You bleach and /or dye your hair, you reach for a curling or flat iron without heat protection, you swim in salt water at the beach or chlorinated pool water at the gym…and suddenly your hair feels and looks rough, dry, and unmanageable.
The hair-care aisle at your favorite beauty supply overflows with products that promise to “penetrate hair fibers” and “fix broken protein bonds”…but what does that mean? And more importantly, do they actually work?
So what do people REALLY want from their hair care products? A recent survey of 3000 consumers who follow a dedicated haircare routine prioritizes:
Shine (50%)
Frizz control (49%)
Smoothness (47%)
Moisture (41%)
Hair Strength 40%)
So, What Does Healthy Hair Look Like?
Healthy hair has a smooth, flat cuticle (the outermost layer of each hair), which is why it shines, naturally, without applying a “shine serum”. A damaged hair cuticle is rough and textured, so it doesn’t reflect light, and the hair looks dull and lifeless.
Healthy hair has well-defined tapered tips, not split ends.
The central cortex of the hair strand (made mostly of keratin protein) provides strength, structure, and flexibility. The disulfide bonds are the strongest and most crucial bonds in the cortex. When these are broken, hair becomes weak, fragile, and prone to breaking easily.
Healthy hair also has a natural fatty acid coating called the f-layer, which helps lock in moisture, control frizz (caused by humidity), and make hair more manageable.
If you’re a cosmetologist, you know how many quick fixes are out there to make hair “appear” healthy almost instantly - but these are band-aids, not solutions. Bond-building treatment products are viewed as the panultimate “repair” treatment and contain specific ingredients that reconnect the disulfide bonds at a molecular level (if formulated correctly). BUT (a BIG BUT), reconnecting broken bonds doesn’t mean the treatment will return a client to virgin hair status. If a brand makes outrageous claims like that, walk away, because it’s simply marketing bullsh*t.
How Your Hair Gets Damaged
Hair damage occurs gradually, manifesting as dullness, roughness, frizz, split ends, and finally breakage.
Mechanical damage can occur from your daily routine, including brushing, styling, and towel-drying, especially when your hair is wet. Wet hair is FAR more vulnerable to damage than dry hair. Healthy wet hair can stretch up to 30% of its original length without sustaining damage. Stretch it more than that 30%, and irreversible damage kicks in. Stretch it past 80%, and breakage happens. This is why so many experts warn against aggressive styling when hair is wet. And when you aggressively handle already damaged wet hair - yikes! 😮
Chemical damage from bleaching, dyeing, and perming strips away that protective fatty acid layer, making hair more susceptible to water absorption and further damage. These processes also weaken the internal protein bonds that hold hair together.
Thermal damage occurs from styling tools that exceed 356°F (such as flat irons and curling wands), which denature proteins and compromise the cuticle layer. Intense heat can even create vertical cracks in the cuticle, triggering a cascade of structural breakdown.
Environmental and oxidative damage come from UV exposure, pollution, and oxidative stress. Interestingly, UV damage is one of the most underrecognized culprits—UVB rays degrade proteins, while UVA fades pigment.
Conditioning vs. Repair: They’re Actually Different
Here’s where hair care marketing gets tricky. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they serve different purposes in the world of cosmetology.
Conditioning is all about enhancing the appearance and texture of your hair, whether it’s damaged or not. Conditioners reduce friction, make detangling easier, and enhance shine and manageability. They coat the surface of your hair, making it smoother and less prone to breakage during brushing. Think of it as protective maintenance.
Repair, on the other hand, tries to restore the structural integrity of hair that has been compromised. Repair products contain active ingredients designed to penetrate deeper into the hair shaft, strengthen the inner cortex, and reduce porosity. They aim to improve mechanical properties, such as tensile strength.
Research revealed wildly different perceptions of what these terms mean. Some people thought they were identical. Others believed conditioners just smooth the surface while repair products “fix broken bonds and strengthen from within.” The reality? Can Hair Ever Truly Be Repaired?
Here’s the honest truth: full repair to healthy, virgin hair status, even with the best products available, is a fairy tale. Once hair suffers significant structural damage, reversing it is damn near impossible.
Research indicates that only mild damage can be restored to levels that simulate the molecular structure of undamaged hair, and even then, it requires a comprehensive range of technologically advanced products, applied on a regular schedule, and under carefully controlled conditions. Most advanced formulations focus on restoring the properties of healthy hair—strength, shine, and feel—but they don’t have the ability to return hair to its original molecular structure.
What does this mean for you? Your hair might feel and perform like healthy hair, but at the microscopic level, it’s still structurally altered. You’re not truly erasing damage; you’re making your hair function better and look better.
From a salon perspective, even the illusion of healthy hair for someone with significant damage requires a long-term commitment. This begins with stopping further damage (such as color and perm services, excessive heat styling without protection, etc.) and continues with targeted in-salon treatments paired with disciplined at-home care. Real results typically require a minimum of 6 months of consistent effort, combining high-performance products with gentle handling and protective habits.
How Scientists Actually Test These Claims
The industry has made significant progress in determining how to measure the effectiveness of these products. Testing conditioning performance typically involves combing force tests to measure friction reduction, sensory evaluations, and shine assessments. Researchers utilize sophisticated tools, such as atomic force microscopy, to examine cuticle friction and surface topography.
For repair products, scientists employ even more advanced techniques:
Tensile strength testing to measure how much stress hair can withstand before it breaks.
Spectroscopy to analyze molecular changes.
Scanning electron microscopy to visualize structural changes.
Some studies also track specific ingredients, such as sodium hyaluronate or peptides, to determine if they penetrate the cuticle and reach the cortex, and what structural changes they simulate.
What Consumers Actually Think
An extensive survey about consumer sentiment towards haircare marketing claims revealed that 68% of people with noticeable hair damage reported only a “slight change” in their hair quality after regularly using what was marketed as “reparative” haircare products. Only 19% experienced a “noticeable change.”
These numbers indicate that either:
Consumers are not being sufficiently educated about which products are best for THEIR SPECIFIC HAIR CHALLENGES.
Consumers are buying into products with unrealistic marketing claims that fail to deliver the promised results.
When asked about consumer confidence in the marketing claims made by trending or viral haircare products (Olaplex, K18, etc.), 55% felt “marginally confident”, only 10% were “very confident.”
This gap reveals significant skepticism about formulation efficacy based on brand marketing. While formulation technology has advanced significantly, a substantial number of consumers (more than half of those polled) still haven’t had their expectations met, or are frustrated by the “too good to be true” performance claims of many brands.
#MyTwoCents
The hair care industry has evolved dramatically over the past decade, with repair products becoming increasingly sophisticated. Conditioning and repair products serve distinctly different purposes; however, when used in tandem, correctly and consistently, they can deliver significant visible benefits.
Your best bet?
Manage your hair expectations (that’s the most challenging part), then commit to consistent care with clinically proven formulas, and understand that while you might not reverse the damage and bring your hair back to its original health, you can unquestionably improve how it looks, feels, and functions.
As a beauty professional, what are your thoughts about how haircare brands market products to your clients? Are they actually educating them and guiding them to the best products for their hair needs, or are they blowing smoke up their *sses to make a sale?
This was an excellent read! Thank you for breaking this info down so thoroughly (I’m a cosmetologist)! I plan to share this with our clients thank you 🙏