Is your hair hydrophobic? It may just have tight pores. “Hair porosity is really just about how well your hair can absorb and hold onto moisture and products,” founder and hair expert Anastasia MacKay tells ESSENCE. While high porosity hair can go from drenched to dry within minutes, low porosity hair— a hair type composed of small pores— may have a hard time getting wet or moisturized at all.
“Low porosity hair struggles to absorb moisture because the cuticles are tightly packed, which can lead to product buildup,” MacKay says. Regardless of hair texture or curl pattern, you could have a low porosity hair shaft, which means hair care products are more prone to sitting on top of the hair instead of being absorbed. Because your hair acts as a barrier, your hair care routine may be rendered ineffective from the lack of hair penetration.
Below, MacKay breaks down how to moisturize low porosity hair— and keep it locked in. According to the NIH, a strand of — the cuticle, cortex, and medulla. The outermost layer, the cuticle, contains cells that overlap each other like fish scales.
With low-porosity hair, these “scales” or cells are tightly packed, acting as a barrier that prevents moisture from penetrating the strand. “The tightly aligned cuticles act like a barrier, making it tough for moisture to penetrate, so it often feels like your hair is almost water-resistant,” MacKay says. Although your hair may vary in porosity from strand to strand, the “hair .