Home and Straight – Brazilian Keratin Therapy

I don’t know what it is about Brazilians and their hair obsession but they do seem to have every angle covered and at the moment it’s all about keratin! Hair straightening formulas have been in the news since late last year following a law suit being lodged against one brand of salon treatment.  The controversy that has followed centred around formaldehyde and the levels that have been detected both inside the bottles and in salon air following the treatment.  This issue is something that I have been following since October 2010 and will discuss in a later blog post but for now I want to know if it is possible to go straight in the comfort of your own home.

I have to admit that when it comes to hair I leave EVERYTHING bar the washing to the guys at the funky Stevie English Hair Salon in Glebe.  So the prospect of running a hot iron over my locks (when I say hot I mean 200C) was not something I was looking forward to.   Anyhow, in the name of science investigationing I took myself down to the local supermarket and purchased the cheapest straightener I could find plus a little pack of Organix Brazilian Keratin Therapy and this is what happened next…..

Brazilian Keratin Therapy claims that it will give you smooth and silky locks for up to thirty days! Although the product looks and smells like a normal conditioner it contains a hefty proportion of keratin plus some heat-activating silicones to ensure that the hair is protected while it is being infused.  There are also some natural oils and butters plus a large dose of propylene glycol which I believe may be transformed during the heating process to give some of the activity but I have to do some more background work to prove that.  So, as you see I opted to just donate a bit of my hair for the sake of beauty science but other than that the process was painless!

So at this point it is important that I stress again the importance of following instructions.  My kids (aged 7 and 10) both showed keen interest in my experimenting and wanted to try the product and iron on their hair.  I re-iterated the fact that the iron is REALLY hot and that it can seriously frazzle and kill the hair if used incorrectly.  This is not childs play!  But neither is it something that I would feel confident in doing to my own (attached) hair. To me this whole process looks like it would require quite a high level of skill to get right.

So there you have it, lovely straight locks (so far). I have to wait another 48 hours before I can re-wash my tresses and the washing has to be done in sulfate free products – I assume that any mild formula would work and conditioners are of course permitted at this stage.  I am not sure if this will last for the whole month but am going to wash and dry my tresses every day post the 48 hours until such time that they stop looking straight.  If I was doing this properly I should have cut another bit of my hair and measured it’s straightess without the treatment – just shampoo and hair straightener  for example but I just couldn’t bare loosing any more hair!

Only time will tell but so far, so good and for around $30 this may well be worth a try.