How to Take Care of Low Porosity Hair: Quick 2025 Tips

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How to Take Care of Low Porosity Hair: Quick 2025 Tips

Low porosity hair slowly absorbs or even resists hair products and moisture. Of course, this may leave you using more products and can make caring for your hair more difficult and expensive than it should be. The good news is that you can take care of your low porosity hair with a few tips and tricks. This article discusses low porosity hair and how to determine if your hair is low porosity while sharing a low porosity hair regimen.

Caring for low porosity hair in 2025 doesn’t have to be overwhelming, even though this hair type often resists moisture and slowly absorbs products. Without the right approach, you may find yourself using more products than necessary, leading to buildup, frustration, and unnecessary expenses. The good news? With the latest techniques and knowledge, you can effectively care for your low porosity hair and keep it healthy all year long.

This guide will help you understand what low porosity hair is, how to determine if you have it, and provide a simple yet effective regimen specifically designed for your hair. From breakthrough product innovations to tried-and-true methods, these tips are tailored to help you achieve better hydration, reduce product waste, and make your hair care routine a breeze.

What’s Low Porosity Hair?

Low porosity hair has closed cuticle (outermost hair layer), which reduces the hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture, leading to product buildup on the hair’s surface. In some cases, this build up will make your hair appear matted and oily.

How to Know if My Hair is Low Porosity?

Knowing your hair’s level of porosity level is the first step to developing a low porosity hair regimen. To know if your hair is low porosity, look out for the following signs:

Hair May Be Too Oily or Too Dry: Your hair may be too oily because products usually stay on the hair’s surface due to the waterproof effect. It may also be too rough and dry because moisture cannot get to the hair’s follicles.
Longer Washing and Drying: It takes longer for water to penetrate the hair cuticles and as such washing may take a while. Furthermore, when water is finally able to penetrate, it takes longer to dry due to the closed-off cuticles.
Hair is sensitive to protein making it appear brittle.
Resistance to chemical treatments like relaxers and hair dyes due to difficulty penetrating the hair roots.
Lower elasticity which may lead to increased breakage

Low Porosity Hair Test

If you cannot determine if your hair is low porosity through the signs above, here are some low porosity hair tests:

Float Test

Put a clean strand of dry hair into a glass of room-temperature water to see if it floats. Emphasis is on clean strands because products, sweat and grease may affect the test’s results. Avoid using hot water too because it may make the hair sink regardless. All in all, if it floats, you have low porosity hair.

Spray Bottle Test

Section a part of your clean hair and spray it with water, if the water just stays on the surface for a while or even rolls off, then your hair is low porosity.

What Causes Low Porosity Hair?

Hair porosity, especially low porosity hair is typically caused by genetics. So, if your hair has low porosity, it is through no fault of yours, its just genetics. Nevertheless, your hair may become more porous with time.

Low porosity hair is common to people of African and Asian descent. For the former, it is because hair is textured, and the latter hair is coarser.

Low Porosity Hair Regimen

Here are the steps to caring for low porosity hair:

Washing and Shampooing

Washing your hair with the right products is a way to care for your low porosity hair. Get a clarifying shampoo as it can be very helpful in clearing product buildup that has matted your hair. With buildup cleared, relevant products can penetrate the hair better.

If you cannot get a clarifying shampoo, you can get a sulphate-free shampoo. Why sulphate-free? Well, sulphates can be quite drying, and this may be harmful to hair that already struggles with water retention. You can also opt for shampoos that contain light moisturizing ingredients.

Regardless of the type of shampoo you choose, you should wet your hair before applying your shampoo for easy penetration.

Conditioning

After shampooing comes conditioning. Opt for a lightweight conditioner preferably water-based, to prevent another onset of product buildup right after your washday. If you cannot get a water-based lightweight conditioner, you can mix anyone with a little bit of water.

Apply your conditioner while your hair is still wet but not soaking wet.

Deep Conditioning

You can deep condition right after conditioning for added effectiveness. However, deep conditioning should not be done as frequently as conditioning – once or twice a week should be enough.

Heat is one of the vital processes of deep conditioning and it is especially effective for low porosity hair. This is so because heat helps open the hair cuticles, making it easier for products and moisture to penetrate. You can use warm water, a steamer, a hair dryer (not too hot), a heat cap or a simple shower cap (after using warm water).

After applying heat to your hair, rinse the conditioner off with cool water (if the conditioner isn’t leave-in). Rinsing with cool water locks the products in the cuticles.

How to Moisturize Low Porosity Hair LOC or LCO?

With low porosity hair, moisturizing and hydration are the priority. There are two major ways to moisturize low porosity hair, and they are as follows:

The LOC Method

LOC stands for Liquid – Oil – Cream. It entails moisturizing your hair with liquid, oil, and cream in that order:

First, you wet your hair using water or a water-based leave-in conditioner to hydrate your hair.
The second step is oiling the hair to lock in the moisture.
The final step is applying cream to further lock in hydration and give a clean finish.

This method is better suited to medium porosity hair.

The LCO Method

The LCO method stands for Liquid – Cream – Oil. It is a moisturization method that starts water followed by cream then oil. It is preferred for low porosity hair by hair care enthusiasts as it is weight-based: the lightest products go in first and the heavier ones later.

To use the LCO method:

Start by wetting your hair or using a water-based conditioner to hydrate your hair and make penetration easier for subsequent products.
Follow it up with an emollient cream to keep your hair lush and soft.
Then cap it all with an oil to lock in the moisture from the first two products keeping your hair shiny and moisturized.

When using either method, use a lightweight product for every step to prevent product buildup. You can do them routinely, ideally twice a week for a start before amping it up if it proves effective.

What to Use to Care for Low Porosity Hair?

Now that you know your hair has low porosity, only use products that are dedicated to moisturizing the hair. Such products must have light moisturizing ingredients like shea butter, jojoba oil, sesame oil, grape seed oil, rosehip oil, sweet almond oil and glycerine.

Other products to care for low porosity hair include:

Clarifying or sulphate-free shampoo
Lightweight or water-based products such as shampoos, serums, conditioners, oils, honey, glycerine, and hyaluronic acid
A treatment mask
Use a non-cotton pillowcase like silk or satin or cover your hair with a silk or satin bonnet to lock in moisture even when you sleep.

Products to Avoid for Low Porosity Hair

You should avoid these products if you have low porosity hair:

Waxes: They can cover the hair further leading to the repelling of hair products.
Alcohols: They can further strip hair that already has a low moisture absorption rate of more moisture.
Silicones: They coat the hair cuticles and block out moisturizing products.
Excessive Amount of Products: Your hair is already prone to buildup so only use the necessary and avoid excess.
Using a cotton pillowcase may do the opposite.

Low Porosity Hair and Protein

Our hair is made up of proteins amongst other chemicals and these proteins are responsible for keeping the strands together on the cortex. While additional protein from protein-based products can be beneficial to the hair, things are a bit different with low porosity hair.

Low porosity hair and proteins do not mix for the following reasons:

Products that contain proteins absorb and block needed moisture from the hair.
Proteins also reinforce the hair cuticles, but low-porosity hair already has a strong cuticle that does not need any reinforcement. As a result, the hair becomes more prone to breakage.

Opt for protein-free products dedicated to water retention or just go for products that have a lower concentration of protein. However, if even the lower concentration of protein is harmful, you may have to steer clear. That said, if your low porosity hair is prone to wear and tear due to a lack of moisture, you might want to use a protein-based product until your hair is back in tip-top shape.

Low Porosity Hair vs High Porosity Hair

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	This may be caused by the environment, chemicals, heat and poor haircare routines.

Final Thoughts

When caring for low porosity hair, the goal is to avoid product buildup while increasing absorption. Shampooing, conditioining, and deep conditioining are helpful in achieving this goal; using the LCO moisturization also comes in handy.