What to do with porous hair?

[throughgrittedteeth]

Hello - my first tread on S&B and I'm hoping if you can help.

I've got coloured, longish hair and recently I've noticed that about 3/4 weeks after colouring the colour is already fading noticeably. I understand it's probably because of damage but short of having it cut off what can I do? Are there any treatments about which will help?
Any and all advice will be gratefully received!

Bumping and watching hopefully!

If it's just porous rather than sensitisised, then a weekly treatment will help greatly. Invest in a good quality one if this is a big deal to you. If it's sensitised, it must be cut. You can check porosity by back combing a small section with your index finger and thumb to see how rough the texture appears. You can check sensitivity but wetting a few strands of hair and stretching them gently. If the hair returns to normal state or doesn't stretch at all, it's not sensitised. If it looks stringy like gum or snaps off- it can only be saved with scissors.

Thank you MoBro, thats exactly the advice I was hoping for!
Just to pick your brain a bit more, how rough would it be if it is porous? Also do you have any suggestions for a weekly treatment? Thanks again

I can recommend Aphogee 2-step protein treatment. You have to follow the instructions very carefully but it is the most effective deep-conditioning treatment I have found.

Yes to Aphogee. It smells like sulphur/eggs - BUT stops breakage in its tracks.

Oh sulphur/eggy smells are my guilty pleasure so i'll be fine! Thanks for the suggestion, they've got in on amazon prime for about £10 so I'll get some and see how that goes.

Oo update please when you get it!

Hey, it's hard to explain but you shouldn't be able to matte your hair easily while gently rubbing the hair strands upward toward the root twice. I was told that if you're hair is long enough to reach the tip of your nose - you can feel the the roughness of the cuticle better because of how sensitive the tip of the nose is compared to the pads of your fingers. My hairs too short to try though and I've yet to try it on a client haha! When I pull a strand of hair out i can rub my finger down the strand and feel where the cuticle is lifted. Maybe google hair porosity test for further info. For hair treatments I like pureology strength cure restorative masque or pureology perfect for platinum filler leave in treatment, if your hair has been lifted a few shades.

Also, if not already, I would be using a semi permanent colour on porous hair. It can be better than a permanent due to the larger molecules being unable to escape the cuticle as easily as the smaller pigments of a permanent. The only issue with semis is that they will only blend white hair above 30% in general and will usually only be able to lift one shade- if any.

Get a plex treatment. It's the only thing that rebuilds the hair from within. Had one today and my bleached hair feels silky and healthy. Search colorphlex, olaplex and fibreplex