Cones' effect on the ends of hair

[monsterna]

What are cones' effects on the ends of your hair? I know about build-up on the scalp, but I don't know what to expect on the rest of the hair. I CO wash now with a shampoo and condition about twice a week, but I CO every day other than that. I have to. I noticed my Pantene Pro-V Beautiful Lengths conditioner has dimethicone in it, and I'm thinking about switching to cone free. My ends are looking a bit weird and my hair feels a bit "crackly" around the ends (although I have a lot of different length hairs there and maybe I'm just feeling the ends of each?). I don't know if cones are doing something to make my ends feel and look off, so I was wondering, besides build-up, the effects of cones on the rest of the hair... keeping in mind that I CO every day. Thanks!

[luxepiggy]

Cones are supposed to give you slip, so if the ends are feeling odd, something's not right. However, if you're shampooing twice a week, I doubt that you'd be getting buildup that fast. I CO with Pantene also, and I suspect you may need to rinse more thoroughly. When I first started CO washing, it took a while for the idea to sink in that I needed to rinse really really well, not just the way I'd been rinsing when I was using shampoo beforehand.

[spidermom]

As long as you're using shampoo, cones won't build up, although to be sure you'll have to massage the suds all the way through the ends from time to time. I use a coney serum about once a week plus oil before every washing (which can also build up) and do a thorough clarifying wash about once every 3-4 months. I know it's time to clarify when my ends feel stiff and dry.

[Anje]

Well, I'll preface this with the fact that my hair isn't fond of silicones.

They make my hair feel a bit plasticy when wet. When dry, if I use a serum with dimethicone or dimethiconol in cyclopentasiloxane, my ends start feeling silky, and after a few days they feel dry and scrunched-up, and generally unhappy. "Crackly" would be a good word to describe it.

So I find I'm better off CO washing with a silicone-free conditioner. Occasionally I've messed with amodimethicone-containing leave-ins, but in general I'm happier without them.

[Veer666]

Build up can be a nasty thing

I've been cone-free for almost a year, except for the test I did in June.
I wanted to know what the difference in my hair would be with and without cones.
So after being cone-free for about 3-4 months, I tried using my old product again (which my boyfriend still uses: Andrelon Care & Repair shampoo and conditioner = cone bomb)

This is the result:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?pictureid=92106&albumid=6942&dl=1293913481&thumb=1 (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=6942&pictureid=92106)

After being cone-free again for about a month:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?pictureid=92105&albumid=6942&dl=1293913135&thumb=1 (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=6942&pictureid=92105)

Next to a lot more growth, the last picture shows more healthy hair than the first, in my opinion.
As is shown in the first picture, cones appear to give my hair a plastic unreal shine. My hair also had a plastic feel when I was on cones.
Now my hair feels natural and soft

[sweetm]

I can only speak from experience, but my ends did not jive with cones. Ever since I was a teen, my ends were always rough and full of split ends. I'd condition like crazy, but it didn't help.

Last year, I decided to try something different - no conditioner, shampoo only (only applying shampoo, with cones, to the scalp)... and within 2 months, my hair had changed dramatically. Even my hairdresser noticed and asked me why my hair was so healthy. I told her I stopped using conditioner. Note, my ends were free of split ends, but the ends weren't all that soft.

Anyways, I later decided to switch to cone free hair care... applying shampoo to the scalp, and conditioner to the ends. My ends stayed healthy, not a single split end... and my ends are soft.

Although my experiment wasn't exactly scientific... there's something in cone-containing conditioners that my hair doesn't like, making me get split ends that are coarse.