How To Strengthen & Repair Hair Bonds

Hair bonds are what makes up your hair’s structure and texture. They also determine the strength of your hair so it’s important to look after them properly and treat them for any damage if necessary.

What Are Hair Bonds?

Hair is made of keratin and there are three different types of hair bonds that form and hold this structure together.

• Disulfide Bonds: These are permanent hair bonds that are also responsible for your hair type. The amount of disulfide bonds within the hair determines how curly the hair is - the more bonds the curlier the hair. Disulfide bonds are largely responsible for how strong our hair is and how prone it is to damage. Disulfide bonds themselves can be damaged by bleach and chemical treatments.

• Salt Bonds: These bonds are created between the positive end of one amino acid chain and the negative end of another. They are responsible for approximately one third of the hair’s strength. These salt hair bonds can be damaged by sudden pH imbalances which can be caused by something as simple as using hair products that are unsuitable for your hair type.

• Hydrogen Bonds: Unlike disulfide bonds, hydrogen bonds are temporary and can be ‘reset’ by water. The water breaks older hydrogen bonds and forms new ones. These hair bonds are also responsible for your hair’s elasticity allowing for our hair to change shape like when using heated styling tools. Hydrogen bonds are one of the primary reason causes of frizzy hair and can be damaged by both moisture overload and heat.

All of these hair bonds help your curly hair stay strong and manageable so it’s important to look after them. But if they do become damaged there are ways to repair them!

How Hair Bonds Become Damaged & Broken

Many things in our day to day lives can cause hair bonds to break.

• Disulfide bonds can be damaged by coloring your hair, swimming in chlorinated water, and using chemical treatments like bleach or relaxants.
• Hydrogen bonds are broken by water entering the hair, whether it’s from your wash routine, or the humidity in the air. If you style your hair in one humidity level then move to another, the hydrogen bonds will again break and reset causing hair to lose its original shape. They can also be broken by heat from blow drying or styling with hot tools.
• Salt bonds are affected by pH levels, so they break when they experience sudden pH imbalances, like when you use products whose pH is not optimized for the scalp.

How do you repair broken hair bonds?

When it comes to looking after our hair bonds, you should try to minimise aggressors that can damage them in the first place. Many things, from heat to bleach, can damage these bonds and affect our hair strength. However, for bonds that are already damaged, using a hair bonding treatment can help restore the strength and integrity of the hair, giving you soft, bouncy curls once again.

Our Bond Curl Rehab Salve has been designed for this very reason. It is a bond builder that contains some curl-loving proteins to increase the hair's elasticity. It works by targeting hair bonds to re-link and repair hair damage, strengthening the hair from the inside out and protecting against breakage. It leaves the hair super soft and manageable, as well as working to enhance your natural curl pattern. This formula will work with any hair type, however those with damaged or high porosity hair will need to use it more often alongside other products from our strengthening hair range. As this product is not a moisturizer, it should be followed by the Core Strength Shampoo and Multi-tasking Conditioner.

Whilst damaged hair bonds need protein-rich treatments to be repaired, if you use them too often you can suffer from protein overload. This is when your hair has too much protein, and can feel stiff to the touch and brittle. This is nothing to be worried about though - it just means you were a bit too excited with your strengthening treatment! Just use a clarifying shampoo and a deep conditioner the next time you was your hair and you'll be good to go.

How Does Our Bond Curl Technology Work?

Bond Curl is a powerful blend of superfoods and patented active ingredients that targets all 3 types of hair bonds (hydrogen, salt, and disulfide) to repair, rebuild and restore hair fiber strength. It also provides protection to help against further damage. Bond Curl helps achieve this thanks to the following technology:

• Fiberhance™ patented complex to target hydrogen and salt bonds: Fiberhance™ is a unique technology that works by creating additional hydrogen and ionic bonds within the hair keratin structure. It penetrates deep into the hair fibers to the cortex and restores hair strength. This innovative ingredient helps strengthen internal hair structure up to 3x that of untreated hair. It is specifically designed to optimize multi-bond interactions within the hair keratin cortex. This results in the build of new hair bonds within and across the structure.

• ProCutigen Bond® complex to target disulfide bonds: ProCutiGen® Bond prevents the chemical damage that breaks the protein bonds of your hair, making it porous, weakened and more prone to breakage. This element is derived from chia seed protein, which harnesses the natural strength of the seed for its specific amino acid composition and its hair protection properties. It creates a bio-film on the hair that creates a supporting, interwoven matrix on the hair cuticle. A major benefit of the bio-film is its scaffolding ability rather than a true barrier. The end result helps to retain style while offering protection from chemical damage to promote healthy hair.

• TEGO® Cosmo complex, to target salt bonds: this contains creatine which is a natural amino acid derivative with a low molecular weight which should enable it to penetrate into the hair cortex. Due to its amino acid structure it can build bridges between different amino acids of the keratin fibers and increase the crosslinking. This will result in a decrease of fiber breakage and will improve the mechanical properties of hair.

How To Use Curlsmith Bond Building Treatment

Our Bond Curl can be applied effortlessly in three simple steps:

1. Apply a generous amount of our Rehab Salve on damp hair until the product has fully saturated the hair.
2. We recommend that you leave in for a minimum of 10 minutes or longer if you desire but advise against more than 1 hour.
3. Thoroughly rinse off the hair and follow with your favorite Curlsmith shampoo, conditioner, leave-in and stylers.

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