Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo: An In-Depth Review of Ingredients and Benefits

The Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo has gained popularity for its ability to repair and strengthen damaged hair. This article delves into the key ingredients and benefits of this shampoo, providing a comprehensive overview for consumers seeking to understand its formulation and potential effects.

Benefits of Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo

This shampoo offers a multitude of benefits for hair health, including:

• Ultimate Strength Repair: The shampoo provides ultimate strength repair.
• Intense Conditioning: It offers intense conditioning.
• Color Fade Protection: It helps protect against color fade.
• Reinforces Weakened Bonds: The concentrated bonding care complex reinforces weakened bonds within your hair to improve hair strength and resilience.
• pH Balancing: The pH-balancing formula has an acidic pH to defend against the negative effects of hair coloring, styling tools, and even water (which has a pH of 7), to balance hair's pH back into a healthy range of 4.5-5.5.
• Suitable for All Hair Types and Textures: It is designed for all hair types and textures.

Research-Backed Results

Clinical trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of the Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate system:

• 2x Less Breakage: When used as a system of Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo and Conditioner vs. non-conditioning shampoo.
• 82% Less Visible Split Ends: When used as a system of Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo, Conditioner, and Leave-In Treatment vs. non-conditioning shampoo.
• 11x Smoother Hair: When used as a system of Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo, Conditioner, and Leave-In Treatment vs. non-conditioning shampoo.
• Combats 1 Year of Visible Damage in 1 Use: The system of acidic bonding concentrate intensive treatment, shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in combats 1 year of visible damage in 1 use versus undamaged hair.

Fragrance Profile

The shampoo features a fresh citrus and floral fragrance with:

• Top Notes: Orange, bergamot, marine
• Middle Notes: Freesia, peach, rose
• Bottom Notes: Cedarwood, sandalwood, amber

Key Ingredients: A Detailed Breakdown

Understanding the function of each ingredient can help consumers make informed decisions. Here's a detailed look at the key components of Redken's Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo:

Read also: Shampoo and Conditioner Review: Redken

Cleansing Agents:

• Water (Aqua): The most common skincare ingredient, purified and deionized to remove mineral ions. It acts as the main solvent in the product.
• Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate: A vegetable-origin cleansing agent (from coconut or palm kernel oil and glucose) with great foaming abilities. It is mild to the skin and readily biodegradable. It's an especially important and popular ingredient in "syndet bars" (or soapless soaps). Dr. Leslie Baumann says in her great Cosmetic Dermatology book that thanks to the unique molecular characteristic of Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, it "has defined a new dimension in the mildness of cleansing bars".
• Cocamidopropyl Betaine: A super common ingredient in all kinds of cleansing products: face and body washes, shampoos, and foam baths. It is used for bubbles and is great at stabilizing them. It’s mild and works very well combined with other cleansing agents and surfactants. It helps to balance properly cleansing but not over-cleansing. It’s synthetic and highly biodegradable.

Bonding and pH Balancing:

• Citric Acid: An alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that comes from citrus fruits. It helps reinforce weakened bonds. According to a comparative study done in 1995, citric acid has less skin improving magic properties than glycolic or lactic acid.
• Sodium Hydroxide: The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right. For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed. BTW, lye is not something new. It was already used by ancient Egyptians to help oil and fat magically turn into something else. Can you guess what? Yes, it’s soap. It still often shows up in the ingredient list of soaps and other cleansers. Sodium hydroxide in itself is a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totally harmless.

Conditioning and Moisturizing Agents:

• Panthenol: An easy-to-formulate, commonly used ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin. It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. If that wasn’t enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products. As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there.
• Dimethicone: Probably the most common silicone of all. As for skincare, it makes the skin silky smooth, creates a subtle gloss and forms a protective barrier (aka occlusive). Also, works well to fill in fine lines and wrinkles and give skin a plump look (of course that is only temporary, but still, it's nice). There are also scar treatment gels out there using dimethicone as their base ingredient. It helps to soften scars and increase their elasticity. As for hair care, it is a non-volatile silicone meaning that it stays on the hair rather than evaporates from it and smoothes the hair like no other thing.

Other Functional Ingredients:

• PPG-5-Ceteth-20: A helper ingredient that can solubilize challenging oils and oil-loving actives into cleansing products. It also has emollient, emulsifying, and wetting properties.
• Sodium Benzoate: A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative. It’s pH dependent and works best at acidic pH levels (3-5).
• Sodium Chloride: The fancy name of salt. It acts as a fantastic thickener in cleansing formulas created with ionic cleansing agents (aka surfactants) such as Sodium Laureth Sulfate. A couple of percents (typically 1-3%) turns a runny surfactant solution into a nice gel texture. If you are into chemistry (if not, we understand, just skip this paragraph), the reason is that electrolytes (you know, the Na+ and Cl- ions) screen the electrostatic repulsion between the head groups of ionic surfactants and thus support the formation of long shaped micelles (instead of spherical ones) that entangle like spaghetti, and viola, a gel is formed. Other than that, salt also works as an emulsion stabilizer in water-in-oil emulsions, that is when water droplets are dispersed in the outer oil (or silicone) phase.
• Acrylates Copolymer: A big molecule created from repeated subunits (a polymer of acrylic acid) that magically converts a liquid into a nice gel formula. It usually has to be neutralized with a base (such as sodium hydroxide) for the thickening to occur and it creates viscous, clear gels that also feel nice and non-tacky on the skin. No wonder, it is a very popular and common ingredient.
• Fragrance (Parfum): Nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. If you are someone who likes to know what you put on your face then fragrance is not your best friend - there's no way to know what’s really in it. Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics.
• Isostearyl Alcohol: A light emollient ester (C8-10 fatty acids connected to C12-18 fatty alcohols) that absorbs quickly and leaves a dry but silky finish on the skin.
• Amodimethicone: A modified dimethicone-type silicone molecule that also contains amino-groups. Having amino-groups means that Amodimethicone also has Nitrogen in its molecule that likes to have a positive charge. Positively charged (or quaternised) molecules are substantive to skin and hair as those are negatively charged surfaces and are excellent film formers.
• Glycol Distearate: A so-called diester created from two stearic acid molecules and an ethylene glycol molecule. Its main thing is being an opacifier and pearling agent in cleansing products making them white and glossy.
• Limonene: A super common and cheap fragrance ingredient. It's in many plants, e.g. rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and it's the main component (about 50-90%) of the peel oil of citrus fruits. It does smell nice but the problem is that it oxidizes on air exposure and the resulting stuff is not good for the skin. Oxidized limonene can cause allergic contact dermatitis and counts as a frequent skin sensitizer. Limonene's nr1 function is definitely being a fragrance component, but there are several studies showing that it's also a penetration enhancer, mainly for oil-loving components. All in all, limonene has some pros and cons, but - especially if your skin is sensitive - the cons probably outweigh the pros.

How to Use

1. Apply a quarter-sized amount to wet hair, lather, and rinse. Increase the amount based on hair type.
2. Follow with Acidic Bonding Concentrate Conditioner and Acidic Bonding Leave-In Treatment.
3. In case of contact with eyes, rinse them immediately.

Sunburn Alert

This product contains an Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) that may increase your skin's sensitivity to the sun and particularly the possibility of sunburn. It is advisable to use sunscreen and limit sun exposure while using this product.

Read also: Thickening Shampoo Review: Redken

Read also: Is Redken's Dandruff Shampoo Effective?

tags: #redken #acidic #bonding #concentrate #shampoo #review

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