Vitapointe Leave-In Conditioner (silicone-free)

I've seen this before in boots, didn't really grab my attention at the time.  I'm intrigued, don't you use it on dry hair?

Yes, on dry hair,  and it smooths so nicely, almost like an oil would, but it's creamier... it feels like a real treat! And not too expensive either.

There is liquid parrafin and other mineral oil in it, and to me it's worse than cones, as it smoth the hair a lot because it don't let any air or hydrogen penetrated. So it does not help at all, it just hide the problem, much more than cones do. And it's worst after (as mineral oil dry up the inside of the hair very VERY much).

I would not advise you to use this kind of products :/

Interesting, thank you for that insight.

It never did seem to restore hair to a healthier condition with repeated usage, but it did smooth over fly-aways and made my hair feel better when it was extremely dry and unhealthy.  Now that you mention, it never did seem to penetrate the hair and do any real true conditioning like a reconstructor as such.

But I did not know this about paraffin or mineral oils.  If you don't mind my asking, which of the ingredient(s) is/are considered to be the mineral oils?

I really would like to learn more about what these ingredients do to hair and how they actually try it up from the inside... sounds bad.

Perhaps this product now deserves a thumbs-down! 🙂

Paraffinum Liquidum is actually just a fancy name for Mineral Oil.

Paraffinum Liquidum is a kind of mineral oil, as it exist many others.

I use it for 2 years when I was in biology studies, ans it was use to "close" test tube or to asphyxiate bacterium, so you can imagine the suffocate power it have.

It's very common in skin and hair product because they are very cheap and give a fast and impressive feeling of silkyness and softyness. But they are not hydrating at all and as they suffocate everything, they causes dryness, acnea, dandruff...

Moreover, here in France, there are more and more restrictions about them because some studies prove they can cause cancer as they are made of petrolaneum, so it's pretty toxic.

I don't have any article right now to be more aware of it, but I will seek for you if you want 😉

Edit : I also notice that Parfum are very close to the beginning of the ingredient, so that's not super well for your hair and scalp. There's almost no true natural products, even the beewax is synthetic :/

Mineral oil isn't good for moisturising as such but it's good at locking moisture in, so if you were to put it over already moisturised hair I'm guessing it would prevent moisture loss.

This is probably the theory behind putting baby oil on wet skin as well.

I've used Vitapointe before, my mum bought it me when I totally destroyed my hair 4 years ago and it did seem to improve it.

Good way to describe it - that seems like it's exactly what it does. 🙂  I think my mother originally found it for me as well come to think of it!

Makes me wonder if products like these, and I'll include silicones as well, temporarily improve the hair condition not by literally reconstructing or helping the damage but by making the hair less tangly and knotty, so it's easier to brush through and stays 'temporarily stronger', especially when wet and vulnerable to stretching.

Of course this doesn't apply with silicones coating hair that is going to be bleached at some point... but even a temporary fix might help prevent temporary damage from working with wet hair or brushing through tangles.

Just saying...

I do honestly think silicones have their place in hair care.  As you stated, they do coat the hair and help at least mitigate any additional mechanical damage from brushing/combing damaged hair that would be made worse without them.  The trick is removing them on occasion so that they don't build up.

The reason to avoid them completely is if you're not using any kind of shampoo containing sulphates to break them down and remove them once in a while... or if you're relying on how your hair feels whilst using silicones to determine hair health.  If you know you need to clarify and air dry to know the true health of your hair, and that you should be clarifying once in a while to remove buildup, then I say there's no real reason to avoid silicones.

I think Scott Cornwell had something to say about this just a bit ago on here somewhere, too.

I'm starting to see it the same way, definitely.

I think Scott Cornwell had something to say about this just a bit ago on here somewhere, too.

Yep, here.

EDIT 07/12/13 TO ADD:

This Vitapointe probably helps protect hair from weather elements as well.  We're going for an outdoor walk today, and I'm going to give it a little try before going out in this dry, wintery air!