Just a note on Silicones.

I have found what you say about silicones to be true. About a month ago, I finally figured out that it was "dimethicone" (and cyclomethicone and trimethicone, etc.) that was making my hair dry & flyaway, like dandelion fluff. (I have shoulder-length, fine, slightly wavy, color-treated hair). I had been trying some new products, but nothing seemed to work after the first or second application.
After deciding silicone was the problem, I looked at the ingredients in ALL the hair products I was using. Lo & behold, two products I have used for over ten years, Nexus Versastyler and Jhirmak unscented extra-hold hairspray both now had dimethicone in them--when that happened during the last ten years or so, I don't know. I DO know that I never had a problem with dryness of my hair until the last two or three years.
I'd like to alert people, that all the salon lines that I have looked at have reformulated their products recently so that most contain silicone. It is difficult to find products now that do not have it on the ingredients list. It is nearly impossible to find a hairspray without it. Paul Mitchell recently reformulated his products, and many which did not contain silicone (such as the Awapuhi moisture mist) contain it now.
I'm hoping that in time my hair will recover. It's better (it doesn't dry in 5 minutes anymore) but I believe it may be permanently damaged--I have had breakage, which I haven't had before.
Another note--I happened to read the ingredients in the face cream I've been using day and night (Clinique moisture on-line). Guess what? Primary ingredient is dimethicone. It is also in most foundations, in varying levels on the ingredients list. As I thought this may have contributed to the fact that the hair around my face was even finer, drier, and more dandelion-fluff-like than the rest of my hair, I have discontinued using a facial moisturizer with silicone products! This is a great scam for the hair care industry!! Our hair keeps getting drier and drier and drier, and so we keep buying more and more products to try to fix it.

Apparently, not everyone has had my experience with silicone, but I will advise that if your hair is drier than it has been and you are using more products to keep it under control, read those ingredients labels. My daughter tried KMS flat out for frizz, and said that at first it was wonderful, but with repeated use, her hair got more and more frizzy. I haven't used Flat Out, or anything with that MUCH silicone--but what finally woke me up was using KMS color protector leave in spray, which does have silicone high on the ingredients list. Then I discovered that everything else I was using had it to some degree as well.

By the way, Aveda has added dimethicone to its Elixir. My older daughter, who has thick, fine, very curly hair has used Elixir for years. It was a life-saver for taming her hair. She realized lately that her hair was horribly dry and hard to manage. She looked at the ingredients list and found that dimethicone was added at some point. Does anyone know of a heavier weight, very moisturerizing leave-in conditioner that she could switch to?

Hi,

Thanks for this post. It is very helpful to know your experiences with "cones". Yes, some people do better with "cones" than others but in some cases the "cones" can be very drying.

A lot of consumers are becoming more interested in "all natural" products and this is just another example of why.

Thanks again.
Karen