How do you determine your hair properties, the do's and don'ts!
How to determine your hair properties, the do's and don'ts!
You are about to embrace your curls, but you don't know where to start. Then it is super handy to determine your hair properties if you want to start your curl journey. Determining your hair properties is the starting point to get to know your curls better and take good care of them. It is considered an important part of the CG method.
What is the best way to test your hair properties?
This blog post discusses the following points;
- Which hair properties are the most important?
- How can you test elasticity?
- How can you test porosity?
- What is meant by hydration and moisture (brief explanation)?
- Conclusion
Which hair properties are the most important?
Let us briefly state what is meant by hair properties.
There are 5 properties that are important:
- Porosity (how much moisture does your hair absorb and retain?)
- Elasticity (how quickly does your hair break)
- Thickness (how thick is one hair?)
- Density (how much hair do you have growing on your head?)
- Curl type (how curly is your hair? How tight is your hair?)
The first two properties are the most important:
- Porosity
- Elasticity
Density and thickness are then important, as they indirectly influence product use.
The least important is really the curl type. You can check this yourself on Google. Many curly people have multiple curl types and this is very normal.
Porosity
Porosity is about how much moisture your hair can absorb and retain. See the chart below:
Elasticity
Elasticity is about how fragile your hair is. How quickly does your hair break? See the chart below:
Porosity and elasticity in a diagram:
Thickness
With thickness you can take into account the use of different products. See the diagram below:
Density and thickness in a diagram:
Density is all about how many hairs grow on your scalp. See the chart below: 
Curl type
Curl type is all about the curlier your hair, the more moisture & product it needs. See chart below:
How can you test hair properties?
There are two best ways to test porosity:
- The driving test
- See how long it takes for your hair to dry completely (see Porosity chart)
The law of stretch (elasticity)
The best way to test elasticity is with wet stretch. To get the result as accurate as possible you need to do the following:
When doing the wet stretch you do NOT pull a hair out of your scalp. You test on 3 spots of a hair: close to the scalp, in the middle and at the end. You will notice that from the middle the hair becomes more vulnerable and breaks off faster. There is no product in the hair. So on clean and wet hair, because you can make the longest stretch with wet hair instead of dry hair. If you do it on dry hair you get a distorted image. Check a hair on different places on your head. Don't forget the back. You can also choose to grab 5 hairs at the same time, so that you have more hold if you have fine hair.
When do you apply this?
- Start your curl journey
- When you notice that your curls have less bounce
- After a dye job / bleaching
The float test (porosity)
Important: use warm boiled water
Fill a clear glass or bowl with warm boiled water. Place several hairs (note: clean ones) on the water. Within a few seconds to 5 minutes you will see what happens:
- The hairs float on the surface -> low porosity
- The hairs sink to the middle -> normal porosity
- The hairs sink to the bottom -> highly porous
By using warm boiled water you will see the result faster. Hair with low porosity the hair scales are closed. Due to the heat they open faster and the hair absorbs the water faster. In practice this does not happen so quickly. If you do this with high porosity hair, you will see the effect immediately because the hair scales are already open. The hairs will immediately sink to the bottom.
*What is meant by hydration and moisture?
Often both terms are used interchangeably. But there is definitely a difference in meaning. Hydration and moisture are also both called moisture, to make it more complicated. It is important for you to know that moisture either refers to water (hydration) or to ingredients of a product (moisture) . See the diagram below:
Conclusion:
Hair properties. A difficult concept when you hear it for the first time. Now that you have read this blog post, you know that of the 5, 2 properties are important to test: 1. Porosity and 2. Elasticity. Apply the float and wet stretch test, try it out. You only need to know how and when to do the tests. Write down your findings and don't forget to note the date so that you can always read back when you determined your hair properties. It will save you so much time, energy and money. Good luck!
