The Inkey List’s PCA bond repair vs Olaplex’s No.0 bond building: Which hair treatment is best?

With such rave reviews across the board for its skincare products, we had high hopes for this hair treatment by The Inkey List. The spray features an exclusive ingredient to the brand – granrepair powerbond – a bond technology that is said to protect, strengthen and help repair hair damaged by bleach, dye and heat. While other ingredients including betain and aquarich, condition the hair and prevent split ends from forming. So far, so good.

We loved how The Inkey List version came in a simple mist spray – some of these treatments feel as though you’re spending time you don’t have on your hair, but thankfully this is just a quick spritz after you’ve washed the hair. Like the rest of the range, the bottle is jargon free – giving you straight to the point instructions on when best to use it and how many sprays you should be using, depending on how thick or long our hair is.

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The whole bottle, including the pump, is 100 per cent recyclable – which is a big thumbs up when it comes to the future of sustainability in the beauty industry. We felt 10 sprays of the treatment was enough to cover our hair, and we loved how light it felt, unlike some other heavy-duty sprays that weigh the hair down.

Straight away, after blow drying, our hair felt thicker and after a few uses our locks felt stronger and shinier. After another week of using it we also saw less split ends, which is a bonus in the middle of lockdown. As you’re only using a few spritzes on your hair each time the bottle also lasts for a while – so you really are getting value for money.

Priced at just £12.99, it’s less than half the price of Olaplex’s offering and really does feel like an affordable luxury for the hair.

Olaplex is the name on most hairdresser’s lips when you ask about protecting your colour damaged hair – it’s patented technology, Bis-Aminopropyl Diglycol Dimaleate, is its key ingredient. This works to repair the disulfide bonds in our locks, which ultimately give our hair its structure and strength – but can be broken down by too much colouring or heat.

The treatments also work on closing the cuticles, which get exposed when hair is coloured – meaning colour looks more vibrant for longer. But can it tame our frizzy locks after years of colouring and is it worth double the price of The Inkey List version?

The No.0 bond building is best used when paired with the brands No.3 hair perfector (£26, Lookfantastic.com)– its original bestselling product. Its main job is to reduce breakage and repair the hair from the inside out. They work together well as the No.0 treatment acts like an intensive primer on the hair, encouraging the No.3 treatment sitting on top to work even harder.

We applied the No.0 on dry hair, making sure to get the same amount on each section. Easy to apply, it actually smelled nicer than we were expecting. After waiting ten minutes we applied the No.3 Olaplex hair perfector over it and waited another ten minutes.

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After washing the treatment out, we were worried that it would leave a greasy residue, as it felt heavy on our hair, but instead we were left with soft and glossy locks. After a couple of days, we could really notice the difference – our hair looked noticeably shinier and with far less split ends – almost giving it a coat of shining armour to protect it. There was less obvious breakage when we used heat styling tools too.

We also found that our colour appeared brighter, giving the highlights more of a boost throughout our hair. The only downside is that, once paired with the No.3, it’s four times the price of The Inkey List’s version – so a big investment for the hair, rather than a budget buy.