Not noticing any hair difference?

[RileyJane]

I've been reading thru old posts here randomly, and noticed a heated debate between cones or no cones in their poo and condish. Well, over the past year I have tried both: keeping my coney products and documenting the results, and then going cone less for a few months. Honestly, my hair seems EXACTLY the same with or without cones. It's not too dry or too frizzy (although it is frizzy. Is that normal? I only notice hair differences with the hair oils I use, other than that my hair resilient lot stays the same :p has anyone else experienced no differences as well? I CWC wash, and use either coconut oil or olive oil on my hair ad that is my usual system.

[lapushka]

I definitely notice a difference in favor of the silicones. They are great smoothers and detanglers, and I don't need no tangles at this length. ;)

[jacqueline101]

I've been cone free at a shorter length and was fine cone free but now I need them in at least trace amounts for slip against tangles and I have become a shine junky.

[kpzra]

MY hair generally doesn't seem to care one way or the other from what I can tell. I only use coconut oil, a bit as a pre poo and some on the ends after.

[eadwine]

Not noticing a difference either. I tried and used both for years and no difference at all.

The one thing I DO notice is that my hair likes cones better for the wavies, but other than that *shrug*

[Johannah]

Cones give more slip which makes it harder to wear it up in a proper bun. But except that, there's absolutely NO difference for me as well. My hair is still soft and shiny with both cones or no cones. I've been cone-free for 6 or 7 months and I liked it, but recently I've discovered my holy grail conditioner and it's full of cones... Oh, well...

[spidermom]

There are some differences for me. My hair seems a bit stiffer with cones, but I love how easy it is to untangle. Right now I'm no-cone to see if I can get some of my curl back. I've noticed others saying that cones make their hair straighter.

[HairFaerie]

I notice a difference. I prefer cones. No cone shampoo and conditioner leaves my hair, dull, lifeless and it seems to build up a weird residue that makes my hair a bit greasy and stringy feeling and looking. Everyone's hair is different, but mine likes cones!
I use Redken's All Soft products. I do clarify once a seem with Paul Mitchell's Shampoo One. At the moment, I am totally in love with how my hair looks and feels.

[GetMeToWaist]

I notice cones make my hair harder, drier, stickier, tanglier... Ugh. I hate them so much. They cause buildup for me and just make my hair feel all clumpy and just STICKY and rough. Never buying anything with cones again.

[höpönasu]

After an over-night oil treatment my hair feels and looks as if it was soaked in a bucket of 'cones; silky, really easy to detangle, straight, flat but I like it. I still have a half bottle of coney condish I've used like once this year because I love the smell but have no other use for it.

[lilin]

I've been reading thru old posts here randomly, and noticed a heated debate between cones or no cones in their poo and condish. Well, over the past year I have tried both: keeping my coney products and documenting the results, and then going cone less for a few months. Honestly, my hair seems EXACTLY the same with or without cones. It's not too dry or too frizzy (although it is frizzy. Is that normal? I only notice hair differences with the hair oils I use, other than that my hair resilient lot stays the same :p has anyone else experienced no differences as well? I CWC wash, and use either coconut oil or olive oil on my hair ad that is my usual system.

Not a huge one, no. I only quit cones because without a strong shampoo, they invariably result in greasy hair for me. Commercial shampoo was overkill and pretty drying on my hair, but my hair does need a pretty decent cleanser. A lot of stuff that works for other people doesn't clean well enough for me for me (shikakai, tea rinses, etc). I guess I have grabby hair. So the gentle cleansers in conditioner just aren't strong enough by themselves to counterbalance the cones, and neither is any natural hair cleanser I've ever tried. For me, cones are "heavy duty," and just too much if they're not being balanced out with an equally "heavy duty" shampoo.

But I think they did that job quite well. With commercial shampoo, cone conditioner did a decent job of keeping my hair from getting too dry, although it's always on the dry side. It detangles quite well and gives good slip and softness.

Now on soap nuts and vinegar rinses, I would say my hair feels similar. I don't think vinegar rinses detangle quite as well, but it's sort of balanced out because soap nuts don't make my hair as tangly as shampoo did.

The biggest difference when I went from standard hair care to DIY natural in terms of my hair itself is really in my texture, and because my texture is getting more defined, so is shine.

I do think cones did were good at the job they were doing, and I don't think any of the hair/skin problems I had came from cones per se. Shampoo, however, was a pretty harsh on my hair and terrible on my skin -- turned out the acne I'd been having for years was from SLS/SLES shampoo. So I won't be going back to that, and without shampoo, cones just don't work for me.

[PrincessBob]

With cones I get thick grey buildup. My hair generally likes to be washed every 10 days, but on cones it wants washed every five days or so, or it looks really greasy. It also really hates staying up when its all coney. If you don't notice a difference, though, just pick what smells best to you and keep with what you like best. :cheer:

[two_wheels]

I wish cones made my hair silky and easy to detangle, instead they make it dark and limp, and new-growth hairs stick up like crazy. Awful!

If it makes no difference to you, I wouldn't bother thinking about it.

[Nesoi]

I guess when I first went cone-free my hair didn't seem as shiny...but now I've got my routine down with leave-ins and acid rinses it is just as shiny, if not more! I also get a lot more wave/curl without cones. This is lovely for texture and appearance but annoying for length ;)

I think both ways have their positives and their negatives. For my my hair feels much lighter, more voluminous and softer without cones. It looks and feels more 'itself' if that makes any sense. But really the thing is just to find what works for you! I don't think there's any need to be rigid about it either. For example, I switch between co-wash, S/C and CWC as and when I feel like it. You may find that sometimes you want cones, sometimes you don't!

[FallingDarkness]

My hair doesn't dislike cones - it just dislikes the buildup. My hair likes no-cone conditioner better, but I think it all depends on your hair and your hair mood. :shrug:

[Nadine <3]

My hair doesn't dislike cones per say, it just makes my thin, fine hair look really stringy. I don't like stringy hair, so I go without them.

[StellaKatherine]

I don't know if I seen any difference... I think I shall experiment on it :D

[ExpectoPatronum]

The only difference for me is my natural wurly texture shows through more when I don't use cones. It's still wavy with them, but I get better waves without.

[Anje]

I notice a difference favoring no silicones. My hair tends to dry out quickly with them and tangles more readily by day 2 or 3 after using them. So I go without.

Is frizz normal? It depends a lot on hair texture. The curlier your hair is, the more potential it has to frizz. More moisturized hair will frizz less, and hair will frizz more as you handle it more. Some recent examples of people who had impressive reductions in frizz are here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=124086) and here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=125212). Hope that helps!