Hi All

I’m hoping for some help so I can de-flumax myself on the hair texture front.  This is what I know so far, my hair loves Castor oil in small quantities (really loves it), it gets wet easily and dries super quick, it also takes colour very quickly and intensely so I’ve concluded now that it’s porous, particularly so on the top bits.  It’s the texture that is currently baffling me.  I’ve always assumed it is fine.  I have an huge amount of hair that when short sits at a 90 degree angle from my head, but it doesn’t feel coarse at all.  I’ve done the strand test and it is completely smooth, but not in any way flat, my hair does not suffer from a lack of volume in fact I have to beat it into submission volume wise.  I also know that products with protein in make my hair unhappy with a sort of birds nest affair particularly where the very porous bits are, this is a recent discovery since I’ve been looking more closely at ingredients.  So if I understand what I’m reading here correctly, the fondness for moisture and dislike of protein would suggest I’m on the coarse scale.  Also if I stretch a strand it doesn’t snap, in fact it seems to have extraordinary strength which surprised me somewhat it just pings back into a very tight curl formation.  Is it possible to have porous hair that’s coarse without feeling rough?  My other confusion is around porosity, the articles linked to here seem to suggest this is caused by heat styling, colour treatments and chemical processing, and I don’t do any of that, I haven’t used a hairdryer in ten years or coloured, and I’ve never had any other chemical treatment, I also don’t use sulphate based products so can porous hair just be made that way?  I don’t think I have ever been this confused!

Hi - when talking hair texture the fine medium and coarse refers to the size of your individual hair strands - fine hair will be really thin strands so much so that it’s pretty hard to see one if its on something of similar colour, coarse hair is a thicker strand. You can also have a combination - like finer stranded hair around the temples and nape of neck and coarse hair say on the canopy.  Your hair sounds in good condition.  Protein wise, coarse hair doesn’t need as much protein as it can hang on to protein more (ie the fact that your hair strand doesn’t snap suggests it has adequate protein and indeed moisture).  Porosity wise, you can just naturally have hair that tends to be a bit porous.  hope this helps somewhat

Thank you, that does help a lot!  I think I may have a bit of a mix going on, I tend to pluck near the side when testing it and last night I plucked one from the “problem area” and that is definitely much more substantial and feels a bit like nylon fishing line, I also got a wiling volunteer to pluck one of their’s so I could compare and mine is much thicker, so I think I’ve concluded I may be medium which may explain why products for fine hair don’t do enough for my hair and the products at the other end of the scale make my hair fluffy, except for the clump at the back which is really thick strand wise and is clearly quite coarse, and generally react well to heavier products even when the rest of my hair hates it.  This is all getting a bit clearer, so far I’ve discovered that sealing my hair is the key because porosity is my major problem, I think I’m a 3b, and I need to seal my hair when it’s dripping wet!  Any tips about keeping the moisture locked in for longer?  I know my hair is crazy for castor oil which was a surprise, and I have psoriasis so my scalp is unhappy with any kind of build up but I’m trying to get to a wash every other day scenario without upsetting it too much.  I have previously managed this but it took a turn recently after a brush with a Kiehls curl spray and is still somewhat annoyed with me. Currently I get good results if I seal with castor and do nothing else, but second day hair is a problem because it’s dried out, without sounding stupid is the best way to refresh water and then more oil?  Thank you!

Fat Bottomed Curls - 12 June 2011 09:03 AM

Thank you, that does help a lot!  I think I may have a bit of a mix going on, I tend to pluck near the side when testing it and last night I plucked one from the “problem area” and that is definitely much more substantial and feels a bit like nylon fishing line, I also got a wiling volunteer to pluck one of their’s so I could compare and mine is much thicker, so I think I’ve concluded I may be medium which may explain why products for fine hair don’t do enough for my hair and the products at the other end of the scale make my hair fluffy, except for the clump at the back which is really thick strand wise and is clearly quite coarse, and generally react well to heavier products even when the rest of my hair hates it.  This is all getting a bit clearer, so far I’ve discovered that sealing my hair is the key because porosity is my major problem, I think I’m a 3b, and I need to seal my hair when it’s dripping wet!  Any tips about keeping the moisture locked in for longer?  I know my hair is crazy for castor oil which was a surprise, and I have psoriasis so my scalp is unhappy with any kind of build up but I’m trying to get to a wash every other day scenario without upsetting it too much.  I have previously managed this but it took a turn recently after a brush with a Kiehls curl spray and is still somewhat annoyed with me. Currently I get good results if I seal with castor and do nothing else, but second day hair is a problem because it’s dried out, without sounding stupid is the best way to refresh water and then more oil?  Thank you!

Are you making sure you have applied enough moisture - in the form of a leave in/curl cream before sealing with castor oil? What else do you use, apart from castor oil?

Hi - I don’t seal personally so can’t give you any ideas that I’ve tried, but you could spray with water and then add a little more oil and then put your styling stuff on.  I sometimes spray down my hair if it is a mess in the am, and then scrunch in my usuals or sometimes I’ll use a little darcy’s curl cream gel scrunched into dry hair and that works good for me. If you are high porosity then that is why you lose the moisture quick.  But try with the spray down on day 2 and see how that goes also how would adding a little oil to the ends at night be for you - how is it in the am if you do this? (you are lucky to have so much volume - my hair really lacks this)

Hi both

Crystal tips, what to put underneath is my pressing issue since finding castor so useful with the sealing, I was using Argan oil over an Ojon leave in previously but the Ojon and the castor don’t seem to be liking each other very much, so I am currently trying a lotion I made that is coca butter, coconut and rice bran oil, with a lavender and rosemary infusion.  My scalp makes it difficult to find leave ins because it reacts to most products, so I’m still investigating options, the more natural the better.  I have been looking at Darcy’s Botanicals but wanted to learn a bit more about my hair before buying the thousandth wrong product

Curlyhairmich, my hair will reject almost everything when dry, but I think it’s because it has so much volume that I can’t distribute product evenly, sprays are better but I tend to have to use too much when it’s dry, when I read your post this morning I tried spritzing with my horsetail and nettle toner (it’s actually for my face but it worked since it’s just an infusion) and then added s bit of my Argan, jojoba and castor mix and it worked quite well so I did get 2nd day hair without itchiness or an angry scalp.  It was still a little dry but that might have been the comedy spritzer I was using which is ridiculously small!  I bought a hair spritzer today to rectify that, and a tangle teezer because I read they were good to get rid of the tangles when conditioning (I clearly would not attempt to brush when dry because my hair would probably take over the world).  You mentioned Darcy’s do you find her products work well, I’m very interested in the brand because natural works best for my scalp, but I’m still mystified about what my hair really wants?  It’s a shame there isn’t s swap board for volume and porosity, I’d do roaring trade!  Thanks again for all your help.

Fat Bottomed Curls - 12 June 2011 04:45 PM

Hi both

Crystal tips, what to put underneath is my pressing issue since finding castor so useful with the sealing, I was using Argan oil over an Ojon leave in previously but the Ojon and the castor don’t seem to be liking each other very much, so I am currently trying a lotion I made that is coca butter, coconut and rice bran oil, with a lavender and rosemary infusion.  My scalp makes it difficult to find leave ins because it reacts to most products, so I’m still investigating options, the more natural the better.  I have been looking at Darcy’s Botanicals but wanted to learn a bit more about my hair before buying the thousandth wrong product

Curlyhairmich, my hair will reject almost everything when dry, but I think it’s because it has so much volume that I can’t distribute product evenly, sprays are better but I tend to have to use too much when it’s dry, when I read your post this morning I tried spritzing with my horsetail and nettle toner (it’s actually for my face but it worked since it’s just an infusion) and then added s bit of my Argan, jojoba and castor mix and it worked quite well so I did get 2nd day hair without itchiness or an angry scalp.  It was still a little dry but that might have been the comedy spritzer I was using which is ridiculously small!  I bought a hair spritzer today to rectify that, and a tangle teezer because I read they were good to get rid of the tangles when conditioning (I clearly would not attempt to brush when dry because my hair would probably take over the world).  You mentioned Darcy’s do you find her products work well, I’m very interested in the brand because natural works best for my scalp, but I’m still mystified about what my hair really wants?  It’s a shame there isn’t s swap board for volume and porosity, I’d do roaring trade!  Thanks again for all your help.

Something else to try, which works excellently for me (am doing at the mo) is to pre-condition hair before cowashing/washing. I use GFRS (oil rich) in damp hair and leave in for around 30mins-1hour and then either cleanse (CJDF) or cowash (the rest of my routine the same ie follow with rinse out/DT/PT etc then leave in and gel.) I’ve been finding my hair is drier of late (almost certainly down to change in seasons/higher dews) and have been doing this at least once per week with stellar results! HTH!