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Silicones in haircare
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After reading the beauty brains' articles on mineral oil lately I've been wondering if there's something similar going on with silicones. Lots of cosmetics companies pushing their natural hair care products seem to appeal to the lack of silicones, claiming that they will coat the hair, build up and can be hard to remove, and stop the hair from being properly moisturised and simply reflect the light to make hair appear to be healthy instead of making the hair shine because it is healthy. I have tried using some of these products and have had some very nice results. The thing that makes me question whether to cut them out completely is the benefits silicones are supposed to have, namely protection from heat styling. I don't tend to use straighteners much and never blow dry my hair, but if I do style my hair like this I still use my heat protection cream and hope that if there is any truth in the drawbacks of silicones that they are getting washed out.
So, sorry for the fairly long post but does anybody know the truth about this issue? Thanks! -
silicones are great protection and they won't build up on your hair any more than other hair products.
The problem is it all goes down the drain when you shampoo.
Silicone formulas are best for leave in conditioners, that way you get the benefits until your next shower.
For hair health, I recommend a weekly treatment with coconut or olive oil. Those are the two oils with the (chemical?/dna?) make-up to penetrate your hair. -
I once had this silicone conditioning treatment done on my hair back in HS (it wasn't that I didn't condition, it was that I er.. was too lazy to smooth condition throughout all my hair), and it was wonderful. I really then didn't have to condition for like a week! BEST treatment I've EVER gotten done for my hair, EVER!!!
It was also like $40, but then I was in HS with my little part time job and mommy's roof over my head.
The Brains wrote 2 great articles on silicones in conditioners too; Are Silicones Back For Your Hair?, and Does Silicone Suffocate Hair. -
Any product with a silicone in it works great for my hair and washes out with shampoo and I use John Frieda drugstore brands purchased at CVS. I don't know what i'd do for hair shine and cuticle damage prevention without silicones especially with heat-styling and drying when I do that. After a while I read the ingredients list and have learned which silicones I like best; which I find too heavy, etc.
Teddy -
Teddy, you've just identified the major benefits of silicone in hair care products. There really aren't other ingredients that work quite as good.
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I also tend to like hair products that contain silicones. The benefit of hair tangling less easily far outweighs the build-up, in my opinion (tangled hair means split ends, at least for me). I do use a clarifying shampoo now and then, but I haven't noticed my hair getting dull or anything like that, really.
I even like silicones in my shampoo, because, even if the cones go down the drain, at least my hair won't tangle while I'm shampooing. -
I think silicones are a girl's best friend. I use a pea sized drop of Fekkai Glossing Cream in my hair before I blow it dry, and then just two small drops of the Fekkai Technician Color Care Glaze once it's dry. It protects my hair from blow drying, and helps protect my color. The second ingredient in both of them is Dimethicone. I'm not positive, but I believe it is a type of silicone. My hair is always smooth and shiny. My daughter even commented on how healthy my hair looks. My face primer is also silicone. I think we need to take advantage of modern science to help us age gracefully. I sure am!
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I think I commented this once, but I had a silicone hair treatment at the salon once a few years ago. I didn't need to condition my hair for about a week after the treatment. =D
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Avoid dimethicone especially in high concentrations like in the form of serums. Amodimethicone doesn't buildup and also the lightweight cyclopentasiloxane. This two silicones are the beneficial silicones because they provide protection and minimal to no buildup in the hair or skin.
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Cyclopentasiloxane (or cyclomethicone) actually evaporates which is why it doesn't build up.
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I have a question regarding these two evaporating silicones: cyclomethicone and cyclopentasiloxane. If it does evaporate then it means that nothing of this substance left on hair after it has been applied and it also means that it is useless on the hair. But why cosmetic companies still use this kind of silicones?
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Great question.
You are incorrect to say that nothing of substance is left on the hair. The cyclomethicone doesn't evaporate right away. It takes time. When it's present, it provides shine, slickness and a smooth feel. It certainly isn't useless.
Remember, water also evaporates from your hair too but you wouldn't say it's useless. If it were, your hair wouldn't get wet. -
^ Thanks a lot Left Brain for the information! These ones help me to educate about cosmetic ingredients. Do you know where can I find a lot of information about cosmetic ingredients and their properties? Does the Beautybrains book will be available here in the Philippines 'coz I very much want to buy the Beautybrains book? TIA.
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If dimethicone is the heaviest of silicones, which are lighter? I have fine straight hair that is easily weighed down. I would like to find products that are lighter but still have the protective benefits of silicone.
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You know, I have to say I love reading common-sense stuff like this instead of all this talk about how silicones cause global warming, kill baby seals, and let the terrorists win. Other boards are full of people going on and on about how evil they are and how much "better" their hair without them -- oh, except for how it tangles constantly, breaks constantly, their ends are shattered, they can't comb it, and their hair has turned crispy on them.
Yeah, except for all that, their hair is just GREAT without "the cones."
ONE THING damages hair: life. Handling, leaving it down, letting it blow around and tangle, brushing the living daylights out of it, flatironing it, blow-drying it ... all that poor handling. And yet people will imagine that it's all due to "cones" somehow.
It reminds me of the urban myth that Chapstick puts ground-up glass in their lip balm so your lips get dry and you use more of it. Cones only make hair SEEM undamaged -- but they actually damage it! Yeah, that makes sense.
Cones are FINE. Like everything else in life, they're best used in moderation. Sometimes I wonder if people don't get "buildup" only because they figure if a little bit of leave-in is good, then a double handful must be great, basically that they aren't using the products correctly. -
Well said Janis.
To answer the question about which is "heaviest" and which is "lightest". In general, the lightest silicone is Cyclomethicone. This ingredient evaporates like water and leaves no residue behind. Dimethicone Copolyol is lighter than dimethicone. This ingredient is reacted with a compound (ethylene gycol usually) to make it more water soluble. It's in the middle on the "heaviness" scale. -
this all sounds good for straight hair but for afro hair you do need a lot of leave in
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I don't have straight hair ... it's not 4a curly, but it's definitely curly, especialyl near my neck. I do use silicone serum as a leave-in as well as coconut oil, but there is definitely a point of diminishing returns for the stuff after a while. You do have to find the right amount and not use more than that.
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That's the problem, it seems that I have to use so much that I can go through a bottle in about a week or two. That's a bit much right?
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It seems like it ... although the curlier and coarser the hair, the more you generally use and need.
You know, there's a really good site up called www.biracialhair.org -- don't let the name fool you. The woman who runs the site called it that mostly because being biracial, she had very few people around who could really help her learn how to handle her hair. Her hair is DEFINITELY African curly-curly, and she has done everything to her hair that most African-descent women have done. Relaxer, Jheri curls, texturizing, extensions, weaves, the whole nine yards. She tried it ALL. And after years of working to manage her hair, she hit on a few very, very simply techniques that really made a huge difference to her.
If you're curious about leave-ins and handling and you have really-really tightly curled hair, you should check the site out. Super-curly hair really does have very different handling needs from straight hair. You do use leave-in, and not huge amounts of it, but you section and handle the hair in a neat way. It's worth checking out. -
well, thank you I will check it out. The reason I was hoping that I found a home here is because I am so tired of opinion. I know that every case is different but I wanted to start with sound fact before forming an opinion and usually at most forums that cater to afro hair all you get is scary horror stories about silicone, heat, straighten. And most of the boards that cater to very "tightly coiled" or no "curl pattern" hair are way too militant to even have a food for thought conversation. But it seems that this site does not have much experience with 4a/b hair.
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