The brand best known for having created the bond-building hair care category (not to mention its stellar social content) is now launching No. 9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum, a bond-building leave-in hair serum formulated to protect hair from pollution for 48 hours. Here, Olaplex CEO JuE Wong talks about the newest addition to the bond-building family, how Olaplex came to be a runaway success on social media, and how using numbers in product names will soon phase out.

When Olaplex’s newest product, No.9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum, is unveiled on the brand’s site and at Sephora on March 31 (and at a later date to Ulta beauty), it is safe to assume that it will set social media alight. The top launch in hair care in 2021 was Olaplex’s No.8 Bond Intensive Moisture Mast, according to The NPD Group. Moreover, Cosmetify’s 2021 Hair Report revealed that Olaplex, the pioneer of the bond-building hair care category, was the hottest hair brand of 2021, based on Google search data, showing an increase in searches, the number of Instagram followers and hashtag mentions, and the brand’s social media engagement rate.

“No.9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum protects hair from damage while also relinking the broken disulfide bonds” said JuE Wong, CEO of Olaplex. “Hair is a dead fiber and, unlike skin, cannot regenerate itself, hence nourishment is essential to give it the protection it needs. Think of No.9 as a nourishing, scientifically-proven protective shield that lasts for 48 hours, and the reason why that is important is pollution is everywhere, it is damaging our hair every day.”

Social Stats That Set the Bar High

Olaplex’s performance on social media, and TikTok in particular, has helped catapult the premium haircare brand status, cemented by a successful IPO last September. The brand’s Instagram has more 2.2M followers with a consistent reach of about 1M, showing the number of unique viewers that see an Instagram post on any given day. The hashtag #olaplex has been used more than 13.3M times. On TikTok, in the past two months, the brand has received 13,344,826 video views on while simultaneously growing its follower count to 178,446. The hashtag #olaplex has 802.7M views on TikTok. On Pinterest, in the past month, the brand has accrued a total audience of 1.82M, 2.69M impressions, and engagements of 93.57K.

JuE attributed Olaplex’s success on social media to “all the professionals who support us, as well as anyone seeking information, education, entertainment, and [wishing to see] transformation. Social media is the great equalizer. If you have something on your mind, you can have a discussion with one of our professionals. It is really important to give our professionals this platform to showcase what the products can do. We have 250,000 hair stylists who have signed on to be part of our community, and they continuously give us the love to be more authentic in who we are.”

Hair Care for All Hair Types 

“Some people think Olaplex is only for color-treated hair, but it is great for all hair types. Olaplex treats hair bonds, and hair bonds are agnostic, [they are] regardless of gender, age, or ethnicity,” said JuE. “If you look at a hair bond, you would not be able to tell how old the person is, their gender, or ethnicity. Where you can tell the difference is the amount of disulfide bonds (which give hair its structure, strength and stability). A product like ours with bond-building and bond-repair technology rebuilds these disulfide bonds.”

No.9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum is an antioxidant-rich, leave-in serum that smooths and protects all hair types. “No.9 is called a serum because it is loaded with active ingredients,” said JuE, who stressed that the product is not a protein treatment. In addition to Bis-Aminopropyl Diglycol Dimaleate, Olaplex’s ingredient that has over 100 worldwide patents, and that famously created the bond-building haircare category (the proprietary ingredient penetrates the hair shaft, and builds a bridge between the disulfide bonds), the serum contains red algae extract from the South of France. It also features a film-forming polymer that neutralizes free radicals, acts as a shield against pollution, guards the hair from present and future breakage, and protects against heat styling.

As with all Olaplex products, No. 9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum is free from sulfates, parabens, phthalates, gluten, and silicones, and bears the Clean at Sephora seal. The product is vegan, color-safe, and carbon neutral. It also features an airless pump for measured dosing and less waste.

Following the launch of No. 9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum, Olaplex will likely dispense with the numbered product naming. “This is why we have recently recruited a super new CMO, Charlotte Watson. We are looking at it from a different point of view because, at some point, it will be difficult to remember products by number,” she said.