Do you have dry, frizzy and shapeless hair?
Are you going to straighten it with keratin?
WAIT!
Don’t do it yet.
There’s something you need to know.
Did you know there are two types of keratin straightening treatment?
There are two types of keratin straightening processes.
One is the keratin straightening process which will leave your hair smooth, silky and free of frizz.
The other is the keratin straightening process that could damage your hair.
Which of these ones would you choose?
If you are about to get your hair straighten with keratin, it is important that you choose the first one.
In today’s article I’m gonna tell you the difference between the straightening process that leaves your hair perfect and the keratin straightening treatment that can damage your hair. And on top of that it’s dangerous for your health.
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The two types of keratin treatments and why I hate some hairdressers
There are two types of treatments that use keratin.
I like to call them the good ones and the bad ones.
Good treatments are those who leave the hair better than it was before. Eliminate frizz, leaving the hair smooth and much healthier.
Then there are the bad treatments. They are bad not because they misbehave. They are bad because they damage the hair and can be bad for the person’s health.
Let me introduce you to Kate and Heather.
Kate chose to get a treatment of the bad kind. Of the kind that damage the hair.
Heather chose to get a treatment of the good kind.
I leave you with them so they can tell you about their experiences.
Hi there I’m Kate.
I’m 24 years old.
Let me tell you my hair’s story.
I was about to finish college.
So for the graduation ceremony I decided that I wanted to do something special with my hair. It was a very important moment in my life and I wanted to shine.
I went to a salon and the hairdresser and I decided that the best thing for my hair was a keratin straightening treatment.
My hair looked amazing. It had never being so straight and shiny. It was just what I had pictured for that very special moment in my life.
But the excitement didn’t last long.
A few days before the graduation my hair was a mess. Dry, frizzy, brittle. I don’t understand what happened. In just a couple of days it went from perfect to hideous.
There was no time to repair it. I had to go to my graduation with my hair looking like that.
That was sad.
But hey, it’s just hair.
Now let me introduce you to Heather.
Hi I’m Heather.
Carina asked me if I could write a few words for her blog.
Two months ago I became a mother.
Like all mothers I started to have problems with my hair after giving birth.
I was not only losing a lot of hair. In addition to that my hair was dry and shapeless. I found it very difficult to brush it.
My maternity leave was about to end in just a couple of weeks and I had to get back to work. But I couldn’t show to work looking like that. I needed to do something.
I went to a salon and asked for something that will better my hair as fast as possible.
And they did a keratin straightening process.
My hair was great.
Shiny, silky and free of frizz. Now brushing it is no longer a torture. The brushing is so easy that sometimes I think it’s someone else’s hair. I’m delighted with the treatment.
Now I’m gonna go back to work with an amazing hair.
I am happy.
Thanks Carina.
Which straightening process did Katie had?
Which straightening process did Heather had?
If you read carefully you noticed that both of them had the same straightening treatment. The keratin straightening.
They both had pretty messed up hair and they both hoped for similar results.
Then why Katie’s hair was ruined and Heather’s wasn’t?
I’ve been a professional hairdresser for 20 years now.
I love my job.
I go to bed thinking about hair and I wake up thinking about hair.
Let me tell you a secret.
Sometimes I also dream with new ideas for haircuts or hairstyles.
I’m a total freak.
But there’s something I do not like about this line of work.
Something that really makes my blood boils.
Something that makes me so mad that I just want to go live on a desert island where I can no longer see any hairdressers or salons.
Today I wanna talk about the hairdressers who endanger people’s health. (please read that again).
They do treatments which contain highly harmful and dangerous ingredients.
Why do such a thing?
Very simple. So their clients leave their salon happy.
They use low quality products that they buy at low cost. Then at the salon they offer them as premium quality treatments.
The customers go to their salons for a perfect straight hair free of frizz.
And these unscrupulous hairdressers give their customers exactly what they want. A completely straight hair that’s also free of frizz.
The problem is that to leave the hair looking like that these treatments use an ingredient called formaldehyde.
This is an ingredient that high concentrations can be dangerous and it’s even banned.
These lying, unscrupulous hairdressers do treatments that have high concentrations of formaldehyde.
They do that because they are effective and give good results. But formaldehyde in high concentrations can cause serious health problems.
Those are the hairdressers that give us a bad reputation, even when some of us want to do things right. Those who love this line of work beyond some extra dollars at the end of the month.
Can you imagine the difference between the treatment that Kate had compared with the one Heather had?
Heather had a high quality keratin treatment. So her hair was pretty well at the end.
The product used on her hair had low concentrations of formaldehyde.
Kate is a student and didn’t have much money. The hairdresser offered her a treatment that would leave her hair exactly as she wanted at a low price.
The price was so low because the hairdresser was using poor quality products which contained high concentrations of formaldehyde.
The treatment did straighten her hair. But after a few days her hair had an adverse reaction to formaldehyde and this ruined it.
In case there are still any doubts I’ll say it again.
Keratin treatment is not dangerous.
What it is dangerous is the keratin treatments which contain high concentrations of formaldehyde. These are the treatments that should be avoided.
So that’s it. Now you know the difference between a treatment that will straighten your hair and leave it smooth and shiny and a straightening treatment that may damage it.
What to do now?
How can we choose a salon that uses high quality products for the process?
How can we avoid the awful sensation of seeing our hair ruined?
How to choose a salon for a keratin straightening process? Brands and prices
I always recommend assessing these four things before getting a Keratin treatment at a salon we do not know yet.
1- Search on line reviews
2- Ask people you know
3- Treatment’s price
4- Product’s brand
Let’s look at each one of these points in depth.
1- Look for reviews
Nowadays with Google and social networks is very easy to find opinions about everything. My first advice before going to a salon you do not know would be to look for opinions on the Internet.
What people who already went to the hairdresser is saying?
Did they get good results?
If there are no reviews I would avoid that salon.
I dont know where you live but there are many inescropolous people out there pretending to be stylists and they know nothing.
2- Ask people you know
Another option would be to just go to a salon people you know went, got hair treatments and would recommend it.
We are not talking about a purely aesthetic matter. We are talking about health.
Using a poor quality product with high concentrations of formaldehyde can be dangerous to your health.
3- Product’s Brand
Another factor to take into consideration would be the product brand that is gonna be used in the treatment.
The product must be of a recognized brand.
It might seem obvious but not everyone take this into account.
There are branded and generic products. I always recommend choosing treatments and salons that use branded products.
Why?
Because they are backed by the agencies that control the use of these kind of products.
These agencies are the ones in charge of checking that the allowed quantities of formaldehyde are being used. They are the ones that check that the product is not harmful or dangerous to your health.
How to know if a product is branded or not?
I understand that you probably aren’t a hairdresser and that surely you do not know all keratin brands. Moreover there are many brands that are only available for sale to professional salons.
So let’s talk about a way to know if a product is from a renowned brand or is a generic one.
- The packaging must look professional. It has to be labeled and the ingredients must be listed.
- It has to appear on the Internet. It may seem obvious but if the brand is not on the Internet then the Keratin isn’t very trusty.
- Nowadays everyone has a web page. If the company does not have an infrastructure to have their own web page then it isn’t trusty.
- The last and most important one. It must be endorsed by the control agencies. In USA that would be USDA.
In order to not leave you in a blank, I’m gonna name some keratin treatments brands that are of an excellent quality.
- Alfaparf
- Keratin Reasearch
- Inoar
- salerm
- Coppola
- Complex
4- Price
Good quality products are expensive. A keratin treatment using good quality products in a professional salon is expensive.
If a salon offers you a treatment for a very low price it is because they do it with low quality products.
Good quality keratin treatments can cost from $90 to $120.
Needless to say that everything depends on the city where you live and the salon’s characteristics.
If the treatment’s cost is much less than what I mentioned before that’s because it has some kind of trick behind it.
How is your hair going look after the Keratin treatment?
Before discussing the treatment’s results, I would like to explain what a keratin treatment really is.
Keratin is a protein. It is one of the main components of our hair.
Sometimes the hair loses keratin for numerous reasons. It may be due to the products we use to wash it, use of hair irons and dryers or for the weather itself.
All these things cause the hair to lose keratin and life.
The hair loses its shape and it looks dry, brittle and frizzy. The great solution for this is a Keratin treatment.
What is a Keratin treatment?
It is a restorative treatment that restores your hair.
A Keratin treatment restores the keratin that your hair lost. The hair gets its shape back and frizz disappears.
Let’s go through the keratin straighten process results one more time.
- The hair gets straighten
- Without frizz
- Silky
- Shiny
Conclusions and how to make the effects last longer
The keratin effects can last between a month and two months.
The more you take care of the treatment the longer its effects will last.
You must understand that these kind of treatments are very delicate. They wear off easily.
Everyday life itself wears the treatment off.
There are several things we can do to take care of the treatment.
Sulfate free shampoo and conditioner
The first thing we need to do is choose sulfate free products. Like shampoo and conditioner.
Sulfate is an ingredient used in many shampoos and conditioners.
The problem is that it is an ingredient that tends to dry long hair and wear the treatment off. So you have to avoid it.
There are other things that wear the treatment off. The more you can avoid them or not expose yourself too much to them, the better.
Direct sun Light
The sun and the weather also wear the treatment off. You can’t do anything about the weather. But you can avoid direct sun light. If you’re going to be exposed to the sun light there are special products for this purpose like sun protector.
Hair irons and dryers
Hair irons and dryers. Here there is not that much to clarify. The more you use them the less your treatment will last. I recommend my clients to avoid them altogether.
Other harmful tratments
Other treatments and dyes. This is a matter of common sense that unfortunately few people takes into account. If you got a treatment done and the next day you get another one, the effects of the first one tend to disappear. Don’t do it. If you get a treatment done wait at least 30 days for another.
Now you know how to choose a good quality keratin treatment that won’t damage your hair. And how to take care of the treatment to not spend a fortune at the salon.
I hope this tips are useful for you.
Keratin straightening or Hair Botox treatment?
Do you know that there’s a new hair treatment called hair botox?
There’re some stylist that says that hair botox is much better than keratin.
Just a couple a weeks ago I published an article about this new incredible treatment.
What do you think?
Have you ever had a keratin straightening process? Were you satisfied with the results?
You never got an straightening process done and you’re thinking about getting one?
