Silicone In Hair Care

It would seem that using a shampoo or conditioner that has silicone in it is not detrimental for our health or that of our environment! But that is not a reason to not make some changes for the better.   
            
Silicone is the plastic-y polymer used in everything from conditioners to household caulking. The problem with silicone is that it is not a natural ingredient and has a detrimental effect on the health of your hair.
                
Reading the label of your favourite or new product you may see any of these and many more variations: cyclomethicone, dimethicone copolyol, amodimethicones or dimethicone.    
            
There are silicones and silcones!   
              
Some of the them such as cyclomethicone and dimethicone copolyol, are water-soluble or will evaporate leaving minimal build up on your hair. However it's expensive and increases the cost of the product.           
 
The most commonly used silicone is dimethicone which is the cheapest and one you will see mostly on labels in all its many derivatives.

Silicone has downsides that are mostly to do with build-up on our hair and over time weighing our hair down. By nature, many silicones are hydrophobic, meaning they do not wash out easily, leaving hair feeling heavy & greasy at the end of the day.                

Once our hair gets greasy we will wash and style our hair more, so we are not helping to improve the condition of our hair over time. Our hair also gets unavoidable daily abuse from the weather, what we wear according to our hair style and the products we put on it, that's before we get to the hot styling tools known for breakage! 

The silicone in products we are already using will make our hair sleek and shiny after heating it up with a hot iron or adding heat via a blow dryer. It gives a fantastic silky shiny finish.

However, it also weighs your hair down over time. Silicone makes it harder for colour to penetrate, which also means that colour washes out quicker. Another downside is that conditioners or conditioning products are less able to effectively penetrate the hair shaft due to the coating of the silicone on our hair from prolonged use of dimethicone.
    
Dimethicone is the hardest silicone to remove from your hair. To see how your hair reacts to a silicone free shampoo, you will need to wash your hair for a few weeks to remove all the build-up of the dimethicone. Make sure you use a silicone free conditioner too, such as our enviroCare Hair Conditioner.

Once you feel the added volume and how light your hair is that not using products with silicone in it gives, you will be pleasantly surprised.              
  
Like everything that we do, changing our personal care products means we have to allow for a settling in period and time for us to get used to the changes that the new products evoke. 
              
Often silicone free shampoos also have no sulphates, so the foaming ability is lower as well as the different 'comb slide' effects that  you may not get that dimethicone usually gives in a regular or usual brand.              
  
These conditions mean we 'feel' the difference while using the products, so time and a mental shift is needed sometimes.    
           
These changes are different to what we are used to, so patience and basking in the knowledge we are not pouring dimethicone or sulphates onto our head can only be better for it.