Olaplex explained

http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=15661.msg168222#msg168222

oh! wow! thank you soooo much Wicked Pixie the first time i saw that quote was in the longhaircommunity forum. I didn't know it was originally from katiesiepierski

Thanks a lot!

I am now looking for information about cysteic acid... it we could find a way to stop cysteine to become cysteic would be a huuuuge step in improving our hair condition.

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An interesting study on hair damage:

http://beauty-review.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/A-study-of-damaged-hair.pdf

Yes, it was me who posted it on LHC lol. Many of us are members of more than one forum.

Email update: So I still haven't got an email back from star qualities about hairdressing students in the UK being able to get hold of olaplex. I emailed them on the 28th and it's been a while now, so I just emailed them again. I'll post when (or if!) I get a response.

Update: oh weird, I guess my email didn't go through last time. I literally just got an automatic reply now saying they're experiencing a high volume of emails at present but they'll get back to my enquirey as soon as possible.

It's possible they only just set up the auto response BECAUSE they're getting a high volume of emails.

There's always going to be broken disulfide bonds in the hair, there's millions of disulfide bonds in our hair. Like I mentioned, damage happens in two steps -first the disulfide bond breaks, then later in time, it pairs with 3 oxygen molecules, creating SO3, which creates cystic acid, which eats away at the protein in the hair. Olaplex intervenes to prevent that 2nd part from happening. If you don't have many broken disulfide bonds, it'll repair them, but you're not going to see a super dramatic change because you didn't have much broken bonds to begin with. Likewise, if your broken disulfide bonds have already negatively arranged, Olaplex can't help those specific bonds. Just because your disulfide bonds have already negatively arranged doesn't mean that your hair is fried. It's the Amount of broken disulfide bonds you had that will determine that.

Like with Wicked pixie, her hair is very long, what broken disulfide bonds she had over the years have already negatively arranged, but she takes fabulous care of her hair, so it's not likely she has many broken disulfide bonds on her "younger" hair, which is why she's not seeing a difference really. If she took care of her hair like the average person - heat styling, sulfates all the time, silicones, hairspray, back combing, heat styling, etc, she would have more recent accumulated broken disulfide bonds, and she'd see a huge difference, getting her to the state her hair is in now, which is it's highest state of health possible. Olaplex cannot fix damage that has become permanent  (negatively arranged), it will repair any disulfide bonds that are currently broken though. The important thing to remember is that the level of difference you'll see all depends on how many broken disulfide bonds you have. If you take good care of your hair and don't have many broken disulfide bonds, you're not going to see a dramatic difference. If you abuse your hair more daily, you have more broken disulfide bonds, you're going to see a bigger difference. If your damage is very old, like say you overprocesssed it years ago and that's grown out to your ends, it's likely those broken disulfide bonds have already negatively arranged and have eaten the protein from that specific area.

I really hope I don't sound confusing, I'm just trying to explain why most people see a dramatic change, but some don't. It all depends on how many broken disulfide bonds you have, that amount directly reflects the results you'll see from Olaplex. If your bonds have already arranged negatively, olaplex cannot fix that. or if you have a low % of broken disulfide bonds compared to unbroken, you won't see a huge difference. If you have a higher % of broken disulfide bonds that haven't negatively arranged, you're going to see a bigger difference. The older the damage, the less likely those bonds are still freely broken, they're likely already negatively arranged. The better care you take of your hair, the less broken disulfide bonds you're going to have.

There's always going to be some broken disulfide bonds no matter how well you take care of your hair. The % of broken bonds you'll have depends directly on the daily stresses you inflict upon your hair.

And Olaplex cannot alter our pre determined texture of our hair. Greys can often be wiry, frizz out, feel coarse, some hair is naturally porous, some hair isn't, which goes into other reasons someone may not be seeing a huge change Zenity - there could be mineral deposits, product residue, etc.

I'm not sure if it's available in other countries, but Ion has a Crystal Clarifying Treatment for mineral deposits, it's identical to the professional Malibu C Crystal gel treatment, plus a few more ingredients. mineral deposits can make hair very dry, discolored, they can oxidize in the hair just like they would anywhere else on earth. The air can oxidize them, water, hydrogen peroxide, etc. These deposits can hinder Olaplex, oils, conditioners, etc from penetrating. So can residue from products like silicones, artificial copolymers, waxes, heavy surface coating oils, etc. So it is always a possibility someone could have mineral deposits, and if you're aware of the ingredients in the products you're using you'll know if it's possible product buildup or not.

To anyone ever experiencing less noticeable results, always consider what the actual health of your hair is- the amount of broken disulfide bonds you likely have which is dependent upon the stresses you put your hair through daily, and to consider the age of the hair and it's damage. Troubleshooting wise, I always recommend doing a chelating treatment, and clarifying,  And be sure you're applying Olaplex liberally to completely clean, product free hair. If you don't see a big change still, it's either because your bonds have already negatively arranged, or you don't have many broken disulfide bonds to begin with, or both.

Awesome explanation!!!!  :oo

Other than you, I have found nothing online or from the olaplex info itself explaining how it works in such detail.

Thank you soooo much!!!!

Actually my hair feels and looks much better since starting this trip. I have to say that other than coloring my roots no extra damage has been done to my long hair over the last years. No mor than the actual sun from the beach. No heat, bleach, wearing it in updos and protective styles, yet neglecting it a lot.
I have done 4 olaplex treatments so far plus one keratin treatment and I do use CO and intense moisturizing deep treatments. Also i chopped a big chunk of my ends that i believe were damaged to no reversal stage i am afraid...The texture on my hair has improved a lot, it feels and looks better, also it has some "weight" on my greys that was inexistent before.

I think in my case olaplex can help with my greys in the new growth, to prevent further damage noticing how fragile they are.
Will keep experimenting to adjust the formula that works better for me.

Also I have started wearing a tucked in french braid as a protective hair style and I really love how it holds my hair in place without adding any tension from pulling (as a regular bun does) and keeps the more damaged layer of my hair (the top one) wrapped under the healthiest and much better looking side layers if my hair.

I guess I will have to wait few months to see "real" results in my new growth.

Thanks again for your valuable input.

I just did an Olaplex standalone treatment, I took the risk of buying online (Amazon) but it all looks genuine. I needed to mix up 1.5 times the amount for the treatment because my hair is very thick and long, this means the No. 1 bottle would last only 5 applications used in this way.

It worked better than I expected. I expected stronger, less stretchy when wet hair, similar to what a good protein treatment does, but it has done much more than that. I have a couple of kinks in my otherwise straight hair which are gone, it is straighter and smoother. It's shinier than I've ever seen it while bleached. It has the same stronger-when-wet feel of post-protein treatment hair but it doesn't have the hard crunch of proteined hair, it kept its flexibility.

I bleach my roots once a month, overlapping the roots from the last month so all of my hair has been bleached twice. I use a peroxide toner directly after bleaching (not recommended on this forum, and certainly not if your hair can't handle it). It's a paste bleach which helps to preserve the hair condition, but because my hair is so coarse I'm doing 20vol for a full hour. My hair is waist length and usually quite soft and well-moisturised despite the bleaching.

I'm really looking forward to using it in bleach. As we all know, bleach damage is long-term and after several months of switching from powder bleach to paste bleach, I could see and feel that the paste bleached hair was less damaged and susceptible to breakage. I'm hoping for another improvement in Olaplex bleached hair.

I didn't use cones myself this time, but I have read that what Olaplex can't do is replace the natural fatty acids sitting on top of virgin hair. This is why conditioners are still required and actually, silicones are ideal for this function.

I'm actually quite puzzled that it doesn't work for some people, especially since I just got such a good result.

I think I have an idea why some people aren't getting much of a result.

When I was doing overnight coconut oil treatments and SMT (Snowymoon's Moisture Treatment) at least once a week and Joico Reconstructor once a month, my bleached hair felt fine. Pretty much the same as it is now after I've used Olaplex. I got lazy though and it became more like once every 5 weeks for coconut oil, I didn't re-buy the Joico Reconstructor when I ran out, used lots of silicone detanglers so it got weaker over time, but still not to the point where it felt bad. This is the point where I introduced Olaplex.

The majority of the members on this forum take really good care of their hair. I think that if you look after your hair really well like JanineB and WickedPixie do, you might not notice much of a difference, even after you clarified the hair as they aren't only doing surface treatments. The hair bonds should be stronger though, which means it's less work to maintain the condition over time, but I think that they don't need it since they do a lot already. If this is the case with your hair, then Olaplex as a treatment is probably not worth the price as it's a lot more expensive than coconut oil, aloe vera and honey.

So if you're following all the guidelines like not bleaching more than once a month, using coconut oil before bleaching, keeping on top of regular hair treatments, not doing multiple processes in a row without giving your hair time to repair, then you probably don't need Olaplex! You honestly won't be able to feel the difference. I think it's still valuable as a bleach additive though even on perfect hair.

Yeah, my hair isn't as good as you might think! I do a lot of things I shouldn't. I use straighteners to curl fairly often, even though it ravages the ends of my hair in particular. Also, I've been losing weight for year and half (well, was, not been doing so well at that recently) so my hair is a lot weaker than it was.

My tip for Olaplex for frequent bleachers is to get a big bottle of the No. 1. You can use 3.75ml in 30ml of conditioner as a substitute for No. 2 or No. 3. It goes much further this way, and you only need to buy one of the products. You could just use the No. 1 diluted in water instead of conditioner, but conditioner is easier to spread on wet hair.

This is a great explanation.
I stock Olaplex at the salon I can quite honestly say I have never used anything so good and true to its claims. I would never not use it with my colours, especially lightening, and I love it as a stand alone treatment.

I've been able to easily bleach brown (virgin) hair to white in 4 hours with absolutely no damage what all.

With Olaplex mixed in with the formula, ill look at the hair with bleach on and feel it, it stays strong and feels ropey like (instead of that strechy candy floss feel hair has normally when bleaching) then afterwards the hair is really easy to run your fingers through, and it's super soft, when you look closely each individual hair is thicker.

In my hairdressing career I've never come across anything as good and is my absolute favourite product of all time.

Although I will say, if the hair is already severely damaged by bleach I would still avoid bleaching anymore, it will help fix the bonds but it doesn't restore the moisture and if used incorrectly (wrong measurements, as they have to have the exact measurement) it won't be as effective. And the bleaching can still damage.

So if my clients hair is nackered I'll refuse to bleach it, and treat it instead with a stand alone a few times until it's in good enough condition the lighten.

Anyway here's a photo of my brown to white with using Olaplex. Notice the shine 😊

Amazing stuff! Be careful where you buy it online as its very very expensive and I've heard some sites water it down/false product.

Before and after

After photo

I know this is an old post, and I just posted the same question on the intro page, but this seemed the most logical place to ask my question, so here it is again!

I have been using Olaplex for some time now on my own hair and I love it, but I am totally out of No. 2 and 3 and I have a TON of No. 1. Since it's the same active ingredient, could I simply dilute No. 1 in conditioner or water and use it in place of No. 2 after I rinse my color?

For the record, I've ordered more No. 2, but really want to color my hair prior to a trip and won't have it in time.

Thanks for any advice!