Fact: Life can be hard on your hair. Diet, pollution, age, weather and lifestyle, not to mention hair dryers, coloring, lightening and relaxing—all of these things can have a seriously negative impact on the bonds that keep your hair healthy and strong. Olaplex is designed to change all that by repairing and rebuilding the hair’s damaged and broken bonds. Today, we’re talking with Steve Waldman, Director of Ratner Companies Technical Training, about all things Olaplex.
Hair Cuttery: Hi Steve! We know you’re really excited about the Olaplex treatment and were hoping you could tell us all about it.
Steve Waldman: Absolutely!
HC: So first things first: What is Olaplex?
SW: Olaplex is a bonding system that repairs your hair’s damaged bonds (technically known as disulfide bonds) on a molecular level. So instead of working from the outside in, like a conditioning treatment, Olaplex works from the inside out to rebuild your hair’s structural integrity. Olaplex uses proprietary technology to rebuild your hair’s broken bonds and prevent further damage so that your hair is visibly stronger, shinier and healthier.
HC: Can you do this treatment at home?
SW: Actually, the treatment is done in our salons. You can do it as a quick stand-alone treatment or you can have it added to another service (like color) to ensure against future hair breakage.
HC: I’ve heard you say that Olaplex is a real game changer. Why is that?
SW: Our HC Salon Professionals are hair artists. And your hair is their canvas. To get the best results, they want to create on the best canvas possible. By keeping your hair in optimum condition, the Olaplex treatment not only protects your hair from damage during chemical processing, but it prevents future breakage and makes your hair much stronger so it can handle these processes, like coloring, bleaching, straightening, etc. Not only that, but Olaplex treatments also reduce the porosity, the closing of your hair’s cuticle, which makes your hair much shinier, helps preserve the vibrancy of your hair color and helps prevent fading.
HC: What does this mean for our salon guests?
SW: What this means is huge, actually. Normally, when you do chemical services to your hair, like coloring, lightening or relaxing, you end up compromising the structural bonds that give your hair its strength and elasticity. When your hair’s bonds are broken, it can limit the options of what you can do to your hair because of its weakened state.
HC: And how does the Olaplex treatment change all of that?
SW: It’s pretty amazing, actually. By rebuilding your hair’s structural integrity, you unlock the potential of what you can do to your hair without the worry of damage. Our stylists can mix Olaplex into their chemical processes, like coloring, to minimize the stress on your hair during processing; they actually improve it by increasing the longevity of your color and rebuilding the hair’s strength. Suddenly, all of those things you wanted to try but weren’t able to because of your hair’s condition—now you can do them, whether it’s experimenting with a bold new color or straightening your hair, or whatever. Olaplex creates these unlimited possibilities because it preserves your hair and keeps it stronger so that you can do these chemical processes without fear. Suddenly, the sky’s the limit.
HC: Is this treatment just for people with chemically treated hair?
SW: Absolutely not! It’s not just chemical services that can benefit from Olaplex, but also thermal technology, like hair dryers, curling irons and flat irons, as well as mechanical stuff—like stretching your hair when it’s wet, pulling it too tightly in elastic bands, over-brushing, etc. And also, there’s just life: things like pollution, or your diet, or lifestyle… all of these can damage your hair. So Olaplex is really for everybody.
HC: How often can you do an Olaplex treatment?
SW: As often as you need to! Other treatments coat your hair with protein, which can cause build-up and weigh your hair down. Olaplex isn’t like that. So you can have it added to other services when you visit our salons. And it’s also great to do in between your other services for upkeep.
HC: It sounds amazing. As Salon Professionals, we are always looking to provide the best services and products for our guests so that they always leave the salon loving their hair!
SW: Yeah, it really is the next big thing.
