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One of the first things an aspiring longhair learns is that s/he is using cones. "Huh What? What are cones?" might be one of the first question the (wannabe) longhair asks.
Cone is short for silicone - not to be confused with silicon (esp. important for our foreign members)! Silicones actually consist of silicon, but I'm not going to get more chemical than that.
Silicone refers to a group of chemicals which are very commonly used in beauty products, be it your face cream or your hair conditioner. They are hydrophobic, are used as sealants and to provide slip. Those of you who have tried a drugstore face cream (usually with silicones) and an organic cream in comparison know the difference.
Silicones come in different types and their names reflect the different chemical structures they can have. In the ingredient list, one can identify silicones usually rather easily. They are called "Amodimethicone", "Dimethicone", etc. and now you can see why they are often abbreviated with "cone". But a "Cyclopenthasiloxane" or a "Dimethiconol" can be a cone too. Those are the cones most commonly used and if a product doesn't contain one of them, it is likely that it doesn't contain any cones at all. There are other cones which, unfortunately, don't have as easy names, but since I can't find reliable sources I won't add them here. There is also a claim that says that there are "water soluble" and "non water soluble" cones but again, since I don't have reliable sources and since I wonder how "water soluble cones" are supposed to work, I omit that too.
Different cones have different qualities I'm not going into here either, but I wanted to mention that.
Guess you have to ask a chemist for all that...
The second thing an aspirant longhair learns is that cones are the evil. Usually, the advice goes along the lines of: "You are using [insert popular drugstore brand here], which is full of cones - you should switch to products without them".
Aspirant longhairs do that and their results usually are pretty good with their new routine. The tale about the cone-devil is therefore true.
Is it?
Usually the people do change more than just their products, so the good results they see afterwards are not necessarily caused by the fact that they now stopped using cones but because of many different factors which all benefit the health of the hair. Still, many many people believe in the evil of the cones and it causes quite a bit confusion among wannabe longhairs which is why I write this article in the first place.
To understand the thing with the cones, one has to know what cones are designed for and what they do.
Cones are widely popular and can be found in a very large selection of hair care products. They have many different purposes. In shampoos, they help provide slip, so it gets easier to massage the shampoo in. In conditioners, they help with detangling the hair, keeping static down and preventing breakage by smoothing down the surface of the hair which also provides shine.
It is also said that cones are able to glue split ends (temporarily!) back together.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Where's the catch?
The problem with silicones is the fact that they aren't water soluble. It varies a bit from cone to cone, but as far as I know, all require a detergent of some kind to get removed from the hair. Some cones might require a sulfate shampoo for that, other can get removed with milder cleansers as well. It seems that this is depends on the hair itself a bit, but as you surely know, when you want to grow your hair long, it is recommended that you stop using shampoo on the length of your hair. Therefore the silicones don't get removed anymore, since only water or conditioners aren’t strong enough. If you now keep applying cones to the hair, you'll inevitably get "build-up". The cones build up (hence the name) on the hair and will lock out moisture from the hair shaft. The hair will dry out, gets tangly and dull - just what you didn't want! Some people also claim that silicones "hide" the damage you are doing to your locks, so you don't know how bad it actually is until it is too late. I don't believe that, but I don't want to conceal that I'm in a minority with that.
So cones are evil after all!?
Well, the answer isn't quite as easy.
The speed in which the cones will build up on the hair varies greatly from person to person and from the products used (amount of silicones in them / type of silicone - -remember, the higher an ingredient stands on the ingredient list, the more of it it contains). For me, it takes ages - I think about 6 months or so. For other people, one application is enough and their hair is gunky.
Also, if you get build up it doesn't mean that you have to stop using cones for good - you can usually clarify the hair (for instructions how to do this look through the forums) and all is well again.
The direct opponents of the silicones are (vegetable) oils. Oils are very popular among long haired people because they address the disadvantages of the silicones. Oils can build up on the hair too, but 1) you'll notice that right away (because your hair is greasy) and 2) oils are very easy to remove. Depending on the kind of oil (lighter oils are easier, heavier oils are harder to remove) all it takes is a good CO and the build up is gone, which is much easier on the hair than clarifying it.
Still, some people report problems when using oils. The hair gets crunchy and dry instead of soft and silky. I suspect that the application on dry hair is the problem here - the hair itself doesn't have enough moisture in it and the oil locks further moisture out. In contrast to that, silicones are usually applied on wet hair, so it is ensured that there is plenty of moisture which is locked in. Still, on some people's hair, even the application on damp/wet hair does no good.
, she has a lot of really good stuff in there.
