Caring for your Natural Hair for the first time

A new year marks the beginning of a new healthy hair regimen. It is important to know where to start and how to get the ball rolling, so let me jump right in. 

No Sugar Coating

First I want to inform you that if your mind is wrapped around knowing what your curl pattern is I am here to tell you that nowhere in this passage will it be discussed, truthfully it doesn't matter when it comes to how you should care for your hair. The reason is, you can have 4c hair like someone else but both of you have different porosity types, which means the products you use and how you care for your hair will be completely different. With that being said I want you to know your hair porosity this will be your first step in caring for your natural hair properly. 

So how does Porosity Factor into my healthy hair regimen?

Porosity is defined as how well your hair absorbs moisture through the hair strands, it is also broken down into three types Low, Medium, & High. When you know what your hair porosity is then you can better tailor your regimen to what your hair will need, whether that is the products you buy, how you care for it, and how you layer your hair with products. 

How do I find my porosity?

I have mapped out a Porosity quiz for you already here! The quiz will also recommend the right products to use. Below I gave you a few characteristics of each porosity you may resonate with. 

• Low Porosity: Takes a long time for the roots or hair strands to dry after washing, when trying to spray the hair with water (ex. spray bottle) it seems like the water smacks you in the face. When you apply product to your hair, it feels as though it just sat on top of your hair so the hair still feels dry. 
• Medium Porosity: Your fine nothing really bothers your hair you can do as you so please to it. Your hair doesn't take too long; also doesn't dry quickly.
• High Porosity: The moment you wash your hair it dries instantly, when you apply anything wet to your hair it seems like your hair sucks it right on up. 

 Now that you have found your hair porosity, you should know a few tips on how to care for your hair. 

• Low Porosity: When it comes to low porosity it takes a while for moisture to penetrate your strands if you look below at the picture it gives you a glimpse of how the hair cuticles are positioned for each hair type. Your benefits will be heat (steam), a steamer or applying heat during treatments, or simply jumping in the shower to allow the steam to hit your strands will help your hair in many ways. You will also want to avoid heavy products on the hair and scalp and opt for lighter oils and creams.
• Medium Porosity: As I stated above medium is heaven-sent of the porosities because not much bothers this hair type besides chemical overload. 
• High Porosity: With high porosity, moisture travels through the strands but just as quickly as it travels in the strands the moisture also escapes so this is why you feel like your hair is always dry even after applying hair products to it. A huge tip that will help with retaining moisture in your hair with being high porosity is doing the LOC/LCO method (liquid, oil, cream) or (liquid, cream, oil). Although this works with all the hair types it factors heavily I feel with high porous hair. 

We have your first step of what to do in caring for your hair for the first time, I want you to comment and tell me a few things after you have completed some of the things I provided above. What is your porosity, if you picked a LOC/LCO method, and which one works best for you, last are you big on knowing your curl pattern if so why?