Healthy hair

Virtue's New Protein Powder Made My Damaged, Color-Treated Hair Look Like New

I literally didn't recognize my hair.
woman with brunette hair and highlights
Elizabeth Denton/Virtue Labs

When I say my hair has been through it, I mean it's been through it. After a decade of highlights, bleach, and daily hot tools, my strands were dry and brittle. I even had some serious breakage, especially around my hairline. Back in September, Jacob Schwartz at Mèche Salon in Los Angeles gave me a color transformation, getting my hair close to my natural brunette hue. But as Schwartz reminded me, just because my hair looked healthier, didn't mean it was. So I babied it, letting my natural texture come out for the first time in years and avoided straighteners as much as possible.

Fast forward five months later and my hair improved a lot. My sad, broken pieces were longer and my hair was smoother overall. But it was still snapping when wet, proving it was missing the protein that would rebuild its structure from within. That's why I jumped at the chance to try hair-care brand Virtue's new protein called ColorKick, to give my hair the healthy, well, kick it needed.

I was already a fan of Virtue. Its Recovery Shampoo received an Allure Best of Beauty 2017 award for good reason. Thanks to a star ingredient called Alpha Keratin 60ku, a protein extracted from real human hair, my strands feel stronger after each wash. Virtue ColorKick is a powder version of this exact protein, created to add to any hair dye or bleach. Think of it this way: when you color your hair, the shaft opens to allow the dye molecules to penetrate. If the strands stay open, your hair becomes porous and begins to look and feel damaged. According to Virtue, adding Alpha Keratin 60ku Reactive to the dye fills the hair shaft with protein and seals the cuticle, leaving behind shiny, healthy hair. Sign me up.

ColorKick is only available in salons, so I headed back to Mèche to see colorist Liz Jung. Jung works with celebs including Isla Fisher, Katherine McPhee, and Riley Keough, so I knew I was in great hands. We formed a game plan together. Jung wanted to break up my dark-brown hair with subtle highlights, creating a bronze shade. I was nervous about using bleach again after my breakage disaster, but Jung assured me that adding ColorKick would protect my hair.

Virtue Labs

ColorKick comes in these cute (if you can use that descriptor about a hair product) vials of golden powder. It dissolves right into dye or bleach. Unlike bonding treatments, it doesn't add to the processing time, so it's not an extra service. (Yay for shorter salon trips.) Plus, it can actually improve the way your hair takes color. "The shade is more true to the color we're applying," Jung explains. "Because if your hair is super porous and damaged, the dye will overfill the shaft and then spit it back out again." It's why damaged hair takes a lot of color, but fades quickly (been there). So in essence, the color you'll get on your head is the color you see on the box, as ColorKick fills the shaft with keratin, giving the color a base to stick to so it's more vibrant and stays true longer. Jung recommends it for anyone with chemically-treated hair. "I'm using it all the time on my color correcting clients. I trust that ColorKick will make my hair color on point," she says.

Hair Dye and a ColorKick Vial

Virtue Labs LLC

Jung alternated lowlights and highlights, both with ColorKick in them.

It takes a village.

Virtue Labs

The bronze shade turned out gorgeous but even better, my hair felt insanely soft. Stylist Stacy Ho blew it out straight and trimmed it into a bob with slight layers for movement. I'm being perfectly honest when I say that as I was pulling photos for this story, I didn't recognize the back of my head. I don't think my hair has been that shiny since I had virgin hair in middle school.

Whose hair is that?Virtue Labs

With waves.

Virtue Labs

According to cosmetic chemist Ni’kita Wilson, the reason my hair felt so smooth was because Virtue's "specialized keratin binds to hair to truly fill in gaps of damaged strands, which helps how the light reflects off of hair." Wilson agrees that human keratin in better for your hair because it's more of a direct replacement of the keratin you're missing. "Most proteins are extracted from something like sheep’s wool, vegetables, or grains," she explains. "Color wreaks havoc on hair and destroys the protein, so reinforcing the strands will help protect them when going through the dyeing process.

Want to try it out yourself? Head to the Virtue's website to find a salon near you that carries ColorKick. Since it's a new service, more and more salons will start offering it. In the meantime, you can also try the Restructuring Shampoo, Conditioner, and Restoritive Treatment Mask for daily protein and repairing action. You might just turn your hot mess into healthy-looking hair as I did.

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