Garnier Fructis’s New Bonding Pre-Shampoo Treatment Has Quickly Become an Editor-Loved Washday Staple | Review, See Photos

Garnier set out with two main goals when formulating this treatment: Keep the price right and true to the brand’s ethos; and “target fiber durability, and repair and strengthen broken bonds inside the hair fiber with continuous use,” says Naiberk. Garnier understood the importance of an affordable price range (for the entire line) in repairing broken and damaged hair, from the inside, out.

“Hair is made up of water, keratin, lipids, minerals, and pigments,” explains Annie Chiu, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and founder of The Derm Institute, “and divided into three parts, the cuticle, cortex, and medulla.” Garnier’s proprietary 15% Peptides + Citric Acid Bond Care Complex targets inner fiber repair, penetrating seven-layers deep, and interacting with ions in the cortex to restore the broken electrostatic bonds that strengthen the hair fiber from within.

If you’re unsure whether your hair will benefit from using a product like this one, here’s a quick lesson in bond-building: The naked eye sees strands of hair, but your hair is in fact made up of a bunch of chemical bonds that are too small for you to see. Bond-building products are meant to repair damaged and weakened hair bonds, and by doing so, improve the overall health of hair. A common ingredient in bond-repairing formulas like this is amino acids, the building blocks of the proteins found in hair bonds.

By feeding your hair the same proteins naturally found in hair strands, you can repair broken bonds deep within the hair. As cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson previously told Allure, “Some ingredients can work on the hair’s surface, the cuticle, and other ingredients like the [amino acids] may work deeper, in the cortex.”

Now, take a moment to analyze your hair’s texture and overall health. Does it feel coarse to the touch? Rough, dry texture is always the first sign of damaged hair bonds. Is your hair breaking as you brush it or are your ends splitting? This indicates the beginning of more advanced damage. “This [pre-shampoo] is great for someone who’s starting to notice breakage,” says Stephen Thevenot, a hairstylist in New York City.

The Ingredients

Dobos points to a combination of ingredients in this pre-shampoo treatment that support the product’s claims of bond repair, which she says can be a tricky task to tackle. “The combination of citric acid, peptides, and traditional conditioning agents [like glycerin] have a synergistic effect as each targets different aspects of hair damage,” she says.