Scrolling down on Facebook or your Instragram feed you’ve probably run into articles about silicone-free products several times. There has been a lot of awareness around these ingredients in female cosmetics, but check out here why this is a man’s issue as well, and why you should avoid products with silicone.
What are we talking about?
Silicones, or polysiloxanes, are something of a hybrid between synthetic rubbers and synthetic plastic polymers invented back in 1901.
Pros
The positive effects of silicone in hair-care that they add a shiny effect, and makes the hair easy to restyle. It can also make the hair easy to comb out when used in products such as shampoos and conditioners. For companies it is a big pro, that silicone are extremely cheap. In average companies who don’t use silicone use 8x as much money on the production of their products.
Cons
Silicones are heavy molecules, that will weigh the hair down, making it limp, lifeless, and with time, very dull. So in essence, we get a good shine for a couple of days, but with time the silicons, acting like a plastic cover on the hair, will prevents moisture from penetrating the hair shaft and will lead to frizz and breakage.
Bad Bad Cons
Hair loss. Studies took microscopic pictures of scalps using silicons shampoos, and what did they found out? Silicons build-ups around the follicle, that means physical blocks of the newborn hairs. So yes, if you are using products with silicons, you dramatically impact on the natural regrowth circle of your scalp. That means that for every hair that you see on your pillow or on your sweater, you probably won’t be able to grow a new one back.
Even Scarier Cons
If hair-loss wasn’t enough itself to make you change your hair-care habits, we have some scarier news. A class of silicones known as cyclosiloxanes is gaining growing attention from the research community, who has begun investigating concerns about whether they can cause cancer or disrupt the endocrine system. The researches have been made on animals and in-vitro, so for now it’s not entirely clear how they can affect cancer risk in humans. There will be some time before the scientific community will have conclusive informations about the health effects.
Until then, would you rather risk it?
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