How do I know if a product contains silicones and sulphates?

[Becky9679]

As I understand it on the ingredients list silicones are usually anything ending in 'cone' and sulphates generally have triple barreled names like sodium *something* sulphate.

Is this correct or are there other ingredients with different sounding names that are also silicone or sulphate derivatives?

[Chetanlaiho]

From what I've seen, any cone will end in -cone and any sulfate will end in -sulfate :) sometimes there are ingredients that have similar sounds in the name but they wouldn't be actual sulfates or cones for as far as I know ^^

[christine1989]

Sulfates will generally say "sulfate" as in "sodium laurel sulfate" or "ammonium sulfate". Cones typically end in "cone" although I have also seem a few that end in "kone" so just examine the ingredients carefully before buying if you're trying to avoid these. Many natural hair products will say "sulfate free" on the bottle however the cones you usually have to identify yourself.

[Anje]

There are also some silicones that end in -conol (like dimethiconol) and some that end in -xane (like cyclopentasiloxane).

When in doubt, paste the ingredient list into a post and ask the LHCers to look over it.