Low Porosity Support Thread

[faithVA]

Last night I final rinsed with warm water and I must say I am pleased. My strands felt smooth when they normally feel roughed up after cool water rinsing.

You have always rinsed with cool water? Interesting! So are you going to stay with the warm water rinse?

I haven't figured out why my hair feels rough after a cool rinse or after it cools period. Whether my hair is heated by my steam cap or my warm water it is smooth. BUt once the cooler air hits it, it feels rough.

 

[divachyk]

@faithVA, I will stick with warm water for now. I've always read rinsing with warm water is better for low porosity. I have tried it periodically without considering how my hair felt thereafter. This time I really paid attention to how my hair felt. My normal shed hairs (after a cool water rinse) feel rough when running my finger along the strand. My sheds last night felt softer/smoother. I'll continue to monitor for a month before adapting this permanently into the regi.

I am unsure why your hair feels rough with cool water/air in general. Are you getting your LIs applied before the hair dries?

 

[LightEyedMami]

2 days ago i decided to be lazy and do a "dry deep conditon" and ...It was horrible it felt like i might as well had poured my contioner down the drain because it did NOTHING!!...I was able to get some moisture into it by spraying down with warm water, and leave -in then sealing w/ a little bit of hair butter and baggying over-nght before i twisted my hair yesterday . Well i learned i can never dry condition again...

 

[faithVA]

@faithVA, I will stick with warm water for now. I've always read rinsing with warm water is better for low porosity. I have tried it periodically without considering how my hair felt thereafter. This time I really paid attention to how my hair felt. My normal shed hairs (after a cool water rinse) feel rough when running my finger along the strand. My sheds last night felt softer/smoother. I'll continue to monitor for a month before adapting this permanently into the regi.

I am unsure why your hair feels rough with cool water/air in general. Are you getting your LIs applied before the hair dries?

When I say cools I am talking about within a few minutes of taking the water off of it. So by the time I get out of the shower and dry off, my hair is cool and my hair feels rough. I had the same experience when I steamed. By the time I moved from one room to another to rinse, my hair felt rough. My hair didn't feel wonderful after steaming like others reported.

I do get my leave-ins on before my hair dries. And I usually will sit under my heat cap after applying to open my cuticle back up.

 

[faithVA]

2 days ago i decided to be lazy and do a "dry deep conditon" and ...It was horrible it felt like i might as well had poured my contioner down the drain because it did NOTHING!!...I was able to get some moisture into it by spraying down with warm water, and leave -in then sealing w/ a little bit of hair butter and baggying over-nght before i twisted my hair yesterday . Well i learned i can never dry condition again...

I've never gotten this to work yet either. If you do try it again, perhaps try it with heat and see if that makes a difference.

 

[divachyk]

faithVA, my hair cools down quick too. I keep a plastic cap over my head while walking from the steamer to the shower. That helps to retain a little bit of heat. As for coming out of the shower, do you ring your hair dry or do you let it stay sopping wet? When I struggled the most with my porosity, I let it remain sopping wet, covered by a plastic cap, until I dried off. I then removed the cap and applied my LIs while my hair remained sopping wet. This helped me tremendously. Now, I can squeeze out the drippies in one section, apply LIs, move to the next section, squeeze drippies, apply LIs, etc without my hair experiencing issues. The thought of applying on sopping wet helped the hair retain as most moisture as possible.

 

[divachyk]

@LightEyedMami, dry DCing is not intended to replace my DC step post-shampoo. I dry DC when cowashing. When shampooing, I will occasionally pre-poo with oils to combat the effects of shampoo. I have some conditioners that I'm not in love with that I just might dry DC with pre-shampoo but I definitely will still DC post-shampoo. The one thing I do like about dry DCing is that my hair doesn't repel water as much when I start to rinse/wash. I often dry DC without heat but I will keep a plastic cap on for 30 mins.

 

[faithVA]

@faithVA, my hair cools down quick too. I keep a plastic cap over my head while walking from the steamer to the shower. That helps to retain a little bit of heat. As for coming out of the shower, do you ring your hair dry or do you let it stay sopping wet? When I struggled the most with my porosity, I let it remain sopping wet, covered by a plastic cap, until I dried off. I then removed the cap and applied my LIs while my hair remained sopping wet. This helped me tremendously. Now, I can squeeze out the drippies in one section, apply LIs, move to the next section, squeeze drippies, apply LIs, etc without my hair experiencing issues. The thought of applying on sopping wet helped the hair retain as most moisture as possible.

Thanks. Right now I am doing the CG method so I am applying conditioner on soaking wet hair. I'm not using any other leave-ins.

In the past I have tried both but I don't really remember my results. When I started using the heat cap, I started apply LIs to my damp hair because it soaked in better. I would have to go back and revisit each in the future to see if I notice a difference.

 

[divachyk]

In the other porosity thread, I asked if your low porosity hair tangles. Some responded with yes. I've been trying a some different things these past few wash days in an attempt to get a handle on detangling and the breakage resulting from my detangling sessions.

-Place hair in 4 sections
-Applied oils (various based on what's handy)
-Prepoo with oils under heat cap for 30 mins
-Spritzed hair with Mane n Tale detangler
-Detangled hair

Pre-shampoo Detangling:
The mane n tale detangler really allowed me to navigate through my hair with minimal breakage. I was very impressed.

Washing:
I braided the 4 sections of hair before shampooing. Normally braids make my hair knot up when washing but this time I didn't keep the braids in while washing. I unraveled the braid with being super careful to keep that section separated into 3 sections (the 3 sections of the braids). After washing, I braided the hair back up and moved through all sections with the same method.

DC and LIs:
Used the same method for applying DC and LIs as I did for applying shampoo.

Post-shampoo Detangling:
I unraveled the braid and detangled the 3 sections separately. Used same method for all 4 sections.

This method really helped to minimize tangles and breakage. A bit time consuming but well worth it.

 

[lamaria211]

Question for all you porosity experts: If you have high porosity hair that means after you wash your hair stays wet much longer? Or is that low porosity?

 

[Blairx0]

Thanks for the detangle tips. I find some of my knots come from having such fine hair. I am giving up shower detangling as a result and hoping that detangle pre shower will reduce knots and shedding.

 

[Blairx0]

Question for all you porosity experts: If you have high porosity hair that means after you wash your hair stays wet much longer? Or is that low porosity?

That is Low porosity hair from my understanding. My hair takes about a day and a half to air dry, so I treat is as low porosity.

 

[lamaria211]

That is Low porosity hair from my understanding. My hair takes about a day and a half to air dry, so I treat is as low porosity.

Thanks for answering, one more question
So you wouldnt use Roux PC right?

 

[divachyk]

Thanks for answering, one more question
So you wouldnt use Roux PC right?

lamaria211, correct - Roux PC is not for those with low porosity.

 

[divachyk]

Anyone have a leave in and daily moisturizer they simply cannot do without as a low porosity head? Just curious to see what else is out there.

 

[FoxxyLocs]

In response to the detangling question - that was one of my main issues with being natural. It used to take me 3-4 hrs to detangle my hair. I switched to seamless combs, which made a big difference both in length of time and the amount of hair I was losing with each detangling session.

I tried using an aloe vera juice and coconut oil prepoo, which did make it easier to detangle (cut my time down to about 30 minutes), but it was very messy. Now I detangle by putting lots of conditioner on my dry hair and combing with my wide tooth seamless comb. This also takes 30 minutes, but is less messy and easier to do because I don't have to mix anything. I use Suave coconut conditioner because it has lots of slip. I detangle in 4-6 sections and braid or twist each section after combing. Then I shampoo and DC.

 

[faithVA]

As a low porosity head, the one thing that I have found interesting about my hair is that my hair isn't hard to detangle if it requires detangling at all. It is something I can't really explain. If my hair is tangled which it is if I do a puff or do a mini twists out, if I section my hair off and let water run on it. By the time I DC, cowash or whatever there isn't anything to detangle.

Now my ends on the other hand, I don't care what I do with them. If I finger detangle, detangle with a comb, DC, cowash, twist the ends they will still be stuck together. They cling together like saran wrap clings to itself

It is the weirdest thing.

 

[Evolving78]

Anyone have a leave in and daily moisturizer they simply cannot do without as a low porosity head? Just curious to see what else is out there.

Keracare leave-in. it is a creamy, but light. i also really like CON Argan oil leave-in. it aborbs right away. i can use it on dry hair too and it doesn't leave my hair damp.

i am sticking to finger detangling after rinsing my conditioner and then run through it with a detangling comb.

 

[MaraWithLove]

faithVA that sounds so much like my hair (in regards to detangling and such) and yes my ends have stuck together before! My hair is rarely truly tangled, save for the occasional ssks/knots (usually near my crown or side for some reason). Another thing I've noticed about my hair is that the crown is the thirstiest part and also the section of my hair which will dry the fastest-particularly if I don't take a mirror with me when conditioning/moisturizing that part.

 

[divachyk]

Keracare leave-in. it is a creamy, but light. i also really like CON Argan oil leave-in. it aborbs right away. i can use it on dry hair too and it doesn't leave my hair damp.

i am sticking to finger detangling after rinsing my conditioner and then run through it with a detangling comb.

@shortdub78, which Keracare...I checked Amazon and there appears to be more than one. I finger detangle in spells. I have good intentions to keep with it but it's too time consuming.

ETA: Ladies, do you glob product on our use pea size amounts?

 

[faithVA]

@faithVA that sounds so much like my hair (in regards to detangling and such) and yes my ends have stuck together before! My hair is rarely truly tangled, save for the occasional ssks/knots (usually near my crown or side for some reason). Another thing I've noticed about my hair is that the crown is the thirstiest part and also the section of my hair which will dry the fastest-particularly if I don't take a mirror with me when conditioning/moisturizing that part.

Yes the crown is very thirsty For me it is the area that has the least defintion. It is very wiry. The shrinkage is the most. And it breaks easily. I have been working on this section for a while.

 

[Evolving78]

@shortdub78, which Keracare...I checked Amazon and there appears to be more than one. I finger detangle in spells. I have good intentions to keep with it but it's too time consuming.

ETA: Ladies, do you glob product on our use pea size amounts?

it is the leave-in conditioner. i have a small bottle that has lasted since i bought it last year in September. i use about two pea size amounts. it now comes in the gold bottles (new packaging) mine has a pump on it, but i get mine from a professional beauty supply.

 

[mg1979]

faithVA that sounds so much like my hair (in regards to detangling and such) and yes my ends have stuck together before! My hair is rarely truly tangled, save for the occasional ssks/knots (usually near my crown or side for some reason). Another thing I've noticed about my hair is that the crown is the thirstiest part and also the section of my hair which will dry the fastest-particularly if I don't take a mirror with me when conditioning/moisturizing that part.

Yes the crown is very thirsty For me it is the area that has the least defintion. It is very wiry. The shrinkage is the most. And it breaks easily. I have been working on this section for a while.

Yep same hear. Crown & edges are dry & wiry. My hair does get tangled but I don't think as bad as some people's that say it takes over an hour to detangle.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[Blairx0]

I really like the darcy's daily leave in it is watery so I can just let my hair drink it up

 

[mg1979]

i am glad it is working out for you! you sure you have low porosity and not high? because that stuff would just cause me to have more dryness. it is full of aloe vera.

I did the hair analysis plus I have all the characteristics of low porosity hair.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

Now that we're back from vacation I wanted to respond further...I wonder if there's something else in Kinky Curly other than the aloe that moisturizers because my hair doesn't seem to respond well if I put straight aloe vera gel or juice in it.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[faithVA]

Now that we're back from vacation I wanted to respond further...I wonder if there's something else in Kinky Curly other than the aloe that moisturizers because my hair doesn't seem to respond well if I put straight aloe vera gel or juice in it.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

It could be the marshmallow root and/or the slippery elm. Both of those are softening agents.

 

[MaraWithLove]

divachyk I use globs. My hair (no matter how many sections it's divided into) will laugh hysterically at a pea-size amount!

 

[Ogoma]

My coarse strands are extra wiry today . I played around with too much protein. For whatever reason my hair refuses to differentiate between softening proteins and strengthening proteins. The conditioner had hydrolyzed Quinoa in it that I thought is a softening protein, but like wheat protein it made my hair super wiry, elastic-feeling, and frizzy. I am definitely not doing henna for a few weeks. Hopefully, it will be back to normal after a few co-washes.

 

[Evolving78]

My coarse strands are extra wiry today . I played around with too much protein. For whatever reason my hair refuses to differentiate between softening proteins and strengthening proteins. The conditioner had hydrolyzed Quinoa in it that I thought is a softening protein, but like wheat protein it made my hair super wiry, elastic-feeling, and frizzy. I am definitely not doing henna for a few weeks. Hopefully, it will be back to normal after a few co-washes.

Ogoma
if you have some castile soap, try adding several drops to your conditioner (scoop/pour out into a bowl or cup the amount of conditioner you use) and apply that mixer to your hair. i have done this several times now and it works wonders on hydrating my hair. it helps to open up the hair cuticle to receive more moisture. likes create a water/hydro type system in conjuction with the conditioner if that makes sense.

 

[Ogoma]

shortdub78 Thank you! I don't have any at home, but I can pick some up. Is this the liquid soap in the large bottle?