5 Best Bond Repair Treatments That Strengthen Damaged Hair

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a bond-repair treatment?

A hair-bonding treatment repairs the chemical bonds that give hair its strength and structure. The hair is made up of several types of bonds:

• Disulfide bonds: These are “the strong covalent sulfur-to-sulfur links” that give hair much of its tensile strength and are broken by bleach, perms, and relaxers, says Backman)
• Hydrogen bonds: These are “weak and transient” and constantly break and reform with water and heat
• Ionic bonds (also called salt or saline bonds): These are temporary attractions between opposite electrical charges on amino acids and are affected by pH
• Peptide bonds: These link amino acids together to form the protein chains themselves. According to Backman, breaking these bonds amounts to true protein degradation, and “topical products can’t meaningfully repair true peptide-backbone breakage," she says.

“The hair is made up of several types of bonds, but most bond-building products work by helping repair disulfide bonds—the strongest bonds in the hair and the ones responsible for its structure, strength, and overall health,” says Ron Robinson, a cosmetic chemist based in New York City. “While some newer formulas also target hydrogen and salt (ionic) bonds, their shared goal is to reinforce the hair's internal structure so it looks and feels healthier,” he says.

Here’s where things get a little murky: “Bond repair” isn’t a standardized or regulated term, so two products sitting side by side on the shelf may work in completely different ways. “Some formulas are designed to reconnect broken disulfide bonds—the strong sulfur bonds most affected by bleach, perms, and relaxers—while newer technologies target hydrogen or ionic bonds, or use peptides to support damaged keratin,” says Backman. Others rely primarily on conditioning ingredients that reinforce weakened hair without actually rebuilding chemical bonds. Unlike a traditional conditioner, which mainly coats the cuticle to make hair feel softer and smoother, a true bond builder chemically reforms or bridges some of those broken connections, Backman explains.

What types of hair damage respond best to bond repair treatments?

“Bond repair treatments work best on hair that's been weakened by coloring, bleaching, chemical straightening, heat styling, environmental stressors, or even everyday wear and tear,” says Robinson. These types of damage can break the hair's chemical bonds—"particularly the strong disulfide bonds that give hair its structure and strength”—making bond-building treatments especially beneficial, he says.

While the term "bond repair" is used broadly and can refer to products that target different types of hair bonds, “people should expect stronger, smoother, shinier, less-frizzy hair rather than a complete return to their hair's original, undamaged state,” he adds.

If your hair is elastic, meaning it stretches slightly and springs back when wet instead of snapping, then you're "generally a good candidate for bond-building treatments,” says Backman. But if your hair feels gummy or mushy when wet, snaps instead of stretches, or you're constantly seeing short broken pieces and visibly thinned-out ends, “the internal structure is likely too compromised for a product to meaningfully reverse, and a trim is probably the better solution,” she says.

What's the difference between in-salon and at-home bond repair treatments?

There’s also an important distinction between the bond repair you do at home and what happens in a salon. “The general rule regarding at-home versus salon-applied products is that the former are generally formulated to be foolproof and safe with repeated use, while the latter trade convenience for potency and personalization that require professional oversight,” Backman says. Professional treatments may use higher concentrations of active ingredients, involve multiple steps, or be incorporated directly into bleaching or coloring services, allowing them to intervene while hair is undergoing chemical damage. At-home treatments, meanwhile, are typically simplified, consumer-safe formulas designed to reinforce and maintain hair between appointments. In other words, your weekly bond treatment isn’t necessarily a salon treatment in a smaller bottle—and it isn’t supposed to be.

Can split ends actually be repaired?

No, “despite what some marketing claims may suggest, split ends can't actually be repaired,” says Backman. “What a split end means is that the hair shaft has physically separated at the tip,” she says. While bond-building and protein treatments can temporarily smooth the fibers together, making the split look sealed and feel softer, that cosmetic fix washes away over time, and the split will eventually reopen or continue traveling up the hair shaft. The only permanent solution is to trim the damaged ends, says Backman.

Meet the experts

• Sherry Backman, a cosmetic chemist based in Brattleboro, Vermont
• Kelly Dobos, a cosmetic chemist based in Cincinnati
• Javon Ford, a cosmetic chemist based in Los Angeles
• Ron McLaughlin, chief R&D officer at Living Proof based in Boston
• Ron Robinson, a cosmetic chemist and founder of Beauty Stat based in New York City

How we test and review products

We always enlist a range of testers for our makeup vertical, but hair-care products and tools are another story. While there are certainly products that can be used across different hair textures, lengths, curl patterns, thicknesses, colors (natural and unnatural), and needs, hair products are often created with specific consumers in mind. Many are created in order to address a concern (dandruff, breakage, brittleness) or to work most effectively for a specific hair type (4C curls, wavy hair, gray hair). You wouldn’t want to pick up a purple shampoo that’s only been reviewed by someone with, say, auburn hair, or a diffuser that’s never been tested by anyone with curls—right?

For our review of the best bond repair treatments, we enlisted the help of multiple editors, writers, contributors, and hair experts—many of whom want shinier, healthier-looking hair. Testers considered performance across four primary categories: efficacy, texture and experience, fragrance, and packaging. For more on what's involved in our reporting, check out our complete reviews process and methodology page.

Our staff and testers

A beauty product is a personal purchase. You might be searching for a face cream to address persistent dryness or a new nail product to add to your Sunday self-care routine; you may simply be browsing around for the latest launches to hit the hair market. No matter what you seek or your individual needs and concerns, Allure wants to ensure that you love anything we recommend in our stories. We believe that having a diverse team of writers and editors—in addition to the wide range of outside testers and industry experts we regularly call upon—is essential to reaching that goal.

After all, can we really say a skin-care product is the "best" for people over 50 if the only testers we've solicited opinions from folks who have yet to hit 30? Can we honestly deem a high-end diffuser worthy of your hard-earned cash if it’s never been tested on curls? We're proud that our staff spans a wide range of ages, skin tones, hair textures, genders, and backgrounds, which means that we are able to fairly assess any beauty product that comes into the beauty closet.

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