Pros and Cons of Keratin Hair Straightening Treatment

For all you straight hair-o-philiacs out there, keratin hair treatment can be a great thing. It makes your hair look smoother and straight.

The keratin substance used has restorative properties that can strengthen and nurture your hair for an extended amount of time.

Of course, there is a darker side to everything which you will have to consider.

Here, we will look at the advantages and disadvantages of keratin hair straightening treatment and why you should or shouldn’t consider applying the treatment on yourself.

Before we dive into the pros and the cons of the treatment, we must make sure that we know what the treatment is.

What is Brazilian Keratin Treatment?

Keratin hair treatment is the process by which a hair stylist will apply the keratin substance onto your hair. The procedure is somewhat similar to the Japanese Yuko System in that it involves using a hot flat iron to place the product into the hair cuticle.

After the treatment is over, you usually have to wait a couple of days before you can wash or tie up your hair. Even tucking your hair behind your ear can mess up the integrity of the treatment. After the wait period, the treatment sets in and you’ll have smooth, straight hair for at least 12 weeks. Waiting time and treatment effect time both are affected by the type of hair you have. Length and texture of hair are two important factors.

Now that we know quite a bit about this form of treatment, we can move onto its pros and cons.

The Pros

I have already mentioned some before. They will still be included in this list of pros:

  • Straightens and smoothens hair which makes it not only more aesthetic and visually appealing but also allows easier maintenance. Meaning, you can wash and blow dry your hair in a shorter amount of time. If you are getting ready to go somewhere, that time is valuable.
  • Keratin is a natural protein that is already found in human hair. Applying more of it to damaged hair is like adding more bricks to a broken building.
  • The keratin product used can be applied to any type of hair. You may have used chemicals, dyes or highlights in your hair in the past but it doesn’t matter. You can still get a keratin treatment.
  • The keratin product has restorative properties. It can strengthen your hair and make it look more rich and healthy. You will no longer worry about hair fall and discoloration. There will soon come a time when you will completely forget what a bad hair day feels like.

The Cons

Before you get excited to run towards the salon near you, here is the dark side to the light I was talking about:

  • Contains toxic chemicals like formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a nasty substance that can cause several things to go wrong in a living thing. To begin with, you can already feel irritations in your skin, nose and eyes when the hair stylist is applying it into your hair. It is also highly carcinogenic, which means it can cause cancer.
  • Each treatment can be quite expensive depending on your hair length. The price can go as high as $700. The treatment isn’t permanent so you have to go to the salon every 3 months to redo the whole thing. That gives you more exposure to the carcinogenic and toxic formaldehydes.

The Bottom Line

If you are wondering “does Brazilian hair treatment work?” then the answer is, yes it works.

However it’s not a permanent solution and you have to do it again & again, before you take a visit to the hair salon and get a keratin treatment, consider the pros and cons and ask yourself if it is worth it or not.

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