I'm not gonna lie, this video is a little rambley! There are soooooo many factors to discuss. I did my best to cover everything in a cohesive manner! Basically porosity is not the end all be all that it has been made out to be. Whether your hair is fine or coarse has a much greater role in determining which products will work best for you. Then you look at porosity for small tweaks to your routine.
I actually think, in comparison to your typical videos, this one is less "rambly" In your own words lol.... thanks for the info .. I do love ur information
Omg, this was brilliant! Exactly what I needed. At some point, I am going to need that moisture protein course. I have baby fine hair that used to be pretty thick and healthy, but after perms in the ,80s snd then starting to color my hair (I just didn't like no longer being a redhead) about 10 years ago, my hair is so ultra damaged and high porot that I always have split ends and even have patches at my hairline near the sides of my forehead where my hair has broken off and just won't grow back. Doesn't help that I take a chemo-type drug. I just need to save up a bit to afford the course, but I know it'll be super helpful. I'm grateful to you for doing all this research!
I’m so glad you made this. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why my baby fine, low density hair didn’t fit into any porosity category. Gets wet easily, dries kind of slowly, super prone to buildup, loves protein, doesn’t absorb product, etc. This explains so much, and I won’t be stressing constantly over what I *should* be using on my hair type and just use what my hair actually reacts well with.
I noticed that A LOT of people love all your wash day videos using hair products (including me) ...but I am so in love with the science ones. I noticed this video didn't get as many likes or views than the rest and it is SO shocking to me because this video probably has been the video to help me most throughout my whole hair journey. this video in my opinion should have gotten the most love. Because science is so amazing!!!!! I really want to set up a one on one talk with you about my hair type because I feel like no matter what I cannot figure it out and I think you're the most wise and that you could help me! I just need help; I have been doing the "curly girl method" since January 1st. it was my biggest New Years resolution. and I have had the best before and after pictures lol. but I still need help because I feel like I got stuck. im wanting to use silicones again hahah. it would mean so much to me if you read this. you're the best Courtney!
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!! I wanna scream every time someone brings up the water test. It's troubling that no one thinks of depth and circumference of the cup/bowl (determining surface tension), not to mention the weight of the hair, which will change not just on texture, but length too.🙄
Kudos to you for embarking a journey of "questioning" well established and widely accepted "definitions" in the curly hair world. But in this plethora of information of does and don'ts re curly hair it is hard to use a common sense and actually make a good choice based on it (and not "definitions"). It takes months and years to learn your own hair, ingredients, styling... and even more trial and error to find products and techniques that will give you a long lasting wash day. So THANK YOU for reminding us of all the factors that come in the picture of what-is-the-state-of-my-hair-right-now such as porosity, texture, curl pattern, season, water hardness, hair damage (as the ones we kinda can't change) and then products, layering, washing, conditioning, styling and drying techniques, preserving the curls (as the ones we choose). Point being none of them is more important than the other and ALL play into the outcome of a washday. Keep up with the common sense sciency Courtney, I like her a lot 👌🙌🙌🙌
I think the not coloring has taken my hair (the ones that aren’t gray) back to the texture it was in my early teens. Soft, fine and low porosity and the gray ones are more coarse and high porosity. That being said, I am finding that the foams are the best to get curls and my hair dries A LOT quicker. I diffuse long enough to “set” the curl and let it air dry the rest of the way and then fluff the roots and scrunch the rest. I absolutely love Function of Beauty for curly hair (I’ve tried several brands) and I also get the little box of stuff you can add to each bottle (I’m assuming it’s protein). I wash then condition. After I squish to condish I add water and continue squishing until about 90% of the conditioner is rinsed out. I then add about 8 pumps total squishing in of the Zoto’s foam and then wet plop for about 15-20 min. Then I gently take the hair at my “sideburns” and run a comb through them in their curl pattern to encourage them to clump together and be less frizzy. It’s literally two curl clumps total, one each side. I let the rest go and I’ve been doing the CGM for about 4 months and I can see improvement every time I wash my hair. It definitely works, just takes time. It’s all about trial and error until you find “your routine”. Good luck!
Wish I'd found this channel months ago. Moving to humid NC from CA 15yrs ago, my lovely natural curly/wavy abundant hair suddenly looked fried!! and stayed that way. No money to see professional stylists etc. Time gone by has changed my hair even more, as I have greyed (75% now), colored and recently highlighting (at Beauty College) for this ole gal dislikes grey hair for me. Have been using product of recent to help. Tyvm for video. Am subscribing.
Thank you! This was super helpful for me. I have long (down to my butt) thick, wavy hair. I thought that I needed a large amount of product for my hair, but would get frustrated afterwards because it was greasy and weighed down. After watching this video, it makes so much sense as to what I was doing wrong lol. Thank you ma’am! I enjoy your videos and all the info that you give out. Also, I like the mechanical, science side of hair and I like when you break it down as such.
I’m really starting to see results from my curly routine and that’s almost entirely thanks to you and your wisdom, so thank you so much! It’s great to have someone I can watch with almost the same texture and curl type as mine, it’s made this process so much easier 💕
JUST ordered my hair analysis with your code. Super excited!!! I figure I can EASILY spend way more than $94 trying a bunch more products that my hair hates or know what the heck I'm working with here. 👍 Thanks for everything Courtney! (I'm "science-y" too, so I personally LOVE your "wordy" videos.) 💞🤓💞
What’s your drying routine? I have a big cowlick on the back of my head so I have to be careful. First, I make sure I pull the hair up off my scalp when styling so it doesn’t clump in my wires cowlick. Next, I diffuse mostly upside down. After diffusing I root clip for volume but one thing I do is take a big claw clip, grab the hair on the back of my head, and clip it all to the middle to prevent the cowlick from making it dry sticking out from a center spot and making it look bald there! Brush styling with a den man brush also helps.
Super helpful. Reading articles, I was confused on listed traits of high porosity hair. My hair absorbs water very quickly and air dries quickly (I do live in an arid climate), yet it never tangles, rarely results in split ends, and any photos I've seen of myself, especially in the sun, my hair can be like a spotlight (it's mostly gray) with the shine. I treat it well, no chemical or heat use, and I try to be good about minimizing mechanical abuse. I do know that my hair is very fine by feeling it as you described. Your explanation of fine vs. high porosity makes perfect sense and leads me to understand now that I have very fine hair with porosity likely on the low side.
Thank you Courtney for making sense out of this porosity craziness for me! For the first time since I started my CG journey 7 months ago, I now know that I don't have to worry that I'm not caring for my hair correctly because I didn't know what my porosity was! I guess you could say I "flunked" the cup test because my hair is fine and I couldn't even see the hair in the cup, never mind if it was floating or sinking! Thanks for making things a little bit easier. Now I'm pretty sure of what my hair is asking for! Love your channel!
Apple cider vinegar - this is literally my concern the second people mention it because vinegar itself is such a .. i wanna say drying - thing! Safe to eat but - i use it to clean like bleach... Lol
My hair's definitely low porosity. It takes forever to dry in arid conditions, I didn't get split ends despite shamefully long spent dry brushing and going a year+ between cuts/trims, shiny, etc. However, yeah, it's a relatively consistent medium coarseness, and does seem to be reasonably versatile for different products. The greys are...different. VERY different. Varying coarseness, and higher porosity. My brown hair dries slowly (4-6 hours with just shampoo, 6-8 with conditioner and leave-in, an unacceptable 8+ if I use a styler). But my greys dry in about 15 minutes with conditioner! I'm fortunate right now that they're pretty much all in one section, a streak just right of center. So if they form into their own 1-2 clumps just with eachother and the browns still mixed into that section, there's little issue and it can even be pretty cute. But if those greys decide to make friends with too much other nearby hair, it's disastrous as their rapid drying quickly breaks those clumps up and causes a lot of localized frizz. I'm a little worried about how things may go as the grey does get to be more salt-and-pepper rather than just the one relatively confined streak. If all of my greys come in this much different from my regular hair and break up clumps this much, that's going to be a rough transition. I actually have considered using gel on just that section just to even things out a little. Maybe I will.
Thank you for this video! There’s so much misinformation about picking your products based on porosity. Also stating that curl pattern and texture doesn’t matter when picking products. I find that to be completely false for wavies. High porosity vs low porosity is just a fancy way to say how damaged your hair is. This inaccurate information is exactly why I refuse to follow cgm
This is so interesting! I also found that porosity on itself doesn't say anything really, but rather hair width, porosity and hair density. I think these three factors determine how you style and care for your hair. Also, I am living proof of having bleached hair and still keeping low porosity - so yes, it is possible. But only because I have coarse hair. Coarse hair as you said has more layers to it so it's not that much easy for it to become high or even normal porosity. I also find that there is such a huge difference between mine and your hair even tho we have very similar wave pattern and we have the same porosity - only due to my hair being coarse and your's being fine. So, I 100% agree with you that porosity on its own means nothing
Thank you for this. Someone actually said the opposite of this a couple years ago and totally confused me because it didn't make sense to me. This finally cleared it up. This is why I love your channel. Always good information.
Nice super detailed video! I agree with almost all you say but not a couple of things: - About the natural high porosity: it's likely true that hair grows mostly with normal (when not low) porosity, but the vulnerability to the environment is probably subjective, so that some people do find their porosity to be high even with relatively short hair. - About the coarse hair = less protein needed. On the one hand it makes sense, but think about it this way: suppose that, in a given time frame, hair loses 10% of its protein due to "damage"; if hair x is coarse has double the initial volume of protein of the finer hair y, hair x is also going to need more protein to be restored, as the absolute lost amount is double! I do have quite coarse hair, and I use protein every washday in almost every product! - About the silicones: I know you follow Manes by Mell, I agree with her on this: since I re-introduced silicones but with some knowledge, I almost never do an all-natural washday, because at least for me they make last a style until the next washday much better. Of course they may not work on your fine and wavy hair, but I wouldn't categorize them as "not good ingredients"'...
I'm wondering about gray hair. How has the loss of or change in color effected my hair? I realize you don't necessarily have the answer. Its a thought I want to put out there because I haven't come across many if any people discussing this on RUclips. I also wonder if my hair is both low and high porosity because it gets wet quickly, but only in the shower. And it takes a long time to dry even when diffusing...
I have had the same experience as you with my gray hair. I think the not coloring has taken my hair (the ones that aren’t gray) back to the texture it was in my early teens. Soft, fine and low porosity and the gray ones are more coarse and high porosity. That being said, I am finding that the foams are the best to get curls and my hair dries A LOT quicker. I diffuse long enough to “set” the curl and let it air dry the rest of the way and then fluff the roots and scrunch the rest. I absolutely love Function of Beauty for curly hair (I’ve tried several brands) and I also get the little box of stuff you can add to each bottle (I’m assuming it’s protein). I wash then condition. After I squish to condish I add water and continue squishing until about 90% of the conditioner is rinsed out. I then add about 8 pumps total squishing in of the Zoto’s foam and then wet plop for about 15-20 min. Then I gently take the hair at my “sideburns” and run a comb through them in their curl pattern to encourage them to clump together and be less frizzy. It’s literally two curl clumps total, one each side. I let the rest go and I’ve been doing the CGM for about 4 months and I can see improvement every time I wash my hair. It definitely works, just takes time. It’s all about trial and error until you find “your routine”. Good luck!
I had them analyze my hair and they told me that I have "medulated hair" as a result of the grey hair . . . Which they said means the hair is hollow in the middle - I now use olaplex 3 bonding treatment to strengthen my hairs! Hope this helps!
@@StormyDay LOL!!! What's crazy is: Mine is unexpectedly LOW PO! You should have yours analyzed if u can - its really interesting - and you learn about your hair which is helpful! They offer two options - I Think a $40 option and an $80 option. I used Courtney's coupon when I did it! ❤
Hi I agree. My hair is coloured and is high porosity, but it’s also very fine. This means I can’t use too much moisturising product because it gets weighed down so easily. So I have to use lightweight products as anything too moisturising tends to elongate my curls. Also, my hair is protein sensitive which I’m guessing is also down to it being so fine?? So I choose products based on the diameter rather than porosity.
100% agree with you! I also have very fine hair that's been colored for decades!!! I also choose products based on diameter otherwise, my curls are stretched out!!!!
Can you do an updated video on products to use when starting the wavy/ curly girl method and when and how to use those products. That would be very helpful to me:
My hair is fine, except the grey, which is very coarse, it is making things difficult currently. Also, I used to have much more density than I do now. Thanks to age, medication, and autoimmune conditions, I now have hair you can see through.
Ok unrelated but... Omg I did a one brand wash day with Giovanni! My hair loved it! I used the 50/50 balance shampoo, (hoping it would be less clarifying than the tea tree, but it is still very strong shampoo) the reconstruct deep conditioner, styled my hair raking and swishing with the direct weightless leave in, use the glazed and scrunched Giovanni La gel and plopped for 10-15 mins then glazed and open palmed scrunched the air-turbo charged foam... then diffused until 90% dry (I guess around 20 mins) My hair looks so amazing! I’ve been struggling so much with my crazy poofy haird for about 2 months. And I am guessing my hair was hungry for protein! But I haven’t slept in my hair yet so hoping for the best 🥺😂😅
I really appreciate this video! Thanks so much! I have been using the full line of TreLuxe, but was struggling with a little more frizz in the summer. I added a separate rinse out conditioner and have tried Uncle Funky's Daughter Curly Magic which doesn't have glycerin or protein and this has helped.
My hair was much curlier when i was highlighting and or coloring. Now that my hair is virgin again, it has way less curl 😜 trying to embrace it, since it is my hair 😆
I’m experiencing the same thing. My hair was medium porosity when I was using 20 developer to color. It was more defined and maintained that definition. I’m assuming this is because it was able to absorb stylers due to being medium porosity. After 15 months of no longer use permanent (damaging) dye, my hair is low porosity. It no longer absorbs stylers since the cuticle is closed and my curl pattern is looser and falling flat faster. I will say tangles are rare for me now, but I miss my definition.
😂😂😂 thank you! For thr clip & making me laugh! Idk my porosity or even thickness. Growing up everyone said we (moms 6 girls) had suuuch thickè curly hair - but 1 stylist 🙄 said "id call it medium" so idk - but mine doesnt suck water straight up but its also about 75% bleached \ dyed & has been since about 6 grade. Anyway, i wouldve def thought "straight, fine sleek, silky' looking peoples hair is - which one did u say takes water easily? High pore? Low porosity? Id have thought they had that! Because they arent dry like our dry curly 'coarse'? But idk.
For almost 2 years, since I've started this wavy curly journey, I've always thought my hair was high porosity. I finally did the water test on a naked strand & was so surprised to see the water droplets sitting on the surface of it for a long time! So, I think it's low porosity?
Thank you, Courtney! I have not been able to make sense of porosity. I'm enjoying your channel. Could you suggest any CG friendly FRAGRANCE FREE conditioners? I especially need to find a leave in. I have developed a fragrance allergy and my waves are suffering
I just wish you can look at my hair & tell me what I need to do. I shampoo 2/wk , sleeping on satin pillow cases, deep condition weekly, styled my hair soaking wet & damp, trying a different products & combos, not using a reg towel, & I still get dry frizz when it dries. It does try very fast when I diffuse. I also squish to condish.
I find that my more damaged parts tend to get more (dry) frizzy. What I do is to pay more attention to these parts as in brush styling them (or finger coil), use harder hold products and scrunch them suuuuper gently. All that in order to set that frizzy part the way I want it and not the way it wants it. Aaaand I wait till the hair is 1000% dry before I fluff it.
Oh, what's even weirder is, the hair in the back of my head seems to have really good curl clumps, the sides r pretty much straight. I appreciate the tips @Curlycurl Birdy Girl.
Personally squish to condish doesn't work for me, it doesn't really get the conditioner in there, and makes my hair frizzy and dry. I brush my conditioner through with a wet brush instead, and then add more to the ends in a roping fashion, squishing a little as I go down. Same with my styling products. Makes my hair a lot smoother. I also don't wash/condition/style it upside down. For me that causes frizz and too much volume. I'm all about smoothing my hair down, instead of scrunching it up. But, my hair is actually curly, not just wavy like Courtney's, so I dont need to scrunch it to make it curlier. (Don't go by my profile pic, that's straightened.)
If you need to scrunch in product to get curls, try smoothing it down with a wet brush, then push upwards from the bottom with a flat hand, instead of clawed fingers. Push it from the bottom to your scalp with a flat hand, and then push gently into your scalp, keeping your hand flat. Again, I think scrunching with clawed hands only creates frizz for a lot of people, as does styling it upside down, instead of smoothing it down, then gently pushing up. Think of how your refuse works. You pick up hair in a clump and push it to your scalp, then gently let it down. Your defuser isn't tightly scrunching the hair, and neither should your fingers
Hey Courtney!! I can't seem to find any videos that mention this. What alcohols are drying I see cetreayl alcohol on every bottle is that bad?? thanks!! 💕🥰
There are products that are apple cinder rinses, can you maybe do a review on some? I'd prefer yo ourchade then DIY so I know I won't mess it up and make it to acidic
I have fine hair it was getting dry I went to a salon they suggested olapex she sold me no 2 wasn’t supposed to and it really damaged my hair I Have been trying get it back. I did the water test my hair it went to bottom . I can’t figure out what to use .. any suggestions would be appreciated.. my hair is dry gets build up easy , split ends all after the olapex
Thank you for this video! Very good info. I have fine hair but a lot of it. I use anti humidity products in my hair as I work in Florida. I'd like to really know my porosity. Just went on the site to do my hair bio, and it says they are closed for 2 months and says out of stock.
All I know is that my hair is garbage and will forever always be garbage because I've done everything you're supposed to do when it comes to caring for not so straight hair. I deep condition every week alternating between protein and moisture, sleeps on silk pillowcases, brushes gently from tips to root to not cause breakage, clarifying biweekly, squish to condish, only focusing the shampoo on my roots, not towel drying my hair aggressively with a Terry cloth towel, using light leave in sprays and oils, not using heat until very recently and my hair doesn't look nearly as shiny as yours does and always screaming at my hair 24/7 because of how frizzy and tangly it gets on top of excessive shedding in the shower and not volume whatsoever. To put quite simply my hair is impossible to work with no matter what I just washed my hair and it looks like I didn't even try to put any effort into it even though I put way too much time into my hair I'm over this.
I found out for me personally I still had to use my regular shampoo and conditioner with sulfates. Using sulfate free made my hair look horrible. I also dry brush in sections before I wash it and don’t brush conditioner through my hair while it’s wet because it breaks my hair and I felt like I was going to go bald. Now I shampoo, condition and leave it very wet put in my curl cream then brush it and put in my gel. I’m not losing my hair too much and it looks so much better now. I hope this helps ❤️
Perms increase the porosity of your hair, correct? I have fine, low density hair and I was thinking protein would help after a perm. Thanks for the info! :)
And when youve damaged ur hair etc a lot - they always say ur hair wont dry because its holding onto that water for hydration. I bleached mine using hot water in the shower to speed it up 🙄(stupid!) & That was the 1st time i truly understood\experienced that. So - that changes porosity, right? Like u said dye\bleach... Anything really besides being in irs natural habitat (ur head)
My hair is high porosity and coarse, but over the year I've been using CGM to the best of my ability, I find that porosity is only a small factor at this point. Using good product and routine seems to be the best. I do know that my hair soaks up mositure of any kind so easily. It pulls it from the air and gets soaked instantly in the shower. So, in higher humidity months, I just balance it out with protein rich shampoo and/or a protein rich conditioner. I may skip the leave in conditioner during the summer as well. It seems to be working great!
Hi Courtney! Thanks far clarifying this! (no pun intended😂) I was wondering if you could help me with a problem I've had recently with my hair: so right after I wash it and let it air dry, my hair is super soft and moisturized. Same thing when I get up in the morning next day. But about 10-20 minutes later, my hair feels tangled, stringy and coated. 😥 I recently switched to a shampoo bar and conditioner bar. Could that be the problem?
I totally got lost. I believe my hair is low porosity? It's gray, coarse, and takes long to get wet and to dry. However, it does get split ends, and not very shiny.....
It still sounds low porosity to me. Coarse hair (which I have) never seems to shine like low porosity fine hair. Fine hair is so silky and shiny in general. Coarse hair can struggle with that 🙄.
Thank you so very much! I was leaning that way but again, I got lost. Can you please tell me should I be using more protein, or more moisture? I sure appreciate it.
@@billiec2878 That really depends on how your hair feels day to day. For my hair, I rarely need much protein and use more moisture. But every once in awhile I use protein just to keep things balanced. Generally if my hair starts looking a bit droopy I use protein. That being said...my wavy hair is down below my waist (I'm 5'10" and long waisted) so my roots are always droopy 🤣. But because my ends have been around for a while, they are higher porosity than my roots and mids. I also live in the country and have tons of outdoor exposure so the canopy of my hair takes a beating. I actually have better results using a small bit of Olaplex #3 as a leave in than using protein based products. I think it's because my hair could definitely use some reinforcement, but the structure of my course hair didn't need extra layers of protein building up on it. My hair generally feels "rough" and"dry" however, what I am take feeling is the texture of my hair. Although I do use lots of moisture, my hair is never as silky as fine hair. But it is strong, healthy, and generally shiny and it seems to be doing really well. Try not to stress about "doing" everything right. In depth hair care can be really fun, but it can also stress you out if it's confusing. Just take gentle conscious care of your hair and it should thrive. Hope this helps!
@@derrickjenniferwatkins1394 other than the length, lol, you described my hair to a T! I think maybe I am taking my hair as being dry because I do not see it as being shiny. I greatly appreciate you explaining it better for me. My hair used to be so straight until I started going gray, so this is a whole new thing to me and want to really embrace my curls along with my gray. I really appreciate you!
@@sadieadler4383 It doesn't really matter how products absorb into the hair because products don't give is moisture, water does. All products do is hold that moisture in the hair.
@@RutujaDicholkar Because water is key and what moisturizes the hair. Not products. Also if you use a high quality shampoo and conditioner to actually cleanse and condition your hair to have a good base for styling, porosity won't make a difference.
@@felicia_716 If water is so great for the hair why does the humidity wreck havoc on most people's hair causing increased porosity and tangles? These products are literally meant to keep moisture away from your hair especially high hold gels and mousses and conditioners are meant to condition and add softness and lubrication to the hair not hydrate it in the slightest.
I'm not gonna lie, this video is a little rambley! There are soooooo many factors to discuss. I did my best to cover everything in a cohesive manner! Basically porosity is not the end all be all that it has been made out to be. Whether your hair is fine or coarse has a much greater role in determining which products will work best for you. Then you look at porosity for small tweaks to your routine.
I actually think, in comparison to your typical videos, this one is less "rambly" In your own words lol.... thanks for the info .. I do love ur information
Love this info-packed video!! I've been listening to you for almost 2 years and this was a great summary!
Omg, this was brilliant! Exactly what I needed. At some point, I am going to need that moisture protein course. I have baby fine hair that used to be pretty thick and healthy, but after perms in the ,80s snd then starting to color my hair (I just didn't like no longer being a redhead) about 10 years ago, my hair is so ultra damaged and high porot that I always have split ends and even have patches at my hairline near the sides of my forehead where my hair has broken off and just won't grow back. Doesn't help that I take a chemo-type drug. I just need to save up a bit to afford the course, but I know it'll be super helpful. I'm grateful to you for doing all this research!
Pppp
Do you know of any similar websites like MyManeBio? They are closing :(
I’m so glad you made this. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why my baby fine, low density hair didn’t fit into any porosity category. Gets wet easily, dries kind of slowly, super prone to buildup, loves protein, doesn’t absorb product, etc. This explains so much, and I won’t be stressing constantly over what I *should* be using on my hair type and just use what my hair actually reacts well with.
I noticed that A LOT of people love all your wash day videos using hair products (including me) ...but I am so in love with the science ones. I noticed this video didn't get as many likes or views than the rest and it is SO shocking to me because this video probably has been the video to help me most throughout my whole hair journey. this video in my opinion should have gotten the most love. Because science is so amazing!!!!! I really want to set up a one on one talk with you about my hair type because I feel like no matter what I cannot figure it out and I think you're the most wise and that you could help me! I just need help; I have been doing the "curly girl method" since January 1st. it was my biggest New Years resolution. and I have had the best before and after pictures lol. but I still need help because I feel like I got stuck. im wanting to use silicones again hahah. it would mean so much to me if you read this. you're the best Courtney!
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!! I wanna scream every time someone brings up the water test. It's troubling that no one thinks of depth and circumference of the cup/bowl (determining surface tension), not to mention the weight of the hair, which will change not just on texture, but length too.🙄
Kudos to you for embarking a journey of "questioning" well established and widely accepted "definitions" in the curly hair world. But in this plethora of information of does and don'ts re curly hair it is hard to use a common sense and actually make a good choice based on it (and not "definitions").
It takes months and years to learn your own hair, ingredients, styling... and even more trial and error to find products and techniques that will give you a long lasting wash day.
So THANK YOU for reminding us of all the factors that come in the picture of what-is-the-state-of-my-hair-right-now such as porosity, texture, curl pattern, season, water hardness, hair damage (as the ones we kinda can't change) and then products, layering, washing, conditioning, styling and drying techniques, preserving the curls (as the ones we choose). Point being none of them is more important than the other and ALL play into the outcome of a washday.
Keep up with the common sense sciency Courtney, I like her a lot 👌🙌🙌🙌
I think the not coloring has taken my hair (the ones that aren’t gray) back to the texture it was in my early teens. Soft, fine and low porosity and the gray ones are more coarse and high porosity. That being said, I am finding that the foams are the best to get curls and my hair dries A LOT quicker. I diffuse long enough to “set” the curl and let it air dry the rest of the way and then fluff the roots and scrunch the rest. I absolutely love Function of Beauty for curly hair (I’ve tried several brands) and I also get the little box of stuff you can add to each bottle (I’m assuming it’s protein). I wash then condition. After I squish to condish I add water and continue squishing until about 90% of the conditioner is rinsed out. I then add about 8 pumps total squishing in of the Zoto’s foam and then wet plop for about 15-20 min. Then I gently take the hair at my “sideburns” and run a comb through them in their curl pattern to encourage them to clump together and be less frizzy. It’s literally two curl clumps total, one each side. I let the rest go and I’ve been doing the CGM for about 4 months and I can see improvement every time I wash my hair. It definitely works, just takes time. It’s all about trial and error until you find “your routine”. Good luck!
Wish I'd found this channel months ago. Moving to humid NC from CA 15yrs ago, my lovely natural curly/wavy abundant hair suddenly looked fried!! and stayed that way. No money to see professional stylists etc. Time gone by has changed my hair even more, as I have greyed (75% now), colored and recently highlighting (at Beauty College) for this ole gal dislikes grey hair for me. Have been using product of recent to help. Tyvm for video. Am subscribing.
Thank you! This was super helpful for me. I have long (down to my butt) thick, wavy hair. I thought that I needed a large amount of product for my hair, but would get frustrated afterwards because it was greasy and weighed down. After watching this video, it makes so much sense as to what I was doing wrong lol. Thank you ma’am! I enjoy your videos and all the info that you give out. Also, I like the mechanical, science side of hair and I like when you break it down as such.
I love this!!! Thank you so much! I am glad it was helpful and that the science was interesting!
I thought this was the best information on hair porosity out there.
Thanks so much for taking the time to figure this out
Glad it was helpful!
I’m really starting to see results from my curly routine and that’s almost entirely thanks to you and your wisdom, so thank you so much! It’s great to have someone I can watch with almost the same texture and curl type as mine, it’s made this process so much easier 💕
JUST ordered my hair analysis with your code. Super excited!!! I figure I can EASILY spend way more than $94 trying a bunch more products that my hair hates or know what the heck I'm working with here. 👍 Thanks for everything Courtney! (I'm "science-y" too, so I personally LOVE your "wordy" videos.) 💞🤓💞
Sameee!
Please do a video on hair getting stuck/“bald” gaps at the back of the head! Nothing works 😭
What’s your drying routine? I have a big cowlick on the back of my head so I have to be careful. First, I make sure I pull the hair up off my scalp when styling so it doesn’t clump in my wires cowlick. Next, I diffuse mostly upside down. After diffusing I root clip for volume but one thing I do is take a big claw clip, grab the hair on the back of my head, and clip it all to the middle to prevent the cowlick from making it dry sticking out from a center spot and making it look bald there! Brush styling with a den man brush also helps.
Super helpful. Reading articles, I was confused on listed traits of high porosity hair. My hair absorbs water very quickly and air dries quickly (I do live in an arid climate), yet it never tangles, rarely results in split ends, and any photos I've seen of myself, especially in the sun, my hair can be like a spotlight (it's mostly gray) with the shine. I treat it well, no chemical or heat use, and I try to be good about minimizing mechanical abuse. I do know that my hair is very fine by feeling it as you described. Your explanation of fine vs. high porosity makes perfect sense and leads me to understand now that I have very fine hair with porosity likely on the low side.
Thanks Courtney! My daughter is learning how to have healthy hair. This video is exactly what I wanted to say to her!
Thank you Courtney for making sense out of this porosity craziness for me! For the first time since I started my CG journey 7 months ago, I now know that I don't have to worry that I'm not caring for my hair correctly because I didn't know what my porosity was! I guess you could say I "flunked" the cup test because my hair is fine and I couldn't even see the hair in the cup, never mind if it was floating or sinking! Thanks for making things a little bit easier. Now I'm pretty sure of what my hair is asking for! Love your channel!
Apple cider vinegar - this is literally my concern the second people mention it because vinegar itself is such a .. i wanna say drying - thing! Safe to eat but - i use it to clean like bleach... Lol
My hair's definitely low porosity. It takes forever to dry in arid conditions, I didn't get split ends despite shamefully long spent dry brushing and going a year+ between cuts/trims, shiny, etc. However, yeah, it's a relatively consistent medium coarseness, and does seem to be reasonably versatile for different products. The greys are...different. VERY different. Varying coarseness, and higher porosity.
My brown hair dries slowly (4-6 hours with just shampoo, 6-8 with conditioner and leave-in, an unacceptable 8+ if I use a styler). But my greys dry in about 15 minutes with conditioner! I'm fortunate right now that they're pretty much all in one section, a streak just right of center. So if they form into their own 1-2 clumps just with eachother and the browns still mixed into that section, there's little issue and it can even be pretty cute. But if those greys decide to make friends with too much other nearby hair, it's disastrous as their rapid drying quickly breaks those clumps up and causes a lot of localized frizz. I'm a little worried about how things may go as the grey does get to be more salt-and-pepper rather than just the one relatively confined streak. If all of my greys come in this much different from my regular hair and break up clumps this much, that's going to be a rough transition.
I actually have considered using gel on just that section just to even things out a little. Maybe I will.
Thank you for this video! There’s so much misinformation about picking your products based on porosity. Also stating that curl pattern and texture doesn’t matter when picking products. I find that to be completely false for wavies. High porosity vs low porosity is just a fancy way to say how damaged your hair is. This inaccurate information is exactly why I refuse to follow cgm
A list of CURLY HAIR FRIENDLY INGREDIENTS must, for me, contain silicones and sulphates...
This is so interesting! I also found that porosity on itself doesn't say anything really, but rather hair width, porosity and hair density. I think these three factors determine how you style and care for your hair. Also, I am living proof of having bleached hair and still keeping low porosity - so yes, it is possible. But only because I have coarse hair. Coarse hair as you said has more layers to it so it's not that much easy for it to become high or even normal porosity.
I also find that there is such a huge difference between mine and your hair even tho we have very similar wave pattern and we have the same porosity - only due to my hair being coarse and your's being fine. So, I 100% agree with you that porosity on its own means nothing
Thank you for this. Someone actually said the opposite of this a couple years ago and totally confused me because it didn't make sense to me. This finally cleared it up. This is why I love your channel. Always good information.
I really needed this video. I don't have curly hair, it's straight but this was so helpful. Thank you for your wisdom 🙏
Honestly a lot of curly hair tips are more about keeping your hair healthy and improving it’s quality, so a lot of them are pretty universal anyway!
Thanks for all your info, it helps debunk alot of jargon. The hardest part of going back to my wavy hair is finding the protein/moisture balance.
Another great, helpful, informative video delivered with sweet Courtney's passion and joy. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice super detailed video!
I agree with almost all you say but not a couple of things:
- About the natural high porosity: it's likely true that hair grows mostly with normal (when not low) porosity, but the vulnerability to the environment is probably subjective, so that some people do find their porosity to be high even with relatively short hair.
- About the coarse hair = less protein needed. On the one hand it makes sense, but think about it this way: suppose that, in a given time frame, hair loses 10% of its protein due to "damage"; if hair x is coarse has double the initial volume of protein of the finer hair y, hair x is also going to need more protein to be restored, as the absolute lost amount is double! I do have quite coarse hair, and I use protein every washday in almost every product!
- About the silicones: I know you follow Manes by Mell, I agree with her on this: since I re-introduced silicones but with some knowledge, I almost never do an all-natural washday, because at least for me they make last a style until the next washday much better. Of course they may not work on your fine and wavy hair, but I wouldn't categorize them as "not good ingredients"'...
I did my mane bio too and I really enjoyed it
I'm wondering about gray hair. How has the loss of or change in color effected my hair? I realize you don't necessarily have the answer. Its a thought I want to put out there because I haven't come across many if any people discussing this on RUclips. I also wonder if my hair is both low and high porosity because it gets wet quickly, but only in the shower. And it takes a long time to dry even when diffusing...
I have had the same experience as you with my gray hair. I think the not coloring has taken my hair (the ones that aren’t gray) back to the texture it was in my early teens. Soft, fine and low porosity and the gray ones are more coarse and high porosity. That being said, I am finding that the foams are the best to get curls and my hair dries A LOT quicker. I diffuse long enough to “set” the curl and let it air dry the rest of the way and then fluff the roots and scrunch the rest. I absolutely love Function of Beauty for curly hair (I’ve tried several brands) and I also get the little box of stuff you can add to each bottle (I’m assuming it’s protein). I wash then condition. After I squish to condish I add water and continue squishing until about 90% of the conditioner is rinsed out. I then add about 8 pumps total squishing in of the Zoto’s foam and then wet plop for about 15-20 min. Then I gently take the hair at my “sideburns” and run a comb through them in their curl pattern to encourage them to clump together and be less frizzy. It’s literally two curl clumps total, one each side. I let the rest go and I’ve been doing the CGM for about 4 months and I can see improvement every time I wash my hair. It definitely works, just takes time. It’s all about trial and error until you find “your routine”. Good luck!
I had them analyze my hair and they told me that I have "medulated hair" as a result of the grey hair . . . Which they said means the hair is hollow in the middle - I now use olaplex 3 bonding treatment to strengthen my hairs! Hope this helps!
@@StormyDay LOL!!! What's crazy is: Mine is unexpectedly LOW PO! You should have yours analyzed if u can - its really interesting - and you learn about your hair which is helpful! They offer two options - I Think a $40 option and an $80 option. I used Courtney's coupon when I did it! ❤
Thank you for explaining it well, Courtney. I enjoy learning the science. It helps empower me to make better choices for my hair. 😁
I'm so glad!
Hi I agree. My hair is coloured and is high porosity, but it’s also very fine. This means I can’t use too much moisturising product because it gets weighed down so easily. So I have to use lightweight products as anything too moisturising tends to elongate my curls. Also, my hair is protein sensitive which I’m guessing is also down to it being so fine?? So I choose products based on the diameter rather than porosity.
100% agree with you! I also have very fine hair that's been colored for decades!!! I also choose products based on diameter otherwise, my curls are stretched out!!!!
Thank you. I learn so much from you
You are so welcome! I'm glad! I was a bit worried because this video felt a tad bit rambley.
OMG! This makes sense now. I have extremely fine hair that soaks up water/moisture like crazy.
Can you do an updated video on products to use when starting the wavy/ curly girl method and when and how to use those products. That would be very helpful to me:
My hair is fine, except the grey, which is very coarse, it is making things difficult currently. Also, I used to have much more density than I do now. Thanks to age, medication, and autoimmune conditions, I now have hair you can see through.
I want your shirt so bad! Love this!
Then I think you will really like this website. I have bought several from here. bit.ly/3xJmz0j
@@SwavyCurlyCourtney ill have to take a peek. Thank you Courtney!
Very very helpful! A lot of information, but nice to have it all connected. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Ok unrelated but...
Omg I did a one brand wash day with Giovanni! My hair loved it!
I used the 50/50 balance shampoo, (hoping it would be less clarifying than the tea tree, but it is still very strong shampoo) the reconstruct deep conditioner, styled my hair raking and swishing with the direct weightless leave in, use the glazed and scrunched Giovanni La gel and plopped for 10-15 mins then glazed and open palmed scrunched the air-turbo charged foam... then diffused until 90% dry (I guess around 20 mins)
My hair looks so amazing!
I’ve been struggling so much with my crazy poofy haird for about 2 months. And I am guessing my hair was hungry for protein!
But I haven’t slept in my hair yet so hoping for the best 🥺😂😅
I really appreciate this video! Thanks so much! I have been using the full line of TreLuxe, but was struggling with a little more frizz in the summer. I added a separate rinse out conditioner and have tried Uncle Funky's Daughter Curly Magic which doesn't have glycerin or protein and this has helped.
thank you do muche for this content it makes sense. sometimes I felt like I had to damage my hair in order not to let it be too over moisterist.
My hair was much curlier when i was highlighting and or coloring. Now that my hair is virgin again, it has way less curl 😜 trying to embrace it, since it is my hair 😆
I’m experiencing the same thing. My hair was medium porosity when I was using 20 developer to color. It was more defined and maintained that definition. I’m assuming this is because it was able to absorb stylers due to being medium porosity. After 15 months of no longer use permanent (damaging) dye, my hair is low porosity. It no longer absorbs stylers since the cuticle is closed and my curl pattern is looser and falling flat faster. I will say tangles are rare for me now, but I miss my definition.
😂😂😂 thank you! For thr clip & making me laugh!
Idk my porosity or even thickness. Growing up everyone said we (moms 6 girls) had suuuch thickè curly hair - but 1 stylist 🙄 said "id call it medium" so idk - but mine doesnt suck water straight up but its also about 75% bleached \ dyed & has been since about 6 grade. Anyway, i wouldve def thought "straight, fine sleek, silky' looking peoples hair is - which one did u say takes water easily? High pore? Low porosity? Id have thought they had that! Because they arent dry like our dry curly 'coarse'? But idk.
For almost 2 years, since I've started this wavy curly journey, I've always thought my hair was high porosity. I finally did the water test on a naked strand & was so surprised to see the water droplets sitting on the surface of it for a long time! So, I think it's low porosity?
This was so, so helpful, AND it reminded me to do a protein treatment tonight!
You just answered one thousand questions with this video ❣️
Thank you, Courtney! I have not been able to make sense of porosity. I'm enjoying your channel. Could you suggest any CG friendly FRAGRANCE FREE conditioners? I especially need to find a leave in. I have developed a fragrance allergy and my waves are suffering
Jessicurl and Kristin Ess have fragrance free conditioners.
So if I have had my whole head of hair highlighted once, and then colored it brown a year later, I can assume my hair is high porosity?
I just wish you can look at my hair & tell me what I need to do. I shampoo 2/wk , sleeping on satin pillow cases, deep condition weekly, styled my hair soaking wet & damp, trying a different products & combos, not using a reg towel, & I still get dry frizz when it dries. It does try very fast when I diffuse. I also squish to condish.
Same
I find that my more damaged parts tend to get more (dry) frizzy. What I do is to pay more attention to these parts as in brush styling them (or finger coil), use harder hold products and scrunch them suuuuper gently. All that in order to set that frizzy part the way I want it and not the way it wants it. Aaaand I wait till the hair is 1000% dry before I fluff it.
Oh, what's even weirder is, the hair in the back of my head seems to have really good curl clumps, the sides r pretty much straight. I appreciate the tips @Curlycurl Birdy Girl.
Personally squish to condish doesn't work for me, it doesn't really get the conditioner in there, and makes my hair frizzy and dry. I brush my conditioner through with a wet brush instead, and then add more to the ends in a roping fashion, squishing a little as I go down. Same with my styling products. Makes my hair a lot smoother. I also don't wash/condition/style it upside down. For me that causes frizz and too much volume. I'm all about smoothing my hair down, instead of scrunching it up. But, my hair is actually curly, not just wavy like Courtney's, so I dont need to scrunch it to make it curlier. (Don't go by my profile pic, that's straightened.)
If you need to scrunch in product to get curls, try smoothing it down with a wet brush, then push upwards from the bottom with a flat hand, instead of clawed fingers. Push it from the bottom to your scalp with a flat hand, and then push gently into your scalp, keeping your hand flat. Again, I think scrunching with clawed hands only creates frizz for a lot of people, as does styling it upside down, instead of smoothing it down, then gently pushing up. Think of how your refuse works. You pick up hair in a clump and push it to your scalp, then gently let it down. Your defuser isn't tightly scrunching the hair, and neither should your fingers
Hey Courtney!!
I can't seem to find any videos that mention this. What alcohols are drying I see cetreayl alcohol on every bottle is that bad?? thanks!! 💕🥰
That alcohol is fine it won't dry out your hair in the slightest.
I have some lists from the Naturally Curly website.
Drying alcohols (bad):
-ethanol alcohol
-ethyl alcohol
-propanol alcohol
-isopropyl alcohol
-isopropanol alcohol
-benzyl alcohol
Fatty alcohols (good):
-cetyl alcohol
-cetearyl alcohol
-stearyl alcohol
-lauryl alcohol
Hope that helps!
Thank you!!
There are products that are apple cinder rinses, can you maybe do a review on some? I'd prefer yo ourchade then DIY so I know I won't mess it up and make it to acidic
I have fine hair it was getting dry I went to a salon they suggested olapex she sold me no 2 wasn’t supposed to and it really damaged my hair I Have been trying get it back. I did the water test my hair it went to bottom . I can’t figure out what to use .. any suggestions would be appreciated.. my hair is dry gets build up easy , split ends all after the olapex
You’ve saved my hair ❤️
Glad I could help!
Thank you for this video! Very good info. I have fine hair but a lot of it. I use anti humidity products in my hair as I work in Florida. I'd like to really know my porosity. Just went on the site to do my hair bio, and it says they are closed for 2 months and says out of stock.
All I know is that my hair is garbage and will forever always be garbage because I've done everything you're supposed to do when it comes to caring for not so straight hair. I deep condition every week alternating between protein and moisture, sleeps on silk pillowcases, brushes gently from tips to root to not cause breakage, clarifying biweekly, squish to condish, only focusing the shampoo on my roots, not towel drying my hair aggressively with a Terry cloth towel, using light leave in sprays and oils, not using heat until very recently and my hair doesn't look nearly as shiny as yours does and always screaming at my hair 24/7 because of how frizzy and tangly it gets on top of excessive shedding in the shower and not volume whatsoever. To put quite simply my hair is impossible to work with no matter what I just washed my hair and it looks like I didn't even try to put any effort into it even though I put way too much time into my hair I'm over this.
I found out for me personally I still had to use my regular shampoo and conditioner with sulfates. Using sulfate free made my hair look horrible. I also dry brush in sections before I wash it and don’t brush conditioner through my hair while it’s wet because it breaks my hair and I felt like I was going to go bald. Now I shampoo, condition and leave it very wet put in my curl cream then brush it and put in my gel. I’m not losing my hair too much and it looks so much better now. I hope this helps ❤️
Very helpful!
Perms increase the porosity of your hair, correct? I have fine, low density hair and I was thinking protein would help after a perm. Thanks for the info! :)
Yep 14:00
I cant even grab 1 hair at a time! I have to separate mine fr the cluster of curls. Lol
What are emollient products?
And when youve damaged ur hair etc a lot - they always say ur hair wont dry because its holding onto that water for hydration. I bleached mine using hot water in the shower to speed it up 🙄(stupid!) & That was the 1st time i truly understood\experienced that.
So - that changes porosity, right? Like u said dye\bleach... Anything really besides being in irs natural habitat (ur head)
My hair is high porosity and coarse, but over the year I've been using CGM to the best of my ability, I find that porosity is only a small factor at this point. Using good product and routine seems to be the best. I do know that my hair soaks up mositure of any kind so easily. It pulls it from the air and gets soaked instantly in the shower. So, in higher humidity months, I just balance it out with protein rich shampoo and/or a protein rich conditioner. I may skip the leave in conditioner during the summer as well. It seems to be working great!
Hi Courtney! Thanks far clarifying this! (no pun intended😂) I was wondering if you could help me with a problem I've had recently with my hair: so right after I wash it and let it air dry, my hair is super soft and moisturized. Same thing when I get up in the morning next day. But about 10-20 minutes later, my hair feels tangled, stringy and coated. 😥 I recently switched to a shampoo bar and conditioner bar. Could that be the problem?
Here's the brand I'm using. I've used pinkalicious shampoo, frizz wrangler shampoo and the Guardian conditioner. ethique.com/collections/hair-minis
Well, this explains many of my problems. 😂
I totally got lost. I believe my hair is low porosity? It's gray, coarse, and takes long to get wet and to dry. However, it does get split ends, and not very shiny.....
It still sounds low porosity to me. Coarse hair (which I have) never seems to shine like low porosity fine hair. Fine hair is so silky and shiny in general. Coarse hair can struggle with that 🙄.
Thank you so very much! I was leaning that way but again, I got lost. Can you please tell me should I be using more protein, or more moisture? I sure appreciate it.
@@billiec2878 That really depends on how your hair feels day to day. For my hair, I rarely need much protein and use more moisture. But every once in awhile I use protein just to keep things balanced. Generally if my hair starts looking a bit droopy I use protein. That being said...my wavy hair is down below my waist (I'm 5'10" and long waisted) so my roots are always droopy 🤣. But because my ends have been around for a while, they are higher porosity than my roots and mids. I also live in the country and have tons of outdoor exposure so the canopy of my hair takes a beating. I actually have better results using a small bit of Olaplex #3 as a leave in than using protein based products. I think it's because my hair could definitely use some reinforcement, but the structure of my course hair didn't need extra layers of protein building up on it. My hair generally feels "rough" and"dry" however, what I am take feeling is the texture of my hair. Although I do use lots of moisture, my hair is never as silky as fine hair. But it is strong, healthy, and generally shiny and it seems to be doing really well. Try not to stress about "doing" everything right. In depth hair care can be really fun, but it can also stress you out if it's confusing. Just take gentle conscious care of your hair and it should thrive. Hope this helps!
@@derrickjenniferwatkins1394 other than the length, lol, you described my hair to a T! I think maybe I am taking my hair as being dry because I do not see it as being shiny. I greatly appreciate you explaining it better for me. My hair used to be so straight until I started going gray, so this is a whole new thing to me and want to really embrace my curls along with my gray. I really appreciate you!
Hi. Will someone tell me the name of the website where you scan in the ingredients for protein? I couldn't understand what she said. Thanks so much. ☺
isitcg.com
@@SwavyCurlyCourtney
Thank you kindly.
Is it possible for fine hair to be protein sensitive?
You are so smart..... amazing
AWWWW Thank you so much 😀
Porosity only matter to colorists. Otherwise for us consumers, it makes zero difference.
It makes such a difference in how products absorb into the hair it does matter to some degree.
Why would you say zero difference?
@@sadieadler4383 It doesn't really matter how products absorb into the hair because products don't give is moisture, water does. All products do is hold that moisture in the hair.
@@RutujaDicholkar Because water is key and what moisturizes the hair. Not products. Also if you use a high quality shampoo and conditioner to actually cleanse and condition your hair to have a good base for styling, porosity won't make a difference.
@@felicia_716 If water is so great for the hair why does the humidity wreck havoc on most people's hair causing increased porosity and tangles? These products are literally meant to keep moisture away from your hair especially high hold gels and mousses and conditioners are meant to condition and add softness and lubrication to the hair not hydrate it in the slightest.
Me watching this after just trying the cup test
👁️👄👁️
I’m a little confused. I thought I had high but fine hair.
You might! It is possible to high or low porosity hair with every hair texture (fine to coarse).