What is a Keratin treatment and how does it work?

For a few years now, Keratin treatments have been all the rage with frizzy-haired people who want to smooth out their locks. These treatments go by a multitude of different brand names, but many of them work in the same manner. A stylist will apply the Keratin mixture, blow dry the hair, and then straighten it with a flat iron. The heat from the flat iron activates the formula, and then the hair stylist usually washes the treatment out and then blow-dries the hair once again.

Voila! You now have beautiful, shiny, silky, straight hair.

Well, that's the way it's supposed to be, anyway. Unfortunately, the results aren't always what we expect. Some women will step out into the rain after a Keratin treatment, only to discover that their hair has gone frizzy all over again. Other people will be dismayed when they experience breakage months after getting a Keratin treatment. The important thing to remember is that, as trendy and convenient as this hair treatment can be, it's still a chemical process. And chemicals can be pretty damaging to your mane, no matter how "natural" or "organic" they claim to be. One possible outcome is that the treatment can bind to the hair and weigh it down, causing some initial breakage very soon after the treatment. But this is far from the worst result that someone can experience.

There's a surprisingly low amount of oversight when it comes to regulating some of these products. When studies have been done on Keratin treatment ingredients, some scary findings have been made. In fact, some of the most popular treatments were shown to contain dangerous levels of formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals. Many Keratin treatment customers began to wonder if the risks outweighed the benefits, and some stylists stopped making the treatments a part of their repertoire because they were concerned about toxic fumes rising up while they flat ironed their clients' hair.

News of the risks of Keratin treatments began to reach many clients, some of whom chose to do stop doing the treatments altogether. Others chose to stick with the Keratin treatments but made sure that the formulas being used on their hair were safe. It's still a personal choice for many Keratin customers and stylists, but at least everyone is now much more informed than when the Keratin craze first hit.