You definitely have heard about keratin lately. It’s becoming more and more popular nowadays.
If you don’t you will learn everything about it today. Also, we are gonna talk about keratin hair treatment benefits and disadvantages as well. So, wait till the end with me.
Sometimes, when you are tired of your curly or wavy hair, you may wish to have straight hair. That’s what keratin hair treatment does, but you need to be careful because it has some side effects you have to know about.
As the official tests show keratin treatments contain a dangerous amount of formaldehyde. It’s known as a cancer-causing chemical.
Keratin hair treatment pros and cons
Before I share some proven pros and cons of keratin hair straightening, let me first tell you what is it actually doing.
So, keratin hair treatment is a procedure that mostly can be done in a hair salon. It makes your hair look straight and smooth for around half of the year.
The best thing about it is that it reduces frizzing of the hair maximally.
That’s definitely the greatest advantage of hair keratin treatment. Now, let’s talk more about both pros and cons.
Benefits of keratin hair treatment
Long lasting result
The most exciting thing that you get from keratin hair treatment is that you will see the result for a long time. But in fact, this has a little disadvantage as well.
When you do this procedure, you need to start using special shampoo and hair care products for keratinized hair. And that’s not very cheap at all.
Smooth, glossy hair
I have already mentioned this above but let me tell you some other things. Keratin hair procedure helps you to remove all the crinkled hair parts and that makes your hair look so glossy. Almost as most celebrities have in the movies or in ads (lmao).
More controllable hair
What I mean that is you can brush your hair easily. Also, as some people are saying straightened hair can dry a lot faster. So, you can save your hair from potential heat damage.
Your hair grows faster
The most popular fact around people is that keratin helps hair to grow faster. Luckily, that’s true. Keratin is one of the proteins that our body already makes and which helps our nails and hair growth.
But over time, when we are getting older, our body assigns less amount of it. So, that’s why you should add self-care products that contain keratin and other needed vitamins and proteins.
If you wonder about other materials that help your hair grow faster, check out my post. You will discover the reasons why your hair doesn’t grow fast as well. Also, you will find products that help hair growth.
Reduces the number of split ends
The reason why keratin is good for hair growth is that it makes your hair stronger. That means it won’t be easily breakable. For this reason, it will grow faster and also will have fewer split ends.
What are keratin hair treatment side effects – procedure cons
Since we’ve talked some about keratin hair treatment’s positive sides, let’s talk about the negatives now.
Keratin contains chemicals
I’ve mentioned formaldehyde above. That’s the simple matter that is made of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Some companies don’t admit that their keratin products contain chemicals. The bad thing about it is that formaldehyde is one of the chemicals that can cause cancer.
There are some other products (Japanese straightening) that are formaldehyde-free but they don’t last so long.
It’s pretty expensive
Keratin hair treatment procedure costs between 250$-500$ depending on hair salons. Prices should also depend on the quality of keratin and its containing materials.
The procedure is costly itself, but the products that you should use after that are also more expensive than regular hair care products.
I mean you need to use sulfate-free shampoo and it costs more than other products that you systematically use.
Bad quality keratin products will require doing the procedure again
Yeah. If you choose the wrong hair salon, you will need to get that hair treatment procedure, again and again, every two months. Another way your hair will start getting frizzy again.
Risk of hair damage
The same reason goes here. When the hairstylist can’t make treatment properly, it’s first unsafe for you and second for your hair.
So, before going to any hair salon, make sure you have chosen the best one. Find out if it’s worth your time and money as well.
You can’t make keratin hair treatment while pregnant
There are some standard treatments that can be safe for pregnant but keratin hair treatment is not safe for them.
The one and most important reason is that it contains formaldehyde. It can affect your embryo. So, avoid doing it for now!
Although there are some people and even hair salons that will tell you that it’s safe.
You can believe them but the manufacturers’ answer is NO. Because this hasn’t been tested on anyone till now.
Keratin hair treatment vs Japanese straightening
There are two most popular hair smoothing treatments which are keratin hair treatment (Brazilian blowouts) and Japanese straightening.
They are different from each other because of their own techniques to smoothen the hair.
| Keratin Hair Treatment | Japanese Straightening |
| takes about 1-3 hours to complete | takes more than 5 hours to complete |
| lasts for about 6 months | (almost) permanently straighten your hair structure |
| smoothens out the cuticle and repair damaged hair | changes the internal bond of the hair |
| less damage | may cause more damage |
| popular | less popular |
| 250-500$ | 600$ |
That’s a quick summary to spot the simple differences between Brazilian and Japanese keratin hair treatments. But now, I wanna tell you more details about them.
Actually about the technique that is used for both of these procedures.
Japanese straightening treatment step-by-step procedure
If you decide to make Japanese straightening treatment that’s how it is happening.
First, the hairdresser (s) will wash your hair, then blow dry it. Or depending on the hair salon, some of them may start by drying your hair first.
Then, you will get the first layer of chemicals on your hair which is for opening hair follicles. It’s needed because later it will help your hair structure to change.
You will sit with it for around 15-30 minutes.
Then it will be washed away and blow-dried again.
Then your hair needs to get straightened with iron. That’s the process that usually requires most of the procedure time.
Hairstylists (s) should do it slowly, and carefully, and have to put a lot of effort into it.
That’s not done. Next, you will get the sealant layer on your hair. That is for closing hair follicles so that it won’t get any other effect on it. This is why it has permanent results.
Then you get another wash, and that’s when it’s done. And you have pin-straight hair. After some days your hair will have more volume, so it will look better.
Keratin hair treatment (Brazilian blowout) procedure
As in the Japanese straightening procedure, Brazilian keratin hair treatment starts by washing your hair perfectly. Maybe even 2-3 times if needed, before it is not fully clean.
Then hairstylist will apply the first layer with keratin. Blow-drying or ironing it through your hair perfectly. That should last long, like 1-3 hours to get the ideal result.
That’s it. You will have perfect straight here and more volume after some days.
As you probably found out here, a second hair treatment is faster and so it’s cheaper (depending on the product stylists use). Japanese hair straightening has an external process like applying the layer for opening hair follicles.
It’s great because keratin products are more absorbed through your hair, for better results.