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An Easy Guide To Bond Building

Once exclusive to salons and professional hair stylists, bond-building is a concept in hair care that has become more and more popular in recent years. By employing chemistry to address hair damage, these products, which are made to restore tiny chemical links in hair, seek to enhance hair health. Despite its sudden popularity, professionals and consumers alike still don’t understand bond-building well, so doing your own research can help.

What Is “Bond-building”?

Bond-building treatments are important for repairing damaged hair by addressing the underlying cause of broken bonds. These treatments, which penetrate the hair fiber and activate from the inside out to restore the structural integrity of the hair. They give damaged hair strength and shine by aiding in the reconstruction of broken disulfide bonds.

 A woman spreading product through her hair using a wooden comb.
Are bond building treatments the solution to your damaged curls?

What Is The Importance of Bond Building?

The hair care industry has created innovative bond-building treatments to strengthen hair from the inside out. Because these treatments match the chemistry of hair and nourish damaged proteins, they provide benefits that deep conditioning masks and other treatments may not provide.

Benefits of bond building treatments

Improved hair strength

In the cortex, the innermost portion of the hair, bond builders create multiple new hydrogen bonds, and in turn strengthen the hair.

Increased elasticity

By stabilizing the hair’s protein chain, bond builders improve the elasticity and hair, making it less prone to breakage.

Promotes healthy and shiner hair

The base of hair is keratin, a fibrous protein that is bound together by a variety of hair bonds, including hydrogen and disulfide bonds. These bonds, which serve as the “glue” holding each hair strand together, are essential to the strength and look of hair. Bond building treatments can repair damaged bonds and protect them from stressors.

 A girl holding onto her hair strands.
Dull and damaged hair? Time for a treatment!

When should you get a bond building treatment?

It’s critical to recognize when your hair requires a bond-building treatment. Constant signs from your hair, including frizz, dryness, and lackluster color, may point to an urgent need for a bond-building treatment. You can recognize and take care of your hair’s demands by being aware of these signs.

Dry, coarse, and brittle hair

Damaged hair may feel dry because of lack of natural oil and moisture, and may break easily when combed or run through. If you notice dryness, breakage, or brittleness, give your hair a bonding treatment as soon as possible.

Split Ends

A hand holding up damaged strands of hair with split ends.
You may be ignoring the signs that your hair needs a bit more TLC.

Damaged hair frequently has split ends, which result in brittleness and obvious fraying. Weakening of the hair’s outer covering exposes the inner cortex, causing split ends to appear. These split ends are a serious problem for hair care, since they can lead to additional hair breaking.

Frizz

Damaged hair frequently has split ends, which result in brittleness and obvious fraying. They appear at the end of hair when the outer layer of protection of hair deteriorates and the inner cortex becomes seen. These split ends are a serious problem for hair care, since they can lead to additional hair breakage.

How Do Bond Building Treatments Work?

Bond-building treatments are revolutionary treatments that target the hydrogen and disulfide bonds in hair to repair damage and offer preventative defense against further damage.  These treatments increase the strength and resilience of hair by penetrating the hair shaft, fusing damaged bonds back together, and creating new, stronger bonds.

The Types of Bonds In Hair

Hair fibers are made up of covalent, ionic, and hydrogen bonds, which provide strong links between protein chains. These connections also influenced the flexibility, shine, and strength of hair. Each person has different amounts of each type of connection, which influences how the hair behaves.

Ionic Bonds

Ionic bonds, sometimes referred to as salt bonds, are temporary bonds that make up one-third of hair strength. These types of bonds are susceptible to breaking as a result of pH changes brought on by using improper hair care products.

Hydrogen Bonds

The weakest kind of bonds are hydrogen bonds, which are temporary and give hair its elasticity. When exposed to elements like heat and water, they alter the shape of hair, allowing temporary changes like curling or straightening. Hydrogen bonds are the reason for frizz in humid areas.

A man getting his hair permed with a curling iron at a salon.
Exposure to heat can cause some serious damage to your hair

Covalent Bonds

Permanent covalent bonds, such as disulfide bonds, determine hair shape and structure. Since these bonds are the strongest, damaging them can prove to be difficult. Chemical straightening and perms are examples of treatments that break down these bonds and change the shape of hair permanently.

Your Bond Building Routine

Everyone experiences hair damage differently,it’s important to identify the symptoms early on and not wait for them to worsen. Hair is vulnerable to damage from everyday stressors like coloring, heat styling, and other external factors. This emphasizes how crucial it is to follow a bond-building routine in order to strengthen and restore hair bonds.

Although bond-building routines may vary based on the needs of your hair, common practices include the use of bond-building treatments, gentle washing, and protective styling techniques, including deep conditioning masks and avoiding heat styling.

Use a pre-shampoo treatment

Pre-poo treatments can effectively tackle issues like split ends, tangles, and dullness. It locks moisture in and prepares your hair for shampoo and conditioner.

Use a bond repair shampoo

This shampoo gently cleanses and strengthens weak, brittle hair, restoring dull, damaged strands to life.

Choose a deep repair conditioner

Use a deep repair conditioner after shampooing to fortify hair and shield it from bleaching, heat, and color damage. When combined with pre-shampoo and shampoo, this helps repair damaged bonds, making hair stronger, smoother, and easier to detangle.

Our Thoughts

Frizzy, color-treated, and damaged hair all require hair bond repair treatments. These treatments help restore elasticity, structure, and shine.  By repairing damaged bonds, a consistent bond-building routine will help you regain your hair’s strength and elasticity while remaining comfortable in your own home.

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