This post is breaking down some hair vocab that will help you understand your hair’s love language. You’ve probably heard them thrown around by your favorite Youtuber or IG influencer, but I’m breaking them down here in everyday terms we all can understand. For those of you who are curious, my hair is normal to low porosity, fine, and low to medium density. Because my porosity can vary, I tend to deep condition/remoisturize more. Due to having fine and low/medium density hair, I choose to stick with more voluminous styles like wash + go’s.

Hair Porosity – how porous are your hair strands/ how easily do they open/close

Does your hair take a long time to be saturated when under warm water? Does it dry quickly? How well do products absorb into your hair? Do they sit on top, or does your hair soak them in? Does your hair absorb them better in the shower when under warm water or does it not matter? These are all questions that relate to your hair’s porosity. Don’t worry you don’t have to guess based on these questions; you can do a quick strand test on clean hair to find out. However, how your hair responds to the strand tests will help you make adjustments to your routine and understand WHY your hair responds the way it does to the questions above.

To complete test, take a clean strand of hair and put it into a cup or bowl of room temperature water. Your porosity is as follows based on if your hair floats or sinks.

Low Porosity: Strands don’t absorb moisture as well/fast. hair cuticles are tighter, however, hair tends to retain moisture better because once penetrated it locks it in. (e.g. hair takes a while to become fully saturated in shower)

Normal Porosity: Strands absorbs water/moisture relatively easily.

High Porosity: Hair cuticles are larger and more open. Hair accepts but also loses moisture quickly. Commonly hair retains too much moisture and can easily have moisture overload. * see this post if you’re unsure if your hair has too much moisture.

Hair Strand Type (fine –thick) – each individual strand of hair thickness

Are your individual strands like a piece of thread or are they almost impossible to see? Do you find your strands are weaker when they’re dry versus wet? There are a few tests you can do to determine your hair strand type.

The closer your individual hair strand is to the thickness of a piece of thread, the thicker it is. Another way to note is how easily can you feel an individual strand of hair between two fingers. Is it easily felt, or is it hard to detect.

Hair Density – how much hair is on your head, how many strands fill your head?

This is often confused with hair strand type; many people think they have thick hair when in actuality, they just have high-density hair, meaning as a collective they have many strands, which could be thick or fine. There are many who also have lower density hair (e.g. Can you see your scalp when parting or sectioned parts aren’t very full)

Once you’ve got these down and you’ve discovered where your hair falls in each of these categories you can improve your hair routine. Should you apply products in the shower versus out of the shower? Perhaps you should be doing more wash + go’s to achieve the voluminous look you want versus twist outs. Can’t achieve that same style as “Ashley” who seemingly has the same curl pattern as yours? Are you getting product build up after just a couple days? Listen to your hair, she has a love language, you just need to learn what it is so you can effectively listen and adjust. Pregnancy, stress, climate, and health related issues can change our hair; so when your hair isn’t behaving, sit down, evaluate her, and most importantly listen.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below.

Tags : curly hair, dry hair, fine hair, frizzy hair, hair, hair advice, hair density, hair love language, hair porosity, hair styling, hair tips, healthy hair, natural hair, natural hair tips, porosity test, thick hair