Anyone here use silicones and have good long-term results?

[g_lou]

When I first started growing my hair I cut out silicones and sulfates, but now my hairs longer silicones make it so much more managable. I think my hair likes natural products because they're usually aloe vera or oil based, and I think my ends survived a bit longer using natural products, but it's not enough of a difference to be worth it. I'd agree with everyone else and say it depends on what you're hair likes

[LittleQuill]

I do wonder, does hair porosity has anything to do with whether your hair loves cones or not?

I have tried products with cones on and off many times, and my hair is always happier without. Cones make my hair stringy, limp and static and I get build up very quickly and have to use a strong shampoo to wash it off. I have low porosity hair, I have noticed that my hair is happiest when I use as little product as possible.

Same thing here! Every time I've used them, they've made my hair feel like plastic (you know, fake barbie or synthetic wigs kinda deal). It's odd. I have no idea why that happens. Never heard of anyone else's hair feeling like that. So, I don't use them for that reason, but I certainly don't demonise them for others. If you want to use them, or you love using them, go ham. If I could find a silicone-y product that didn't fake wig me, I'd probably switch back to them, myself. As someone with impossibly easily tangled hair which is occasionally frizzy (Thanks, hair-type ), I love the promise of slip and added protection.

Also, your question stuck out to me. Wonder if someone has a response to it.

[evernia]

Same thing here! Every time I've used them, they've made my hair feel like plastic (you know, fake barbie or synthetic wigs kinda deal). It's odd. I have no idea why that happens. Never heard of anyone else's hair feeling like that. So, I don't use them for that reason, but I certainly don't demonise them for others. If you want to use them, or you love using them, go ham. If I could find a silicone-y product that didn't fake wig me, I'd probably switch back to them, myself. As someone with impossibly easily tangled hair which is occasionally frizzy (Thanks, hair-type ), I love the promise of slip and added protection.

i also have very low porosity hair and for me some products with silicones are a godsend. however, it really depends on the formulation, some with dimethicone give me that dry-plastic feeling you're describing (i used to avoid them for a long time for this reason) but others that don't really differ that much in the ingredients give me lasting conditioning and make my hair feel alive. the rountine might also play a part, as they should ideally be sealing moisture in your hair and not preventing it from getting there - i think good leave in conditioners might be the "best tolerated" type of silicone product for this reason.

but yeah, you can't really count on most shampoos to wash them out completely even though they have sulfates. if you still wanted to experiment, there's silicones that are soluble in water (most of them have PEG in the name) and you can wash them out even with a sulfate free shampoo or co-washing so the buildup is out of the question, i have great results with them. a notable one from the "traditional" ones is amodimethicone, which latches to damaged parts of hair but repels itself, so it forms a layer on the hair without giving you buildup.

here are two great related articles from labmuffin, one about silicones in general and one about amodimethicone

here's also an useful but quite overwhelming list of water soluble silicones, if a products has only those and those that evaporate, you don't have to use sulfates

[Ylva]

the rountine might also play a part, as they should ideally be sealing moisture in your hair and not preventing it from getting there - i think good leave in conditioners might be the "best tolerated" type of silicone product for this reason.

I know this is common belief and appears to make sense, so I'm not coming at YOU in particular here but the belief. If buildup of any sort was preventing moisture from getting into the hair shaft, wouldn't that mean the hair wouldn't even get wet when washing it? Also, I think there was some evidence that the moisture level of hair always roughly corresponds to that of the air and is hardly affected by hair routine, humectants in products, etc.

I think the thing with buildup "not letting moisture enter the hair" is just... the hair being generally gunky. And of course, under such circumstances, nothing at all would feel nice.

[evernia]

I think the thing with buildup "not letting moisture enter the hair" is just... the hair being generally gunky. And of course, under such circumstances, nothing at all would feel nice.

hello, i'm really happy to discuss it! yes, that was too much of a shortcut from me, i meant it as preventing other "moisturizing" products/ingredients from acting on the hair, not moisture in general. you're right about the belief of silicones making some sort of inpenetrable armor on the hair being a myth, though the film they make does slightly prevent stuff like cationic surfactants (conditioning agents like the -trimonium chlorides) acting on the hair (in the spots where the silicone is adhering to it which is not the whole surface). i get different results with the same products depending on the order i use them in and this might be a possible explanation for that, but real life is always a bit more complicated than these explanations.

[Ylva]

hello, i'm really happy to discuss it! yes, that was too much of a shortcut from me, i meant it as preventing other "moisturizing" products/ingredients from acting on the hair, not moisture in general. you're right about the belief of silicones making some sort of inpenetrable armor on the hair being a myth, though the film they make does slightly prevent stuff like cationic surfactants (conditioning agents like the -trimonium chlorides) acting on the hair (in the spots where the silicone is adhering to it which is not the whole surface). i get different results with the same products depending on the order i use them in and this might be a possible explanation for that, but real life is always a bit more complicated than these explanations.

That makes sense! Thanks for the thorough explanation.

[LittleQuill]

i also have very low porosity hair and for me some products with silicones are a godsend. however, it really depends on the formulation, some with dimethicone give me that dry-plastic feeling you're describing (i used to avoid them for a long time for this reason) but others that don't really differ that much in the ingredients give me lasting conditioning and make my hair feel alive. the rountine might also play a part, as they should ideally be sealing moisture in your hair and not preventing it from getting there - i think good leave in conditioners might be the "best tolerated" type of silicone product for this reason.

but yeah, you can't really count on most shampoos to wash them out completely even though they have sulfates. if you still wanted to experiment, there's silicones that are soluble in water (most of them have PEG in the name) and you can wash them out even with a sulfate free shampoo or co-washing so the buildup is out of the question, i have great results with them. a notable one from the "traditional" ones is amodimethicone, which latches to damaged parts of hair but repels itself, so it forms a layer on the hair without giving you buildup.

here are two great related articles from labmuffin, one about silicones in general and one about amodimethicone

here's also an useful but quite overwhelming list of water soluble silicones, if a products has only those and those that evaporate, you don't have to use sulfates

Thank you so much for the information, Evernia. It was a thought-provoking read, and I'll most assuredly read up on your links for water soluable silicones. Labmuffin! I'm subscribed to her (woo, fellow Aussie! ). And I appreciate the mention of not needing to use sulfates to remove them, because I can't. They make my head super itchy and it drives me nuts.

I really like my current routine as it's working wonders for now, but if I ever get the 'I'll try silicones again' itch, I'll most certainly refer to your response, because you're right. Maybe the type of silicone that was in my products was the problem, and because I'd gotten such a bad response to dimethicone, I assumed that I would for all silicone sub-types. Maybe I won't. Again, thanks for the informative post!

[evernia]

thank you for the kind words! her blog is a great read, even just to pass time.

what makes silicones especially tricky with regards to ingredient-checking is that they're polymers, the molecule is shaped like a chain. so what "dimethicone" or any other name tells you is just the name of a single (repeating) link in this chain, but not how long it is. this makes them and their effects very variable even under one name, shorter chain silicones at 100% will usually be a very runny consistency while longer chains will be more honey-like, and that impacts their effects on hair as well. it's hard to tell whether you're getting weightless protection and soft hair, or that weird barbie doll dry effect based on the ingredient list alone.