If all the bond-repair products leave you scratching your head (lame pun, I am aware): Through the wonders of Chemistry, plus a generous dose of DIY graphics and animations, I have you covered.
If you're a hard-core chemistry fan, don't scrutinize my ball-and-stick models, etc. too closely. I took some artistic license to make up for my lack of artistic talent and short attention span.
Bond-repair products can be real game-changers for damaged hair. But I think it's easier to make dispassionate assessments (not get sucked in by labels and advertising) of products if you have an understanding of what is happening, and where it is happening.
Hi Wendy, I'm a guy with short (5 - 7 cm) wavy hair and I frequently straighten my hair with a flat iron at 180°C (356°F), having previously used a heat protectant spray. Over time my hair started to look damaged, so I decided to use a bond repair treatment.
ReplyDeleteEverybody seemed to talk wonders about Olaplex and, to my surprise it did nothing to my hair. However, I tried the L'Oreal Bond repair products with citric acid and I was surprised because a cheaper product gave better results than Olaplex (not that I'm not aware that cheap haircare products can be as good, it's just it surprised me).
I think it's because heat styling works by breaking the temporary hydrogen bonds with heat, pulling the hair in the desired shape and letting new temporary bonds to form to hold the shape. And citric acid works by making more of these bonds including ionic bonds because it has both hydrogen and ionic bonding sites.
Bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, the active in Olaplex, is claimed to reconnect the disulfide bonds.
So my theory is that I didn't notice that much of a difference because heat styling damages different bonds that other straightening methods such as thio based treatments. So Olaplex couldn't fix them because they weren't damaged in the first place.
Does that make any sense?
And if you could recommend other aftercare treatments for frequently heat styled hair, I'd be grateful.
Also, do you think a perm or a keratin blowout would benefit me? I'm worried about doing a perm and once my hair grows a bit the non-treated part will be wavy and look weird, and everywhere I check it says these treatments should be done every 3 months minimum. But I don't know if that 3 months period is better suited for the longer lenghts women usually have and if I can get away with doing it more frequently due to my shorter hair length.
Thanks in advance. And keep up the good work!
Hi Sam - Olaplex isn't for everybody. The formula and your expectations matter as much as any single active ingredient. I'm going to shift gears from focusing on bonds to formulation. ---- What you'll get from the L'Oreal bond repair line is product that works very well in (or despite) hard water. It emphasizes delivering slipperiness in both wet and dry hair. It adds hydration, protects against heat-damage. There is a greater emphasis on a smooth-slippery end-feel than Olaplex. Perfect for straightening hair. ---- Olaplex probably does not repair disulfide bonds (I have a post about some lab testing that was done with Olaplex and another product). It's a rather different formula than L'Oreal. It's less slippery. Its bond-repair active ingredient is not necessarily hydrating like the Glycerin is in L'Oreal. In the "bond-repair" department, it's all going to be about which product seems to work well for your hair, in your climate and water, etc. A product that uses hydrating and organic-acid bond repair ingredients in a slippery base worked well for you. That's good information to have - a "natural experiment" (meaning you tried Olaplex and L'Oreal, you got a result, now you're filling in the "why"). --------------- A Brazilian blowout or keratin straightener will smooth your hair. When absorbed through the skin, those can have some systemic effects. There's a cost-benefit analysis to do there. A perm is often more damaging than a Keratin or Glycolic straightener - so you're still left with a "damage-control" issue, like with heat-styling. If you want to reduce wave (straighten) with a perm, that's a discussion to have with a stylist to see whether they feel confident doing that. Permed hair needs styling too. It's one of those situations where you draw up your lists of "pros" and "cons," Including daily effort, and see what wins. Bond-repair products give people who heat-style (or use chemical processes) a great tool keep hair healthy. Many of the leave-on bond repair products in this list (last one on the page) are also heat-protectants. https://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/hair-bonding-product-list-and-more.html
DeleteAnd this page has a list of heat protectants as well. Sometimes sprays are a little drying if they contain alcohol. Or don't cover as well as a cream or conditioner. https://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-hot-is-too-hot-for-healthy-hair.html
Exactly, I couldn't have described it any better. My hair feels more slippery and I love it. Everybody seems to complain a lot due to residue or the hair weighting down when using conditioners with silicones. And I feel kinda alienated in this regard because conditioners hardly make my hair feel nicer. And the ones that do won't last long. I have an oily scalp so I have to wash my hair every single day. And because I flat iron and style it, I have to use products like pomade or texturizing powder to hold it. And with those I can't skip a wash day either bacause otherwise my scalp is itchy the following day. I've tried many hair masks and deep conditioners, and I've tried to leave them for 30 minutes, but still no luck. One thing that makes a difference is applying them in the morning instead of at night. But I don't like waking up half an hour earlier just to have that effect. Do you know any conditioner or any other product that would fulfill my needs?
DeleteThe heat protectant spray I use is the tresemme keratin smooth one. In fact, I decided to use it because I saw it in your post :) But I'll try to give creams a try
And when you say keratin treatments can have some effects when absorbed, you're saying so because of formaldehyde, right? I'm a bit worried about that, too. That's why I mentioned as a second option doing a perm. What I want to achieve by doing a perm is to reduce the amount of heat styling and making the styling easier to do. I have a question though, and I'm afraid it's a silly one haha. But if I got a perm, and I used a bond-repair product, wouldn't that be counterintuitive? If I fix the bonds of my permed hair wouldn't that make the duration of the treatment shorter and make me need to do it more frequently and thus damaging it even more?
If you haven't tried a product with protein, you might give that a try. I like the SoapBox "Let's Bond" which is a conditioner/strengthening treatment. BondBar's pre-wash spray does some power-hydration in a quick step (not protein). You might like Garnier Whole Blends Honey Treasures conditioner - the honey is very hydrating. GVP Conditioning Balm is a product that people with lower porosity hair often like for its intense softening without a lot of oils. Because your hair is not very long or color-treated, it probably behaves more like lower-porosity hair, which can be difficult to condition. ----- You can steam in a conditioner - like with a facial steamer (also comes in handy when you catch a cold) to make it more effective and work faster. Sounds improbable, works wonders.
DeleteKeratin treatments - even the ones without Formaldehyde (i.e. with Glyoxylic acid) seem to have the potential to cause problems like kidney damage. Even in healthy young people. Obviously not everybody. But these products are fairly new, and we've only scratched the surface of understanding their systemic effects from topical use. There may be some genetic susceptibility determining who is more at risk of that. As yet, we don't know who or why. ----
Perms do break some disulfide bonds in hair during the first step. The second step applies an oxidant ("neutralizer") to force them to re-form quickly. Once re-formed, they stay that way. But only *some* bonds in hair occur between sulfur groups. Bond-repair products mostly work on those other ionic and hydrogen bonds, so no worries there. That was my initial "huh?" query about Olaplex's claim that it repaired disulfide bonds, but could also be used during perms. They still discuss disulfide bonds on their website, but don't claim to repair them any longer, as far as I'm aware.
Regarding perms, the skill and confidence of the stylist matters a lot. If they do lots of perms, you're probably in good hands. Perms are great when they're not over processed, and when the rod-size is chosen just right.