Hi everyone!
Having recently dyed my hair (bleached once and dyed red), my hair is pretty dry and frizzy. For today’s collaboration, I like to introduce By One Sii Smooth Repair Essence.
What is Smooth Repair Essence?
This is a new type of hair care product which is neither a shampoo nor a standard conditioner / treatment. This essence that is to be used with shampoo helps to reduce the ROS on our hair and scalp. Simply using the product with your regular shampoo helps to remove active oxygen from your hair and enhance the reparative effects of any treatment you may use.
The main concept of this repair essence is to remove active oxygen and residual alkali.
What is ROS?
Excessive active oxygen, reactive oxygen species (ROS), generated due to various environmental factors such as UV light, air pollution, chemical substances, magnetic waves, pesticides, etc as well as lifestyle-related disorders such as stress, excessive smoking, and alcohol consumption will cause frailty and accelerated aging.
If the excessively generated ROS remains in our body, it can react with UV light and change into the highly toxic “hydroxyl radical”, which attacks and oxidizes the cells. This reaction may lead to lifestyle-related diseases such as aging, cancer, and arteriosclerosis. It is evident how harmful toxic ROS can be to our bodies. This toxic “hydroxyl radical” also damages pigment cells and hair matrix cells (cells that generate the hair shaft) on our scalp, whitens hair and reduces hair growth capability. As a result, it causes hair loss, thinning hair, tangled and gray hair, as well as odors. It has also been said that hair dryness can be attributed to protein denaturation by ROS.
What is Residual Alkali?
Residual alkali is an alkaline agent that has penetrated into the inner part of the hair and is very difficult to remove. Services performed in a hair salon such as coloring, bleach, perm, and straightening uses agents which have alkali blended into it.
The above agents work by making the weakly acidic hair more alkaline, opening up the cuticles and allowing chemicals to penetrate. Because of this, the cuticles are always left open even after hair treatment. This leads to the leakage of nutrients and color pigments from inside the hair.
In addition, if the pH value of the hair remains alkaline, the hair will be vulnerable to external stimulus and more susceptible to damage.
As the result, the following undesirable outcomes may occur:
- Color doesn’t last long after coloring
- Hair gets dry not long after treatment
- More and more damage accumulates after perming
- Strong odors after perm or coloring
- Scalp rash or itchiness after coloring
Novel key ingredients
- Iouseki stone improves the condition of hair and scalp.
- Centaurea Cyanus Flower Extract promotes the flow in lymphatic vessels in our body, discharges waste products from the scalp, and helps promote the condition of the scalp.
- Amaranthus Caudatus seed extract blended with low-molecular-weight peptides nourishes the scalp and hair and also provides firmness to the hair.
Iouseki Stone
Iouseki Stone is a natural ore extracted from Mt. Iouzen and Mt. Tomuro in the Tomuro district, on the prefectural border between Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures in Japan. Aside from the abundance in high-quality minerals, the ore is said to have an excellent effect even amongst all the energetic ores that exist in the world. It contains precious minerals accumulated from various elements in the sea and space over hundreds of millions of years, remaining hidden on the seabed until it was brought up to the surface due to sudden crustal movement.
In the Edo period, Mt. Iouzen was directly controlled by the Kaga Maeda domain and it was an extraction site for medicinal stones and herbs. Iouseki stone was handled as a medicinal stone used exclusively by the Domain s. There is also an anecdote that when Emperor Kanmu was sick, he dissolved Iouseki stone in water and continuously drank it as a medicine until his illness was cured. Later in 1985, Iouseki stone was approved as a food additive by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, is highly regarded as an ingredient.
- Rich in high-quality natural minerals and releases a large amount of negative ions.
- High antioxidant potential from the “reduction oxidation (redox) effect”.
- Ability to absorb harmful substances due to a porous structure with plenty of large and small cavities.
- Rich in silicon and nearly 100 types of minerals.
- Soluble, able to dissolve minerals easily.
- Antiseptic, water purifying, and PH adjusting effect.
Centaurea Cyanus Flower Extract
Extract collected from cornflowers of the Asteraceae family. By promoting the flow in lymphatic vessels in our body, it helps to discharge waste products from the scalp and overall improve the condition of the scalp. This creates an environment that promotes the growth of healthy hair.
Amaranthus Caudatus seed extract
A very nutritious cereal said to be the 21st century’s principal food. It is also used as a space food. The flower has a non-withering characteristic reminiscent of its name, amaranthus, which means “never fading”, and is a symbol of immortality. In addition, Amaranthus Caudatus seed extracts increasing hair strength. Low-moยญ molecular-weight peptidesยท 2 reinforce each and every hair strand, leading to more elegant, glossy, and strong hair.
The main effects include a strong antioxidant and purifying action from the main ingredient, Iouseki stone, the promotion of detoxification of the scalp via enhancement of the natural regeneration of lymphatic vessels, and the nourishing of the scalp and hair with complex amino acids.
With removal of “reactive oxygen species (ROS)” and “residual alkali”, your hair and scalp condition with improve and you can expect the following outcomes:
- From tangled and dry hair to silky smoothness; although hair is glossy and easy to run through with your fingers, it still rises from the root and produces volume.
- Damage care for repeated hair coloring and aging gray hair
- With a revitalized scalp environment, hair elasticity and firmness will be restored.
- Prevention of gray hair and thinning hair
- Prevention of brittle hair
- Reduction of scalp smells
- Improvement in the firmness and stiffness of hair
- Suppression of tangling, dryness, and frizziness
How to Use
Mix shampoo with smooth repair essence in a 2:1 ratio (essence being half the amount of shampoo) on the palm. Firmly apply the foam to your scalp and leave it for some time. After washing your hair, use your usual conditioner and treatment to nourish the hair.
Did it work for me?
While I cannot comment if the ROS level is indeed lower and if it helps with reducing the alkali residue bringing about health benefits for my body, I could only review how it has changed my hair, or not.
I started using this By One Sii right after I bleached my hair (once) and dyed it red. The first thing to comment is that by mixing this with my shampoo (according to the 2:1 ratio), I feel that the essence makes the shampoo difficult to lather up. As a result, there is this nagging feeling that my scalp is never clean as I could not rub away the oil, dirt, and grime with the lather. Then, I tried using another shampoo that provides slightly more lather and it works now. The ratio of 2:1 is very important, and a new user may need to trial and error on which shampoo works best with the essence.
After 3 weeks of using this essence mixed with shampoo, I feel that for my bleached hair, the texture is great and I experience little frizziness / tangles. While I could not feel if my scalp health has improved, I think this essence helps in keeping my bleached hair in check.
You may also visit Devonshire Hair Studio that provides their hair spa treatment with By One sii Smooth Repair Essence from S$30!
One bottle (200g) for the essence cost SGD $58.50.
By One Sii Singapore
Thanks for reading ~
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