Hair Types & Porosity · Guide
Build the routine on two answers: how thick each strand is, and how readily it takes in water. Those two give you four routines, and they predict what works far better than curl type does.
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Curl type is the variable everyone talks about and it is not the one that predicts what works. Two others do.
Strand thickness decides how much weight your hair can carry before it goes flat. Pull out a strand and roll it between your fingers: barely detectable is fine, like a piece of thread is coarse.
Porosity decides whether product gets in or sits on top — the test takes five minutes.
Those two give four combinations, and the routines below differ substantially from one another. Curl type then adjusts the styling products, not the underlying routine.
The combination most likely to complain that nothing works. Hair rejects product because the cuticle is closed, and what does stay on the surface flattens it.
Usually fine hair that has been bleached or heat-damaged. It drinks product but cannot carry weight, which is an awkward pair of constraints.
Strong, healthy hair that is frustrating to work with. It can carry weight but will not absorb anything.
The thirstiest combination, common on coily hair and on anything heavily processed. It takes as much as you give it.
From the picks
A weightless cleanser for the fine routines, a rich mask for the coarse ones, and a spray leave-in that works across all four because you control the dose.
Best for fine hair
A weightless cleanser built for fine hair rather than adapted to it. Verb states the full Ghost line is clinically proven to reduce frizz by 79% when used together, which is a claim about the range, not this bottle alone.
Best weekly mask
The straightforward weekly deep conditioner, built on oils and B-vitamins rather than a patented bond active. When hair is thirsty rather than structurally broken, this is the honest answer.
Best all-rounder leave-in
A spray leave-in that covers several jobs at once. The brand lists ten claimed benefits including detangling, frizz control and thermal protection, and the practical value is that it replaces two or three bottles.
The AAD's guidance is to match wash frequency to hair type, from daily for straight hair with an oily scalp to as infrequently as every two to three weeks for dry, textured, curly or thick hair (AAD, everyday hair care). That range maps neatly onto the four routines above, with the fine ones at one end and the coarse ones at the other.
Whichever you are, the technique is the same: shampoo the scalp, condition the ends or the length depending on your type, detangle wet with a wide-tooth comb from the ends upward, and be gentler than feels necessary.
We have not used these products ourselves. They are chosen from what is in the formula, what those ingredients are documented to do, and whether that matches the problem this page is about — and every product below links to the manufacturer's own page so you can check the formulation claims yourself. The full method is here.
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Claims about what an ingredient does are cited to dermatology bodies or published research. Claims about what a product contains are cited to the manufacturer's own page and labeled as the manufacturer's claim. Where the evidence is thin, we say so on the page rather than rounding it up. Read the full method.