Get All The Details Regarding Hair-Smoothing Treatments

Do You Know How They Work? And If They're Safe?

Made busier by her strawberry-blonde hair was Tara Kennedy’s mornings. It expanded to Little Orphan Annie dimensions on even slightly humid days as it was thick with tight curls. Taking more than an hour and a half and a dozen styling products was taming it for the 32-year-old lawyer from Long Island. She then says she would feel exhausted and exasperated by the time she left for work. 

Subsequently, as she spent $350 and also three hours in a beauty salon on a keratin hair smoothing treatment, that changed. She now says that twice a week she washes her hair, blow-dry it for five minutes, and also flat-iron it for 12. Whatever the weather, it's straight, shiny, and soft as she loves it. 

The Hair Smoothing Process

As John Vater, a long-time colourist who owns Spa Adriana, a salon in Huntington, N.Y, says no matter they are called keratin smoothing or Brazilian treatments, these salon frizz-fighters now work by thereby breaking apart those certain bonds in your hair and then finally gluing them back together to form a sleek new pattern. 

You would see amino acids arranging themselves in what looks like a ladder if the hair is straight or a spiral staircase if it's curly if you magnified a strand of hair a few hundred times. Forming the steps of those amino acids are disulphide bonds or linked sulphur atoms. The more erratically they arrange themselves, the curlier your hair is the more disulphide bonds your tresses have. 

Working like this is the salon: 

Following a deep cleansing shampoo, the stylist then applies a straightening solution to the hair. Meticulously flat ironing it at a high temperature he blow-dries the hair straight. Helping hair strands maintain their new shape for three to six months as that creates a waterproof seal. Cutting down dramatically on-at-home blow drying time is this. 

Are Hair-Smoothing Treatments Safe?

Linked to problems including headaches, teary eyes, and skin rashes are some keratin hair products containing formaldehyde. 

Such as salon workers, rather than people like Kennedy who straighten their hair every few months, formaldehyde exposure is a bigger risk to people who work with it. Advising consumers to limit exposure to products that contain formaldehyde is the FDA. 

That which does the service in a well-ventilated area, be sure to choose the salon. Vater then explains you need to do the homework as you ask for the exact name of the product they use to the salon and then Google that name along with the material safety data sheet. 

That is found to be swapping out formaldehyde for gentler ingredients, try one of the new smoothing treatments. Leaving hair frizz-free and shiny but not stick-straight, rather than breaking the hair’s disulphide bonds, they bend or suspend them. 

Seeing this as an advantage, Vater says here you do not come to be stuck with one-note hair that still doesn’t curl. You can achieve broken waves or soft spiral curls if you want, instead as you have the volume at the roots. 

Curl Power

Instead of straightening your hair, do you want to embrace your curls? Follow these tips:  

Choose the right cut. 

Ask for a cut that gives your ringlets a structured silhouette to avoid what San Diego hairstylist Don Bewley describes as curly hair that looks like a topiary. Save for a few face-framing pieces and a sharp line at the ends this means long layers no shorter than six inches. 

Use moisturizing products. 

Less likely to soak up humidity is well-hydrated hair. By using a moisturising shampoo and conditioner in the shower build a frizz-defense. Immediately apply a leave-in conditioner or styling product that contains silicone squeezing out extra water. Stylist Natasha Sunshine, owner of Byu-ti Hair Therapy salon in Santa Monica, Calif says the hair is most submissive while it's still wet. 

Do the twist.

Sunshine suggests taking small sections of your damp hair and wrap around your fingers twirling away from your face. While your hair air-dries into soft, shiny curls, then keep your hands off. 

Have a go-to style. 

Pull your waves into a tight braid with a nickel-sized mix of hair gel and leave-in conditioner on days when you don’t have time for curl control. Stylist Tina Dizon, owner of The Private Room, a Beverly Hills, Calif., salon now says more chic and more modern than a slick ponytail is this.