Amodimethicone--A Coney Debate

[HintOfMint]

So they decided to change the formula to Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition and add Amodimethicone to the list. It is 4th on the ingredients list.

Amodimethicone is not water soluble once it is on the hair, however it is purportedly resistant to buildup since, due to its chemical structure, it does not built up on top of itself.

This all sounds well and good, but I swear my ends are dryer since I started using it.

For the record, I CWC, with a cone-free conditioner first, a sulfate shampoo at the roots, rinse, and then the garnier fructis conditioner.

The thing is, I wet my hair to shampoo (thank you captain obvious), and my hair does get soaking wet, so clearly moisture is getting in. I never quite understood how hair can be wet yet silicones "seal moisture out." Silicone doesn't quite turn our hair into duck feathers as far as I know:p

Yet somehow I feel like the amodimethicone "shrink wrapped" my hair and so moisture isn't getting in and my ends are getting dryer.

It shouldn't be buildup since amodimethicone doesn't build up, and it shouldn't be a lack of moisture since my hair gets wet and takes just as long to dry. Yet it feels like buildup and that the cones are sealing moisture out of my hair.

What do you think? Any scientific explanation for this? Any experience w/ different grades of amodimethicone?

[chou]

They changed the formula?? Noooo! :(
Anyway, my experience with amodimethicone was fine. I used Herbal Essences Hello Hydration for two weeks as an experiment in cones with once weekly sls-free shampoos to clean. My ends felt fine, but the amodimethicone steadily killed my waves until by the end of the trial my hair had very little texture or volume. It didn't feel like it was building up more and more over time like dimethicone does for me just kind of... loosening my waves increasingly in that maddeningly confusing way that wavy hair behaves. But I didn't personally notice my ends getting crunchy in that way that they do when hair products such as mousse, gel, proteiny products or some conditioning agents build up too much. In fact, I've never had a problem with cones specifically doing this to me. Polyquats, though, definitely do and they seem to be harder to remove with gentle shampoo.
I have heard that the idea that cones seal moisture out is a myth and my experiences bear this out. Maybe when they changed the formula they changed something else that just made the conditioner less effective? Maybe they used a different form of amodimethicone than the one in HEHH so my conditioner experiences don't really apply here. In any case, I'm really sad they changed the formula for GFTN because it used to be such an awesome and unique conditioner.

[HintOfMint]

Isn't it a shame? It really was my holy grail conditioner. I got distracted for a bit, and then when I come back, it's too late. Wow, now I sound like I'm describing a lover:o

Maybe it is something else in the ingredients. I know isopropyl alcohol (a drying alcohol) is high in the new ingredients list. Maybe that's contributing. I know it's supposed to rinse out but maybe (as is with all conditioners) not all of it rinses out and the alcohol is what's drying out my hair.

Blast, it was such a good price too.

As for your experience with the Herbal Essences stuff, maybe it was the fact that more and more amodimethicone was spreading over your hair. It's impossible that it gets coated on every surface of your hair the first time around, but by the time it gets to the second and third washes and so on, more of your hair is coated and smoothed out, especially since the SLS-free shampoo wasn't getting rid of as much of the amodimethicone as a sulfate shampoo would. Cones (and a lot of other coating agents) can kill waves which is why they're in so many smoothing conditioners.