Tried that new bonding treatment on a client with over-processed hair and it turned orange

Used a popular protein bond builder I saw all over Instagram, but on my client's bleached hair it pulled brassy within 20 minutes. I had to do a quick toner fix before she noticed. Has anyone else had a treatment react weird like that on porous hair?

3 comments

3 Comments

paige5141mo ago

honestly this happened to me too and i think the issue is that those bond builders are marketed as being safe for all porosity but theyre really not. the problem is the pH of those treatments can vary a lot from brand to brand and when you put something with a higher pH on already porous hair it opens the cuticle too much and the underlying warmth pops out. its like the hair cant hold onto the cool tones because the structure is too loose. i started pH testing everything before i use it on super bleached hair and its been a game changer. your milage may vary but sometimes the fix is just adjusting the pH rather than grabbing another toner.

laurabennett1mo ago

pH paper strips from a pool supply store changed my whole routine. I had that exact same thing happen with a popular brand of bond builder that's supposedly for all hair types. Turned out the pH was like 5.5 which is fine for normal hair but way too high for my level 10 bleached stuff. I now keep a little spray bottle with diluted citric acid and distilled water to knock the pH down a notch before I put anything on. Works way better than trying to cancel out brass with purple shampoo that just makes my hair look muddy.

mason_knight16d ago

Yeah totally. That "safe for all porosity" marketing is such a crock. I had the same thing happen with a protein treatment I bought, tested it and it was like 6.0 pH. For my hair that's basically a disaster. Now I keep a little spray bottle of diluted citric acid on hand too, but I actually use a quick rinse of apple cider vinegar before I apply anything. Just a tablespoon in a cup of water, pour it through, let it sit for like 30 seconds then rinse. It drops the pH just enough that the product actually sits right instead of making everything frizzy and muddy. The purple shampoo thing drives me crazy too, it just makes my hair look dull and grey instead of fixing the actual problem.