From our Guest Blogger:
It had taken me a while to move forward with getting a Keratin Hair Treatment. You know -- the one that they called "the Brazilian." This is supposed to make your hair straight but not flat, and it's supposed to cut blow-drying time in half.
I finally did it this week, so I told my friends at Royale Maison that I would chronicle my experience.
So here goes:
You should do your Kertain Hair Treatment right after your color. If you do the treatment first, you have to wait two weeks for color. So schedule accordingly.
Colleen did the treatment for me, and we started by washing my hair twice with a clarifying shampoo that is supposed to get all the product and other daily crud out of the hair. Then we went to put on the product.
The product is not painful to put on, though there is a bit of a fume. It wasn't horrible or unpleasant -- just something I was aware of sometimes during the process. Even though you can't wear a mask over your head -- the back of your hair has to be loose and free for the process, it helped to have a little towel to block the fumes. It helped that we were in a well-ventilated area as well. But if you're thinking about traditional hair straightening processes, don't worry. No burning, no itching...
It was kind of like having an all-over color put on.
After the treatment is applied, I waited fifteen minutes so that the Keratin Hair Treatment could do its magic. Then Colleen dried my hair completely with a blowdryer and a paddle brush, and then -- this is where the time-consuming part comes in.
The hair has to be flatironed in teeny-tiny sections over and over -- like seven times for each section. This takes a while, especially if you're like me and you have a lot of hair. But since the Royale Maison team had talked to me in advance about the time is would take to do this process, I was well-prepared.
When it was finished, my hair looked great! It was straight but not flat -- just as promised! It also felt really, really good. Do you remember that Japanese thermal treatment everyone was doing a few years back? THAT made your hair feel papery and unnatural, and it left the hair dull and with no shine at all. The Keratin Hair Treatment made my hair -- so far -- look really shiny and healthy.
The protocol says that I can't get my hair wet or do anything to it for three days. Crossing my fingers that it doesn't rain!
OK -- the deal is that in three days' time, I will go back and get my hair washed and styled, and then I have to use the special shampoo and conditioner on my hair.
I'll let you know how it goes!
