Silicon is used as a premium-quality lubricant which is non-water-soluble. If you’ve ever used this type of lube you will see how well it works, how long it lasts, yet also how it is also difficult to clean off unfortunately. As far as I know there is no perfect lubricant which has the good properties of a silicon-based one yet the nice cleanup properties of water-soluble ones.
I mention this because just today I was looking at the ingredients of a deep conditioning hair masque that was recommended to me at a beauty store, only to realize that one of the key ingredients is, depressingly, silicon.
This particular deep conditioning masque comes in a plastic screw-top tub and appears to almost copy another popular masque that is more well-known (yet also seems to be less easy to find at beauty supply stores as they appear to focus their distribution more on salons). I decided to check into this original deep conditioning masque and see what its ingredients were and one of the top ingredients is basically the same silicon compound that is found in the lube.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m involved in some type of activity that involves lube, one thing I really try to avoid is getting it in my hair. Its enough of a chore to get it off skin, but getting it in hair is basically a nightmare. However, here are these popular brands of deep conditioning hair masques using this stuff as part of their core ingredients.
When I am in the shower and have used the deep conditioning masque mentioned above, yes it goes into the hair and immediately the hair is slippery, like butter. Its great for detangling. But that is about it. It doesn’t rinse off. You can stand with your head under the shower all day and it just won’t rinse out.
Basically as a 2C/3A curly this stuff is bad for my hair and basically turns it into a limp, non-curly mess. That is the “deep conditioning” of this stuff. You can get the same effect by just lubing up your hair. While it may sound crazy to go into a shower and apply a bunch of lube to your hair, it is basically what you are doing with these masques. Here is more info on silicones in hair products.
I think that these silicon-based products might be fine for people with straight hair – although I personally would not want that in my hair even if my hair were straight.
A lot of other cosmetic products make heavy use of silicon, including primers and also many of the new slick-style foundations. Some of these foundations have high ratings. Even so I am tending to prefer the non-slick style foundations over the slick ones. For example Dior recently came out with Diorskin Star which is my favorite foundation, but they have a new one called Diorskin Nude Air which is a more siliconey slick foundation which is still good. Chanel has Perfection Lumiere Velvet and I’ve also tried Armani Luminous Silk which are also slick-style foundations. But I still prefer Diorskin Star or more traditional, non-slick formulas.
In general, I don’t really like to use silicon on my body except for one specific purpose. Other than that, certain high-tech silicon compounds are used as smoothing and filling agents in cosmetics. There are times when, applied judiciously, these properties are desired. But more often than not I prefer to avoid the use of silicons and their seeming “magic” effects.
As for a deep conditioning masque, there is one that I still like a lot.
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