair styling
Chemical damages from hair dyes/coloring, relaxers, perms, bleach
Heat damage from overheating the hair/scalp
Genetics
Environmental damage from ultraviolet (UV) radiation
Harsh products

How to Know if My Hair Is High Porosity?

To confirm that your hair is high porosity, check for the following in your hair:

Frizziness
Dryness
Rapid water absorption
Quick drying (hair dries fast)
Hair absorbs products fast but results usually are off
Easy tangling
Prone to breakage
Dullness due to lack of moisture

High Porosity Hair Test

The characteristics of high porosity hair may sometimes overlap with that of low porosity hair. So, the best way to confirm the porosity of your hair is by taking either one of the tests below:

Float Test

To do the float test, place a clean hair strand (free of products and grease) in water. If the hair strand sinks and sinks fast, it is high porosity. You can take strands from different parts of your hair to test for overall porosity.

Spray Bottle Test

The spray test involves spraying water on dry, product-free hair and seeing how fast the water sinks. If the water sinks immediately or almost immediately, the hair is high porosity.

High Porosity Hair Routine

Incorporate clay treatment into your hair care. It can replace shampoos on some days and can wash and nourish at the same time.
Sleep with a satin pillowcase and bonnet to prevent friction, moisture loss and further damage.
Avoid heating your hair (even hot water) as this is only helpful when you want open pores. With high porosity hair already having enough open pores, heat isn’t helpful at all. If you must use heat, use heat protectors to protect your hair and opt for warm or cool water instead.
Style your hair routinely and less frequently. Frequently making your hair can have adverse effects on hair already prone to breakage. You can braid your hair, have weaves in or pack it neatly. However, avoid tight hairstyles to give your hair room to grow without constant tension and stress.
When detangling your hair, be as gentle as possible. Detangle your hair before washing it with a wide-toothed comb. And if your hair is dry, wet it first before detangling.
Deep condition your hair once or twice a week

What to Use to Care for High Porosity Hair?

Highly porous hair has no issue with moisture absorption but with retention. So, it is best to get products that are oil and cream-based or just generally heavyweight. This is because they stay on longer and help the hair retain moisture.

Use the following to care for your highly porous hair:

Use hydrating and moisturizing shampoos. However, avoid clarifying shampoos since they wash off grease and product buildup and your hair lacks both.
Avoid hair products with sulphates, alcohol, parabens, silicones, and sodium laurate sulphates as they will have a drying effect on your hair.
Limit products that contain humectants like honey, they are hydrating ingredients that may make your hair frizzy. You can go for other types of hydrating ingredients dedicated to highly porous hair.
Opt for products that are formulated for colour or chemically treated hair. They will help you retain your hair colouring if your hair is dyed and will also lower the pH of your hair making for healthier hair.
Use a conditioner that has alpha-hydroxy acid, lipohydroxy acid or any other type of relevant acid that can lower the pH of your hair. The longer you leave the product in, the more effective it is.
Protect your hair from environmental factors like sun and humidity that can exacerbate damage.
Don’t use too many products to prevent product buildup
Trim off damaged, split ends to make room for new healthy hair to grow.

High Porosity Hair Protein Treatment

Hair is made up of proteins called keratins and as such protein treatments are essential when caring for high porosity hair. Protein treatments can help strengthen the loose cuticle and fill up the large gaps thus reducing the porosity of the hair and increasing hair’s elasticity.

However, that protein treatment is of use doesn’t mean that you should use it indiscriminately as excess protein can also lead to brittleness and breakage.

The best way to incorporate proteins into your hair care is by using conditioners and hair masks that are protein-based.

Low Porosity vs. High Porosity Hair

The primary difference between low porosity and high porosity hair is their absorption rate. While low porosity hair resists moisture, high porosity hair readily takes in moisture. The table below compares low porosity hair and high porosity hair, highlighting their differences:

LOW POROSITY HAIR	HIGH POROSITY HAIR
Tight cuticle layer	Gapped or open cuticle layer
Water and product resistant	High water and product absorption rate
Longer drying time	Shorter water retention and fast drying time
Determined by genetics	Can be determined by genetics or may be caused by environment, mechanical, chemicals, and heat damage
Prone to stickiness and heaviness due to product buildup	Prone to fizziness and dullness
More likely to be naturally straight	More likely to be curly, coily, or wavy
Tight cuticle layer	Gapped or open cuticle layer

Final Thoughts

You can detect if your hair is high porosity using the float test or spray bottle test. Then once you’ve confirmed your hair is high porosity, avoid physical stress and chemical stress to it and opt for viscous products when suitable.