One of the biggest challenges people with low porosity hair face is keeping it moisturized. It becomes even more challenging when one has no idea of the right products in terms of natural oils to use. In today’s post, we take a look at whether you should be using castor oil on this type of hair.
So, is castor oil good for low porosity hair? Castor oil is not good at all for low porosity hair. Low porosity hair requires lightweight oils that can penetrate the hair cuticles, given that castor oil is heavy it will sit on the hair shaft causing build-up and weighing your hair down. Grapeseed oil and argan oils are some of the best oils for low porosity hair since they can penetrate the hair shaft easily. Castor oil will also make low porosity hair flaky.
Castor oil is considered as one of the sealing oils that seal in moisture or water or other oils by forming a film around your hair strand.
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Which factors make castor oil bad for low porosity hair?
Castor oil is heavy weight
Low porosity is hair that does not absorb water or hair products easily. Therefore, when choosing hair products you should always consider products made with ingredients that can easily penetrate your hair shaft.
Light weight products will penetrate low porosity hair much more easily and moisturize from within.
Castor oil is thick and greasy, it will sit in the hair shaft attract dirt and cause build up in your hair which will destroy your hair.
The greasy feeling of castor oil will leave your hair feeling heavy and quite oily, when applied in large amounts castor oil will even find its way into your clothes.
Castor oil does not penetrate hair
Being heavyweight castor oil sits on the surface of the hair instead of penetrating its cuticle. This will deny water the ability to enter and moisturize your low porosity hair.
Low porosity hair needs lightweight oils such as grapeseed oil or argan oil that will penetrate your hair and keep it moisturized without weighing it down or causing product build-up.
On the other hand, these lightweight penetrating oils will also form a film on the hair strand that will make it easy to lock in moisture.
Castor oil is greasy, sticky and dense
Castor oil is also dense, greasy and sticky, source
. When looking for products to use in your low porosity hair, Dense, greasy, and sticky are characteristics you should always avoid in any product.
Greasy oils will drip down your hair, find their way into your clothes and ruin them especially if you are wearing light colored clothes by attracting dirt.
Product build-up as a result of using the wrong products on your low porosity hair such as castor oil may damage your hair.
The residue will dry and weigh your hair down, resulting in hair thinning and breakage. Build-up will also interfere with the natural shine of your hair, it may also damage your hair follicles and interfere with growth.
Therefore, any products that cause product build up is no go zone for low porosity hair or any other type of hair.
How to choose products for low porosity hair
There are a few factors to consider when choosing the best products for your low porosity hair. These factors include.
Water based Products
The reason you should consider using products that are water-based is that water is one of the easiest ways of keeping your hair moisturized.
Water-based products will also not cause build-up in your hair. In fact, when moisturizing your hair experts always recommend misting your hair with water before using oils or butter.
In the case of low porosity, hair water will help give your hair the first layer of moisture before using oil.
Protein free products
Low porosity hair is considered as one of the most protein loaded type of hair. This means that using products that already have protein in them will damage your hair further.
However, for damaged low porosity hair, there is no harm with using products that have protein them. Problems come when your low porosity hair is healthy and then you use products that have protein.
This will lead to excessive proteins that will result in brittle hair.
Therefore, before buying any product for low porosity hair make sure you can understand the condition of your hair. Whether it needs protein or not.
Lightweight
This fact should always be at the back of your mind every time you are considering using any product on your low porosity hair.
Lightweight products will penetrate your low porosity hair easily and moisturize it without leaving a sticky, dense, and greasy feeling.
There is a group of oils that are lightweight that we will discuss later in this article that is best suited for low porosity hair.
They will penetrate your hair without leaving a greasy or dense feeling.
Moisture driven products
Moisturizing your hair is one of the best ways to ensure that your hair is healthy. Keeping low porosity hair moisturized is one of the biggest challenge that most people who have low porosity hair face.
Therefore, before you consider other factors such as protein content, adding shine and so on consider the protein content of the product you are buying.
However, if you have a damaged low porosity hair, you will have to consider products that have protein in them for repairing the damage. Therefore, in this case use products that have both protein content and they are also moisture driven.
What kind of oil is good for low porosity hair?
Sweet Almond oil
Sweet almond oil is one of the best oils for your low porosity hair because of the following factors.
Sweet almond oil is loaded with zinc, potassium, vitamin A and E. Its chemical composition includes palmitic acids, linoleic acids, stearic acids, and oleic acids.
When combined these products ensures that your low porosity hair is moisturized, soft, strong and radiant.
Stearic acids ensures that your hair is conditioned without leaving that heavy feel.
Grapeseed oil
Extracted from grape seeds, grapeseed oil makes an excellent oil for low porosity oil compared to olive oil because of its lightweight nature.
Grapeseed oil will leave you low porosity hair moisturized by penetrating your hairs’ cuticles without weighing your hair down.
Heat is one of the factors that help with making it easy to moisturize low porosity hair by opening up hair cuticles. The ability of grapeseed oil to absorb a considerable high amount of heat makes it a good oil to use when you use heat styling objects.
Argan oil
Argan oil can be used on almost all hair types, and on your skin. It is very similar to the natural oils that the body produces.
Argan oil has vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that your skin and hair needs to thrive. Its ability to protect your hair and skin from harmful UV rays of light makes it one of the best oils to use on your hair or skin especially when you will be going out.
Pomegranate oil
Pomegranate oil is also lightweight and will easily penetrate your hair leaving your hair well moisturized.
Pomegranate oil also promotes blood circulation that is essential for promoting the growth of your hair.
Other oils that are safe for low porosity hair include baobab oil, apricot kernel oil, safflower oil, sunflower seed oil, jojoba oil, and fractionated coconut oil.
These oils have one thing in common that makes them great for low porosity hair. They are all lightweight and are easy to penetrate the hair shaft without weighing down the hair.
Coconut oil
There is mixed reactions and debate on whether avocado oil is a lightweight oil or a heavy weight oil.
Avocado oil is a lightweight oil that will easily penetrate your hair withour leaving it greasy or dense. Avocado oil will also penetrate through your skin or scalp easily keeping both your hair and scalp moisturized.
When applying products or oils in your low porosity hair follow these guidelines
- Only apply oils or products to your low porosity hair when its dump but not wet
- Avoid applying products or oils excessively only apply as much as your hair needs
- Always use lightweight oils
- Using heating tools such as blow dryers can also make it easy for your low porosity hair to absorb oils. Heat will lift the hair cuticles making it easy for oil to penetrate between the hair cuticles.
- The above oils are a good option to keep your low porosity hair moisturized
Summary
Castor oil is not good for low porosity hair, it’s heavy weight which means it will not be able to penetrate through your hair cuticles and moisturize it. Its heaviness will also weigh down you low porosity hair. When choosing oils for your low porosity hair always consider oils that are lightweight as they will penetrate your hair cuticles and moisturize them from inside out.
Using heat styling instruments or tools can help increase the permeability of the oils increasing the moisturizing effects.