The Purpose Of A Keratin Treatment.
It's coming up on two weeks since I paid a small fortune (not really... but it wasn't cheap) for a Keratin treatment on my thick, wavy, dry, skeevy hair. It was such a pain to deal with that most days I would just let it air dry from the shower, and then pull it half back.
If I did attempt to fix it, it required about 20 minutes of straight blow drying (with an efficient dryer), and then putting ceramic hot rollers in it for another 20 minutes.
After all of this, it would still end up as a pouf once the humidity set in.
"You're hair looks like a wig. A great big wig. When you walked in here, I thought, 'She must be wearin' a wig!'"
I had a super awesomely Southern gay NYC stylist tell me this about two years ago. I was there to have my hair cut and colored. And like all stylists, he was able to tame my tresses and give me a blow out that would last a few days. Then I would be left to my own devices, back to struggling to make it even half as gorgeous as the stylist had made it. But the amount of time it required was just too much.
That's the reason my new stylist recommended the treatment for me.
"It will smooth out your hair and make it easier to manage," she said.
Sure, the initial treatment would require it being blown and flat ironed to "pin straight." And a lot of women want it so that there hair will just naturally fall into a "pin straight" state. But in my experience, it won't do that. Nor should it. And that wasn't the end purpose for me with the treatment. My goal was to be able to have it in good shape so that fixing it would take minimal effort from me.
And that's exactly what it has done.
This is how I woke up this morning. Nice full hair, still with the body and shape of yesterday's hot rollers at 5am (before driving from Encinitas to Phoenix for fun and work). This condition of my hair requires me to simply brush it, and it will look good enough for me to not be worried about whether or not it looks good.
Also a nice bit? LESS KNOTS!
My ex-husband used to watch me painfully wide-comb my hair out after each shower (where I would allow my hair to soak in various deep-conditioning treatments for a number of minutes), and large "spidery" clumps would get yanked out from the bottom side of hair.
It was not fun. (Nor was the resulting continued heated discussion of how I should just cut off my hair to make it easier to fix. I'll be damned if I am going to go for a matronly look at this age!)
But now, my world is changed. And I am loving it. I have the hair texture and quality of my youth, circa the mid to late 90s.
So while it may still take some effort to fix my hair, it takes far less time and energy. I can still be a girl who gets ready in less than 35 minutes in the morning... Because washing, drying and curling hair that is well-treated just makes life easier.
If I did attempt to fix it, it required about 20 minutes of straight blow drying (with an efficient dryer), and then putting ceramic hot rollers in it for another 20 minutes.
After all of this, it would still end up as a pouf once the humidity set in.
"You're hair looks like a wig. A great big wig. When you walked in here, I thought, 'She must be wearin' a wig!'"
I had a super awesomely Southern gay NYC stylist tell me this about two years ago. I was there to have my hair cut and colored. And like all stylists, he was able to tame my tresses and give me a blow out that would last a few days. Then I would be left to my own devices, back to struggling to make it even half as gorgeous as the stylist had made it. But the amount of time it required was just too much.
That's the reason my new stylist recommended the treatment for me.
"It will smooth out your hair and make it easier to manage," she said.
Sure, the initial treatment would require it being blown and flat ironed to "pin straight." And a lot of women want it so that there hair will just naturally fall into a "pin straight" state. But in my experience, it won't do that. Nor should it. And that wasn't the end purpose for me with the treatment. My goal was to be able to have it in good shape so that fixing it would take minimal effort from me.
And that's exactly what it has done.
This is how I woke up this morning. Nice full hair, still with the body and shape of yesterday's hot rollers at 5am (before driving from Encinitas to Phoenix for fun and work). This condition of my hair requires me to simply brush it, and it will look good enough for me to not be worried about whether or not it looks good.
Also a nice bit? LESS KNOTS!
My ex-husband used to watch me painfully wide-comb my hair out after each shower (where I would allow my hair to soak in various deep-conditioning treatments for a number of minutes), and large "spidery" clumps would get yanked out from the bottom side of hair.
It was not fun. (Nor was the resulting continued heated discussion of how I should just cut off my hair to make it easier to fix. I'll be damned if I am going to go for a matronly look at this age!)
But now, my world is changed. And I am loving it. I have the hair texture and quality of my youth, circa the mid to late 90s.
So while it may still take some effort to fix my hair, it takes far less time and energy. I can still be a girl who gets ready in less than 35 minutes in the morning... Because washing, drying and curling hair that is well-treated just makes life easier.
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