I am a curly girl, and I have done a lot of research on the best products for my sensitive hair. It turns out, I have low porosity hair, so I need lower protein in my products to keep from building up. What does this have to do with horses you may ask? Well, I tested my horse’s tail, and he too has low porosity! I am considering using some of my curly approved products on his tail and see how it works… Anyone tried this before?
Hey J… how did you determine you have low porosity hair?
I’m having a battle with my hair now in this land of hard water… What worked well in CT is making my hair brittle and disobedient here. Any updates?
And to stay on topic… the only product I’ve used for humans and horses is Mane and Tail. Granted, it was about 100 years ago with inconsistent results…
There are two methods – you can take a strand of hair and run your fingers from the bottom toward the scalp. If it’s bumpy, it’s low porosity. If it’s smooth it’s high porosity. You can also take a strand of hair and put it in water – if it floats it’s low, if it sinks it’s high. My newest favorite product line is from Sally Beauty that is the generic of Deva Curl, but I bought the Shea Moisture Low Porosity shampoo and conditioner for the horse’s tail. I’ll continue to use horse specific shampoo for his body, but I’m going to give it a go on his tail.
Hey, thanks… I saw the test on line about if the hair sinks…
Does it matter if the hair’s been blown dry? I have a boar’s hair brush that really closes the follicle. Nonetheless, it still seems to ‘catch’ between my fingers as I slide upward.
I’ll try lower protein products and see if it makes a difference. Thanks so much teaching me something new!
I’ve used Tresemme AntiBreakage conditioner as a leave in winter conditioner for years. I do find I need to dilute it quite a lot to avoid the greasy blob patch in dry hair effect. If it’s not too cold misting the tail with water first helps too.
I braid my boys’ tails up for the winter so they don’t collect dirt on the conditioner. I take them down, mist, condition, brush and let dry before brushing and rebraiding every three weeks.
I found some leave in conditioner at Marshall’s from Renpure that doesn’t have any garbage in it – I tried it in his tail dry, and I like the results! It isn’t slick (no silicones) or really a detangler, but it softened the hair itself.
Just FYI, the hair floating/sinking method isn’t very accurate. I have high porosity hair but mine always floats.
In my case, my hair takes FOREVER to dry. Like, way longer than it should. If I let it air dry, we are talking probably half a day to dry. Even with a blow drier (which I very rarely use), it can take over an hour to dry.
Its also the opposite, if its bumpy when you slide your fingers up the strands, its high porosity (the bumps are open pores), if its smooth its low porosity (the pores are closed so its smooth).
If your hair is perfect, doesnt take forever to dry, doesn’t frizz or get product built up on it, you have ideal mid porosity hair.
When my hair was long I used the cowboy magic products. My hair, have no clue about porosity, when long would not dry completely if I pulled it into a bun after my shower in the morning. I have a thick hair spot, so even with my 3 on the sides and keeping it an inch at most on the top it looks like some shave a head when I get a hair cut every month.
If I was to grow my hair out again, I would go back to using cowboy magic detangler and shine
ETA: I just stopped dying my hair a year ago, stylists were shocked at how healthy my hair was with constant dying. By constant I mean 15 years with every color under the sun. Cowboy Magic is your friend.
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I actually love cowboy magic too! I kinda want to go get some now.
Whoops, you are definitely right!! I got it reversed in my head!
I only know cuz I did the same, I read an article wrong, thought I was low porosity until i realized i actually had it backwards :lol:
