Best Hair Products Mielle & K18 on Low & High Porosity Hair

Knowing your hair’s porosity is a great way to keep it healthy and manage its needs accordingly. Hair porosity is how well your hair can take in and retain moisture, which may greatly affect the product types that will serve you best. 

Low porosity hair has cuticles packed tightly together and hence usually requires lightweight, deeply penetrating products that avoid heavy buildup. On the other hand, high-porosity hair has an open cuticle structure. It needs intense hydration with hair products that seal up the cuticles to avoid losing moisture, leading to breakage.

This guide is going to be targeted at recommending the right hair products for low and high porosity, respectively. We will describe, for each of these porosity levels, essential products that range from hydrating shampoos to leave-in treatments. 

Second, we review hair products by Mielle because this brand is known for its formulations that treat a variety of hair types, be it porosity-specific or otherwise.If one is dyeing hair, then he or she should understand just exactly how hair porosity might affect its coloration. Check out our 5 Hair Color Trends and Hair Care Tips for the latest color trends, and also some tidbits on how to take care of your tresses, no matter what your porosity level is.

Understanding Hair Porosity

Hair porosity, related to the ability of hair to absorb and hold moisture, essentially refers to how well the hair can absorb and retain moisture. This is determined by the condition of the cuticle or the outer layer of the hair shaft. Majorly, there are three types of hair porosity: low, medium, and high, each of which should be well understood for the right hair products and routines that must be applied to one’s hair.

1. Low Porosity Hair

In low-porosity hair, the cuticle layer is laid flat against the shaft of the hair. As a result, it becomes less permeable. It is highly resistant to moisture coming into the hair. Those with low porosity hair claim that hair products often just sit on top of the hair rather than getting absorbed.

Water Absorption and Retention: Due to its tightly closed cuticle, low-porosity hair absorbs moisture more slowly. This hair may also be resistant to chemical treatments and conditioning products and, therefore, requires more work to achieve the desired level of hydration. The good thing is that water absorption, once achieved, tends to stay longer inside, meaning low-porosity hair doesn’t get dry that fast. It’s getting the water and treatments in the first place that’s tricky.

2. High Porosity Hair

High porosity hair is a form of hair where there is an opening or raising to the cuticle layer, making it more porous. It can either be genetic or through environmental damage, chemical treatments, or heat styling.

With the opened cuticle structure, high-porosity hair absorbs moisture rather quickly. It also loses moisture just that fast because the openings can let water easily escape through the gaps in the cuticle. 

Hence, high-porosity hair often faces dryness, frizz, and brittleness. In managing high porosity hair, regular moisturizing and conditioning become pertinent to help the hair hold the hydration levels by preventing water loss.

Low Porosity Hair Products

Low porosity hair has cuticles lying flat and tightly sealed. The structure is not able to facilitate the entry of moisture or products through it. More often than not, product buildup may be an issue, and hydration is hard to achieve. Handling low porosity well calls for the right choice of hair products and methodology that addresses its special needs.

Leave-In Conditioners

Leaving a conditioner on will help keep your hair well-moisturized and manageable on a day-to-day basis. One of the best leave-in conditioners for low-porosity hair is Ouidad’s Moisture Lock Leave-In Conditioner. 

The item offers long-lasting moisture that will help in detangling without the additional weight. Apply it right after washing to ensure your hair remains hydrated and manageable throughout the day.

Shampoo and Conditioner

Stick to light, clarifying one’s when it comes to shampoos and conditioners. Indulge in heavy, creamy formulas, and your hair will surely be weighed down with build-up. Kinky-Curly Come Clean Shampoo is great for cleansing your scalp and hair properly and ridding it of product build-up, all without stripping the hair of its natural oils. 

Next, post-shampooing, a follow-up with a conditioner that will not weigh your hair down with heavy residue, such as Aunt Jackie’s In Control Conditioner. This conditioner will strike the perfect balance in moisture without weighing it down or making it greasy, leaving it fresh and easy to handle.

How to care for low porosity hair

1. Deep Conditioning

Deep conditioning is vital to low-porosity hair because it opens up the cuticles just about enough, allowing moisture inside the hair shaft. Choose deep conditioners with extra ingredients that help hydrate the hair, like aloe vera, glycerin, or honey. 

SheaMoisture’s Baobab & Tea Tree Oil Deep Conditioning Treatment does the trick. This product pairs these hydrating agents with some nourishing oils, which help enhance the absorption of moisture into your hair.

2. Protein Treatments

Protein treatments can be good, too, for low-porosity hair, but you want to avoid overloading your hair with too much protein. You want lightweight treatments. Aphogee’s Two-Step Protein Treatment works well; it will strengthen your hair without building it up and making it feel heavy or hard. Apply according to instructions and after use a moisturizing conditioner to help keep the right balance between protein and moisture.

3. Sealers

Lightweight oils or serums lock in the moisture you’ve worked so hard to add. Following a leave-in conditioner or moisturizer, pick your favorite oil like argan oil or jojoba oil. 

A great option for Paul Mitchell is the Tea Tree Hair and Scalp Oil for adding moisture and shine without leaving your hair feeling greasy or weighed down. Just a few drops will make all the difference in keeping your hair healthy throughout the day.

High Porosity Hair Products

High porosity hair absorbs moisture quickly, yet can quickly shed it due to open cuticle layers, leaving it vulnerable to frizz, dryness, and brittleness.

Protective styling, regular trims, and prioritizing hydration will all help to minimize damage and foster healthy-looking strands.

Shampoo with a moisturizing shampoo like Devacurl No-Poo Decadence Milk Cleanser and finish by conditioning with protein for strengthened porous strands. Include an oil treatment like coconut or olive for extra nourishment and to help seal in hydration.

Sealers and Leave-In Conditioners

Add a lightweight conditioner or oil after washing to help seal the cuticles and prevent moisture from escaping. Products with shea butter, argan oil, or honey help moisturize high-porosity hair. Do not use hair products that contain sulfates, silicones, or sodium laureth sulfates, as these hair products strip the hair of natural moisture.

A great leave-in conditioner, like SheaMoisture’s Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Hair Conditioner, can extend the benefits of deep conditioning well into your day. Continuous hydration happens, and manageability further becomes easy.

How to care for high porosity hair

1. Moisturizing and Conditioning

Choosing the Right Shampoo and Conditioner: With highly porous hair, one should not use any shampoo that may strip the hair of its moisture. Using moisturizing shampoos such as Devacurl No-Poo Decadence Milk Cleanser is highly recommended since it cleans the hair without stripping it of its moisture. 

This then needs to be followed by a conditioner that deeply nourishes, protects, and helps strengthen the hair with proteins to prevent further damage.

2. Deep Conditioning Treatments

High porosity hair has to go through regular deep conditioning treatments to keep it hydrated and shiny. Keep in mind those conditioners that are formulated with humectants such as honey or glycerin, which draw and lock in moisture. 

The SheaMoisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Conditioner is great for intensive hydration, thus enhancing moisture balance within the hair. This will keep your hair healthy and shiny with regular deep conditioning treatments.

3. Protein Treatments

High porosity hair tends to be more breakable, thus needing strength and repair with protein treatments. The proteins rebuild the hair structure, hence strengthening it by reducing breakage and giving a good elasticity level. 

Examples include SheaMoisture Strengthen, made from hydrolyzed baobab protein and mango seed butter, used once a week. Such treatments restore your hair’s store and balance of protein.

4. Protective Styling

The styles in hair that are protective, like braids and twists, or even buns, will protect your hair against the environments it faces, reducing moisture loss. 

You reduce manipulation to a minimal level, hence avoiding further breakages while allowing your hair to retain its health. These styles will also help protect against dryness and frizz.

5. Regular Trims

A necessary part of regular trims is to take off split ends and not let them further deteriorate. Preferably every 8-12 weeks, trimming will help with the health of your hair and may slow down the appearance of increased porosity over time. Keeping your ends healthy is one way to ensure your hair looks and feels better.

6. Minimizing Damages

Especially, high porosity hair does not require much heating or undergo undue chemical treatments. For instance, a lot of heat might elevate the cuticles even higher, causing more moisture to disappear. 

Always apply a heat protector before styling, while trying as best as possible to limit the use of heat. Similarly, try to avoid harsh chemical treatments that exacerbate the porosity further.

7. Adding Natural Oils

Argan and jojoba oil are perfect for high-porosity hair. These oils instantly penetrate the hair shaft without leaving any greasiness behind. Thus, these oils give nutrition, which is essential, and restore hydration.

Review: Mielle Hair Products

Mielle Organics, founded by Monique Rodriguez in 2014, merges her professional nursing background with a love for beauty into a high-quality, professional hair care line for textured hair. Fast forward, and the company has risen rather quickly to become synonymous with natural and active formulations for curly, coily, and even straight hair.

Nourishing Formulas

Mielle Organics is known for its nutrient-rich hair products that help nourish the hair and scalp. One that stands out is the Mango and Tulsi Botanical Blend Collection by Mielle. This indeed has Mango Butter and Tulsi leaves that give hair those essential antioxidants to fix damaged hair and give it hydration back. 

Added hair vitamins and minerals are also included in hair growth products. For the perfect results, each of these should be applied per the application instructions to thoroughly make use of these enriching formulas.

Mielle’s Babassu Oil and Mint Deep Conditioner are perfect examples of hair products that target curly hair. This deep conditioner delivers ultimate hydration, strengthening the hair to prevent breakage and helps to control frizz.

Effective Treatments

Mielle also pledged to use natural ingredients in its treatment hair products. The Rosemary Mint Scalp & Hair Strengthening Oil is a pretty versatile treatment for scalp issues and split ends. It will be gentle on the scalp, while it helps to prevent breakages and damage to your hair for healthier growth.

This Mongongo Oil Thermal & Heat Protectant Spray is a must-have for any individual with straight hair. It not only adds shine and eliminates frizz but also protects against heat damage for healthy, vibrant hair.

Included in Mielle’s line of hair products are the perfect solutions for textured hair lovers everywhere. The Pomegranate & Honey Curl Smoothie is a product that will define curls, minimize frizz, deeply hydrate, and is also a coupling product. The Rosemary & Mint Hair Oil Blend invigorates the scalp and helps aid in split ends with rosemary to help stimulate and peppermint to refresh.

Affordable Options

Mielle Organics stands out among many other brands by providing very effective solutions for hair care at amazingly reasonable prices. Whereas some of their hair products, like the Mint Almond Oil, are designed to act on your scalp to stimulate it for healthy growth, others, like the Masque for Split Ends, are effective on split ends and dryness. 

Amongst other things, Mielle is also trustworthy for its best shampoo and conditioner, which are very effective against all kinds of dryness, causing a loss of hair on spots, tangling, and many other issues concerning hair.

Their line of products for Type 4 hair, from gel to shampoo, leave-in conditioner, and curl cream, is versatile and designed for ultimate scalp health, beauty, and well-kept curls.

Easy to Use

Mielle Organics is all about infusing ease and lightness into hair care, even with natural ingredients. The Advanced Healthy Hair Formula Vitamin Supplement by them is one of the customer favorites for its blend of herbs, amino acids, and minerals to promote healthier skin, hair, nails, and immunity. 

Quite evident through some posts on Instagram that featured a supplement responsible for longer and healthier locks.More importantly, though, Mielle’s styling products — the company’s Leave-In Conditioner-play an important role in any natural hair care routine. 

This product aids in locking moisture in the hair to prevent frizz and flyaways and also offers protection against heat damage. Whether transitioning to natural hair, deep conditioning treatments by the company, such as the Mongongo Oil Thermal and Heat Protectant Hair Treatment Spray, are irreplaceable in retaining moisture and averting breakages.

Overall, the portfolio of hair care from Mielle Organics includes just about anything one could want or need, successfully melding active ingredients with affordability and ease of use.

K18 Hair Mask Review

It has become known as one of the finest hair masks currently available, hydrating and improving texture and manageability while also reducing frizz and split ends. Curly-haired individuals will appreciate this professional-strength treatment, voted by Allure magazine as one of the best curly hair masks for bringing about noticeable improvements in hair condition. This is a bit of an investment, but if you want stronger, healthier hair, then it’s one well worth making.

The K18 Hair Mask is among the bright jewels in the world of hair products. With its ground-breaking technology, damaged hair is restored by correcting Polymers. Its active formula goes right to the heart of the hair with K18 Peptide to ensure that it repairs internal damage instead of just sitting on the surface of the hair to strengthen, soften, and smooth hair.

Restoring Severely Damaged Hair from Inside Out

What makes the K18 Hair Mask truly unique is that it can restore hair damage on a molecular level. Unlike any other conditioners, which only treat the outermost layers of your hair, the K18 Hair Mask deeply infiltrates into the hair shaft. 

It does this by healing the polypeptide chains and disulfide bonds inside your hair, largely destroyed by heat application, coloring, or other chemical treatments. This deep repair helps to renew the natural strength and elasticity of your hair and gives it a healthier look and feel.

How to Work the K18 Hair Mask into Your Routine

For this mask to be of ultimate service, it’s best used right in the routine after washing. Slather the mask onto damp hair, making sure to apply enough for an even application. Leave it on for only four minutes, and in that time, this quick, effective treatment will let its advanced formula get to work. 

This mask is effective, particularly for curly hair. Controlling frizz and setting your curls in place, this mask does a great job of giving your curls a nice, finished look without the dryness of other hair products.

Protecting Your Hair

Combine the K18 Hair Mask with K18 hair oil for more protection. When you put these treatments together, this can protect you further from heat styling and hair color treatments that will only result in major damages like broken keratin chains and split ends. For textured hair advanced peptide technology is great, which happens to be more prone to irregular keratinization and increased fragility.

Heat Protection and Peptide Technology

While most hair treatments only smooth hair from the outside, the K18 Hair Mask reaches deeper. Its biomimetic peptide structure closest to natural keratin allows it to be well-absorbed and repair internal damage. 

Some might be concerned that alcohol in the formula may dry their hair. However, this recipe applies alcohol to facilitate the passage of peptides into the hair shaft. The mask can be used on both wet and dry hair, to provide you with maximum flexibility in the process of taking care of your hair.

Variety of Styling Benefits

Besides its restorative properties, the K18 Hair Mask is also beneficial for styling purposes. It rebuilds strength, elasticity, and shine for wavy, curly, textured, or straight hair. The mask’s natural oils and nutrients moisturize the hair and scalp. Antioxidants in the formulation fight off oxidative stress to grow healthier hair, making this mask fitting for so many hair concerns.

Cost and Effectiveness

Amika Hair Products: A Full-On Review

Amika is a Brooklyn-based brand dealing in professional hair products. Some of their products are specially designed, keeping in mind the individuality of a person, and one such product line is for curly hair. Amika pays attention to enhancing your natural curls with innovation combined with active ingredients that will help you to keep your locks looking and feeling their best.

Leave-In Conditioner for Curly Hair

There is no doubt that Amika is a curly-haired girl’s game-changer. This conditioner locks in the moisture lost after washing and covers your curls with that much-needed hydration to make them soft, shiny, and well-defined. It avoids frizz and flyaways, keeping the curls intact all day long.

Unlike traditional smoothing oils for straight hair, this leave-in conditioner from Amika makes use of natural main ingredients: resurrection flower, Andiroba seed, and coconut oil. These rich oils moisturize and strengthen every strand without stripping it of its moisture. Coming in different textures, this conditioner fits different thicknesses and densities. 

With its large-sized nozzle, application is easy: spritz five or six times onto damp hair, and you’re ready to go. Our testers were thrilled to find that their medium-length curls came out of the shower feeling softer and sleeker, with noticeably fewer flyaways and color protection.

Hair Heat Protector

Heat styling is indispensable in one way or another to anyone who deals with hair. Amika’s Blockade Heat Protectant Serum is lightweight for shielding your strands from heat damage, preventing moisture loss, and fighting frizz. It will leave your hair healthy and shiny after use.

If you have fine hair, you need a light protectant. 

GHD’s mist heat protectant helps fortify your hair, as it contains propolis natural resin produced by bees- and provides UV protection. Another great option is Normcore’s heat protectant; this is sulfate-free, filled with antioxidants, and sees the addition of sea buckthorn extract. This extract is packed full of plant-based omega-7, which helps to create the healthiest hair, shiny and full of life.

Dry Shampoo for Curly Hair

Dry shampoo is one of those lifesaving hair products to make curls feel fresh between washes. When it comes to choosing dry shampoos, try your best to avoid talc and benzene. Instead, opt for natural ingredients like rice starch, mung bean powder, or red clover extracts. Maria Nila offers a dry shampoo formulated for curly hair; it works effectively without residue that shows up to maintain freshness and vibrancy in curls.

This is best used before or after styling. Spritz it on your roots, massaging in well and spread all over before manipulating your curls into a style, and keep them healthy-looking and bouncy throughout the remainder of your day. 

Further protection from moisture loss and frizz can be achieved by incorporating a lightweight natural hair oil, such as coconut or argan oil, further into your style routine to add that soft, healthy sheen to your curls. It is the best shampoo for thinning hair.

Conclusion

Knowing your hair’s porosity is important in using the right products and finding its healthy sheen. Whether you have low-porosity or high-porosity hair, the trick lies in customizing your hair care regimen to meet its needs. For hair with low porosity, one should go for lightweight products that deeply penetrate without causing any kind of build-up. 

Employ methods whereby your hair can soak in more moisture. Hair of high porosity, on the other hand, requires intensive treatments of hydration and sealing to help lock in moisture, as otherwise, dryness will set in.

Brands like Mielle Organics and K18 have specialized solutions that will help with different types of porosity. These nourishing and restorative products enhance overall hair health through their ingredient profiles-from nutrient-rich formulations of Mielle to the innovative repair mask by K18; there is no lack of effective options to address your hair’s particular needs.

In the end, it’s all going to make a difference if you have the right products and routines that will give you healthy, manageable, beautiful hair. When you understand what your hair’s porosity is, then you’ll understand how to treat it with strength and balance with moisture for overall viability, thus creating long-term healthiness and glow in hair.

FAQs

1. What is hair porosity, and why is it so important?

Hair porosity refers to how well your hair can absorb and hold moisture. Determining your hair’s porosity is crucial in understanding which products and treatments work best for your hair to keep it healthy.

2. How will I determine my hair’s porosity?

You can measure your hair’s porosity using a simple water test: take a clean, dry strand of hair and place it in a glass of water. If it sinks rapidly, your hair is of high porosity; if it floats at the top, your hair is of low porosity; and somewhere in between, you have medium porosity.

3. How can Mielle products benefit low-porosity hair?

The formula for low-porosity hair keeps the Mielle products light and gently hydrates the hair without weighing it down. Sealing ingredients, mainly aloe vera and honey, primarily seal in moisture.

4. Can I use the color-treated hair with their products?

Yes, Mielle and K18 both have products designed for color-treated hair. This will give your hair good health and make it more vibrant, above all after hazardous chemical treatment.

5. How soon does one begin seeing the outcome of the K18 product?

Generally, it has been found that K18 products start to become more visible after 4-6 uses. Some users, however, have claimed minor improvements in the texture and strength of their hair after just one treatment.