Hair Care Routine for Low Porosity Hair

What Is Low Porosity Hair?

Low-porosity hair can be defined by a cuticle layer that is very flat or tightly shut. Hair with low porosity actually has a harder time absorbing water or products and in the same regard, doesn’t lose them as easily either. However, you can run into issues with styling, care, and colour due to low absorption.

How Can I Tell if I Have Low Porosity Hair?

If you notice your greys are resistant to hair colour, products don’t easily penetrate or that it takes a while for your hair to feel wet in the shower — this could indicate that you have low-porosity hair. However, if you are unsure, there are a few tests you can do to know for certain.

Take a few strands of clean hair that has shed and place it in a bowl of water. If the strand floats it has low porosity. However, if it sinks, this is an indicator of high porosity.
Use a spray bottle to spritz a portion of your dry hair and watch what the water does. If the water beads up on the surface, this usually means you have low-porosity hair. Otherwise if it immediately soaks in, this means your hair is highly porous.

The Best Hair Care Routine for Low Porosity Hair

While all hair types benefit from moisture and a good detox, this is especially true if you have low-porosity hair. With this type of hair, products don’t penetrate the hair shaft as easily causing both a buildup of products and a lack of moisture in the hair. And while adding more products won’t help low-porosity hair, applying the right ones will.

To improve your hair care routine for low-porosity hair, focus on finding formulas that are easily absorbed into the hair, won’t create buildup, and are lightweight enough that they won’t sit on top of your strands. For this reason, choose water-based or light conditioners and leave-ins, detox shampoos, and scalp treatments and heat protectants.

The Products We Love for Low Porosity Hair

The best products for low-porosity hair are multitaskers that are light and effective. Which is why we love these picks.

Remove product buildup and energise your scalp with targeted formulas. MAXI.WASH used weekly can improve the look, feel, and finish of your scalp and strands by gently removing unwanted buildup from the environment, hard water, and products.
Use masques sparingly, and add heat when you do. Low-porosity hair can be prone to buildup and is easily weighed down, but it still needs moisture. So whenever using a MASQUE treatment, consider wrapping your hair in a towel or shower cap and allowing it to warm up or using the heat of a blow drying to gently warm up the masque so it penetrates more easily.
As a leave-in that also promotes elasticity, repair, and moisture, SHIMMER.SHINE and SHIMMER.ME BLONDE improves dry, damaged hair with a supremely lightweight finish that also treats the hair. You’ll instantly notice an eye-catching shine that nourishes and moisturises your mane.

FAQ

Low porosity hair has tightly closed cuticles, so products sit on the surface. Using detox products like MAXI.WASH helps remove buildup and keeps hair light and fresh.

Choose lightweight, multi-tasking formulas. SHIMMER.SHINE adds moisture, elasticity, and shine without sitting on the hair or creating excess residue.

Every 6–8 weeks is ideal. Regular trims stop splits from travelling up the strand and help maintain length and overall hair health.