00:00So today I'm going to show you an experiment that you can do at home yourself to determine
00:05what your porosity level is.
00:11You want to know what your porosity level is because it determines how much moisture
00:17your hair can absorb.
00:19Knowing your porosity level can help you to better choose the right products for your
00:24hair type and texture.
00:26Sample services such as relaxers or permanent hair color have to open the cuticle in order
00:32to deliver the active ingredient, which can affect the porosity of the hair.
00:38What we've done here is taken these three hair samples and put them at the top of the
00:43beaker.
00:44As you can see, they started off flipping.
00:47However, over time, they started to sink to the bottom.
00:51The only sample that doesn't sink to the bottom is the natural hair.
00:55Now, the longer it takes for hair to sink to the bottom means the lower the porosity
01:00of the hair.
01:01But you see here, the relaxed sample sunk to the bottom quickest, which means that it has
01:05the highest porosity out of these three samples.
01:08The color treatment, it also sank, just not as fast.
01:12Highly porous hair?
01:13Girl, you better start conditioning.
01:16Conditioners help to seal damaged spots on the cuticle layer.
01:19Also, sealing the hair with thick butters, oils, or silicone-based products can help to prevent
01:26moisture from escaping the hair prematurely.
01:30If you find yourself on the low end of the porosity scale, you should focus on opening the cuticle
01:37as much as possible by incorporating a steamer or using humectant-rich products to draw moisture
01:44to the hair.
01:45Here, I have a diagram of what I say is a hair strand.
01:51Very good.
01:52And we have frosty level from low, medium, and high.
01:57Now, low, you can see the cuticle layers are only raised slightly as opposed to medium versus
02:03high.
02:04Well, genetically, Keisha starts with low porosity hair, but Lisa starts with medium hair.
02:15Let's say Keisha and Lisa both receive the same permanent hair color treatment.
02:21As we talked about, the permanent color can possibly change the porosity level of your hair.
02:26Therefore, Keisha has now moved into the medium zone.
02:31But Lisa, because she started at medium, the same exact process might put her in the high
02:38zone.
02:39Therefore, you shouldn't compare your porosity level to the next lady's because you don't
02:43know where she started from genetically.
02:45She could have started from the bottom and ended up here.
02:48I hope that you will take the porosity challenge and figure out where you fall on the scale.
02:53For more information on your hair, go to Essence.com.
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