Silicones

These compounds are masked as if they were wolf in sheep’s clothing – they have the power to make the hair look shiny and super silky to the touch, but that can be deceiving!

On the previous page we talked about Sulfates and we compared these to detergents used to wash dishes.

With Silicones, we’re going to compare them to the grease that is in our dishes after being used.

Let’s think of it this way:

When we finished cooking some greasy food in a pan, it’s very diffcult to wash it, right?

And, in case you haven’t washed it properly, the grease layer will remain there, until the next time… And after some more cooking, more grease will build up in the same pan, which will take even more effort and need even more detergent to remove it.

Silicones are like the annoying grease that does not come out of our hair easily.

Silicones are added to various beauty products, such as conditioners, hair masks or leave-ins, because they have the ability to create an invisible barrier around the hair.

This barrier has the ability to improve frizz, the hair looks more silky and easy to comb/detangle.
Some types of Silicones also protect the hair from high temperatures.

All these benefits are the reason why you must avoid Silicones.

These ingredients hide the true Hair’s health condition!

Think of Silicones as a plastic film – to achieve all these benefits, all those ingredients will have to create a barrier around our hair in order to seal all the cuticles (hence why the false appearance of shiny hair).

This sealing is so strong, that all external factors such as humidity (reason it helps with the frizz), nutrients, proteins, are not absorbed by the hair.

This means, with time, you will be only sealing dry, unhealthy hair, and you will notice that when you don’t use Silicones in your routine, hair looks “ugly”, dull and dry… when this is a sign that it is unhealthy.

This is why it can be very hard to give up Silicones!

The majority of Silicones are insoluble, which means they are very difficult to remove from the hair, so, they start to build up on hair, making it feel heavy, oily, with dandruff and no definition. The brightness and silky look that is expected will not be there anymore when using these ingredients for a long time.

Imagine not washing the pan properly after each meal… it’s too much grease to deal with, right?

With long time usage, it might even create dermatitis, itching and irritation in hair follicles, and might lead to increased hair loss.

The only way to remove Silicones on hair is with Sulfates.

To remove the grease from kitchen pans, you need to use a good detergent, right? Same goes for Silicones.

This makes it necessary to wash your hair more often, more vigorously and to use more shampoo than normal… and if not properly washed, there is build up of product in the hair.

To remove this product build up in the hair, the only solution is to wash the hair with shampoo containing Sulfates – stripping the hair from it’s nutrients and natural oils, looking dry and dull.

If there is too much build up, you should use a Clarifying Shampoo, which is usually stronger than ordinary shampoos with just Sulfates.

Curly hair is naturally drier where this problem, associated with the poor absorption of nutrients and lack of moisture, can cause more damage to the hair in the long run.

This creates a vicious cycle (the ruined hair cycle), because the hair becomes increasingly damaged with the use of these products, needing Silicones to hide the problem and keeping the fake healthy looking hair.

Hair will kinda look healthy. We don’t want it to look, we want it to be, right?

To stop using Silicones, will promote better absorption of hydration and nutrition in the hair, thus resulting in healthier growth and more defined curls.

What happens Chemically:

Silicones are polymers composed of synthetic materials such as plastics or resins. They are present in our day-to-day in the form of rubber, breast implants, automotive components, sealants, lubricants, etc…

They are added to hair care products because they are safe (non-toxic), with lower rate of adverse reactions, protect from heat and help with frizz and to detangle hair

The polymers of Silicones are deposited on the hair’s surface to reduce friction and static electricity.

There are two types of Silicones:

• The non-water soluble – contained in the large majority of products, does not mix with water.
• Soluble in water – to be water soluble it doesn’t mean that it comes off with water. A nice way to think of water solubility is on the example of sugar dissolving in water. It dissolves in it but it stays there, as you can prove it with the sugary water. We can think of this example for Silicones.

Regarding scientific evidence, being soluble or not in water, Silicones don’t wash out easily with shampoos that not contain Sulfates.

In this method, we believe that your hair has every potential of BEING healthy instead of LOOKING like it it, by removing Silicones and Sulfates which are in most hair products.

Silicones

• botanisil
• -cone
• microsil
• silane
• silicon
• siloxane
• siloxysilicate
• silsesquioxane
• silylate
• amodimethicone
• behenoxy dimethicone
• bis-aminopropyl dimethicone
• cetearyl methicone
• cetyl mimethicone
• cyclomethicone
• cyclopentasiloxane
• dimethicone
• dimethiconol
• phenyl trimethicone
• stearyl dimethicone
• trimethylsilylamodimethicone

Water Soluble Silicones

• peg-7 amodimethicone
• dimethicone peg-8 phosphate
• ammonium dimethicone peg-7 sulfate
• dimethicone peg-8 adipate
• dimethicone peg-8 benzoate
• dimethicone peg/ppg-20/23 benzoate
• dimethicone peg/ppg-7/4 phosphate
• peg-3 dimethicone
• peg-7 dimethicone
• peg
• pg-
• ppg