As the industry embraces the technology that is OLAPLEX, do you really know the difference between your conditioning treatments and the revolutionary new product that your stylist is recommending?
Are they really the same but in a different packaging? Will this small white bottle really change my life?
When I am working in my salon I can see that some clients are reluctant to try yet another product that will 'repair their hair', especially when they already have umpteen bottles that they forget to use already! I wanted to give you the lowdown on why Olaplex really can't be compared to conditioning treatments and why there is room for both of them in your hair care routine.
Ok, here's the technical part!! The hair is made up of three areas, the medulla, the cortex and the cuticle. For this explanation we are interested in the cortex (the main structure) and the cuticle (the outside layer) both of which need to be strong and healthy to have shiny manageable hair.
The cuticle layer is the overlapping part in the outside of this cross section, whereas the cortex is the mosaic area in the centre, the spots on each mosaic shows the poly-peptide chains that the cortex is made up of.
Within the cortex there are three types of bonds, salt bonds, hydrogen bonds and disulphides bonds. The first two are broken down by water and reformed through drying hair, these bonds allow us to blowdry straight hair curly and curly hair straight, they are the reason your stylist can change your hair because they are broken by water, which is why your Blowdry doesn't last in wet weather!!
The disulphides bonds are broken by chemicals, colour and excessive heat, brushing or styling. They are harder to break but harder to fix. In fact until Olaplex came to market we had no way of fixing them once they were over damaged and a fundamental part of my training was to respect the condition of the hair, to not over process, to bleach slowly and never push the hair beyond its limits. I would work cautiously and test everything!! Olaplex is the only product on the market that truly puts these bonds back together, therefore repairing the hair fully, in some cases making the hair stronger then it was naturally!! This repair only happens in the cortex, the inside of the hair.
Conditioning Treatments work mostly in the Cuticle layers. The cuticle has the important job of holding the hair together, there are multiple layers of cuticle depending on the thickness and texture of the hair, coarse hair has more layers then finer hair. Unfortunately the cuticle layers can be fragile, once it starts to become damaged the decline becomes more rapid!! The surface of the cuticle becomes rough which in turn gives the hair a Velcro effect, it all starts to matte together making the hair super knotty, then brushing the knots out can cause further damage!! Brushes that have bent bristles or over hot straighteners all damage the cuticle layer, as well as all the usual suspects like wind, sun, cheap hair products and central heating will dry out the external layer aggrivating the whole process!!
Conditioning treatments moisturise the cuticle layer, plumping it up and preventing it drying out, some treatments are so clever they can seek out the areas that the hair needs help and fixes those areas without weighing down the areas that are better condition!!
In essence, in the Conditioning Treatment V's Olaplex debate, my view is that it is essential to use both especially if you are colouring or styling your hair regularly, Olaplex works on the inside and conditioning treatments work on the outside. For hair that actually is healthy, strong and easy to make look good, a little investment goes a long way!!
I hope this helps you decide the best ways to look after your hair.
Olivia x