Unexpected Benefits of Pre-Color Hair Treatment: A Personal Experience

Recently, I tried a slightly different routine when coloring my hair.

I wasn't conducting a formal test. I simply changed the combination of products I used.

But the result was so unexpected that it made me stop and wonder:

What just happened to my hair?

The routine was simple:

KERA-1 Pre-Treatment＞Hair Color＞HOHO Shampoo＞HOHO Treatment (Hair-care products developed for the WABI Ritual)

Before applying the color, I used KERA-1 as a pre-treatment.

I then applied the hair color as usual and rinsed it out after processing.

At that point, my hair actually felt quite rough.

Nothing particularly impressive had happened yet.

Then I shampooed with HOHO and applied the HOHO Treatment.

And that was the moment something changed.

The Texture Changed Almost Instantly

As soon as I worked the treatment through my hair, the roughness seemed to disappear.

My fingers suddenly glided through the hair.

It felt exceptionally smooth, slippery and silky — almost instantly.

That caught my attention.

I hadn't used an intensive salon treatment or added another special repair step.

Yet after drying, my hair was smooth, shiny and easy to manage.

It was a finish I hadn't expected after the way my hair had felt immediately after rinsing the color.

So I started wondering:

Was this simply the effect of the HOHO Treatment?

Or had the KERA-1 pre-treatment somehow influenced what happened later?

Could the entire sequence of products have mattered?

I decided to take a closer look at the formulas.

It started with a simple change to my usual color routine. I used KERA-1 as a pre-treatment before applying hair color.

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What Was KERA-1 Doing As Pre-Color Hair Treatment?

KERA-1 contains a keratin-derived hair-conditioning ingredient, together with Sodium Dilauramidoglutamide Lysine, an ingredient used in hair-conditioning formulations.

Interestingly, these are also among the ingredients shared between the KERA-1 formula I used and its newer formulation.

This raises an interesting possibility.

Using KERA-1 as pre-color hair treatment may have influenced the condition of the hair before it entered the subsequent shampoo and treatment steps.

But there is an important detail.

My hair did not feel silky immediately after the color was rinsed out.

It still felt rough.

So this doesn't appear to be as simple as:

KERA-1 = instantly smooth hair.

Something seemed to happen later in the process.

HOHO Shampoo Is More Than Just a Cleansing Step *HOHO Shampoo and Treatment, developed for the WABI Ritual

Looking at the HOHO Shampoo formula, there are several interesting hair-care ingredients.

These include:

Potassium Cocoyl Hydrolyzed Keratin, Sodium Lauroyl Silk Amino Acids and TEA-Cocoyl Hydrolyzed Collagen, along with betaine, PCA-Na and various amino acids.

In other words, the shampoo isn't designed simply around cleansing.

Its formulation also includes ingredients associated with conditioning the hair during the washing process.

That made me wonder whether the shampoo step was already preparing the hair for what happened next.

Then Came the HOHO Treatment

This is where I noticed the biggest change.

The HOHO Treatment contains Hydrolyzed Keratin, along with other hair-conditioning and emollient ingredients such as Squalane.

Looking at the formula, the immediate sensory change suddenly seemed a little less mysterious.

A combination of conditioning ingredients may have reduced friction at the hair surface and dramatically changed the way the hair felt between my fingers.

That could help explain the moment I experienced:

rough hair → treatment applied → suddenly silky-smooth.

But there is still another question.

This was the moment I noticed the difference. The hair had felt rough after rinsing the color — then, as I worked in the HOHO Treatment, the texture suddenly felt incredibly smooth.

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What If It Wasn't One Product — But the Sequence?

This is the part I find most interesting.

We often evaluate hair products individually.

Is this shampoo good?

Is this treatment good?

Does this pre-treatment work?

But perhaps that's not always the most interesting question.

What if the condition created by one step affects what happens in the next?

In this case, the sequence was:

KERA-1 pre-treatment＞Hair color＞HOHO Shampoo＞HOHO Treatment

Perhaps KERA-1 created a particular starting condition before coloring.

Then the coloring process changed the hair again.

The HOHO Shampoo followed.

And finally, the HOHO Treatment interacted with the hair in that condition.

I can't say that this is definitely what happened.

But from both the sensory experience and the formulas, I think it's an interesting possibility.

The result surprised me. No additional intensive treatment — just smooth, shiny, manageable hair after drying.

Was It Really Product Compatibility?

At this point, I don't think it would be appropriate to say that KERA-1 and HOHO have a proven synergistic effect.

This was one real-world experience, not a controlled experiment.

Hair condition, previous chemical treatments, color formulation, processing time, product quantity and many other factors could affect the result.

What I can say is this:

My hair felt noticeably rough immediately after rinsing the color.

Then, during the HOHO treatment step, the texture changed dramatically.

And after looking at the formulas, there are reasonable reasons why such a sensory change could occur.

But I still want to know:

Would the same thing happen without KERA-1?

Would it happen with another shampoo and treatment?

Would the result be even more noticeable on bleached or highly damaged hair?

Those are the questions I want to test next.

Sometimes the Most Interesting Discoveries Are Accidental

This experience reminded me of something.

With professional hair products, perhaps the question isn't only:

“What does this product do?”

Sometimes the more interesting question may be:

“What happens when this product is used at this particular stage, before the next one?”

I didn't expect to discover anything unusual when I colored my hair that day.

But I did.

And now I want to understand why.

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Curious to Try It Yourself?

If you're a hairstylist, colorist or hair-care professional and you're curious to experience the combination yourself, we'd be happy to hear from you.

Samples of KERA-1, HOHO Shampoo and HOHO Treatment may be available for professional testing.

→ Ask Us About Samples

Try the routine with your own color system and see what you notice.

And if you discover something interesting, we'd love to hear about your experience.

Maybe you'll discover something we haven't yet.

This article describes a personal product-use experience and observations based on the listed cosmetic ingredients. It does not establish or guarantee a synergistic effect, hair repair effect, or specific result. Results may vary depending on hair condition, chemical treatment history, products used and application conditions. Some images in this article are for illustrative purposes only and do not depict the actual experience described.