I'm a big fan of Blackstrap Molasses. The first time I used it was after I saw a thread on it on BHM - in regards to it stopping breakage. It was just what I needed as I was experiencing excessive breakage. It worked really well for me and pretty much stopped the breakage in its tracks.
A few posters in that thread believe it's a protein treatment. I'm not entirely sure about this theory, as many (including mine) bottles of molasses say they contain no protein at all ... so I don't really see the logic there.
The molasses treatment does, however, strengthen hair LIKE a protein treatment would. I gather it's just some other substance in it that does the job, similar to how henna or cassia strengthen via tannins.
Some mix it with other stuff like eggs or oils. I've tried it with eggs a few times and thought it worked better when I used straight molasses. The reason I haven't used it in a while was because it seemed to changed my hair colour and give it a brown tinge... that said, my hair has always kinda been a light colour ... so may be I was imagining things. But if I was to ever experience another bout of breakage, I wouldn't hesitate to grab my jar again. It worked reeeeaaaaaallllyyyy well.