L'Oreal Pro Fiber analysis and review

I've been using L'Oreal Pro Fiber for a couple of months now. I have thick waist length bleached hair and at this length it was getting tangly and taking me more than 5 minutes a day to brush out with a tangle teezer. After using the salon version of the treatment I found that it smooths the hair and now I can brush it out with 5-6 strokes. The hair feels really nice I like running my fingers through it 🙂 I don't think there is a need to use the whole system as they recommend though.

Pro Fiber is sold as a system with a salon treatment that starts with the branded shampoo and conditioner, followed by application of a concentrate selected from a range of three depending on your hair type. The concentrate is layered onto towel-dried hair with the Renew Masque and left in for 5 minutes, then it is washed out and the leave-in serum is applied before styling.

The take-home part consists of the same shampoo, conditioner, and serum with a top-up Recharge treatment to be used every 4 washes to prolong the effect of the salon treatment. This Recharge treatment appears to have all the same ingredients as the Renew Masque used in the salon treatment, so the only part missing from the home treatment is the concentrate.

The concentrate comes in 3 levels depending on how damaged your hair is: Revive (red - level 1), Restore (blue - level 2) or Reconstruct (purple - level 3). The shampoo, conditioner and serum also have the three levels. Each one also has a different fragrance and the smell is extremely strong and long-lasting, so if you don't like it you're a bit stuck. I think it also makes the treatment heavy.

Renew Masque ingredients

Restore concentrate ingredients

The ingredient list for the Recharge home booster treatment (shown in the LHC link) and the salon Renew Masque are very close, so I expect that they can be substituted. Ingredient lists don't show amounts, so it could be that the salon version is more concentrated. Note that there are the only two items in the range that actually contain the active ingredient.

The active ingredient - aminopropyl triethoxysilane

There are only two products in the line that actually contain the active ingredient, aminopropyl triethoxysilane, called APTYL100 for this line. This ingredient is found under several names in L'Oreal products and it is what they call a "sol gel" compound and it has the ability to bind a liquid into a solid gel giving strength to hair that is overly soft and weak from processing. It is said to be "inspired by wrinkle fillers for the skin". There is a video linked in the LHC post below showing how it can make hair completely stiff and stand up on its own when used in an extremely concentrated form in the lab. It appears to enter the hair fiber and thicken it by binding it with liquid though it is a temporary effect that will wash out. This is why there is the top-up treatment, I suppose.

Here is a link on LHC from someone who has looked into it also listing other L'Oreal products that contain this ingredient. The post also has the ingredients list for several of the products in the line. It appears that the booster and masque are silicon-free. There is also a link to The Beauty Brains with an article on whether the ingredient can really thicken hair.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=134974&p=3214389&viewfull=1#post3214389

What I tested on my hair was the Reconstruct concentrate with the Renew Masque. I used my usual shampoo and conditioner, as looking at the ingredients for those it's your standard silicone and SLS-containing products. I already use a leave-in, Redken extreme anti-snap so I stuck with that. The first couple of times I went through the faff of layering the concentrate and masque in a 1:1.5 ratio on the midlengths and ends of the hair as instructed. It is heavy! Even though it's a rinse-out product I found it weighed down my hair so you really do have to restrict it to midlengths and ends. I don't think the concentrate is really worth the effort or the price and it seems to act like a hair perfume more than anything. What I do now is use a teaspoon of the Renew Masque once a week as a hair mask. It's lighter this way too, but I do use it for practically every wash as I find the effect is over 50% lost after one shampoo. Perhaps it doesn't last as long when the Renew Masque is used on its own. I like how it feels so I prefer to use it every wash to keep the effect topped up. I do see it as simply a cosmetic treatment, since it washes out and there is no long term benefit however I do think it prevents brushing and friction damage in my case.

Maybe if you used all the products the effect would last longer, but I don't think it's worth the cost. I would suggest using just the Renew Masque to replace your existing hair mask. The concentrate doesn't seem worth it at all as I said it seems like it acts mostly as a perfume. Also since it's temporary, if you can only get one then I think Olaplex is more important for bleached hair.