Let’s have a hair chat about two treatments that are changing the game for hair repair and protection.
Olaplex is a professional treatment designed to strengthen hair damaged by excessive bleach, perms, relaxers, and/or heat styling. It restores compromised hair by protecting and repairing broken bonds, leaving the hair in good, healthy condition again. It is a three-step process. The first two steps require professional application and the third step requires at-home maintenance. For natural hair divas, the following excerpts, originally published by Refinery 29, describe why some consider the treatment a “godsend.”
“Can you use Olaplex on natural hair” has nearly nine million page returns on Google — and for good reason. We know that the three-step system “glues” bonds together that have been damaged from processing and heat damage by “finding single sulfur hydrogen bonds and cross-linking them back together to form disulfide bonds,” Vanessa Boland, Olaplex’s Education Manager, says. It’s considered a godsend for some of Hollywood’s top stylists and colorists because of its ability to make hair stronger during a color treatment, but is it good for natural hair?
“It’s like a guardian angel [because] natural hair is usually dry, Jaxcee, a colorist at Hair Rules salon, says. “Lightening dry hair can be tricky because like a sponge, it soaks up any kind of moisture. If you use a high volume developer on your natural hair, it runs the risk of being over processed at a faster rate than hair that is less dry.” She says that for natural hair, Olaplex is like an “insurance policy against over processing damage.”
But Jaxcee says she uses it to prevent and heal more than just color damage. With the help of a bond builder (called bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, in case you were curious), it can even restore the hair’s natural curl after too much blow drying, flat ironing, or curling, as it helps rebuild the bonds in your hair that have been temporarily flattened.
Photographed by Rochelle Brock
Of the three-step system, No. 1 and No. 2 are done in-salon, as they’re both chemical treatments. No. 1 repairs the disulfide bonds that are separated as a result of chemical treatments or heat styling, Olaplex ambassador Chad Kenyon says. No. 2 completes the coloring process, once the dye has been applied. No. 3, on the other hand, you take home. It conditions and moisturizes, but is not to replace your regular conditioning treatments.
At Karline’s Salon, Formula 18 is our preferred bond repair-protection system.
Unlike other “bond building” products, which require multiple steps and include polymer-based resins, Formula 18’s one-step treatment uses specific plant based ingredients (tamarind extract, pea peptide, resurrection plant) for their genetic characteristics and amino acid structures. By combining these ingredients in a specific ratio, Formula 18 is a remarkable Plant Based Reinforcement product that works with virtually every chemical service and is excellent for grey and resistant grey coverage.
For more information, #AskKarlinesSalon about the Formula 18 treatment at your next appointment.
