Porosity in Curly Hair

I should have high porosity hair, being a curly girl that is.  Curly hair tends to drink moisture.  Funny thing, back almost 15 years ago I can guarantee I had high porosity hair!

Once Upon a Time...

However, now after 9 months of no poo and BRUSHING sebum through my hair, and cleansing only my scalp, I now have normal porosity and some characteristics of low porosity hair.

This is a major success for a curly girl!!!   I attribute this healthy, happy hair to ACV and sebum and even in part to regularly using aloe vera gel.

Take a read if you're interested:

http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/curlchemist-porosity-and-curly-hair/

I'll take this conversation back to the start of my journey...

If you have high porosity hair and you're new with stripped hair (no sebum or added oil) too much water could stress your hair.  The high porosity hair looks like swiss cheese for example, with cups... If they get filled with water daily, they dry out daily.  Plus, the water weighs the hair down, stressing the pores/cups and leaving the hair extremely dry.  This type of hair takes hours and hours to dry and is likely already dry and frizzy with open pores/cuticles.  When you add oil or deep condition, it takes awhile to help combat dryness.

I only know this because I was figuring out why sometimes oil hydrated for me and other times it didn't, and why my hair hated the coconut oil but loved the super penetrating jojoba oil.  And... Why it took 8 hours to dry! ... And why my new no poo curls were kind of limp.

Now that my hair is sebum coated, my hair dries faster, (1 hour) and no longer exhibits these characteristics.  My curls are boingy, my hair is healthy and hydrated.

Update:  After using henna my porosity changed.  Here's an explanation ...The lawsone (dye) of the henna penetrates the hair shaft and bonds to the keratin in the hair. Remember, hair is made up of keratin protein. As the dye bonds to the keratin, this makes the overall hair shaft much stronger and thicker. In this regard, henna bonds to the hair, fills in any gaps in the hair cuticle, and adds a second layer of strength. (Thanks Janet!)