I'm in love!!!!!!

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I'm in love with my hair!  I have recently been re-inspired to learn my hair.  Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been natural for 5.5 years and should have things down now, but........still working on it.  However, I'm super excited about having this time now with my hair cut to learn all about my hair.  We all know some of the key needs of healthy  hair include healthy scalp, moisture, moisture, moisture, appropriate trims, and moisture.  So, I have begun my journey.  I began with finding out my hair's porosity by doing the porosity test.  Basically what you do is take a strand of your hair (be gentle because I hurt myself yanking a strand out) and place the strand in a cup of water.  Be sure that the hair is clean and without product.  Allow the strand of hair to sit in the water for about two minutes before checking on it.  

• Low porosity:  If the strand of hair remains afloat in the cup of water then you have low porosity.
• Medium porosity: If the strand of hair sinks to the middle of the cup of water you have medium porosity.
• High porosity:  If the strand of hair sinks to the bottom of the cup you have high porosity.

So what does all this mean and why do we care?  Basically porosity is how open the cuticle (outer layer of your hair) is.  The more closed it is the lower the porosity.  Hair that has low or high porosity is harder to moisturize than hair that has medium porosity and this is why we care.

Hair with low porosity stays closed and makes it difficult for water (or other moisturizers) to enter your hair.  Hair with high porosity stays open and easily allows water (or other moisturizers) to enter your hair and unfortunately to easily leave your hair.  

Okay, so now that you know your porosity how do you fix it?  Well, if you have medium porosity you're doing well and you should keep doing what you're doing.  If you have low porosity you should stay clear of products with low pH as well as heavy oils.  Instead you should use alkaline/basic solutions such as baking soda and light oil if you choose to use oils (ie. jojoba, almond, grapeseed).  If your hair has high porosity you should stay away from alkaline/basic products and use products with a low pH (think ACV), protein rich and heavier sealants (ie. castor oil, shea butter).  

This week I will test out the use of baking soda to rectify my low porosity and report back to you all on the results. 

I hope you found something helpful!

Tootles for now.....