Beauty | Hair routine – silicone free: Yes or No?

Hello there!

A while ago, in one of my Youtube marathons, I came across a very interesting video from Julia Graf. If you are not familiar with her two options apply:

1. You’ve been living in a cave
2.  You’re not from this world

hahaha 🙂

No seriously, she’s one the best Youtubers out there with very interesting videos and not only beauty related.
One of these days, she talked about going silicone-free with her hair routine and why she has decided to do so. This is of course a very personal thing and each person does whatever they like, but when Julia described her reasons I realized that we shared quite some issues regarding hair.

Let me tell you more about my personal take on this subject.

First of all, I have long hair and never had issues regarding oiliness. Dry scalp yes, but oily nop!
In the past, my hair could handle a week between washes without looking greasy or anything. When I wouldn’t style it, it was also not a big deal. It looked funky but good, if you get my point.
It is worth to mention that during this time, I was visiting the hairdresser on a very frequent basis, just to keep it in good shape.
Long hair needs care!

Once I moved to Brussels, 5 years ago, my hair started to slowly change. The Belgian water was harder than the Portuguese and my hair slowly lost its shine.
Still no troubles with oiliness; on the contrary, I had to get special shampoo (from my PT hairdresser) and other products to bring the shine back and moisturize the scalp.
Once I moved back to PT, the problems slowly faded away and hair was back to normal!

Then, the time came and I moved to NL, knowing that most probably I would have the same issue with the hardness of the water, so I started to use all kind of products that would promise “sleek, shiny hair”. If I only I knew…

Honestly, it never occurred to me to read the ingredients list.
But it seems that all these shampoos/conditioners/styling products that promise shinny and sleek hair, are piled up with silicons.
What silicone does to your hair, is that it creates an outer layer around the hair fiber, which will make it look shiny and sleek but in fact it’s not really doing anything to the hair itself.
It’s like applying a heavy duty foundation when you have a skin full with acne scars; you’re not treating it, but covering it up.

I also did not know that these ingredients build up on your hair&scalp and that you need special shampoo in order to get rid of them.
What happened was that along the way, my hair besides losing its shine, it started to get greasy much faster than usual (second day after washing was already looking terrible!) and when I did not style it than it would look like a total mess!
And then, Julia’s video came online right on the moment I was starting to get worried about this and didn’t know what to do.

Well, if you have the same issue, I totally recommend to watch the video. Click here to watch.

It was a true wake up call!
I had now a mission: get rid of all those nasty products and find alternatives that on the longer term would bring my “good old hair” back.

Let me tell you; it’s not an easy thing to do! Your hair won’t look good for a while and you may wonder if you made the right choice.I had those moments, but decided to keep trying.

At the moment, I’m using Herbal Essences’ silicone free shampoo and conditioner, and every week I do a hair mask using The Body Shop’s Rainforest Moisture.
To help out with blow drying and give extra shine, I have been using coconut oil. This does not make my hair greasy at all.
It smells good and does not build up; I did look through the ingredients’ list and it seems to be okay.

So far, I’m happy with the results!
The hair is slowly recovering and even when I let it dry naturally, it does not get so fuzzy anymore.
Not perfect yet, but I’m hoping that it will get better.
Worth to mention that I can now wait 4 days in between washes; it may sound a lot but for my hair that’s fine.

One of my concerns is still regarding heat protecting products (those you apply before you curl or use flat iron). So far, I have not found a silicone free one. So, if you know any, please let me know!
Specially now that Winter is coming, I tend to style my hair more frequently so this kind of product becomes more important.

Long story short:

• Always check the ingredients list of any hair product you buy
• Mind what you apply… If you decide to stick with products which contain silicone, make sure to use a shampoo that can remove them.
• Visit a hair dresser to ask for more information in case your hair is not looking/behaving as usual.
• I am very glad I decided to go silicone-free!

Thanks Julia!