Advice on Modifying Existing Hair Treatment

Thank you for your question regarding enhancing your L'Oreal hair treatment by adding various ingredients. While the idea of boosting your product's properties is understandable, I must strongly advise that adding a large number and variety of ingredients to an existing finished product carries a very high risk of destabilizing the original formula and may lead to the product becoming unusable or not performing as expected.

Finished products are formulated with a delicate balance of ingredients that are compatible with each other. Adding external substances, especially in the significant quantities and diversity you've listed, can result in:

• Formula Separation: The new ingredients may not be compatible with the existing emulsion in the treatment, causing the cream to separate into water and oil phases.
• Texture Changes: The product's consistency might become too thick, too thin, or lumpy.
• Reduced Effectiveness: Some ingredients might react with each other or with the original treatment's components, reducing the efficacy of the beneficial substances.
• Microbial Contamination: Opening the container and adding multiple ingredients, along with the heating and mixing process at home, increases the risk of bacterial or fungal contamination. This can cause the product to spoil quickly or potentially be harmful to your scalp and hair, even with the addition of a preservative like Mild Preserved Eco™. The original product's preservation system may not be sufficient to handle all these changes.

Considerations regarding your proposed process and ingredients:

1. Heating Ingredients 2-8: Many ingredients in this group, such as Cetyl Alcohol and Butter Cream Maker™, require heat to melt and help form the cream or emulsion. Your heating step follows basic formulation principles. However, adding a heated mixture (even if slightly cooled) to a finished treatment that is typically at room temperature can shock the original treatment's emulsion structure, potentially causing it to break.
2. Quantity of Added Ingredients: You plan to add approximately 40g/ml of ingredients to 100ml of existing treatment. This is a very high addition rate relative to the original product volume. Adding substances at such high proportions carries a significant risk of severe instability in the original formula.
3. Ingredient Compatibility: Your chosen ingredients include various groups: cationic conditioning agents (like BTAC, CTAC, Comb Force Reducer, KeraQuat™, Condi B5™), silicone emulsions (Micro-bis XL™, Hair-Cond XL™, Hair-cond SM™, Clear Cond™), multiple types of keratin (Pure Keratin™, KeraStraight™, Hydrolyzed Keratin), humectants (Sodium Lactate, Sodium PCA), and others. Mixing a large number of ingredients with different charges and properties without compatibility testing can lead to precipitation or loss of effectiveness.
4. KeraStraight™: According to product information, KeraStraight™ (Glyoxyloyl Carbocysteine (and) Glyoxyloyl Keratin Amino Acids) is designed for temporary hair straightening and requires high heat (200-230°C) from a straightening iron to be fully activated. Adding 3ml to a large volume of treatment, without specifying a heat styling step after application, is unlikely to provide any noticeable straightening effect. The amount used may also be too low for significant results (recommended at 20% or higher).
5. HeatPlex™: Regarding your additional question about using HeatPlex™ (Cystine Bis-PG-Propyl Silanetriol), HeatPlex™ is an ingredient that helps protect hair from heat and bonds with hair protein when heat is applied (e.g., from blow-drying or straightening). Adding HeatPlex™ to this formula is possible if you intend to use heat on your hair after applying the modified treatment. However, compatibility with other ingredients and the appropriate usage rate (recommended 5-30% for treatments) would still need to be considered.

Recommendation:

Given the high risks involved, I strongly advise against mixing this complex and extensive list of ingredients into your existing finished hair treatment. Attempting this at home is very difficult to control and has a high probability of the product failing.

A safer and more effective approach would be:

• Use individual ingredients separately: Continue using your L'Oreal treatment as usual and use some of the ingredients you are interested in as supplementary products. For example, use Hair Plex™ mixed with water as recommended for a bond-building treatment, or use a keratin serum like Pure Keratin™ or Hydrolyzed Keratin on your hair ends.
• Formulate a new treatment from scratch: If you truly want to customize your hair treatment with these ingredients, starting a new formulation from scratch using appropriate bases and incorporating your desired ingredients at their recommended usage rates would provide much more predictable results and allow for better control over formula stability.

Modifying finished products by adding other substances should be done with extreme caution and is usually limited to adding only one or two easily compatible ingredients in very small amounts.