Q&A

I had a young lady write in with a great question...

Q: Do you still try to avoid products that contain bad ingredients like..
Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Mineral oil, Petroleum, lanolin and dimethicone.? There are times I want to try different products and I see these ingredients in them, so I guess my question is if it has 1 or 2 of these ingredients in any of the products I want to try is it ok or should I just avoid them all together?

A: The alcohols are fine... Those 2 at least. There's an article link I'll post to FB with info on those alcohols. Basically try are fatty alcohols which assist in moisture. I *think* some people avoid them but I’ve never noticed any problems using them. Anything that ends in "cone" I try to avoid. That's why I want to try lighter serums, which can also be used to seal in moisture, I think of cones as waxy particles that coat the hair, making it smooth and shiny. The downside is that it's kind of hard to re-penetrate the hair shaft as to moisturize the hair. So I suggest using light serums like Paul Mitchell’s skinny serum, or biosilk. When I do use them it's usually the first day I flatiron my hair for added shine and to lay down any flyaway’s, and it's only a dime sized amount. As far as mineral oil and petrolatum I personally stay away from products that have them, the same goes for cones if it's more than 1, 2 at the most. The way it was described to me... first of all when I think of mineral oil I think of the thick jelly stuff that's sold in the pharmacy, I dint know if that's the dame thing they use in products, may be worth looking into, when lotions have mineral oil in them, it's usually to coat (literally) your skin with this greasy substance as to make it feel slick and "moisturized". It usually takes a tougher detergent to get clean of all the residue that's left behind. Now imagine it on your hair and scalp. We want to keep or hair and scalp free to BREATH. In my opinion once you put heavy ingredients such as this on your head, nothing else is going to seep through that, it's just going to sit on top of it, especially if your moisturizer is water based as it should be. Oil and water don't mix right? That's why you should use a light oil on your hair after moisturizing. Some people do use hair grease to seal in their moisturizer. Some people have hair that is too fine to stand up against the buildup that mineral oil produces. Not to mention all the debris it attracts which dry my hair out and make it stringy and gross. Ok enough bashing. I refer to mineral oil and petrolatum as fillers, that are cheap and have no reason to be in my hair. There are much better more effective ingredients that can be used. Like Shea butter or olive oil, coconut oil And I'll leave it at that. Lol.