There’s more to understand about hair than curl pattern alone. If your hair feels dry even after conditioning, or products seem to sit on the surface without absorbing, hair porosity may be another element you should be paying attention to. Porosity explains how your hair absorbs and retains moisture, and understanding it can transform your routine.
Hair porosity isn’t about having “good” or “bad” hair. It’s more about learning how your strands interact with water, treatments, and oils so you can care for them more intentionally. Once you know your porosity, product choice and routine design become more simple.
How Do I Tell What Porosity My Hair Is?
Hair porosity refers to how open or closed the hair’s cuticle layer is. The cuticle is the outermost layer of the strand, and it acts as a gatekeeper to control how moisture enters and exits the hair. When the cuticle is tightly closed, moisture has a harder time getting in but stays locked in longer. When the cuticle is lifted or damaged, moisture enters easily but escapes just as quickly. This is why porosity directly impacts dryness, frizz, breakage, and shine.
The most accurate way to identify your porosity is through observation. Pay attention to how your hair behaves during washing, conditioning, and drying. If water beads up on your hair in the shower, products feel heavy, or hair takes a long time to fully dry, you’re likely working with low porosity hair. If your hair absorbs water immediately, dries quickly, and feels dry again soon after styling, it has high porosity.
There are simple, well known at-home tests like running your fingers up a clean strand to feel for roughness, or noting how quickly water absorbs that can help confirm what you’re seeing. Just keep in mind that porosity isn’t fixed and that other factors like heat styling, chemical services, and environmental exposure can all increase porosity over time.
What Are Signs of Low Porosity Hair?
Low porosity hair has tightly compact cuticles that resist moisture penetration. While this often results in more smooth, shiny-looking hair, it can also lead to buildup and hidden dryness beneath the surface. Hair that takes longer to get wet, feels coated easily, or reacts poorly to heavy creams is often low porosity.
For this hair type, maintaining a clean foundation is essential. Gentle exfoliation with Cécred’s Clarifying Shampoo & Scalp Scrub helps lift buildup that blocks moisture from entering the strand. Following with Hydrating Shampoo allows hyaluronic-based hydration to absorb more effectively without weighing hair down.
Is Hair That Dries Quickly Low or High Porosity?
Hair that dries very quickly is typically high porosity. Raised cuticles allow moisture to escape rapidly, leaving hair dry, or even brittle, and frizz-prone even shortly after washing. High porosity can happen naturally, but it’s often intensified by coloring, frequent heat styling, or environmental stress. This type of hair benefits from routines that restore both moisture and structure to slow moisture loss.
Is High Porosity Hair More Dry?
Short answer: yes. High porosity hair is more prone to dryness because it struggles to retain moisture. Gaps along the cuticle allow hydration to escape, which can lead to tangling, breakage, and dullness.
Managing high porosity hair requires layering hydration with reinforcement. Cécred’s Moisturizing Deep Conditioner replenishes elasticity and softness, while the Reconstructing Treatment Mask strengthens weakened areas in the hair fiber. Powered by patent-pending Bioactive Keratin Ferment, the mask fills micro-cavities along the cuticle to improve resilience and smoothness without making the hair stiff. Sealing is the final step, and a lightweight oil like Nourishing Hair Oil helps reinforce the lipid barrier and enhance shine.
Is High or Low Porosity Hair Better?
Neither! By no means is porosity a ranking system. Low porosity hair benefits from lightweight hydration and regular cleansing to encourage absorption. High porosity hair needs deeper conditioning, strengthening, and sealing to retain moisture. Both can be healthy, strong, and resilient when cared for properly.
Which Hair Porosity Is Healthy?
The bottom line is that healthy hair exists. Think of porosity as information instead of a label. When your routine aligns with how your hair naturally absorbs and retains moisture, hair feels softer, stronger, and more manageable over time. At Cécred, we define health by the balance of hydrated, flexible, and strong strands with a supported cuticle. Our formulations are designed to work across porosity levels by prioritizing bioavailable ingredients, gentle cleansing, and targeted repair. Technologies like patent-pending Bioactive Keratin Ferment help strengthen hair from within, optimizing performance regardless of how open or closed the cuticle may be.