Tag Archives: silicone

Permalink to I can’t believe i used a sulfate shampoo…..

I can’t believe i used a sulfate shampoo…..

by Kristin|on 11/22/2011 |in tips and reccomendations |tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

LOVE this ad, even tho this is the exact opposite of what you want in a shampoo

 

In my last blog post I spoke about a website that has women review products, well from that same website i won (unknowingly lol) a full sized Matrix shampoo and conditioning mask for dry/damaged hair.

To be honest, I was never one for Matrix products, not really because of how they work, but the smell i just can’t handle it.  There is something about it that i don’t like… not to mention it was the only product line we used in my hair school and it really just brings me back to doing those $8 hair cuts and blowouts that we did day in and day out until we graduated.  ugh.

Well anyway, I was reading the info about it and I was impressed the packaging said now Paraben-free and Silicone-free.  We should all know by now that silicone-free products are the way to this hair stylists heart so I was like okay, I will give these a shot and see what happens, even though the one thing they left in the product was the sulfates.  I honestly have not used a sulfate shampoo in my hair for at least a couple of years that I forgot how bad it actually made your hair feel.

To be honest I had noticed my hair getting thinner recently and while there are some underlying issues I honestly think part of it is the fact that I have been using a sulfate-free shampoo.  Now that might sound bad, but it is actually not and I will explain why in a second.

So yesterday as I was giving this shampoo a try, after i told my nose to forget about the smell, and shut my brain off from thinking about hair school.  I rinsed the shampoo from my hair and could NOT get my fingers through my hair, it was one knotted up, dried out clump.  It was horrible, it was that moment that I remembered why I preach sulfate-free products, and also practice what I preach.  Next I pulled out the daily conditioning mask, it comes in a jar and the product is so thick that you could dump the container over and it will not spill.  It was super heavy, but really moisturizing which is good.  But honestly the only reason it needed to be this strong was because of the damage that the shampoo did when it stripped every last oil from my hair and scalp.

I left the conditioner in for the rest of my shower, rinsed it out and my hair felt soft again, phewwww.  I lightly towel dried my hair as usual, then dried it with a hair dryer like I normally do, and the first thing I noticed was my hair felt like it had a film on it, and it also felt really thick, but not a good kind of thick.

So why did my hair feel this way?

Because of the heavy oils and waxes that that conditioner needed to repair the damage from the shampoo.  And it felt thicker because the shampoo blew open my cuticle and puffed up my hair.  Sure this sounds like a great thing, but when your cuticle is open not only will hair color fade out easier, but so will the moisture in your hair.  This is often times what makes hair frizzy.  When your cuticle is open your hair absorbs moisture in the air because it can’t keep in its own moisture which in turn makes your hair puffy and frizzy.  Using a sulfate-free shampoo does not lift the cuticle like this so your hair strand my feel a little thinner, but it also will feel softer, healthier, and have less frizz!

Needless to say the next time I wash my hair I will NOT be using that shampoo and will go back to my sulfate free shampoo and repair the damage that I did to my hair after just ONE shampoo!

Permalink to Help! I fried my hair! deep conditioning, protein treatments, salon treatments, and morrocan oil

Help! I fried my hair! deep conditioning, protein treatments, salon treatments, and morrocan oil

by Kristin|on 08/05/2011 |in tips and reccomendations |tagged , , , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

After chiming in on a facebook post with a friend who apparently bleached her hair three times in a row, fried it and then colored it back to black again in one shot ( why didn’t she read my notes section!) I got inspired to do a post about restoring your hair…

I was reading so many people give bad advice like “get pantene pro-v” “use half the tub of garnier fructis deep conditioner” “leave the henna placenta treament on ALL night when the directions say 20 minutes”

so much get this, get that, do this, do that… and most of it is either bad advice, or decent advice using the wrong products.

But most people don’t know why pantene is bad, because the commercials show such good hair, or why piling on too much conditioner doesn’t make a difference anywhere but your wallet, or why leaving something on longer than directed doesn’t mean it will do double the healing….

Lets start with product choices, if you have been reading any of the notes prior to this one you will know how i feel about sulfates in hair products as well as added silicones and waxes in drug store brand hair products.  These products will not heal your over processed hair, in fact they will most likely make it worse.  If you over process your hair, you need to heal it from the inside, not put a coating on the outside to make it look healthy, and that is all products like garnier and pantene will do.

Now lets address over application of conditioner….  That is one of the biggest wastes of money.  Your hair can only absorb so much, by layering it on you are just throwing your money down the drain.  You only need to put enough conditioner on to lubricate your hair and comb it through.  To aid your hair in the absorption of a deep conditioner you can put a plastic cap on and warm it up a little, but make sure you let it cool down before you rinse it, and if you are doing a deep conditioner after you do your hair color do NOT apply heat, this will pull out your hair color.

People are always talking about Hask’s henna n’ placenta treatment… but a lot of people have a lot of misunderstandings about this product.  First, no, it is not vegetarian.  Henna is, but placenta is not.  This has always been a tough one for me because the healng properties of placenta are amazing, but being such a strict vegetarian i hate knowing that i am promoting use of an animal product.  In my head I justify it as to be a placenta, there needs to be life… it means a new animal was born.. I can only hope it was born into a good situation.  Honestly I try not to use it, but sometimes there is just no replacement… To my friends post a few people had suggested it and I did agree, what i did not agree with was having it on the hair for much longer than the directions on the product recommended.   Companies don’t put directions on their products to hinder you from getting all the benefits of their products, they put them on the product so that you will use it correctly and not damage your hair more.

You might be wondering, but how could using something good end up being bad??  It is because the placenta treatment is a protein treatment.  Protein is amazing for your hair, and can do amazing things.  But too much can do the opposite, it can actually make your hair more brittle and just snap.  When your hair is already compomised and porous after such intense damage, it is good to keep the protein products in small doses since you hair will absorb everything and anything you put on it.  So yes if your hair is severly damaged, use the Henna n’ placenta treatment, but use it as directed and only once then switch to a deep conditioner that is for moisture that contains healing oils.

When looking for a good everyday deep conditioner look for buzz words like moisture, and fruit oils, etc.. and use sparingly products that use the buzz words, restructurizing, rebuilding, strengthing, and proteins.  Leave the protein treatments to the pros that know your hair.

So what would I recommend in this situation,

use the Henna’n placenta treatment once for the directed about of time. for everyday use a gentle sulfate free, silicone free, paraban free shampoo and conditioner dedicated to replenishing moisture in your hair.  Try Redken’s new Nature’s Rescue line, its amazing.  or head down to your local Whole Foods Market and check our their ‘Whole Body’ section, they have great products there that can help, like Giovanni, or Nature’s Gate.  and to treat your hair and scalp with Argan Oil.

For my last piece of advice in my conditioning section is Argon oil, often seen packaged under the label Moroccan oil.

these are the ingredients of the Moroccan oil brand

Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Cyclomethicone, Butylphenyl Methyl Propional, Argania Spinoza Kernel Oil (Argan Oil), Linseed (Linum Usitatissimum) Extract, Fragrance Supplement, D&C Yellow-11, D&C Red-17, Coumarin, Benzyl Benzoate, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone.

lets break this down into words that we can understand.

Cyclopentasiloxane – waterproof silicone

Dimethicone – another silicone

Cyclomethicone – ANOTHER silicone.. only this one is made to stay on the skin and hair and not penetrate

Butylphenyl Methyl Propional – Fragrance

Argania Spinoza Kernel Oil (Argan Oil) – oh wow! isn’t this what we thought we were paying for??

Linseed extract – okay flax seed extract… that has some  good benefits…

another fragrance…..

D&C Yellow-11 – colorant that can sometimes be derived from animals!

Red-17 – another colorant that can be animal derived..

Coumarin – fragrance / appitite surpressant???

Benzyl Benzoate – a solvent, and preservative

Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone – synthetic fragrance

 

Argan oil by itself has amazing benefits, it is rich in vitamines E and F, a great source of fatty acids and antioxidents.  It is a great moisturizer, it has anti-microbial properties and and helps balance the pH of the skin and hair.  It can help oilly skin and scalps normalize their oil production, and also is good for aging skin and can help regulate the skin’s production of sebum making it great for acneic skin.  It can also soothe an itchy dry flaky scalp, or an itchy oily scalp…  but this is all when it is just pure argan oil.  Once you add synthetic ingredients and silicones you destroy the amazing benefits of this amazing oil.

So where can you get pure Argan oil?  Head to your natural foods store, and go to the grocery aisles.  One thing to look out for when you buy argan oil this way to make sure that you buy cold pressed, and RAW argan oil.  Sometimes when argan oil is used for cooking they lightly roast the seeds.. This not only kills the benefits but makes it not appropriate for cosmetic use.

Permalink to My take on silicones

My take on silicones

by Kristin|on 08/03/2011 |in tips and reccomendations |tagged , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

While I know that there are many opinions about silicones, some say they are good for the hair, others say it is bad.  I am on the side that believes they are bad and this is why….

 

but it all starts with your shampoo.

 

A lot of hair care companies especially the low end brands, in order to keep their product cheap, use low cost, high lathering agents to make their shampoo work, these are called sulfates.  They come in many forms, Sodium lauryl sulfate,  Sodium laureth sulfate, and Ammonium lauryl sulfate, which are the most common.   So you are probably wondering what is so bad about these being in your shampoo.  The problem is these sulfates are VERY harsh, in fact they are also used in most household cleaners as well, such as dish detergent.  These detergents are very good at removing dirt and oil.  In fact they are too good, often they strip your hair of all its natural oils which will dry out the hair.  Hair care companies know this, so to help fix the damage that their shampoos did to your hair they often make a coordinating conditioner full of heavy oils and silicones to coat the hair, lubricate it, and make it look healthy.  But that is the key word, LOOK healthy.  The funny thing is using these silicones and oil to coat the hair and make it shiney is a catch 22.  Most of these silcones are not water soluable, which means that they get stuck on your hair and can build up, and that means that your conditioners and hair oils can’t fully penetrate the hair to help heal damage.

The truth  is a lot silicone can be easily broken down by certain oils (like mineral oil) and other non-polar substances.  But that is where the problem lies.  Shampoo has a non-polar side and a polar side.  So in order to remove some of that build up the shampoo needs to be very harsh, if its not the build up will just keep getting worse.

Did you ever wonder why products that contain heavy doses of silicone work to keep your hair from being a frizz disaster in high humidity.  It is because when your hair is dry and damaged it pulls moisture from the air and swells up.  If you put a silicone product on your hair it seals the cuticle and prevents your hair from obtaining the moisture that it needs.  Sure your hair might look smooth and nice, but in reality it is still just as damaged just with a shiney coating on top.

So what should you do?  Sure a lot of people say its easy, just switch to a sulfate free shampoo and a silicone free conditioner and everything will be great.  But that’s not totally the case.  These shampoos are more gentle and cannot remove the build up already on your hair.  And I feel like a lot of times this is why people say that sulfate free shampoos don’t work for them.  In order for these products to work you need to get rid of the build up on your hair and also look at your styling products.  If you are using a smoothing serum that is straight silicone and sulfate free shampoos your hair will always feel oily and heavy.  So the first thing you need to do is remove all the build up.  You can do this easily by mixing 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with 1 cup of warm filtered water.  Put this on your hair after you shampoo let it sit a minute and rinse with cold water. (Don’t worry if there is a light vinegar smell it will go away when your hair is dry!) Once you remove the build up now switch to the sulfate free shampoo.  Also keep in mind that in the beginning you hair and scalp might feel a little oily but after a few weeks your scalp will get used to not needing to produce as much oil as it had to when you were using the sulfate shampoo and the oily feeling will go away.

 

Once you rebalance your hair and start using more gentle products your hair should become less frizzy, less staticy, and healthier, without silicone!  And the shine you see on your hair won’t be a film on top it will actually be your hair that shines!

 

So now comes the part where i tell you what shampoos I recommend…

Photo from Redken.com

My absolute favorite of the moment (and not just because i love Redken) is the newest line that Redken has created called Nature’s Rescue http://www.redken.com/products/haircare/natures-rescue

Ask anyone that i talk to at my salon, I am OBSESSED.  Not only is is sulfate free and silicone free but it is also paraban free!  It smells amazing, and my hair has never felt better since i started using it.

 

If you are looking for a lower cost alternative just walk into your natural health food store and check out their products, most of their shampoos are sulfate free (and usually if they have sulfates they are made with a more gentle coconut derived sulfate) and they are all silicone free.  Giavanni, Burts Bees, and Nature’s Gate make some good ones.