I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t always been the kindest to my hair over the years. I started bleaching my strands at the ripe age of 15, and almost 10 years later, I haven’t rocked my natural hair color since. While I no longer sport bleach-blonde hair, the damage I’ve put my hair through over the years persists. This year, though, I’ve committed to entering a hair-health journey.
From lathering my hair in rosemary oil to promote growth to experimenting with pretty much every bond-building treatment on the market, I’m dedicated to getting my hair back to its once soft and healthy state. While I’ve tried plenty of at-home bond building and hair-repair products, none of have given me that “wow” result I’ve been looking for. Recently, though, I had the chance to try L’Oréal Professional’s new Absolut Repair Molecular Line in an in-salon treatment, and for the first time since I was in high school, I was shocked at how soft and healthy my hair was.
L’Oréal Professional Absolut Repair Molecular: Tested + Reviewed
With the amount of hair-repair products I’ve tried on my own to not much avail, I went into my in-salon experience with L’Oréal not expecting too much. I’d gotten to a point where I more or less accepted that my hair would never be what it once was. But, the minute I saw the results after a full treatment and blowout with the brand’s new Absolut Molecular Repair line, the only words I could get out were, “That’s really my hair?” Needless to say, I was blown away.
Proven to reverse two years’ worth of damage in as little as one use, L’Oréal Professional’s Absolu Repair Molecular features three products: Absolut Repair Molecular Shampoo ($45), Absolut Repair Molecular Rinse-Off Serum ($48) and Absolut Repair Leave-In Mask ($38). All three SKUs harness the power of peptide bonders and five amino acids to visibly repair damaged hair, restoring hair’s strength, elasticity and movement.
To use at home, all you need to do to reveal virgin-level hair is cleanse with the sulfate-free shampoo, work in 2-3 pumps of the rinse-off serum from roots to ends and rinse out after a minute or two, and apply the leave-in conditioner to towel-dried hair and style as usual.
If you get the Absolut Repair Molecular treatment in salon as I did, though, you also get a bonding pre-shampoo treatment that is only available in salons, for an added level of hydration and structure-repairing benefits. All in all, the treatment only took about 10 minutes even with the pre-shampoo, so it’s not a hassle to do at home. Before we even got into blow drying, I could feel how soft and refined my hair felt while wet, which is no easy feat. Seeing how easily the brush glided through my strands was further confirmation of the deep nourishment that took place with the treatment.
After a quick bang trim and a legendary blowout, my stylist took a video of my hair from the back and showed me the results, and I truly, genuinely could not believe what I was seeing. My hair not only looked soft and healthy, but thick and voluminous in a way I hadn’t seen since I was a teen. The results were immediate, but not fleeting in the slightest. Days after, my hair continued to feel and look better than it had in years. Now, after a few weeks of using the at-home products on my own, I’m more confident in my strands than ever.