What Are Bond-Building Hair Treatments?

What is a bond-building hair treatment? It’s a hair care product designed to nourish and repair your hair. You can use it when your hair is dry and weak, especially when it’s the result of coloring or bleaching. Using a bond repair treatment has many benefits, from preventing breakage to adding shine, so we strongly recommend it. Want to learn more? Then read on!

What Is a Hair Bond-Repair Treatment?

Bond-building hair treatments are hair care products containing ingredients that help strengthen and repair broken bonds within the hair. They are used to undo the effects of extensive coloring, bleaching, or heat styling. Typically, such treatments contain:

• Proteins

• Amino acids

• Peptides

Unlike other hair care treatments, bond-building treatments are meant to be applied to hair that is damaged or compromised, rather than just "dry" which a conditioning treatment can address. This is because, as the name suggests, they are formulated to repair the three different bonds that naturally occur in hair: 

• Disulphide (Covalent): the strongest bonds and contribute to the pattern or shape of the hair; these bonds support your hair’s overall strength and elasticity  

• Hydrogen bonds: these hair bonds are also responsible for your hair’s elasticity and resistance to heat and weather

• Salt bonds: the weakest bonds in your hair and easiest to be damaged, which can be affected by pH imbalances

Interestingly enough, in the past, bond-building hair treatments were reserved for hair salons and Hair Color Bars. Thankfully, nowadays, you can get them in a bottle for at-home use.

Types of Bond-Repair Treatment Products for Your Hair

The range of bond-building treatments is quite wide since you can get them in numerous forms. For instance, you can have a: 

• Bond-building shampoo

• Bond-repair conditioner

• Bond-building leave-in treatment

• Bond-building in-salon service

What Are the Benefits of Using a Bond-Building Hair Treatment?

Let’s chat about the positive effects that a bond-repair treatment has on your hair. These include:

• Stronger hair: by strengthening the bonds in your hair, a bond-building treatment makes it stronger overall and less likely to break

• Shine: such a treatment also adds extra shine to your hair, making it appear healthier-looking from roots to ends

• Improved hair texture: you’ll also see reduced frizz and improved smoothness of your hair, which will become softer and easier to style

• Long-lasting effects: a bond-repair treatment will penetrate deeper into the hair than your standard conditioning treatments, so you’ll notice more long-term benefits

Now you know what hair repair treatments are and their respective benefits, so the final question is: do you need one yourself? Here’s a short list of situations in which you might want to start using them: 

• You color your hair

• You bleach your hair

• You heat style your hair (blowdry, curl, flat iron)

• You notice split ends or breakage in your hair brush

How to Use Bond-Repair Treatments

Using bond-building treatments and choosing which one is right for your hair requires some knowledge – so, what should you look for? We’ve got a few tips for you! 

Choosing the Right Product

Each bond-building treatment is different both in terms of technologies and ingredients. Additionally, some treatments are designed to be used every day while some are to be used periodically. Choose the one that suits your needs and regimen. 

Daily Bond-Repair Treatments

This may include bond-building shampoos and conditioners or bond-building leave-in treatments. These are designed to be used every day (or every time you wash your hair). The formula is developed in such a way that you will not "overdo it" with the active ingredients. These are great if your hair needs everyday shine, smoothing, and strengthening – especially if you heat style regularly.

Periodic Treatments

There are bond-building treatments you can use either at home or in a salon that are designed to be applied intermittently rather than every day. They may even be used during or directly after a color service. These types of treatments are developed to be applied less frequently due to the formulation of the ingredients and are not needed every day. This is a great option if you are already happy with your daily hair care products and only need periodic treatments.

The Takeaway

A bond-repair treatment is the go-to hair care product to use if you love coloring and/or heat styling your hair. It helps to keep your hair strong and reduce the damage caused by heat, hair dyes, bleach, or even brushing. Remember to tailor the treatment to your hair’s condition and consider consulting our Color Crew or a Hair Color Bar if you have any questions. After all, you want to do whatever it takes to make your hair look gorgeous!

You may also read: Should You Wash Your Hair Before Coloring It?