Let's clarify

(I originally wrote the following post for the now defunct Daily Curl blog, but I thought it was time to give it a second life here, especially for those readers who never saw it the first time.)

In this age of toxic purging and antibacterial cleansing, we always seem to be seeking ways to remove every vestige of dirt, grime, goo, and muck off our skin and certainly off our hair.

It is apparently no longer enough to wash your hair. Now you must clarify it.

I had never heard of such a concept until I was a few months into my CG journey. I first read about it on a discussion group post and wondered whether it was something I needed to do. (Yes, I began CG without ever having clarified. More on this later.)

Clarifying is a fancy word for a good, thorough cleansing — the kind that will remove silicone (and in some cases, hard water) residue from your hair. Before people begin the no-poo routine, they will often clarify to ensure that they are starting with a fresh slate.

My opinion is that clarifying is optional before going CG, but there are plenty of curlies who disagree. Some non-water soluble silicones are nasty, stubborn little buggers but my feeling is that it’s unlikely they will stay in your hair more than a couple of days. If anyone reading this found that it was absolutely necessary to clarify before starting, please feel free to post a comment. Unless you have a whole bunch of built-up gunk in your hair, I think you can move right into co-washing without too much trauma to psyche or hair. If your definition of clean is synonymous with “scrupulous”, then by all means, clarify. If cleanliness is more of a relative term to you, you can safely skip the clarifying.

So what should you use to clarify, in the event that you’ve determined you need to? Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to use sulfates to clarify. Don’t believe me? Check out this list by NaturallyCurly.com’s Curl Chemist. Shampoos with cocamidopropyl betaine or cocobetaine remove even the toughest silicones.

As Tiffany at Live Curly, Live Free says on her blog: “If your cleanser is sulfate-free, but contains another surfactant which is milder, such as cocamidopropyl betaine, you will receive the benefits of clarifying without the harsh effects of sulfates.” Surfactants, not sulfates, are the key to clarifying.

Which leads us to another question about clarifying, and that is whether acidic rinses such as vinegar or lemon juice will accomplish the task. The answer: no, not thoroughly. Acidic rinses are good for getting water-soluble product out of your hair and many people claim that they close your cuticle, which perks hair up and even gives it some shine. But because it is not a surfactant, it won’t do for you what a shampoo will.

Once you are up and running with CG, there should be little need for clarifying because you aren’t using anything that needs serious surfactants to remove them. Hard water or medication build-up, however, might be an issue for you, in which case, clarifying might be in order.

What about clarifying conditioners? They're a great choice for those who want a mild cleansing -- but you can get the very same thing by mixing your shampoo with your conditioner. Why pay for another product?

The much-maligned silicone

The boards at NaturallyCurly are abuzz with talk of texture, porosity, density, and elasticity. Tiffany is handling those topics beautifully, and Pittsburgh Curly and others are providing their own takes and impressions, all of which are useful and thought-provoking as always.

So, I thought I'd write about something else.

And that something else is silicones. Don't gasp. Like Jessica Rabbit, they are not evil. They are just misunderstood.

Silicones are synthetic polymers also known as polyorganosiloxanes (that's why we CGers look for ingredients ending in "cone" as well as "xane" when we read labels). The very properties that make them undesirable for those of us who follow the Curly Girl philosophy are the same properties that give them their usefulness.

Look what silicones do:

- They are heat-resistant and can protect hair from heat styling temperatures as high as 400 degrees (yes, that's Fahrenheit).
- They form a waterproof (hydrophobic) seal around hair, which is great for locking moisture in.
- They offer some resistance to sunlight, another terrific protection.
- They are flexible so all this protection doesn't come with immobility.
- Because of the seal they form, the hair looks shinier
- Supposedly, they help to eliminate frizz. I never found this to be true, but plenty of people have experienced this performance from hair products containing silicone, so to each her own.
- They help to detangle hair because of the afore-mentioned smoothing properties.

Better living through chemistry, right? Almost. Silicone molecules are too large for the hair shaft to absorb, so they sit on hair retaining moisture and keeping the sun rays at bay. At the end of the day, you have to decide whether you want your hair to breathe. If you're okay with sealing moisture in and preventing new moisture from feeding your hair, use silicones. Just know that silicones build up because they do their sealing job so well, and in most cases the solvent for removing them is sulfate (sodium lauryl sulfate and its cousins, which I will talk about in an upcoming post). Sulfates strip the hair of natural oils so when you use them to remove the silicones, you are treating your hair to some fairly harsh detergent. Only you can decide what's best for your own head. As long as you know the risks, you're a grown-up who can make her own decisions.

All silicones are not created equal, however. As this excellent post by Girl with Curl points out, science is a beautiful thing and has given us gradations of silicones. Some coat the hair quite thoroughly while others only leave a thin layer of protection on your hair. It's also worth noting that some silicones, such as cyclomethicone, evaporate fairly quickly, so if you're hoping for all-day effectiveness with that one, you might be disappointed.

Most silicones need some kind of shampoo to thoroughly remove them. The good news, though, is that only the heavy silicones require sulfate shampoos to accomplish that, and for some people, a good co-wash is all they really need. Girl with Curl addresses this in her post, and also, there is an excellent article by Curl Chemist at NaturallyCurly.com.

What about silicone on your skin?

When silicones first came out and started appearing in skin care products and foundation (especially primers), I was very dubious. It seemed to me that coating my skin in something designed to keep air out (or depending on the advertising spin, locking moisture in) couldn't possibly be healthy. And there are people who hold that point of view today (The Health Report -- about which I know nothing -- lists them as questionable). In the book What's in This Stuff? author Patricia Thomas says the following:

On the whole, silicones allow skin to breathe better than mineral oils, but question marks still hang over their long-term safety. While they increase the feel-good factor of a product, they are poorly absorbed by the skin, which raises some doubt as to how well the ingredients suspended in them will be absorbed.

And when I read now that silicone-based anti-aging creams are sought after because the silica (the basis of silicone) helps to fill in fine lines, I have to wonder whether that's healthy for skin. Maybe silicone in skin products is benign -- I just don't know enough science to say for sure. But it sounds kinda icky, doesn't it?

Paula Begoun is a fan, and certainly the industry in general has jumped on the silicone bandwagon. Silicone seems to get praise for its water-binding properties and non-greasy feel. Some forms also reflect light, making us look oh-so-beautiful. Cosmetics companies all claim that skin-care products containing silicone deliver protection yet allow skin to breathe. Which, when you think about it, seems contradictory.

So, in a nutshell, I have no answers. All I can say is that the jury is out on silicones for skin. But they sure are hard to avoid...






Sources used in this article:
MHRA
E-articles
Beauty Brains
Dow Corning

Water-soluble silicones

Although silicones with PEG in front of them are supposed to be water-soluble, I have not really trusted this promise because my experience with DevaCurl OneCondition seemed to leave me with some buildup. So, I've been avoiding all 'cones, including the ones with PEG before them.

But today, someone posted at naturallycurly.com that there is a difference in solubility among the PEG 'cones. Here is what the poster (who claims to have majored in chemistry in college) said:

As far as pegylated dimethicone - yes, some of them are water soluble. Anything with less than 4 is not at all. Anything 4-6 is very slightly water soluble. Anything 6-8 is moderately water soluble. 8-10 have good (but not great) solubility in water. 10+ are completely water soluble. the "PEG" part is polyethylene glycol - a very water-soluble side chain. The longer the side chain, the more willing these 'cones are to "work" with water. It's my understanding that things with fewer than 10 are prone to buildup without sulfates.

So, this gives me a little more confidence to at least look for higher numbers when considering a product with a PEG 'cone. Good info!