Fine, colour treated, shoulder length. I started a protein reconstructor after a bleach session and used it twice a week as the bottle says. Two weeks in, the ends feel like dry hay, they snap when I comb, and my waves have gone stringy. I assumed protein was the repair step. Did I overdo it, and what do I do from here?
Read your whole shelf for hydrolyzed anything, plus keratin, collagen, amino acids and wheat or soy protein. They hide in shampoo, conditioner and leave-ins, so people who add a treatment are often quadrupling their protein without realising it. My routine had it in four products while I thought I was avoiding it.
Bleached hair does genuinely benefit from protein, so do not swear off it forever. The mistake is frequency, not the ingredient. I do one treatment every fourth wash and moisture in between, and my ends stopped snapping.
Bond builders are not protein, strictly — different mechanism, they work on disulfide links rather than depositing anything. Worth knowing because you can use those more often without the stiffness.
Protein overload is basically a myth, it is just dryness. Add oil.
Oil on protein-stiff hair makes it feel coated and it still snaps. The test is easy: overloaded hair is rough and rigid when wet, genuinely dry hair is limp and stretchy when wet.
@spf_everyday · 6mo ago · 3 replies
Protein overload. Fine hair is already protein heavy and a reconstructor is a rescue treatment, not a twice weekly habit — the bottle instructions are optimistic because they would like you to finish the bottle. Stop entirely for three weeks. Deep condition with something that has no hydrolysed anything in the first six ingredients, use gentle heat and 20 minutes, and the snapping should ease within two washes. After that, protein once every three to four weeks at most.
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@spf_everyday · 6mo ago
The hair itself does not repair, but the stiffness goes as the protein washes out and moisture comes back. The genuinely brittle ends may need trimming — mine did, about a centimetre.
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@hemline_hana · 6mo ago
Does the damage from the last two weeks stay or does it recover?
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