Olaplex No.4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo
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250 mL salon bond-repair pick. Built around patented bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, which Olaplex says relinks broken disulfide bonds in chemically damaged and bleached hair (independent studies are limited); sulfate-free but not silicone-free (contains amodimethicone), a maintenance shampoo paired with the No.0 and No.3 pre-shower treatments for the full regimen. About 30 dollars per bottle works out to roughly 6x the cost-per-wash of the drugstore tier and is only justified for chemically damaged hair — virgin or lightly heat-styled hair is overkill; no fragrance variety across the line, so fragrance-sensitive users have no alternative scent; No.4 alone without No.0 and No.3 delivers less than the marketing implies.
Salon bond-repair pick — 250 mL bottle of the formula built around the patented bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, which Olaplex says relinks broken disulfide bonds in chemically damaged and bleached hair; sulfate-free (no SLS/SLES) but not silicone-free — it lists amodimethicone; the salon-grade maintenance shampoo paired with No.0 and No.3 for the full bond-repair regimen. The cost-per-wash works out to roughly 6x the drugstore tier and is only justified for bond-damaged hair — virgin or lightly heat-styled hair is overkill on the chemistry and overpaying on cleansing; no fragrance variety across the line so fragrance-sensitive users have no alternative scent option; No.4 alone without No.0 and No.3 underdelivers the bond repair the marketing implies.
Olaplex No.4 Bond Maintenance is the only shampoo in this comparison built around a patented bond-repair active — bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, which Olaplex says relinks disulfide bonds broken by bleach and high-pH chemical processing. The 250 mL bottle is sulfate-free (no SLS/SLES) but not silicone-free — it lists amodimethicone. The mechanism is described in Olaplex's patent and company materials; independent studies are limited. The trade-offs are honest: cost-per-wash is roughly 6x the drugstore tier; the chemistry only justifies itself for bond-damaged hair from bleach or heavy chemical processing; and No.4 alone without the No.0 and No.3 treatments underdelivers the bond repair the marketing implies — the realistic regimen is the full No.0/No.3/No.4 sequence, not the shampoo alone.
Pros
- Built around the patented bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate that Olaplex says relinks disulfide bonds in bleach-damaged hair
- Sulfate-free (no SLS/SLES); contains amodimethicone for conditioning
- Salon-grade formula calibrated for chemically processed hair
Cons
- Cost-per-wash is 5-7x the drugstore tier and only justified for bond-damaged hair
- No.4 alone underdelivers — the full No.0+No.3+No.4 regimen is required for the chemistry to perform
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