I’ve been hearing about Olaplex around the internet and from hairdresser friends for a while now, and honestly I have heard nothing but praise for it.

For those who don’t creep around the internet reading about random beauty products in their free time, Olaplex is a hair color additive/ system that prevents damage to your hair when you are using bleach or color.

People swear it saves their hair from bleaching and coloring damage, and has even repaired past damage from bleaching and coloring without Olaplex. But I am ever the skeptic, so I was still walking around wondering “Does Olaplex work well enough for me to trust it and try something crazy with my hair?”

After literally an entire year of deliberation, and nursing the healthiest hair I’ve probably ever had, gently like a new born baby infant (I had cute 8 inches off earlier in the year and hadn’t colored it at all so that sh*t was fresshhhhh) I decided it was time to get crazy.

I haven’t done anything fun with my color in a long time, and I decided I want to get it to be a nice charcoal grayish ombré. I knew it was risk even though my mom, who has 30+ years experience as a hair colorist was going to be leading the adventure and she has rarely let me down in the color department.

So I got the ingredients for the supposed gray formula, the bleach, and the Olaplex. Had them all delivered to my moms for when I was going to be there for a visit and the Saturday before Thanksgiving we dove in. I knew going in that there was a distinct possibility that even Momma QuinnFace, color veteran and expert, might not be able to nail this, and the contingency plan was always to color over the whole thing with a very dark brown/black if things went left…but if I did that and Olaplex didn’t work then my hair was going to be fried.

Well…things went pretty far left…

My hair pulls very yellow, and even when we bleached it to near death the gray would NOT take. Even if the hair is almost white it’s still yellow like Draco Malfoy’s color. You can see a tiny hint of gray in the front but the rest was gold and green. So it was literally the gray-green-gold of a three toed sloth. I looked like a mossy tree dweller. FML.

So brown/black it was for old MsQuinnFace, and as much as it’s a bit of a booby prize as far as fun-level is concerned I actually really like the color that it is now. I will readily admit that I had an emotional breakdown somewhere in the middle of the full day process. I cried a little, I’m vulnerable too guys!

But let me tell you what we learned once I pulled myself together. Olaplex absolutely does work. Because after more than one round of bleaching my hair and then coloring over that with a super dark brown all in the span of around 11 hours, my hair is pretty much as healthy as it was when we started.

A miracle? Nope straight up science…I am not literate enough in chemistry to explain it but according to other smarter bloggers Like LabMuffin there is a pretty cut and dry chemical reason that Olaplex works so well.

Look for yourself! This is my hair after the idea, the bleach, the nightmare and the solution all came to pass..

Still shiny root to tip. I never would have guessed in a million years that it worked that well, but goddamn I am glad I used it.

SHUT YOUR HOLE AND TELL US MORE ABOUT THE ACTUAL PRODUCT!

Ok jesus, I will.

So Olaplex is a Three Step System. You can buy the first two of the steps in a kit and the third step is sold separately (The kit comes with two bottles of step 2, not sure why but it is what it is)

Step one is added into the formula of whatever bleach or color you are using. Step two is applied to the hair when you are done with the color process and step three is a mask that you use once a week to maintain healthy hair after the fact.

The chemical complex helps to strengthen, multiply and maintain the bonds in the hair follicle that are often destroyed during the coloring process. and from what I can tell, it does a damn good job because my hair should have died a thousand deaths that day and its pretty much still completely intact.

So does Olaplex Work? I would there is little doubt in my mind that yes, it does. The next time you go to get your color done, ask you hairdresser if they can use it. I bet you could even buy your own online and bring it if it isn’t something they normally carry. And definitely get some if you are gonna DIY your dye or have a family hairdresser do it at home like I did.

It’s not cheap, but you will get several uses out of the kit and let’s get real, you can’t even put a price on your hair not falling off.