Bond Builders

We put our strands through a lot: drying color, frying heat, and general wear and tear. A new crop of products promises to fix that damage fast. What to know...

- Danielle Jackson

 

Imagine a treatment that allows you to strength train your strands, fortifying them from the inside out in the same way that lifting weights builds muscle. It's not magic; it's called bond building-and you can add products featuring this new technology to your shopping cart right now.

Just as the term suggests, these masks, pre-shampoos, and serums are designed to improve your hair's overall toughness and manageability by repairing broken bonds deep inside each strandconnections that hold hair together but can become compromised by color, chemical straighteners, or heat styling.

Once available only as professional salon services, bond-building products are popping up everywhere, powered by consumers who are "becoming more concerned about their hair health" rather than just the style, says Beth Labrecque, a product development scientist with Dove Hair, which recently released a first-to-drugstores bonding collection. But what's the science behind these hair healers, and how can you put them to work for you? Good questions! Let's kick off with a quick chemistry lesson.

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