Studies have shown that everyone has metals in their hair, whether from the environment, erosion inside our water pipes or hard water. This can lead to a haircolorist's nightmare—when metals in the hair come into contact with oxidants during color, balayage and lightening services, it can result in breakage and unreliable color results.
L’Oréal Professionnel's new Metal Detox line—which has been in development for seven years and has nine patents—works to combat that, by neutralizing metal inside the fiber of the hair.
"It's about the hair health for me," says Min Kim, colorist at Butterfly Studio Salon in New York City. "If the hair isn’t as healthy as it can be, the color, the cut, the style will never look the way it’s meant to be."
The line is formualted with glicoamine, which is a molecule small enough to penetrate the hair follicle to neutralize metals inside.
The first step is to neutralize metal before the salon service with Pre-Treatment. Kim recommends spraying it in sections to have more control, versus spraying the whole head at once.
The next step is the Sulfate-Free Shampoo, an anti-metal cleansing cream that detoxifies hair after service. The treatment ends with the protective Conditioner/Mask to prevent new particles from returning. Research shows that Metal Detox results in 87 percent less breakage risk.
The perks for Kim as a colorist are that Metal Detox is compatible with all color and lightening brands and it doesn't add any time to the service. "I'm finding that I'm able to work more efficiently," she says. "When I'm doing balayage, I talk about pinching the hair and making sure we have that smooth, flat surface. There's always these little baby hairs, especially after the pandemic with [increases in] hair loss. When I spray the Metal Detox [Pre-Treatment], it makes it easier for me to grip the hair and work with it in different ways, whether it’s a foil or a teasy light or balayage."
She recommends clients use the shampoo and mask for at least two weeks after service to avoid metal buildup in hair.
"It puts control back with the professionals because the Pre-Treatment can only be done in the salon," she adds.