Busting Hair Care Myths! Build-Up, Silicones And More Ad
- Posted on 19 August, 2021
- Hair Knowledge
- By Anonymous
Today we're busting myths about hair care products! We'll cover silicones, build-up, cheap vs premium products and more.
Subscribe for videos every fortnight: http://bit.ly/labmuffinyt
#AD This video is sponsored by Pantene. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In this video:
Scrape test?
Build-up from cheap products?
Bad products weighing hair down?
Avoiding all silicones?
Blog post with more info here: coming soon
Powered By Chemicals Mugs: https://labmuffin.com/shop/
----ABOUT----
Lab Muffin Beauty Science is a channel by me, Michelle - I'm a chemistry PhD and beauty lover, here to explain how beauty products work, debunk myths, and help you make smarter decisions about your skincare, hair and makeup!
----FOLLOW----
Instagram https://instagram.com/labmuffinbeautys...
Facebook https://facebook.com/labmuffin
Twitter https://twitter.com/labmuffin
-------------------------------------
Want smooth, glowing skin? Grab a copy of my FREE Essential Guide to Exfoliation! https://labmuffin.com/exfol
-------------------------------------
----RELATED POSTS AND VIDEOS----
Free exfoliation guide https://labmuffin.com/free-guide
Lazy routine for coloured hair: https://youtu.be/IePsGGVchNs
5 minute crafts reaction: https://youtu.be/SkSd724yDNY
Science of Olaplex: https://youtu.be/-fS6S0Zadq0
Bleaching Asian hair: https://youtu.be/AcgG0pzx_wA
Busting Silicone Myths: https://youtu.be/yzM4pCKXZ5Y
Fading hair dye with low damage: https://youtu.be/mH2a5Gdj9Gc
Hair routine update: https://youtu.be/HUtS_XLqxPc
Blog post for this video with more info: coming soon
----SKINCARE GUIDE----
The Lab Muffin Guide to Basic Skincare is here! Find out more: https://labmuffin.com/skin
It'S michelle from lab muffin beauty, science, chemistry, phd beauty, product nerd, and today we are busting hair care myths. I usually bust beauty, myths for free, but today's video is sponsored by pantene, even though it is sponsored. Everything is my own opinions and research. Unfortunately, since they're paying me, they expect me to actually do work, we're going to start by looking at the scrape test. I don't know if you remember, but back in the day, i did a video debunking this section from five minute crafts. They scraped off some white stuff on hair with scissors and talked about how hair products work. It turns out that this test isn't just some wacky five minute crafts exclusive, but it's actually used by hairdressers and people selling hair care products to convince you that silicone is building up on your hair. So i thought i'd do a little experiment. I took two samples of hair. I washed both of these with clarifying shampoo, that's meant to remove buildup, and i did this twice to really make sure i clarified the hair. Then i put pantene conditioner on this one. Only usually when people do this scrape test, they talk about conditioner with silicones or just drugstore conditioners, with silicones causing so called buildup. There'S, usually a few myths around cheap, drugstore versus expensive professional products involved. I blow dried, both hair samples to about 90 % dryness. Then i let them air dry, i'm going to scrape them. Here'S the pantene one with silicones lots of white stuff coming off. So if it's silicone buildup, we shouldn't see it with the hair that doesn't have conditioner here's the hair sample without conditioner, but we still get the white buildup coming off. If we look through my little handheld microscope, we can see what looks like microscopic grated. Parmesan cheese curls. I guess this is a forbidden snack, but you could totally eat hair and on both of these samples we can see these long, clear, curly pieces. So it doesn't look like this white stuff is built up from conditioner, otherwise we'd, firstly, see no white stuff coming off the clarified hair sample with no conditioner and we'd see a big difference in the sorts of residue coming off the two different samples. But i think these much more high-powered microscope images that pantene scientists took of the residue tells us a bit more about. What'S going on, the structure of hair is like a cylinder there's a cortex on the inside and cuticle on the outside, and it's actually the inside cortex, that's colored, that's where all the pigment lives and on the outside the cuticle. This is the part that has that roof shingle structure that you've probably seen in diagrams this is actually transparent. The white waxy residue - it is mostly just the cuticle getting scraped off. You can see the little roof shingles here, so this scraping test isn't a really good way to check for residue and if you look at the microscopic images of the hair afterwards, this is what it looks like. It looks like a split end. This test is actually giving you split ends. This scrape test is actually super damaging. So don't do this at home with your own hair and please don't let someone who you're paying to make your hair look nice. Do this to your hair either so scraping hair with scissors doesn't show you whether or not products are building up on your hair. Now, premium salon, hair care products versus drugstore products, specifically conditioners, there's a myth that drugstore conditioners leave build up while salon products don't, but the truth is all conditioning products leave stuff on and in the hair. This is fundamental to how they work. Hair is dead. The only living part is the part inside your scalp, the bulb, so the hair up near your scalp, the bit that's just come out of the bulb. This is really nice and neat, and it looks a bit like this under a microscope, but hair grows at about 14 centimeters per year. This is about 5.5 inches, that's down to around here. So, by the time your hair reaches here, it's built up about a year's worth of damage. That'S 365 days of brushing washing sun exposure drying it with heat straightening it with heat, and that's if you don't blast it with bleach like i did little bits get snapped off the outside of the cuticle and it ends up looking a bit like this, so you Can imagine the difference between how these two sections of hair feel closer to your scalp? It feels smooth the longer it is the rougher it gets, and then, when you have these battered surfaces when they smash against each other, then you get more and more damage to make something battered feel smooth again: sanding it down and wearing it down. Even more isn't a really good approach, you have to add stuff back into the hair to plug up the gaps and that's exactly what all conditioning treatments do they fill in gaps not just on the surface, but also deeper down. They fill in weaker spots, where chunks have washed off or worn away, and all of this extra reinforcement makes hair more like the intact hair. That was newer. It makes it smoother and stronger if you look at the ingredients list of any hair conditioner out there. Well, almost everyone, i'm sure, there's one out there that breaks this rule there is going to be a cationic surfactant. These have names like cetrimonium chloride, behentrimonium chloride, distearyldimonium chloride, stearamidopropyl dimethylamine and in the acidic pH of a conditioner. All of these have a positive charge and that positive charge is really important because that's how they work when hair is wet, it gets negatively charged opposite charges attract, and so these positively charged bits of the cationic surfactant stick to your negatively charged hair. The scientific term for this is adsorption and the rest of the surfactant molecule is oily, and so your hair is now lubricated. It smooths it out. It reduces static. These cationic surfactants are the default active ingredients in conditioning products. There are lots of other conditioning ingredients too. Polyquaternium polymers hydrolyzed, proteins, oils and silicones, and it doesn't matter if they're in high-end luxury conditioners or if they're in those two-in-one, shampoo and conditioner products, that people with shorter hair tend to use all of these work by sticking to hair. So some amount of buildup is good and necessary for any conditioner to actually work, but the amount of build up is really tiny. These gaps in your hair are microscopic you're, not going to see these in a scrape test. So that brings us to the idea that a product is bad because it weighs down your hair. Now, what exactly determines how much of a conditioning ingredient sticks to and stays on your hair? Well, it depends on a number of factors. What the ingredient actually is, how you use the product on your hair? How much is in the product? What the overall formula is, how you use the product on your hair and what your hair is actually like, and i think this is really why there's this perception that silicones can build up on your hair and weigh it down? If you use the product that's suited for someone else's hair on your hair, so if you use a product, that's meant for coarse resistant hair on fine porous hair. Then it can build up in your hair and weigh it down and make it greasy and lank and stick to dust. This actually happened to me right after the first time i bleached my hair before bleaching. My hair was stereotypical asian hair. It was straight black, not very porous, so i used an intensive repair conditioner that had lots and lots of dimethicone in it and that worked fantastically. But after i bleached my hair, the same conditioner made my hair really limp and greasy. So it wasn't because my old conditioner was cheap and bad. It wasn't. My sister still uses it. I have lots of friends who still use it and love it. It just became the wrong product for my hair type. It'S a lot like skin care products and skin type, if you're, using products that were made for dry skin on oily skin you're, probably not going to have a good time, and it isn't like my hair, just hates all silicones. That'S another misconception. Silicones aren't all the same, there's a massive variety. I found that my hair loves products with different silicones like amodimethicone and bisaminopropyl dimethicone. These are silicones that have a positive charge, so they tend to deposit less on hair, positive charges repel each other. So once there's enough silicone stuck to your hair, then extra stuff doesn't stick on as much and so the chance of your hair, getting overloaded with silicones is a lot lower. On top of this, the same name on an ingredient list could mean different substances. Going back to dimethicone dimethicone is a silicone polymer that has oxygen and silicon atoms stuck together like this, but the polymer can have different lengths and still be called dimethicone, and these different lengths will have different properties. If it's longer, then the dimethicone will feel a bit thicker and heavier. If it's shorter length, then it can feel more lightweight and spread through hair a lot more easily. If you look at all the different ingredients that are called dimethicone, that you can buy, you'll see that there are lots of different grades and when i say grades, i'm not talking about higher and lower quality. I'M just talking about different dimethicones with different properties that are good for different uses, so sometimes looking at the ingredients list doesn't help as much as we'd like it to when we're looking for a conditioner that suits our hair, you need to look at what sort of Hair the conditioner says it's for look at reviews from other people, with similar hair to you and try it on your own hair. So the moral of the story is, there are loads of different silicones, hundreds and thousands of them. They can be incorporated into hair care products in lots of different ways, just because you've had a bad experience with one conditioner with silicones doesn't mean you need to give up on all silicones entirely, and if you do, you might be missing out on some really great Products that will work really well on your hair. I hope this video helped. You understand a bit more about what might be going on with your hair care products like subscribe. Nerdification bell follow me on instagram check out my blog, and i will see you next time, for i don't know if it'll be sunscreen, but it will definitely be nerdy.
Comments
Nona: Compared to skincare, I find it more difficult to come across haircare content that’s as sciencey as this. Thank you and please keep it coming!
hannah ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ: I had never seen that scrape test until earlier today so it's kinda funny that you debunked it for me just a few hours later! Glad I didn't have to live misinformed for too long!
Persephonne Vanity: Can you test if heat protectant protects the hair
Sarah Ingle: You better believe I ran right over here for this one.
Botfly Guy: I was so astounded by the hair test thing. I'm not a hair scientist or anything but it seemed obvious to me that the white stuff is hair shavings and not any "product buildup".
Madhusree: Hey Michelle it'd be great if you debunked more hair myths because this was very interesting. I always knew that the white stuff from the scissor test was not really silicone but I was never able to tell what it was. Thanks for this video.
Queenofstitches Warrior: Never clicked so fast! As a curly girl and a formal hairstylist i find this super interesting! My hair loves sillicone, i have thick hair which can frizz a lot due to the curl pattern and different structure. And you prove what i said all the time, that is not buildup coming off! I am going to share this truth everywhere, Thank you!❣️
Adam V: Props to Pantene for actually sponsoring someone to break down the science of something for us.
pvanpelt1: I’d never seen that hair scraping thing, and when you demo’ed it I immediately winced and thought, “I’ll bet that’s cuticle. That’s just shaving it off.” I swear I felt my hair roots cringe, lol.
Marianne: Silicones are actually so-called natural. Why do people hate them so much? I'm an absolute fan of salon products, but I don't think they leave less build up.
Sarah Carroll: My thick hair loves silicones. My favorite leave-in was reformulated to be "cleaner" this last summer, so no more silicones. Surprise, it no longer works nearly as well.
Snaxicakes: This was SO GOOD. I love that you partnered with Pantene on this, because it's a more affordable option!
A.M.J: Thank you!!! I am someone with curly hair and although most curlies avoid silicones (good for them!) they work wonders for me! So refreshing to get someone else talking about buildup in a scientific way rather than scraping our hair (I think Manes by Mell made a similar video and got to a similar conclusion)
Ghada F: Yay! More hair videos please! Especially on hair loss, thin hair and hair porosity
Barbara: Good on Pantene for getting someone so knowledgeable and thorough to share information on their behalf
Sheiraz Alhasawi: I would love to see more hair care product videos especially things that target the scalp to treat the hair right from the bulb itself! Dealing with balding and hair loss atm
torrent raisin: People LOVE to hate on Pantene. It's literally the only conditioner that works for my bleached hair. It makes is soft, and protects it;keeping it slippery so there are no tangles and knots.
Liz C: Thank you for making this video! So many hairdressers spread misinformation and come up with pseudoscientific tests like scraping hair, it is scary. And the worst part, people believe all the nonsense. I enjoy your videos very much, more people need to watch them!
SarahJane: I never heard of scraping your hair, but I know darn well without science that taking any sharp instrument and scraping anything (hair, skin, etc) will only damage it and reveal "dust" from what your wrecking. It's like putting paper into a paper shredder and thinking the dust it creates is some toxic garbage! It's amazing what people will believe over common sense. Also, would LOVE to try more affordable drugstore brands, but it's really far past the times of testing on animals. I'm not buying a product that isn't cruelty free in this day and age. Not that you can trust all "CF" brands either without actual laws obliterating it.
Ikjot Kaur: Would love to watch more videos about hair products, ingredients and how they work, if they come from Lab muffin.
Jelecia Miller: Yes! This is amazing. I love hair science but also love debunking the myths that surround us for hair. As someone with Kinky-Curly hair, the avoidance of silicone has been around for years in the community but my hair is fine with them. I can't wait to share this video. I hope you do some more videos like this!
Ire: More hair myths debunking please!! Loved this video ♀️. It would be interesting to see how popular “hair growth” oils compare to the science out there
tashaology: i'd love to see more hair product videos! i dont have a lot of good resources for haircare science like how there are a lot of skincare science videos
Shirley Anderson: I tried no silicone for a long time but gave up on it because my hair was so frizzy without silicone. I'd love it if you would discuss blow dryers. They boast about things like ceramics and ions that cut down on frizz, and I am wondering whether there's any truth in it.
Lau Ste: Thank you! So many people have been pushing shampoo subscription services via these myths and I have been so skeptical
Mia Batu: I've recently moved to Australia, and the lack of humidty of the country made my skin and hair a nightmare to deal with. Discovered your channel, and the advice you are giving really helped me making informed choices when it came to buying my personal care products (since all the products I used to use were no longer working/unavailable in the country). Thank you so much for these videos! Keep up the amazing work!
Bro: I work in a salon and I would love to hear more of these myths busted! Learned a few things in this it was so helpful
Solveig Westermoen: Thank you for this! I've always been skeptical about that scissors hack, and thought it only to be damaging the hair. I have Scandinavian hair, very thin, straight strands that _may_ , sometimes, under the right conditions, hold a curl if I convince it. I must admit I don't know how much or what kind of silicones are in my products, but I'm happy I now know they aren't doing any harm to my hair!
vicky3589: Hey Michelle, could you please talk about the environmental impact of different shampoo ingredients? I was searching for a new shampoo the other day, however I was not sure what to buy, because I heard that microplastics are not good for the environment...Maybe other ingredients are harmful as well? Anyways, thanks for the great video!
Sakura C: Thank you so much for this video. So glad I don't have to buy expensive silicone free conditioners from now on
la pharmacie: Hey Michelle, as a pharmacy student I loved loved loved this! I know a lot about skincare but I realized I don’t actually know a lot about hair so this was very insightful. Could you do a video on hair care for really oily hair? Are clarifying shampoos good to use, and should I invest in salon products or are there good drugstore options? Are there any OTC treatments for the scalp that could help me? Thanks ❤️
Scarlet Flamingo: Can't thank you enough for all the in depth and scientific analysis that you do regarding hair, skin care, and nails. I love knowing how and why ingredients work the way they do because it makes it so much easier to understand and troubleshoot.
pommeG03: THANK YOU! I felt like I was going crazy seeing this all over tik tok, and seeing all the hair stylists insisting this is real. You'd think they'd know the structure of the hair and realize they were causing damage!
Avi Adler: My hairdresser always tries to sweet talk me into buying Kerastase stating Pantene causes the silicone to build up in the scalp and cause “suffocation” therefore hair loss. I am very happy with Pantene . I’ve asked for Kerastase sachets and guess what? Pantene still leave my hair super lustrous . Can’t thank you enough for this super informative video ❤️
juggy: Thank you sooo much for this! It's really hard to find reputable hair care advice, ie from someone who understands the science behind the ingredients! Love your work
Clara Bennett: At my house, plain whole-grain spaghetti with olive oil and grated Parmesan is a very common “ughhh I’m hungry but I don’t have it in me to cook a real meal” option, and those microscope images of the hair looks exactly like that, except the “spaghetti” was all aligned.
Justyna N: Now I’m at a loss as to why my thick yet somewhat fine hair REFUSES to rinse clean, no matter what I use. Thought for sure it was heavy silicones.
Alice Walker: I really wish that places like hairhouse warehouse would do a bring a little container and do samples for a couple of bucks. I've got several bottles of both shampoo and conditioner that are no good for my hair at all despite the claims/ingredients/reviews seeming really promising ♀️
Genie J: Love love love you covering hair care & debunking myths. I feel like the "natural hair" movement is perpetuating so many myths, would love you to debunk some of those too! And also, I would be so interested in the science of dandruff & scalp care.
cindy mindy: “This is a forbidden snack” Michelle hitting us with that humor
Lynn1403: thank you for such an educative video! I would like to see more hair-related content on your channel regarding drugstore products, unfortunately I find most of them are so overloaded with fragrance it gives you a headache :(
R: Omg yes!!!! THIS VIDEO IS SO NEEDED!!!! Everyone chill it’s just hair!! The secret to gorgeous hair isn’t all the products and remedies these “influencers” say. It’s generics. I’m East Indian. I wash my hair 1x a week and use drug store products and my hair is waist length and thick because of my genetics and DNA!! Relax guy
Jojo: That intro was so quick I went back and put closed captions on haha! This is cool I love some debunking - especially when it saves people money and time and stops say elderly or gullible people buying products or getting treatments for no reason
LovelyLuna: Thank you so much for this video because I learned new things that I didn’t know before! I personally do like silicones and it’s nice to know that they don’t actually harm your hair. Thanks for explaining the scrape test it’s scary to think that some hair stylist actually do this and end up causing damage to your hair… very informative thank you!
JJ Email: Thanks. So much misinformation comes from licensed stylists who know absolutely NOTHING about basic chemistry. The internet has made this worse in some ways and better in others. Our industry lies so much in marketing. Most claims are totally false.
Karen Levitt: Thanks so much for this! I’m constantly seeing people on hair forums asking “Why does my hair look so limp and flat?” Nearly always…because you are using products made for coarse coily hair on your fine wavy hair… Also, with very, very few exceptions, ( I can think of only 1 right now) the drugstore brands have the same types of formulations in similar proportions to the high end brands. Why would I pay nearly $50 American for Kerastase or Oribe when I can get a virtually identical conditioner or hair mask (and often better for my hair type) product from Pantene, L’Oréal or Herbal Essences at the 5-10 dollar price point?
Maritza Chavez: I'm replaying this video until it builds up in my brain... Thank you for your outstanding content!
Ruth Corson: This video is so amazing! I first heard of these hair myths a few years ago from the Beauty Brains podcast with Perry Romanowski. I believe he worked for Pantene for a while too. My hair has always loved silicones. I tried cutting them out at the recommendation of a stylist, but my hair freaked out. Once I heard the podcast episode from Beauty Brains, I was back on my Pantene and Garnier. Never looked back!
Choyce Joyce: Thanks for the quick breakdown on hair conditioning products. I’m also glad you explained why the scrape test is silly. It always looked like a bad idea, but the videos are everywhere! Nice post :)
sf bas: The world needs more true haircare science! ♡
Emilie Coats: Right when I saw her scraping against the grain of the cuticle, I was like "stop!! That's the cuticle scraping off!!" haha. I remember reading my mom's cosmetology text books from the 60s that say never to do that to the hair. I'm super surprised there are stylists that are doing this to try to sell products
Daniel Nowlan: Great video, thanks for laying out the clear function. Couple of things I noticed: the stearamidopropyl dimethyl amine has a hydrogen when in cationic form (not a trimonium as shown, but I’m still geeking out at seeing chemical structures!) and hair develops a negative surface charge not just with water but as it becomes damaged. Hence the reason amodimethicone works so well on your bleached hair. Wonderful work, keep up the good fight for defeating bad information.
The Beauty Minimalist: Great video Michelle, we need more science content for haircare! I would love to hear you comment about hard water buildup in hair, is it a real concern and what you can do to protect the hair
Jakelyne Finan: As a scientist and someone obsessed with beauty products this is the channel I have been looking for.
Kevlar Skin: I appreciate how much effort you put into your videos! Sulfate & silicone free products made my hair so miserable. It was always greasy even if I just showered, had scalp pain and hair fall. My scalp is oily and hair has fine strands but there's lots of it so it looks kinda thick. I use only Pantene and I'm surprised to see someone sponsored by them because they're put under the label of cheap harmful products.
Bidusha Mandal: I didn't do this test..but I did fall for that build up crap... I tried bunch of silicone free all crap free shampoos but they made my hair worse . I switched to my normal shitty shampoo all good again..
Bianca: Hi Michelle! Thank you for yet another incredibly informative video! I have curly hair and am finally learning to embrace it but have some damage to smooth over. I just started using Olaplex 3 and have ordered a bottle of the K18 Mask. I was just curious what you thoughts on the K18 Mask are as so far I’ve only heard it mentioned by Christina on Hair Romance (who also makes brilliant content!)
Elin: I just recently started to incorporate silicones and quats in my haircare routine again. Not in the shampoo stage though. But I've been thinking a lot about one thing: Which surfactants do you have to have in your shampoo to rinse out silicones and quats properly?
Rey: this is actually a great way to use a sponsorship so I'm really pleased!! if you could do a video about heat protectant I would be so interested to see the results of if they actually work.
Wendy S: This is wonderful. I was hoping you’d do something on hair care. I’d love to see a video about your favorite hair care products.
Nutan Dixit: Hey, please make videos regarding propylene glycol, urea, phenoxy ethanol, triethanolamine etc .. there's so much of misinformation around.
Anita Borozan: I tried going with silicones and surfactants one time and my hair was the greasiest mess it's ever been.
LifeInTheVoid: SUNSCREEN... can you please explain if sunscreen should be 'rubbed in' and when does rubbing in become rubbing off? Thanks for your fact based info
Michelle Tidler: I just love you and your channel. I always learn something new and your myth busters are the best! Another great video! Thank you.
Santeri Peltokangas: Special silicones for bleached hair really are a thing! Normal ones do next to nothing, maybe smooth the roughness a tiny bit. The silicones that latch onto damaged parts make hay-textured hair that's snapping off literally silky smooth. Probably because it fills the whole damaged cuticle with silicone, instead of just coating the surface. They're usually found in "repairing" conditioners, even though painting a wall won't repair a crack lol
A C: Coming for James Welsh’s “sometimes hair” gig huh?
belinda: thank you!! my god i get so annoyed with the crazy misinformation in hair care and beauty in general, this channel is so important!!
Kita H: I love the way you really break down the information... Why certain products work for certain hair types etc... I'm very skeptical about skin care, hair, makeup influencers but so glad I took the Welsh brothers recommendation about your channel ‼️ I recently discovered them and theirs were the first I've subscribed to and now you ! You can definitely tell when someone is genuine, honest, and informed (because most are just pushing products and not informed or informative)
Razan Masood: Thank you for the useful content you provide ! Can you maybe tell us what is the difference between drugstore shampoo and the expensive ones. Does it worth it to change to an expensive brand ?
Bruna Mota: My hair loves silicones and vaseline. I had a "silicone bad" phase and my long thick curly hair looked so bad. Now that I have short hair I use a silicone based treatment to prevent split ends nearly everyday
Kitty Germein: Yeeees!!! Please make more hair science videos! I feel like hair is so misunderstood in the beauty community!
Villanelle Killing-Eve: I have totally had hairdressers tell me that supermarket products are full of silicone and bad for my (bleached to fry-stage) hair. And now I know...! Thankyou so much for this - its really useful. I also love hearing another Aussie on Youtube!
Dina Samuelsson: I have a skin condition that requires me to use medication on my scalp. My doctors have told me not to use hair products with silicones because the silicones can block the skin from absorbing the medication. Do you know if there's any truth to that?
ChaCha: Love how dimethicone looks like happy people standing in a like holding hands
Nebula Orion: In the 90s, those high silicone smoothers that were supposed to be applied on wet hair were so popular. They worked well until a marketing ploy advertised against them and trends changed.
WonderWomum: So interesting! Thank you. Can you please do a video about box hair colour vs salon colour. We are constantly told box colour is a thousand times worse for our hair and it's worth spending 10 X as much for salon colour (literally). Is that really true?
GwennyFTB: I’m so glad I never did that silicone test. I thought about it at one point.
Julia Binford: Thanks so much for explaining this! Since hair isn’t living, is it like cloth or other fibers in the way it takes color? I don’t know much about what makes hair more porous. Super interesting
MECFSWarrior: Thanks for all the sweet hair facts, science lady
ashh: Came for the science, stayed because I stan fellow Aussie women in stem
Megan A: Please do a video about silicones in skincare products! You mentioned in this video that not all silicones are the same in haircare products and I would enjoy a science-based explanation about how they are different in skincare formulas.
Wyldflower: Thank you for the brilliant, knowledgeable information. You are the best
A. Westenholz: Generally I'm beginning to feel that a lot of the fear mongering over any ingredient should be taken with a pinch of salt. That isn't to say that occasionally there is real basis for it, but the really dangerous ingredients usually get the medical community up in arms as well. The one thing I have gotten concerned about wasn't any ingredient as such, but the PH of my shampoo and conditioners, which I generally found to be to high for hair and scalp.
Chris: Hey! I was recently discussing this with a friend and I basically told her this (but without the actual scientific references of course) so I will definitely be sharing this! But we were also wondering what the impact of silicones in hair (and skin) care was for the environment? Do you happen to know anything about this too? I would personally love to make my hair and skincare a bit more climate-friendly where possible :)
Auricia: Love hair care videos! I have a bumb question: Are hair cuticles really placed like that, the new ones always slightly on top of the older ones (and not the other way around)? It looks like that in the picture 2:17, but I can't be sure with the microscope image 3:25. I'm wondering because that means that there would be more damage with an upward motion than a downward motion, I think? This in no way changes my opinion on the video and it's conclusions It's just out of curiosity..
Jaz Helton: I've tried no silicone no sulfate for a while and I feel like it's done okay for my hair, but I think clarifying or just sulfates is necessary for me occasionally after oil treatments for example. Silicone can go ahead and coat my fine strands, it'll probably protect them better even if it weighs my hair down. I rotate different stuff on my hair depending on how it feels or what I'm doing and what's affordable. It's not something I'm gonna stress about.
dancerslifesupport: loved the video! would love to know build up of dry shampoo and how heat protection product works (or not?!)!
Debbie Smith: I spent a ton of money for Olaplex and other pricey products. I found Pantene was as good or better.
Baisakhi ghosh: Really loved the video. Could you please do an in-depth video on bicapil, redensyl and other such products being promoted for hair growth?
Werm: I just discovered DIY retinol serum recipes, and I was wondering what your opinion on them is. You've covered a DIY vitamin C serum before, and I'm curious about how many different kinds of skincare products you could safely DIY
Crystal Peacock: Helpful as ever!
SusanIvanova2257: "I guess that's a forbidden snack but you could totally eat hair" absolutely sent me
Manners Bananers: I have healthy hair down past mid-thigh, now, and use PLENTY of silicone-heavy detangling products, all over my strands. A single (lower-sls) shampoo, once per week or two, solely applied to the scalp, removes all buildup. ♀️ So, IDGI. I dunno where this comes from. I've heard "all silicones are bad and will cause hair buildup," and "only cheap silicones are bad and will cause buildup" (aren't the majority pretty cheap?). But, I kind of figured that was just like the whole "parabens" myth. As in, a very small number of people are allergic, so these were kind of demonised, even though they've been used for more than a century. And they are completely safe, when used at the concentrations they're actually used; even one of those "clean ingredients checker websites" used studies at something like 20x (or more) of maximum safe dosages to "prove" that they could have unintended consequences. ♀️ "The dose makes the poison," kind of thing. But, again, there's more than a century of evidence backing up the fact that they're still effective at VERY low concentrations, and completely safe at those concentrations, too. Newer, natural preservatives don't have the same kind of longterm record of usage. We could potentially happen upon some nasty side effects from some of them, within a decade or two. We don't know, because we sometimes can't.
Kristina Lidstone: Last semester in my Chemistry 11 class a student kept borrowing my scissors to "scrape off the build-up" on her hair. Almost every day. I tried to tell her I was sure it was damaging her hair, but I didn't have any evidence... I'm tracking her down first thing in September to make her watch this video!
Nobbejo: I started curly girl method after bleaching my hair and my hair absorbed oily products easily. Now that my hair is grown with it's natural color I realized that the same products don't work anymore. My hair gets easily greasy and flat.
Broomstick Betty: I never understood the scrape test. If you had product build up, you'd know. You'd feel it. Just do a clarifying wash. I get build up on occasion and its easy to remove with no hair damage.
J: Love your video, thank you!! What came to my mind tho: is shampoo without SLS better for thin hair or hair in general (eg. Maria Nila)? Is denatured alcohol in shampoo bad (eg. Kerastase)?
Lovely Simulacra: I wonder if there is any actual difference between hair conditioner and a mask. I find that just using a mask instead of conditioner every day is working really well for me. I feel like it just has more "lubricants", which works well for my really long and thus kinda dry and damaged hair, I wonder if I'm right about it or if I should look into finding a conditioner that works for me again. BTW, I have just checked which silicone is in my mask, and it's amodimethicone, which Michelle apparently also likes with her new hair. The mask is L'Oreal Elvive Extraordinary Oil Hair Mask, and it's super affordable. I have thin completely straight caucasian hair, which is unbleached, but as I said, is very long, which means that it's damaged just due to how old it is, and it's also really tangly.
Melita Ropalo: THANK YOU!! I CRINGE SO HARD WHEN I SEE OTHER STYLIST DO THIS!!!
Jojo: This all being said my friend got me a £20 condition argan something or other - and I found a £1 that makes my hair feel a lot better - money really doesn’t matter loads for hair care stuff