Cones-are they good or bad?

[spookyghost]

I was going to respond to the Coney goodness thread but I thought starting a new thread would maybe get me more answers as I am so confused and need help!:lol:

So all of you cone lovers out there-are cones bad for your hair? Is it more of whether your hair loves them or hates them? Meaning its not really damaging either way its more of how your hair reacts to them? See Im still pretty much a newbie here and Im on overload on whats good for your hair and whats not. And its truly driving me crazy:shake:

For example, I read where some people have used sulfates and cones with no problems and then a year later not so much. Kinda like it was a hidden evil. Like its only a temporary good thing. But if thats correct wouldnt clarifying take care of that? See, I want to buy a clarifying shampoo and then use a protein treatment I got at Sally's and then I read to do a moisturizing conditioner after the protein because of how drying it can be. So here I am at Sally's wondering if I am even buying the right thing (I bought ion reconstructive protein treatment) because I have no idea if there are sulfates or cones in it and then all their moisturizing conditioners contain cones and probably other stuff so I have no idea if I am even doing anything good for my hair. I also read on here of people loving the Aussie three minute miracle moisturizing condidtioner so does that have cones and stuff? And if alot of these products do have it in them does it even matter? Because if my hair ends up loving the protein treatment and Aussie three minute miracle afterwards then maybe I should just pay attention to clarifying every so often and all will be fine!

So ladies, and gents, did I make any sense at all?!:p I need some education on sulfates and cones. I have read alot about them on here but my brain just cant handle the hair information overload right now. Some people will not touch sulfates and cones and all that other bad stuff and others love it! How do I know if it will damage my hair? My hair is damaged from bleach and color right now so its not like I will notice if it is damaging my hair. And if my hair is way better because of them will I notice that right away and will it only be temporary?

Im so sorry for my rambling and Im sure confusing post but as you can see-I need help!:lol:

[lapushka]

Some people will not touch sulfates and cones and all that other bad stuff and others love it! How do I know if it will damage my hair? My hair is damaged from bleach and color right now so its not like I will notice if it is damaging my hair. And if my hair is way better because of them will I notice that right away and will it only be temporary?

It's just a matter of knowing what's out there, what your hair's condition is in and what it needs right now. I would not recommend going without cones if you have bleach and color damage in your hair. Yes it will mask the damage, but yes you'll also be able to get a comb through - if you get my meaning.

[jeanniet]

Stop reading, and start doing! The thing is, everyone's hair reacts differently. Cones are good if your hair likes them, and bad if it doesn't. Same with sulphates. Plenty of people can wash with sulphate shampoo and use cones and never have a problem. Some of this has to do with hair type, water, climate, and who knows what else. I have tried and tried to love cones--I could really use them because my hair is tangly--but they simply don't work for me. So I'm not anti-cone, but know from experience that I can't use them.

The one thing I wouldn't do is start using a bunch of different new products all at once. If you do that, you'll never know what is working and what isn't. Try one new thing at a time, and keep a journal of results.

[RitaCeleste]

I only went cone-free for about a year. The rest of the time my hair was getting cones and sulfates. My hair has been dyed red more times than I can count. Once I dyed it burgundy and didn't like it and thought I killed it with hair stripper. My hair was so dry my cones were not cutting it to straighten out the mess I made of it with a super drying protein treatment. I went the natural route because I wanted to wash it with conditioner only and wanted to worry less about product build-up. I was using too much protein thinking my hair needed more stretchy elastic bounce to be called healthy and making it drier than it needed to be. Basically I just freaked out and over-reacted and went nuts trying to fix my problems. BEWARE OF FREAKING OUT AND CHANGING EVERYTHING AT ONCE! Its hard to find products and routines that work and then one day they could stop working so well and you have to try stuff out to find something better. Over all, I blew some money and some time but no permanent harm was done. You can use cones and just clarify when you get build up, or you can just break out a sulfate shampoo and strip those cones right off! There are great products in all the camps so most people will have okay hair either way. Sometimes cones pull my waves out and leave me with blah fuzzy looking hair, but not all of them do that to me. The Pantene Relaxed and Natural doesn't drag my curl out. If it ain't broke, you might not want to go on a quest for the ultimate haircare. I've decided that the cost of olive oil and coconut oil are CHEAP. There are good CHEAP conditioners too! Sometimes you just want to go to the store and buy something and not wait on a package to arrive. The best things I've found are the simple and cheap tricks like a honey and EVOO conditioning treatment, YES!

[spookyghost]

I agree totally about not trying too many things at once-that right there is probably the best thing I can do for my hair!;) The only thing I have tried so far is oiling my hair with castor, coconut, and olive oil. I have stopped that for now because I dont think my hair likes oils. I was under the impression, by self diagnosis-hilarious I know, that my hair needed moisture and my hair dresser said she thought it needed protein. So since I stopped the oils for now I figured I would use a clarifying shampoo and use the protein and moisturizing conditioner and see how that goes. I am starting a hair journal too.

Jeanniet-when you say that cones are good if my hair likes them and bad if my hair doesnt-do you mean if my hair doesnt like cones it will damage my hair? Or do you mean if my hair doesnt like cones it will just not look good!:lol:

Thanks everyone-as you can tell I need some good advice!:p

[ladylowtide]

I have bleach damaged ends. I used to use coney conditioners all of the time. It was the only think that kept the ends manageable. Then I started hennaing and realized that it had the same sort of smoothing detangling effect on the damaged ends, but instead of lasting for a few days it lasted for months. So i ditched cones completely. And now all of hair looks great, not just the ends.

Summary: my damaged ends loved cones, the rest of my hair hated them. Hennaed, now I am no cones for several months.

[spidermom]

My hair loves cones in small doses. I can only use a serum sparingly about once per week. More than that and it gets all dried out and tangly. Weird!

There are no simple answers, it seems.

[lapushka]

Jeanniet-when you say that cones are good if my hair likes them and bad if my hair doesnt-do you mean if my hair doesnt like cones it will damage my hair? Or do you mean if my hair doesnt like cones it will just not look good!:lol:

Cones or sulfates don't damage your hair. :) It's just that some people can and will use them, others won't. It just a matter of what your hair reacts well too.

[pepperminttea]

Stop reading, and start doing! The thing is, everyone's hair reacts differently. Cones are good if your hair likes them, and bad if it doesn't. Same with sulphates. Plenty of people can wash with sulphate shampoo and use cones and never have a problem. Some of this has to do with hair type, water, climate, and who knows what else. [...]

The one thing I wouldn't do is start using a bunch of different new products all at once. If you do that, you'll never know what is working and what isn't. Try one new thing at a time, and keep a journal of results.

Agreed. There's no right or wrong answer to this, just experiment and see what your hair and scalp like. :) Even if you found someone who was an exact hair twin to you, living in a similar climate, with similar water quality, etc., you could still have an entirely different reaction to 'cones and sulphates - or any product for that matter - than they do.

[maborosi]

Depends on your hair, honestly. Also, there are a ton of different cones out there. I've recently found that my hair doesn't do too well with dimethicone, because it builds up so fast, but with amodimethicone, my hair is really happy and slippy!

When I don't use cones, my hair is more prone to being tangled.

~maborosi~

[Tisiloves]

I've decided that the cost of olive oil and coconut oil are CHEAP. There are good CHEAP conditioners too! Sometimes you just want to go to the store and buy something and not wait on a package to arrive. The best things I've found are the simple and cheap tricks like a honey and EVOO conditioning treatment, YES!

You can also use cones and oil, or at least I do. In fact cones make my hair respond better to oil, because normal is something that happens to other people.

[spookyghost]

Wow-you all have been real helpfull! I really appreciate it:) I at least now know that cones wont damage my hair its more of a matter of whether my hair likes it or not.

It seems easier for alot of people to read and process some of the information on here and then theres me:eek: Im the one who will then make it all difficult by thinking of too many things that can go wrong or just plain not understanding it!:lol: Dang!

[BlazingHeart]

Yup! It's all about what your hair likes. I would still be a happy cone user except that my scalp decided it HATES sulfates, and most 'cones need sulfates to remove them or they build up. I used to have hip-length hair using 'cones and sulfates, and I got tons and tons of compliments.

You may also find that using or not using 'cones has an affect on how straight your hair hangs. Most people find 'cones to be straightening, so some wavies and curlies avoid them for that reason.

~Blaze

[Long_hair_bear]

My hair is like heathers (Torrin Paige's). It loves cones. I went cone free for 6 months.... It didn't end well. I just make sure to keep a regular clarifying schedule. Do what works for YOUR hair. As others have said, some peoples hair loves cones, others not so much.

[spookyghost]

Yup! It's all about what your hair likes. I would still be a happy cone user except that my scalp decided it HATES sulfates, and most 'cones need sulfates to remove them or they build up. I used to have hip-length hair using 'cones and sulfates, and I got tons and tons of compliments.

You may also find that using or not using 'cones has an affect on how straight your hair hangs. Most people find 'cones to be straightening, so some wavies and curlies avoid them for that reason.

~Blaze

Thanks for that heads up! I just discovered some wave, not much, in my hair while I was trying to type my hair. And I really love my newly discovered waves. Even it its not alot of wave! I wash every other day with Jason organci biotin S&C and on no-wash day I have sock bun waves and on wash day I just put a little "its a 10" leave in with a little argon oil mixed in and air dry. If I didnt have a little wave I wouldnt be able to air dry. So since I discovered the sock bun and my waves I have been able to go heat free!:D Im still impressed that I am heat free. So maybe I should stay away from cones. Well, I can see if they do anything to my waves, I just dont want to buy a whole bottle of something and not use it. Oh well maybe I can find travel size or a little bottle-Im never going to know unless I try. I have to stop talking and start doing! Haha.

[Annibelle]

It really does depend on your hair and, I think, what you want from it. In general, I think damaged hair prefers cones, BUT there are users here with undamaged hair whose hair prefers cones, too! (Like Luxepiggy.)

As for me? I like my hair both with and without cones. With cones, my hair is a bit slipperier and straighter, but not in a soft way... more in a sort of plasticine way, if that makes sense. But you can see my "Pre-LHC" album and a lot of people think my hair looks better there, with cones. But to me, it didn't feel as nice.

Without cones, my hair is very soft and sort of fluffy... but I don't get as many flyaways as with cones. My cone-free fluffy hair sort of sticks together more as a cottony mass instead of a bunch of individual hairs slinking together.

My SO, Glenn, seems to have similar cone reactions. I think his hair prefers cones simply because it's fairly straight, and so he has no worries about curl/wave loss. He's been cone-free for a couple of months, though, and his hair is still lovely-- it's just not as slinky as before.

So it's about what you like, as well as what your hair likes. I prefer my hair to be kind of fluffy and full of body, as it's fairly thin, so I avoid cones now. They didn't seem to be bad for my hair; I just have a different preference.

(Oh, and the cones I used before were heavy-- Pantene! So you could always try something with just a little bit of cones.)

[Heatherzilla]

It depends on your hair type. I'm a curly and cones just make my hair blah so I avoid them like the plague. They drag out my curl and make my hair all limp and not pretty looking. I also don't use sulfates but that's more because my favourite shampoo on the planet doesn't use them rather than me intentionally avoiding them.

I'm a fussy bum vegan and since no one else in the house cares what shampoo/conditioner they use I dictate the house choice. My mum and sister both have straight hair and since using the shampoo/conditioner I use they've noticed more waves in their hair.

It's all up to personal preference and hair type. Cones do tend to straighten out your hair a bit and it's up to you whether or not you're a fan of that.

[lapushka]

It's true, some cones are plastic-y and weigh the hair down, esp. wavy, curly hair, but this doesn't seem to be the case with amodimethicone, I've found. I've used heavy cones in the past, with terrible results, but I don't think you can speak in general when it comes to "cones". It depends on whether your product has one or a few cone(s) or is laden with it - that and the type of cone.

[jeanniet]

I agree totally about not trying too many things at once-that right there is probably the best thing I can do for my hair!;) The only thing I have tried so far is oiling my hair with castor, coconut, and olive oil. I have stopped that for now because I dont think my hair likes oils. I was under the impression, by self diagnosis-hilarious I know, that my hair needed moisture and my hair dresser said she thought it needed protein. So since I stopped the oils for now I figured I would use a clarifying shampoo and use the protein and moisturizing conditioner and see how that goes. I am starting a hair journal too.

Jeanniet-when you say that cones are good if my hair likes them and bad if my hair doesnt-do you mean if my hair doesnt like cones it will damage my hair? Or do you mean if my hair doesnt like cones it will just not look good!:lol:

Thanks everyone-as you can tell I need some good advice!:p
I mean it will be pretty obvious to you. I've never used them long enough to see damage. What happens is that sometimes they'll feel OK the first time, then very built up, coated, etc. Doesn't matter what kind; I always get the same result. Amodimethicone is a good one to try if you're not sure, because it doesn't build up (it's one I've used, but by saying "built up" above I just mean it feels like that, not necessarily that it really is, if that makes sense).

[AdaClare]

Like everyone else has said, it seems to depend on which your hair prefers. :) Personally, I've tried to go cone free for the past few days and it's made my hair a bit rougher than usual and made my scalp itch, so I think it's back to cones with me. :P

[luxepiggy]

As with most things hair-related, it all depends on your hair.

Keep in mind, also, that not all 'cones are the same. Just as different kinds of oils have their own unique characteristics and effects, so do different kinds of 'cones. Even if your hair dislikes one type of 'cone, it may respond when to a different type.

I love 'cones - they keep my hair soft, shiny and tangle free! My personal favourites are:
amodimethicone
bis-aminopropyl dimethicone
phenyl trimethicone


Don't be afraid of 'cones! There's tons of independent peer-reviewed research demonstrating that 'cones can reduce cuticular wear & tear, limit oxidative damage from chemical processing and increase hair luster (^(oo)^)v

[jacqueline101]

I think cones are a personal thing depending on what your hair likes. Its not good or bad.