If you bleach or colour your hair often and use a lot of hot tools to style it, chances are parts of your hair are now dry, brittle and a little damaged.
Although new hair colour technologies have evolved to minimize damage, and formulations are boosted with advanced nutrients, any process that lightens hair (also known as ‘bleach’) strips the natural pigment in the cuticle and that can lead to dry, damaged strands. Perms and chemical straightening services also break down the links that make hair shiny and strong.
How to repair this type of damage? Bond-building treatments are the way to go. They are offered in salons, and you can indulge in them at home, too, for some serious TLC. Keep scrolling to find out more!
Bond-Building Treatments
Hair’s structure is composed of many chemical bonds that make it strong and elastic. Bond-repairing hair products have been developed to help restore those broken links, by using a similar chemistry as the one found in virgin hair. Disulfide, the strongest of these hair bonds and the most important one, stabilizes the protein chain, which will bring back health and elasticity.
Hydrogen bonds exist to increase the hair’s resistance to external elements such as water and heat, and help the hair retain its texture and shape. Third on the list, salt bonds are fragile and they break when hair is too alkaline or too acidic. Another reason why you should choose hair products that have a balanced pH.
Most bond-building products, such as Olaplex, which is used in the salon or in at-home treatments, are all based on a technology using amino acids, the building blocks of protein, which accounts for up to 91 percent of the hair fibre. Yes, bond-building products are similar to keratin and other protein treatments, but they work on a deeper level, in the hair’s cortex.
Who Should Use Bond Repair Products?
Are you blonde? Can’t live without your balayage? Covering your grays? Check. Check. And check.
Anyone who uses colour regularly should be including a bond hair repair treatment to their beauty routine every few months. Between salon appointments, they can help transform your hair’s health giving it more strength and shine, sometimes after just one use.
In fact, they will help rebuild hair from the core, no matter what texture, colour or chemical treatment history.
Still, like everything else related to hair – the crown you always wear –, every person and type of hair is different. That’s why the best course of action before deciding to use a hair-bonding treatment is to talk to your hairstylist, who will recommend which product is best and how often you should be using it.