Aphogee Balancing Moisturizer & Two-Step Protein Treatment

After having some annoying problems with my hair I did some research and self assessed that my hair was lacking protein. I have included a helpful info graphic that I found. The “too much moisture” section sums up what my hair was like with emphasis on the elasticity and breaking part. While brushing my hair it would go through the bristles of the Brush and stretch and then break. I had to be so careful when brushing but that didn’t help much. I tried drug store hair mask and such with no avail. Not having a lot of money for salon treatments I was on the search for an affordable at home product and I stumbled across this. It was beyond worth any risk I perceived. Within one use my hair was back to being healthy and no longer overstreching and breaking. Styling actually went a lot easier and my hair felt silky soft. To my surprise with one use, I did not have an issue with over moisture again. However, I used it once again a few months after just for maintenance even though my hair felt fine (instructions recommended). It’s been 7 months since the second time ( a little over a year since 1st use) and I have enough for one treatment left. I have shoulder length hair that tapers to mid back length. While my hair is fine and curly, I have a lot of it - so you get a fair amount of product from the small bottle - totally making this product a steal. After reading some of the negative review I believe that people are not using the product properly or do not need a protein treatment. Too much protein can be a bad thing too! Some caveats and tips: The protein treatment is very sticky and has a chemical smell - not super strong through but it can be bothersome to some. I apply over a toweled area to avoid any sticky messes. Most people don’t have the dryers you sit under, so hand drying with the hair can take a while. I can only do so much at a time before a have to take a break. It takes about 40-60 mins for it to completely dry. Yes, your hair with harden like you just emptied several cans of hair spray. It will be prone to breakage so be careful. It’s not as scary as that sounds I haven’t had an issue with that. To avoid issue - I shower wash my hair with shampoo (my own) step out towel dry off. Lay some towels down and sit. I brush any tangles out of my hair and I pour the product into my hand and apply to my hair. Once saturated, I’ll grab the hair dryer and start drying. Make sure to move carefully and not mess with your hair to much while drying. After, it is dry I hop back in the shower and let the water run through until most of the product is gone. Then I apply the second step for about five minutes and rinse. Yes, it’s a bit of a process, but the results are beyond worth it. I am so happy I found this product. Since using this, I also got rid of moisturizing shampoos and conditioner. I stick to clarifying or strengthing ones. I do use a multi purpose heat protection spray which offers some moisturizing benefits and about every other month or so I will use a little bit of the 2nd moisturizing part (you get plenty of it) just keep my hair balanced.

I was honestly a bit skeptical to purchase this product after reading some of the reviews but I figured with my hair damage, I didn't have much to lose. Back Story- I went to a salon about a month ago with years and years of black box dye buildup on my hair.. I told the stylist I would like to have a lighter brown hair color with some blonde highlights.. She proceeds to tell me I would need to bleach my full head to achieve this look.. So I go on with what she's telling me.. She ends up bleaching my hair once, leaving me with white roots and super orange ends. She insists on another round of full bleach, so I let her thinking hey she is the professional, right?! Wrong! My hair is still white roots and orange ends. So she decides that I just need a color with blue tones put over my two toned hair and everything will be fine. No. It does nothing to the ends.. Thankfully, my roots did look more blonde than white. She dries my hair and then tells me that there is nothing else she can do. At this point, I'm totally devastated. I can tell with how long it took for her to dry my hair that I'm experiencing a lot of damage.. So I go home with my blonde-orange hair and I am just super depressed for a week, thank goodness I'm a stay at home mom.. Otherwise, I probably would have shaved it off and bought a wig. I couldn't take a shower and comb my hair without it feeling super stretchy, sticky and mushy. My brush would be full of hair that had came out while I was brushing. I waited a week with this hair, before I decided to take matters into my own hands. I had already paid this woman $130 to take me down to blonde-orange, so I was desperate. I went to Sally's and purchased the wella t-14 toner, it helped take a lot of the orange out but I was still not in love with my color.. It looked kind of grey? So I waited a few more days with this color.. Trying to learn to love it until I got in the mood to just get rid of it and color my hair burgundy for fall... Which I'm in love with by the way. With all of the deep conditioning and non use of heating tools, my hair had improved a bit, however I was still experiencing the mushy, taking FOREVER to dry hair. So I googled, and googled and stumbled upon this product. I done as the instructions say; apply to wet hair and comb through then dry. It does dry super stiff. I then rinsed my hair and used the balancing moisturizer. After, I let my hair air dry for a while before I went to my blow dryer. I could tell some difference, but it was still taking forever to dry. So I waited a week and done the treatment again and I must say that my hair is so much better. It took me 2-4 minutes to dry with a blow dryer, which it odd because I have super long thick hair. I will say that the moisturizer smells worse than the actual treatment. Also, my hair is still super frizzy but I think I can continue to deep condition and it will eventually be repaired.

This product is absolutely incredible. I have naturally black hair that I bleach to a light blonde, and needless to say, it gets pretty wrecked during the process (especially after a salon visit I made earlier this year when the person bleaching my hair didn't use Olaplex). The process of using the Aphogee system is pretty time-intensive, so be sure that you've set aside an entire evening to use this treatment. I have long, thick, Caucasian hair (type 2B), and distributing the product and drying it takes at LEAST an hour for me. I don't own a professional drying bonnet, so I just use a hair dryer. It's very important that you do this with your hair down, after you've combed through it. If you try to dry the product with all your hair piled on top of your head, it won't dry properly, and the treatment won't work. Your hair should be hard and completely inflexible by the time you finish drying it. You can wait as long as your want to rise it out; I tend to let it sit on my head for a while even after it's all dried. After rinsing, I always follow up with the Aphogee conditioner (the second step in the process). It doesn't do much to hydrate my hair, but it will help balance the hair's pH. Then I finish with a hydrating conditioner, like the Nexxus Humectress. Don't put another strengthening conditioner in your hair; you've already blasted it with protein. This treatment has saved my hair from the brink of destruction. I use it very sparingly--maybe once a year--because of how intense it is. Of course, everyone is different, and there was a time when I had to use it every two months to keep my hair strong. I first used the system back in 2013, when I had long, platinum hair that felt like bubble gum when it was wet. This treatment brought it back to a decent texture, so I didn't have to lop off all of my hair. I used it again this year--this time only on my roots, which had been fried after a bad salon experience--and after the treatment, it was impossible to tell how damaged my roots had been. All the gumminess was gone, and I didn't experience any more hair falling out. The only negatives about this product are the smell and the mess it makes. I haven't found a method of applying this that doesn't leave my mirror, sink, floor, and tub covered in sticky residue from this stuff. Spray bottles aren't that much better than just pouring it in your hands and trying to rub it in your hair, in my experience. But overall, I'd say the mess is worth it if your hair is truly in critical condition and you're looking to improve its health and appearance.

I'm a total beauty product skeptic. Yes, I spend a lot of my disposable income on beauty & cosmetics, but only for temporarily beautifying my face or hair. I honestly do not believe most products truly offer lasting results. The Aphogee Two Step Protein treatment system, in my experience, is an exception to this rule! A very happy exception! I always color my just-below-shoulder length hair at home, including several rounds with high volume weapons-grade bleach on top of years of box dye. I was doing pastel pinky apricot mermaid hair. Unless you are starting with untouched light color virgin hair, this process is going to cause a lot of damage. I don't believe my hair was quite as fried as some of the other reviewers'. It was not "gummy" when wet, but it was extremely dry and frizzy, even after multiple deep conditioners and oil products. And it would not hold a curl as well as it used to, which was rather distressing. I blocked out a few hours to apply this treatment. The instructions are not quite clear, but you wash your hair first (out of the shower, unless you like sitting around in a towel) and then apply the liquidy protein to towel-dried hair. Comb through and gently comb your hair back, off your face, and lay it on an old towel if it's long. Do not cover with a shower cap or plastic like you would a deep conditioner. You can use a warm hair dryer to accelerate the treatment, but DO NOT move your hair around, just let it sit there. The liquid dries very stiff (heh, yes, protein indeed) and can cause breakage if not handled very carefully. I ran my dryer for around five minutes and sat on the sofa for around 15-20 minutes more. Note: yes, the protein liquid literally smells like vomit. And your hair will probably have a lingering slight scent. It's worth it! Keep going! Next, rinse gently and apply the included moisturizer/conditioner. This is just like a normal hair conditioner. I left mine on for a few minutes while I finished my shower. Then I applied my usual products to towel dried hair (Redken Anti Snap, It's A 10 Original, and Shu Uemura Oil Creme) and crossed my fingers while it air-dried. The difference is remarkable. My hair is in better shape than it has been for a long time. The frizz and awful dry texture is gone, my gentle waves are back. I have not yet blow dried or heat styled, but I'm sure it will look even better afterwards. The cost for this kit is so low, you almost can't go wrong. Or try it from your local Sally, if you're still skeptical, they have a good return policy. If you have medium length hair, I'd say this set will give you two full treatments and extra conditioner. TL;DR: buy this set, it gave me great, silky results on bleach damaged hair. Smells like vom but 100% worth it.

The protein treatment is an excellent product. I waited to give feedback until after I had used it a few times so I would have a better picture of the overall product and be able to give more helpful feedback for other customers. This product, in general, is for damaged hair. I have hair that is undergoing a lengthy, drawn out bleaching process after having dyed it dark brown for over 20 years. That means damaged, porous hair. The protein treatment is great for that. Because so many people said you have to use the conditioning treatment it comes with in order to get the proper results, I followed that advice the first time. In general it does make sense to follow a product line's follow up treatment to get the best results. The only issue with that in this case is that mineral oil is actually the highest concentration of the oils in the ingredients of the balancing conditioner (which is not listed on the ingredients here, but is on the product label, others have provided pics to show that, or you can view the complete list of ingredients on the ApHogee website). Mineral oil is good for when you want to seal the cuticle and prevent moisture from entering and/or exiting the cuticle. It sits on the cuticle. This is great for fighting frizz and making those curls look nice. However, hair as porous as mine (years of dye, now bleach blonde) really needs a good, penetrating moisturizer before putting on anything that has mineral oil. The first time, I did not care for it. My hair felt stiff and dry (I followed the instructions to a tee), but I knew what the issue was, so I waited until the next time then used an intensive moisturizing mask that had no mineral oil in it immediately after rinsing out the protein treatment, then went over that with the ApHogee balancing moisturizer. This made all the difference in the world for my hair type. I would very highly recommend anyone who uses this product to find out what your hair porosity is (you can look up how-to videos on YouTube) to determine what would be best for your own hair type. If you use a more intensive moisturizing mask (that has no mineral oil), I would still follow up with the balancing moisturizer just to go ahead and seal the cuticle. Then you have added moisture to the hair, sealed it in, and have a coating which will prevent moisture loss and prevent frizz. I almost gave this 4 stars because mineral oil was not listed on the ingredients, however, the protein treatment deserves 5 stars. The mineral oil deserves a bit of explanation/education. I was worried about the smell from the reviews, but honestly it's not that bad. This is a chemical treatment, and chemical treatments like this do have a bit of an odor. It's just the way it is. If you have kids or pets, you have definitely smelled much worse.

This stuff stinks but it truly works. After one application, my hair felt and looked thicker. I had dyed my hair about three weeks ago and the color really did not show up, but for whatever reason, this product intensified the hair coloring and now the color is showing. I have also noticed less hair breakage and it also left my hair extremely soft. The conditioner is one of the best conditioners I have ever tried. My purpose of using this product is due to I have very fine 4B, 4c natural hair and per research this hair type can benefit from regular protein treatments. Post 6 month review: please be very careful with using this product! I am suffering from protein build up. Please research on protein build up before using this product. It is a horrible experience! I currently rate as average due to I can place no blame on the actual product itself. I was using this once a month and everyone's hair is different. In otherwords, it's not the product's fault for causing the build up. Maybe I was using it too ofen, maybe I have protein sensitivity, maybe I have high porosity hair. Who knows. Whatever the case, protein build up should cause great concern. The build up will cause the hair to become EXTREMELY dry and rough and is hard to rid of it. I have been clarifying for months in order to try to get my hair back to normal.

WOW. I am always willing to try something new for my hair, which is always dry and prone to breakage. So many deep conditioning masks, coconut oil, olaplex no3 just litter the inside of my shower. I wrap my hair in a silk scarf at night, only use cloth elastics, heat-style maybe once a month max - in other words I am super protective of my hair. I tried this for the first time yesterday and it has made the most dramatic difference of anything I have used to-date. Overall my hair felt much, much smoother (even with me heat styling it!) but the biggest difference was on the bottom 3 inches. I haven't had a haircut in over a year, and the bottom is starting to get split ends and generally looks much less full than the top. This went a long way towards fixing that. My ends now look much more even and at least have the appearance of not being quite so stringy. How to use: It is a bit of a bizarre product, and definitely has a not-pleasant smell. However, the results are so worth it, in my opinion. You shake the Step 1 Bottle, and then saturate towel dried hair with it. This is a liquid! The consistency is not thick at all. I didn't realize this, and definitely made a bit of a mess at first. You then carefully let your hair dry (can be helped with a blow dryer, but make sure you are NOT moving your hair AT ALL). You need to just let the hair stay as is. As the product dries, it hardens, and any movement to your hair could cause breakage. Once your hair feels crusty, it's back in the shower to apply the moisturizing conditioner. I actually applied ApHogee Intensive Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor (16 OZ.) in between Steps 1 and 2 just for giggles. The one note of caution - you can only use this product every 6 weeks. Too much added protein to your strands will cause them to start getting "hard" which will make them prone to breakage. Overall I am obsessed with this two-step treatment, and pretty much texted everybody I own about it immediately. I'm curious to see how it compares (for me) to the Olaplex Stand-alone treatment, but for the price this absolutely cannot be beat.

This treatment is awesome! I have wavy sway 2A type highlighted hair. I color with Aveda every 4 months and I cut my hair ones a year (trying to grow them longer). I don't have serious damage, but I start losing a curl pattern and wasn't happy about very ends of my hair (last time I had color and cut 2.5 months ago) so I decided to give Aphogee a try. I didn't use their shampoo, I used mine. Towel dried my hair, brushed them with a wide tooth comb, and applied treatment. The treatment didn't go on my clothes despite warnings of other reviewers. And it doesn't smell that bad. I already had much worse smelling things being applied on my hair by professionals. I went with the concept 'less is more', divided my hair into two parts (left and right), put a bit of treatment in my palm, and distribute it on hair. Repeated several times, combed one side. Did the same thing on another side. No matter how much product I was adding my hair didn't become dry or unbrushable. After I finish I gently dried it with my regular hairdryer on low settings. My hair didn't become rock hair, just stiff. Once treatment completely dried I rinsed it off, applied moisturizer, combed hair again and waited for about 15 minutes before to rinse moisturizer (it's written to wait two minutes, but I've decided that more is more in this case). I let my hair air dry and I immediately noticed that I have way less frizz and much more waves. They also became much softer. Since then I've washed my hair couple of times. The magic of this treatment for me is that I can let my hair air dry and it looks great. No frizz!!! The only think I'm using now as a styling product is a shine spray. Nothing else! I do not waste my time on blow-drying my hair and I get compliments on how do they look. Awesome stuff!

Faccio il trattamento non più di una volta al mese. Per le istruzioni ho dovuto trovare dei tutorial perché è un prodotto che qui Italia non è diffusissimo. Tuttavia non è complicato, richiede solo un po' di tempo. Faccio lo shampoo, tampono bene i capelli e dustribuisco lo step 1 pettinando, facendo attenzione a non spargerlo su vestiti e viso, perché appiccica. Fatto questo bisogna aspettare che si solidifichi, ci vorrà almeno mezz'ora ma dipende dalla lunghezza dei capelli, i miei sono molto lunghi. Ci si può aiutare col phon, l'importante è che sia al minimo della ventilazione e non scombini tutto. Al termine, quando i capelli induriscono del tutto, sciacquare bene con acqua tiepida, tamponare e passare lo step 2, è un balsamo, lasciare in posa per pochi minuti, sciacquare e procedere con la piega. Io prima della piega uso un siero protettivo per il calore alla cheratina. Il risultato è simile ad un trattamento di laminazione dal parrucchiere e i capelli sono visibilmente più lucidi, morbidi, gestibili.

my hair was gummy and completely ruined from bleach! or so i thought! i did an intensive bleaching treatment to get from dark brown to bleach blonde and oh boy did i get there, but my hair felt like wet overcooked noodles and i thought there was no saving it, it was gummy, stringy, it wouldn’t dry, and i couldn’t stop crying because we’ve all seen those videos right? the ones where people lose all of their hair because of over processed bleach, well i thought that was going to be me, but aphogee saved me. i could not recommend this product enough, the whole process took less than half an hour and my hair is literally silky soft again and feels like i never bleached it. if you feel like this is the end for your hair, i promise it’s not! aphogee will save you!

My hair was damaged through bleaching. Previous applied (expensive) hair products did little to help. This is amazing- it actually immediately improves both the feel and look of my hair. And it’s not that difficult to use at home. I shampoo, towel dry, apply protein product, blow dry carefully (without moving my hair too much), rinse product, condition and style. Best product I’ve used in years.

Bon effet, je fais le soin tous les 3 mois à peu près, cheveux adoucis un plaisir ! Par contre j'ai reçu la bouteille un peu coulée... Pour le prix ce serait bien que ce genre de problème n'arrive pas.

Vi muchos videos y tenía mis esoectativas. No me funcionó igual, pero si mejoró mi cabello. Solo llevo un primer tratamiento, espero que si lo aplico de nuevo, tendré mejores resultados.