WTF is... Olaplex anyway?
And has it all gone terribly wrong for the brand?
So… WTF is it?
It’s a haircare range, established in 2014, that originally offered just 3 products - 2 to be used in salons, then the take-home bottle - that swiftly became a haircare juggernaut.
What’s the point of it? I mean, what does it actually do?
The original 3-step process was designed to be used by hairdressers when colouring hair to reduce damage.
There are now over a dozen different haircare products - all designed to improve hair health - and they’ve recently diversified into lash and brow products.
How does it work?
SCIENCE: Disulfide bonds are responsible for the strength and elasticity of hair, and when these bonds are broken, hair becomes weak, frizzy, and prone to breakage. (We’ve all been there…)
Olaplex’s main innovation is the ingredient bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate (yep, catchy), that can reconnect broken disulfide bonds in the hair, improving its strength, structure and texture.
The first two products (steps 1 and 2) were designed to be used by hairdressers to mitigate damage during chemical processes - most commonly, dying hair. Step 3 (what most people think of when they think of Olaplex) was designed to be taken home to maintain the salon results.
The range has mushroomed over time1, adding shampoos, conditioners, styling products etc, but they are all designed to strengthen hair.
And why would someone want it?
Because we all, ultimately, want to be Becky With The Good Hair.
The science of the product is sound2, although there is some debate as to the efficacy of any of the take-home products (i.e. anything that isn’t steps 1 and 2)3.
Why have I heard of it?
Well…
Kim Kardashian
Initially made it famous, crediting it with preventing her hair from ruin when she bleached it. It later went viral on TikTok.
Domination
And everything went pretty well for several years, with Olaplex becoming ubiquitous, going public with a valuation of $14bn and growing revenue 100% YoY for a couple of years.
Lilial
Then lilial happened. It was a minor fragrancing agent in Olaplex that was banned by the EU in 2020 due to studies indicating it could cause infertility in rodents if eaten in large quantities.
TikTok turned on its former darling and a decent amount of panic-mongering ensued4. Olaplex removed the ingredient worldwide within months, but the rumours that Olaplex causes infertility have proven sticky5.
Class action
A class action lawsuit has been initiated by 100 women claiming their hair was damaged by Olaplex. 100 women after millions of bottles sold is a vanishingly small percentage and the suit was thrown out by the judge, but Olaplex has been in the press for all the wrong reasons since 2021.
How much is it?
Steps 1 and 2 in-salon are anything from £$25+.
The rest of the range is product/quantity dependent, but it’s from around £$15-50.
Does it hurt?
Not unless you were one of the 100 women in that lawsuit 👀
Have I had it?
Yes. My hairdresser introduced steps 1 and 2 to my fried hair in 2016 when she started dying it. I then used 3 at home realtively regularly at home for about 5 years and dabbled in some of the shampoos and conditioners.
Would I have it?
I still get steps 1 and 2 when I get my hair coloured, but I no longer use any of the at-home products.
3 reasons:
I really dislike the smell. I tolerated the smell of ‘3’ on the basis that it was a unique product, but there are thousands of shampoos and other styling prodcuts out there, so it made no sense to keep buying.
I never saw a significant difference. Ultimately, I moved on to other products.
I found the process faffy - you apply it to wet hair, comb through (sets my teeth on edge) then wait, then shampoo out and use conditioner.
I have too much to do to indulge this shit.
Should you have it?
If you like it and it’s working for you, I’m not here to talk you out of it.
If you’re intrigued by it and you haven’t bought it because of the bad press around fertility and scalp damage, you can ignore the bad press IMO.
Also bear in mind when reading reviews that there’s a massive fakes market for Olaplex. Many of the bad product reviews are likely written buy people who inadvertently bought a knock-off. (Amazon marketplace is rife with these.)
Anything else I think you should know?
The debate about how long to leave it on for rages online.
Olaplex say 10 minutes as a minimum, up to 90 minutes.
Kim swears by overnight
You do you6Similarly, there’s a school of thought that it’s more effective on dry hair. I tried this and all it seemed to do was require 3 times as much product for no improvement in outcome.
Olaplex was an innovator in the space when it appeared, but the technology has kept moving apace around it. If you’ve been a long-term user of the at-home products, there might be a better, shinier alternative for you.
Until next time! x
Disclaimer: ‘WTF is…’ guides are intended to be a 3-5 minute introduction to a topic. They are, by their nature, not exhaustive.
If you have a concern that I’ve irresponsibly included/omitted information, don’t hesitate to get in touch to let me know and I’ll take a look.
Reminder that any cosmetic work undertaken should be in accordance with The 6 rules of cosmetic work. Here they are, in case you missed them the first time…
At time of writing, from the Olaplex website
The rats in question were consuming 5 to 50 milligrams of lilial per kilogram of their body weight per day, depending on the study. A woman of average weight in the UK would have to be eating up to the equivalent of a teaspoon full of lilial to mirror these results. Lilial made up 0.0119% of the total composition of Olaplex, so you’d need to eat 33kg of Olaplex to get 4 grams of lilial.
(my workings are available :))
There is absolutely no evidence, nor case studies, implying that Olaplex causes infertility in human women.
I did really enjoy this explanation from a Redditor:
It stops working at some point because all of the bonds that could be formed form within that first hour or so.
First off, olaplex works by reforming the disulfide bonds that make up the proteins of your hair (more or less). Not all of the disulfide bonds are broken from damage, just some number. Either way, there is a finite number of broken bonds available for olaplex to repair. The active ingredient in olaplex is like a helper, it just creates a chemical environment that encourages those broken bonds to hook up again - afterall, they naturally want to be bonded. But that environment doesn't guarantee 100% reformation. Nature likes balance, so all chemical reactions have a kind of natural stopping point at which point the optimal ratio of unreacted to reacted is reached and the reaction stops. That stopping point is rarely 100% when it comes to proteins in the body.
Tl;dr there are only so many disulfide bonds the olaplex will repair and those will all reform within an hour or two. Beyond that, you're just marinating your hair in a pretty salty solution.