Olaplex - worth it, or better alternatives?

[55Sainz]

I'm in the process of slowly working up to platinum blonde hair. At the moment my hair is a nice light blonde so not far off, but as it's fine, I want to invest in some decent hair treatments. Ones I find in boots etc aren't really doing much. I'm looking at olaplex and for the shampoo, conditioner and 3 of their treatments, it's £97 which is making me wince a bit.

Picture to see current hair which will be getting blonder. For context, I was a medium brown shade around a year ago, so it has taken a while to get to the stage I'm at now with trips every 8-10 weeks with a good trim in between.

So back to the main question, is olaplex worth it, or are there other alternatives out there which are just as good but not as expensive?

Bump

I don't dye my hair (not for a good few years ) and a couple of years ago I was really ill and lost loads of hair .

I tried Olaplex (I'd used the shampoo/conditioner years ago but wasn;t impressed ) again but this time got the 0+3 as well as the shampoo+conditioner .It was a kit from Olaplex which was about £48ish . The bottles are small , but used every 7-10 days it has helped to strengthen my hair ,

I got a free sample so chose the oil but my DD took that so no idea how that works .
For me it's helped improve the strength and texture of my hair ( I use other products too , not just Olaplex )

I think originallly it was designed to be used with dye - so worth a go IMO .

Was there some kind of lawsuit about it damaging people's hair?

My hairdresser was big into it but firmly stopped using it one day and I think that was why - so no, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

I find a bit of a mix helps, I do like the olaplex no3 but I infrequently use it, when I do a do get nice results.
I do however use k18 clarifying shampoo and the leave in mask - except my bleached hair is very dry so I leave k18 on for the 4 mins and condition with olaplex conditioner then rinse off. This seems to be a winning combo for me once a month/6 weeks or so. In between then I just use olaplex shampoo and conditioner which I really rate.

Also a good leave in is invaluable - milkshake is good.
I also use morroccanoil pre blow dry.

Honestly though it's down to preference. There are people that love k18, olaplex, kerastase, morroccanoil. Just shop around for offers (cult beauty, look fantastic and the like) and give them a whirl to see what works for you.

Yes, this^^

Exactly the same - my hairdresser used to recommend it all the time and then suddenly stopped when the stories about lawsuits came out.

Tbh, I never noticed a difference when I used it, so don't think it is worth it

See this is where I'm scared a bit, because, in 2019, I had my hair bleached to hell and had a pink dye put on it for a trip to Japan and even though it was bleached within an inch of its life, my hair was still fine and in fab, strong condition. I came home and after about 6 weeks of the original bleaching, I went back to a medium brown and half my hair snapped and I had to cut it shorter :(

To this day, I wasn't sure if it was the Olaplex that my hairdresser at the time used (he put one of the treatments in after washing the dye off) or if it was just yet another dye job in the space of 6 weeks which caused my hair to snap.

So yeah, I'm a bit weary too..

I found the shampoo and conditioner were crap and a complete waste of money; there are far better out there. Olaplex 3 and Olaplex 6 are the ones that make all the difference IME, and the oil (7?) is good too.

Olaplex 0 before the 3 is a good booster if you want to spend a bit more, but I didn't find it made a huge difference if I didn't bother with it - I balayaged my hair and the lengths/ends were definitely the wrong side of crisp after a couple of months 😂

I found the 0 and 3 really good for a year then noticed my hair looked drier and frizzier. The shampoo and conditioner were some if the worst I’ve ever used for dry fragile, damaged hair. I use the oil as a finishing treatment but that’s all now. My hair is far happier with Redken shamooo and condition and a neat protecting spray before drying,

I fell for the Olaplex myth and found it really didn't suit my hair at all making it much worse. I've found Living Proof products work for me.