Both pH Plex and deep conditioning treatments make your hair softer, silkier, and shinier. So what’s the difference between them?
Two words: Protection and repair.
Deep conditioners are wonderful for moisturizing your hair, but only Plex products protect hair from splitting during bleach and heat treatments. And only Plex products can repair broken, brittle hair strands from the inside out. Let’s get a little technical here to really understand the difference.
In moisturizing conditioners, their active ingredients (called humectants) penetrate into the hair and, as they have a high affinity to water, also “drag” water molecules into the hair, hence they “moisturize” hair. Unlike the Plex active ingredients, those humectants do not react with the hair proteins, so moisturizing conditioners do not “repair” hair.
So, what does the pH Plex products do?
pH Plex Protects Hair From Damage During Color Treatment
Unlike a deep conditioner, ph Plex 1: Protect and ph Plex 2: Repair help to prevent your hair from damage during bleach and dye treatments.
As you probably know if you’ve ever color-treated your hair, that gorgeous color comes at a price. Both, hair color and hair bleach contain hydrogen peroxide as oxidizing agents to, on one hand, break down the natural hair pigment Melanin and, on the other hand, to initiate the hair color formation reaction (developer + coupler) inside the hair. Unfortunately, this process also unlinks the essential chemical bonds of the hair proteins, the stuff that hair is made of for the most part, and makes your hair strong and flexible. So while you now have beautiful hair color, you also have fragile, brittle strands.
ph Plex 1: Protect stops this damage in its tracks. Once you’ve mixed it into your at-home hair color and/or bleach, it not only protects your hair’s chemical bonds but rebuilds them. This protection and immediate bond repair are far beyond what any conditioner can accomplish.
And just to make sure your hair remains strong, ph Plex 2: Repair takes care of any remaining damage after the bleach or dye application process. Just like ph Plex 1, it re-links those three essential bonds at the molecular level.
ph Plex Protects the Scalp During Color Treatment
Other than damaged hair, the worst thing about a dye job are those unpleasant feelings, such as the itching and burning that bleach and dye can give your scalp. Even the best deep conditioner can’t fix that.
But ph Plex can.
pH Plex’s active is a body-own substance, thus naturally produced by your body and known skincare active ingredient. As such, it calms skin sensitization reactions and has proven throughout the development of pH Plex to reduce/eliminate that fiery itching and burning that can occur during hair coloring or bleaching — a welcome relief!
ph-Plex Protects Hair During Heat Treatment
Even if you don’t dye or bleach your hair (but especially if you do!), everyday styling processes like blow-drying, flat-ironing, and curling take their toll. Deep conditioning treatments help to moisturize and smooth the hair shaft, but as their active ingredients do not react with the hair proteins only pH Plex 3: Stabilize strengthens your hair structure from the inside out by rebuilding its chemical bonds at the molecular level.
This weekly revitalizing treatment replenishes the active ingredients of pH Plex Steps 1 and 2 and can also be used on its own to maintain your silky, gorgeous mane.
Which Should I Use?
Deep conditioning helps to moisturize, soften, and smooth your hair.
However, it does not repair the chemical bonds of your hair proteins at the molecular level. Nor does it protect your hair and scalp against the typical unpleasant sensations that come with hair coloring or bleaching as pH Plex does. Or said otherwise, both fulfill different purposes.
So – we recommend that you use both.
Use ph Plex Steps 1 and 2 during your dye or bleach process, and apply both ph Plex 3 and a deep conditioner on a weekly basis. This combination of protection, repair, and moisturizer will give you the luxurious, bouncy hair that you deserve.
Questions on our pH Plex products and how they work? Check out our FAQ and How to Use pages.
Ready to try pH Plex? Click here to purchase!