A client asked me this question last week after trying the float test three different times and getting three different answers. It made me smile because it's a question I've heard many times over the years, and it also highlights why understanding textured hair is rarely as simple as we would like it to be.
What the float test claims to show
The float test has become one of the most popular ways to "find your porosity." The idea is straightforward. You place a clean strand of hair into a glass of water. If it floats, you have low porosity. If it sinks, you have high porosity. Somewhere in between means medium porosity. It's easy to do, it feels scientific, and it gives you an answer within minutes.
The problem is that our hair is far more complex than one strand in one glass of water.
Why one strand isn't the whole story
What the float test may be reflecting is not a single, fixed porosity level, but the condition of that individual strand at the moment you test it. Hair isn't the same from root to tip, and it certainly isn't the same after years of colouring, heat styling, washing, brushing, swimming or simply living life. The ends of your hair have experienced far more than the new growth closest to your scalp, so expecting every strand to behave identically doesn't really reflect how hair works. Even smaller factors can influence what happens in that glass of water. Product residue, natural oils, the temperature of the water and where the strand came from on your head can all play a part. Suddenly, it becomes much easier to understand why someone can repeat the test several times and end up with different results each time.
Ask what your hair has actually been through
I actually think there's a more useful question than, "What is my porosity?"
Instead, ask yourself, "What has my hair been through?"
If you've been colouring or bleaching your hair for years, your cuticle has been repeatedly opened so colour can enter or natural pigment can be lifted out. While the cuticle doesn't simply stay open forever, repeated chemical services gradually weather the outer layer of the hair, changing the way it behaves over time. Heat styling works in a similar way. One blow-dry isn't likely to transform your hair overnight, but years of straightening, curling or blow-drying without adequate heat protection slowly wear down the cuticle, just as years of sun gradually weather a wooden fence.
Time matters just as much as the treatment itself. Hair that was bleached two years ago and has since grown out often behaves very differently from hair that was lightened only a few weeks ago. Your roots and your ends have lived completely different lives, and they shouldn't be expected to respond to products in exactly the same way.
Pay attention to how it behaves
Then there's something I find even more valuable than any test: paying attention to how your hair behaves.
Does it absorb products almost instantly but still feel dry a few hours later? Does it take forever to dry? Does it become weighed down easily, or does it always seem to be searching for more moisture? Does one routine leave your curls soft and lasting for days, while another gives you definition for a few hours before everything begins to unravel? Those patterns tell a story, and they're worth paying attention to.
Over the years behind the chair, I've learnt that hair is remarkably consistent once you start observing it closely. It tells you what it likes. It tells you what it struggles with. It tells you when something is missing. The challenge is that most of us have been taught to look for a single label instead of learning how to recognize those patterns.
That's why I don't think understanding your hair begins with finding one category. It begins with understanding its behaviour. Porosity is absolutely part of that conversation, but it's only one piece of a much bigger picture that also includes your hair's history, your daily routine, your environment, your styling habits and, perhaps most importantly, how your hair responds over time.
Your hair has been keeping a record of all those experiences long before you ever dropped a strand into a glass of water. Once you learn how to read that record, you begin making decisions based on observation rather than guesswork. If you'd like a little help putting those pieces together, our Porosity Match Quiz doesn't rely on one simple test. Instead, it looks at the things that genuinely influence how hair behaves, from your colour and heat history to the way your hair dries, responds to products and holds onto moisture, giving you a much more complete picture than a single strand of hair ever could.
Always rooting for you,
— Sarah / STAUNCH