Silicones in hair products… bad or good? What if I told you they are actually destroying your hair? What if I told you silicones make your hair brittle, thin, and can even cause balding?

Yikes, right? What if I went on to tell you that silicones are in almost all hair care products on the market?

It’s true. You’re going to want to read this post…

How Silicones Are Destroying Your Hair

We all want soft, silky, frizz-free, thick, healthy hair.

At the same time, most of us damage our hair. We bleach and/or color our hair. We blow dry it to make it smooth, flat iron it to make it straight, curl it to make it wavy or curly…

Even though we know these things damage our hair, most of us won’t give up on the color processing or heat tools.

Instead of the soft, silky, thick and healthy hair we long for, we end up with hair that is as brittle and dry as straw. We may even be getting split ends and breakage. Some of us are even experiencing thinning… and yes, balding.

As they say, you can’t have it both ways… Or can you?

Silicone is the Problem

Here’s the root of the problem: modern hair care products contain silicone… which is supposed to help protect our hair from damage.

But not so fast! Turns out silicone-based products actually do the opposite of what they’re supposed to do.

In this post, I’ll explain why the majority of hair care products on the market (yes, even organic and natural products) don’t work to solve our hair problems… and are actually making them worse.

I’ll also share with you a secret… a brand new product that will allow you to protect your hair from all the bleaching, coloring, blow drying and curling.

Yes! I am going to tell you what to do to be able to keep doing all the damage to your hair… but protect your hair from the damage.

Sound too good to be true?

It isn’t. Keep reading…

What Are Silicones and How Do They Damage Your Hair?

Let’s start by talking about how hair products containing silicone destroy your hair from the scalp to the ends… and how they can even cause balding.

I’ll tell you why you need to drop these products like a hot rock! And what you should do instead…

As I said above, the vast majority of shampoos, conditioners and hair styling products — even many so-called “natural and organic” brands — all contain silicones (synthetic polymers).

These synthetic polymers are like a waterproof shield, which you can’t remove or wash away with water.

Because silicones are waterproof, silicone-based hair care products have to add sulfates.

Sulfates are harsh detergent solvents that strip these polymers/silicones from your hair shaft and scalp. These harsh solvents are added so the silicones don’t build up.

This a vicious cycle of damage.

How Silicone-Based Hair Products Damage Your Hair

When you first start using silicone-based hair products, you get great results. The silicone coats the strands of your hair by filling in the cuticle.

So it works like a Band-aid to make your hair look healthy, even though it isn’t.

This is actually a type of microscopic plastic coating on your hair shaft. This coating is very difficult to remove.

The easiest way to remove the silicone coating is to use sulfate chemical detergents. You’ve probably heard of sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), which is probably the most common sulfate-based detergent.

But a detergent that is strong enough to strip silicone polymers is also strong enough to strip the outer cuticle layer of your hair. This causes it to become rough and break off, which makes hair look dry, brittle and frizzy.

Hair care companies “solve” this problem by adding even more silicones, in an attempt to mask the damage. But all this does is exacerbate the damage.

Over time, this cycle weakens your hair from root to tips, robbing it of moisture, and destroys your hair’s health and appearance.

You think that’s bad? But wait… there’s more… Since the silicones in these products are not water-soluble, they also build up on the scalp and clog scalp hair follicles.

What happens when your follicles get clogged? Thinning and hair loss.

But if balding isn’t bad enough… it gets even worse…

All these silicones are being washed down the drain. Silicones are going into our water supply, and it ends up in rivers, lakes and oceans.

These silicones are not biodegradable… and as a result, they negatively impact not only humans, but all life on the planet.

How to Avoid Silicones

Of course, shampoos, conditioners and other hair care products don’t list the word “silicone” on the label. It will be listed as one of the ingredients below.

Look for anything ending with the suffix “cone” or “siloxane”, including:

Dimethicone
Methicone
Trisiloxane
Cyclopentasiloxane
Dimethiconol
Cycomethicone

How Do You Find Hair Care Products Without Silicones?

I started using MONAT products a little over a year ago and I can’t believe how thick and healthy my hair is. My hair is baby fine. Since I started MONAT, it’s as thick and healthy as it was when I was in my 20s (I’m 50 now).

Not only that, but my hair has so much volume now. See my before and after pictures in my review.

Best of all, my scalp is a lot less oily. I used to have shampoo DAILY… Now I can go 2-3 days… and 4-5 days when I use the MONAT dry shampoo.

This is because regular shampoos (even more natural shampoos like I was using) dry your scalp too much, which makes you produce more oil.

MONAT is an oil based shampoo. They use a patented plant-based oil that is the closest thing you can find to sebum (the oil that is in our skin). By replenishing the oil in our skin, our body produces less oil.

It also works if you have dry hair — the oil is very nourishing and your scalp will be less dry.

Read my full review of MONAT.

MONAT hair care products are non-toxic and naturally-based and do not contain silicones. They contain a plant-based silicone alternative that does not damage your hair.

MONAT products do not have silicones in any of their shampoos, conditioners, masques, dry shampoo, hair spray, mousse… or anything.

Not only that, but MONAT products help to gently remove the silicone build-up from your hair and scalp.

So yes! You can have the best of both worlds!

You can get heat protection from blow dyers and curling irons… without the silicone that causes dryness, breakage and hair loss.

Click here to order now.

Need Help or Have Questions?

Contact me at annmarie @ annmariemichaels dot com and I’ll help you choose the best products for you. (Or talk to the MONAT Market Partner who shared this post with you.)