HJ Lutz of Naturallycurly writes:
Well, I did it! After much internal debate, research and a very convincing conversation with a mom from my son’s school who happens to be a hair stylist, I decided to get the Coppola Keratin Complex treatment on my 4a/4b type hair. I was very leery about the treatment as I’d read that it contained formaldehyde and wasn’t sure how that would affect me. The stylist, who I will call Joan, assured me that it was safe, as she not only got the treatment herself, she also applied to her young daughter’s textured hair. Ok…sure. Another concern was the price. Most of the area salons were charging upwards of $250. I did not want to shell out that kind of cash unless it was a sure thing. Joan’s salon charged $150 so I decided to go for it. The worst that could happen is that I’d get an overpriced blowout and cut.
Would you get a Brazilian Blow out?
Curly Nikki Says:
you get my drift…
Keratin Hair Treatment
Brazilian Hair Treatment
Brazilian Blowout Found to Contain Formaldehyde
A Safety Kink in Hair Relaxing
Brazilian Blowout Disaster
Experiences with the Brazilian Blowout
DON'T DO IT! READ THE HORROR STORIES!!!
http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/113583
There's more where that came from. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do your research before you try something like this, and make sure it's not just through ads. I messed my my waist long hair with the lemon coconut thing and now I'm in the process of growing my hair back out. (almost bra strap now). I wish I would have done more research then and I'm glad that I looked into the other side of the coin with the keratin treatment option.
Ladies, be nice to your hair and your hair will be nice to you. I learned that the hard way.
Nikki, that graphic has me LMAO…
Not that I would do this anyway, but she really brought it home when she said: "The thought of subjecting myself to burning eyes for 2½ hours for the sake of beauty is really no different than the oozing scalp burns I endured from relaxers which set me on my natural journey to begin with."
Scalp damage and eye damage are not even in the same ballpark!
I lived in Brazil for three years and learned about the BKT there. It is called and escova progressiva there because done several times on wavy hair, the hair eventually stays straight. The story I heard was that hairdressers in Rio discovered that if they mixed the nail hardener solution they used during manicures with conditioner and blow dried it into their hair, the mixture would keep the hair straight. The formal was in the nail hardener. I did the process in Brazil on relaxed hair and have used it to transition as well and it did help with transitioning as the texture is sort of inbetween that of a relaxer and my natural texture. Also, it was not as hard on my scalp however it does make my hair very dry and I am not planning to do it again. On the whole, I think it helped more than hurt my hair.
I'm with the majority: no way would I put a known carcinogen on my scalp. If you're willing to take the risk, your motive(s) for going natural probably isn't to be "chemical free"–and that's fine because it's your perogative.
If your goal is just to loosen your curl, why not go the more economical route with a texturizer? …@anon: i saw this on judge mathis, too. hilarious.
Just read an article on Essence.com about the increasing closure rate of black hair salons. This article points to the rates of increasing transition to natural hair and the downturn in the economy as the reasons why. I think this Brazilian Keratin Treatment is a way to keep black women, in particular, coming to the salons and forking over that money. Let's face it, as long as we insist on having straight hair, SOMEBODY stands to make A LOT of money from us. I'm sure it's KILLING people who make so much money from us to see a drop in business with the change in attitude. Anyway, wasn't Coppola the keratin treatment that was being promoted by Debbie Allen on an infomercial yrs. ago which was found to cause hair to fall out?! LOL Pitiful. Nah, I'll pass and keep cuddle with my naps.
The strong smell, the frizz control, reversion-resistant straight styles, the application process…all mirror an old school Vigorol. Only you are spending $250 vs $6.
I'm amazed that some are using the BKT transition out of an relaxer. Two major chemicals on top of each sounds like a recipe for disaster, SMH.
Clever marketing! I love how they labeled this as keratin (which is a good protein for your hair), "conditioning" and so on.
I was intrigued for about 5 minutes when I first learned about this in the spring until I read "$500…", "flat iron at 400+ degrees", and later found out that it has formaldehyde in it. Wow! All that for a conditioning treatment?? 😉
so true and too funny!!! 😀 @ Anonymous (Dec 9, 4:19 pm)
It's not my hair, so I personally don't care what she does with it, but I admit I did expect her hair to be AMAZIIING as a result.
no disrespect, but after all that i expected her hair to be swangin and bangin…it wasnt.
NIKKI, I LOVE HOW YOU GET YOUR POINTS ACROSS! CLASSIC!!! 🙂
Wow you are a better person than I, because personally to me this is stupid is as stupid does.. however that expression may go. There is no way in hell that I would sit in a chair and have my eyes or nose nostrils burn up all for the perfection of a better hairstyle. Just get a maxi iron or whatever brand is your choice along with heat protectant hair spray and have fun with your hair. But you can also do an Beer treatment on your hair and this will also reverse your hair pattern back to curly for those who were not wanting it to be straight. I saw this idea on fellow Youtuber "Prettydimples01" channel. But even though your hair did come out nice, was it really worth the money and time and your health for it?. It's amazing what the lengths that we women will go to for our hair no matter the cost.
She is lovely, however her treated hair looks average at best. All of that risk to her own health, her hair's health, not to mention the time and money for some average outcome. She could have achieved that with a warm flat iron.
Sorry for all the grammer mistakes 🙂
It sounds like the process is worse than getting a relaxer. I've never had my eyes burn, and I hate the smell of relaxers. And after a relaxer it's straight, no flat irons/blow outs needed. Is a relaxer is not any less natural than a Brazillian Blowout? And no disrespect but is she serious with the after picture? If the "Nia Long Pixie Cut" (which is cute) is what she is looking for then stop faking the funk, relax it and do it right. I like big poofy natural hair myself, but to each her own.
i just don't get why people would put a KNOWN carcinogen in their hair! all for the sake of straight hair. i just can't…
One major issue with this product is that it does actually affect the people sitting next to you in the salon. So if they could sell kits and let people use it at home and breathe in the fumes themselves and with their families, then I'd say go for it. But I would not go to a salon where it is being done b/c at the end of the day, the salons don't have separate space to do it. If you've ever worked in a lab, there are special hoods that contain and dispel noxious fumes that are created and released as you deal with certain chemicals.
So yeah, you wouldn't have to tolerate someone tossing asbestos around your office, and you'd have a fit if someone had a jar of radioactive material, so you should actually care if you are breathing this in.
Other styling and coloring products (peroxide, relaxers) might be caustic to the skin but they don't create noxious fumes for you or other patrons to breathe in.
People should really be worried about this.
And yeah, results might be temporary, but I've gotten great, non-damaging blowouts or flatirons that looked like relaxers, if that is your standard.
Ermmm, is it just me or does her hair look exactly the same! SMH
I mean, I guess we're just going to gloss over the fact that her hair looked dull and lifeless after the treatment.
Nevermind the harmful ingredients and potential health risk. From a purely superficial standpoint her hair looked exponentially healthier when she was natural.
Now, I could be biased but I feel like if she had just straightened with a flat iron should have gotten better results than that.
I don't know why we do things like this to ourselves, just for the sake of "perceived beauty." NO, I have no interest in a Brazilian blow-out, keratin treatment or any other chemical treatment on my hair. If it's not a hot oil treatment (and I rarely do that), I am not interested. CurlyNikki, your response is priceless LOL LOL LOL
I used to have this done before I started transitioning and before they announced what chemicals were in it; I HATED the fumes and have to admit having the flat iron 400+ degrees to work was kind of scary. I remember my stylist telling me she had to wear gloves during the treatment because since keratin is naturally occuring, it would be absorbed by the skin. I'm beginning to wonder now if that was a load of garbage. At any rate, I preferred it to a relaxed as my scalp never burned, but have no desire to do either ever again.
OMFG! This Brazilian blowout/keratin thing was on Judge Joe Brown or Mathis where this white lady with curly hair originally went in to get her hair lightened only to have it damaged so she went to a professional salon who did a keratin treatment on her hair. A professional stylist that the judge brought own laid out what exactly the keratin treatment was and definitely touched on the formaldehyde where it is a CANCER CAUSING agent! The judge was like "Your hair was damaged by the person you're suing and you're going to further mess yourself up by using this cancer causing process? WTF" lol. THis keratin process was banned in some countries and now I see why. Certainly not worth it for a half perm.
hale naw. if i wanted straight hair that badly i would heat train. in our labs the dissection specimens are embalmed in formaldehyde and the smell was sooo horrible and it lingered…imagine what it smells like fried into hair with a flatiron. no thanks. if me or the person applying it has to wear gloves or a mask i dont want it near my head…especially for the cost.
"The thought of subjecting myself to burning eyes for 2½ hours for the sake of beauty is really no different than the oozing scalp burns I endured from relaxers which set me on my natural journey to begin with." , but yet you're still contemplating getting it again? smh.
i'll be getting my bkt/brazilian blowout/ckct right along with nikki when pigs fly.
I have one in my hair now, wanted to see if it would help with the front of my hair since its so frizzy and shrinks so much, after getting it I have realized I have not been taking great care of my hair my ends were so badly split, I do not wear my hear straightened, the treatment definately helped with the shrinkage, the first day I wore it curly I just used a leave in and some coconut oil to seal, by midmorning when I went to the bathroom at work and looked in the mirror I was like wow I had the hugest curly afro, no frizz just great big curly hair, the other day I bobby pin one side and my sister get saying I am waiting for you to break out and sing a Janet Jackson song from the eighties it did look like eighties big hair, my two strand twists even look good no frizz and I have had them in a week and a half, the formaldehyde smell is strong, my mom got hers one day before mine, someone came to the house to do it, when I got home and opened the door the fumes hit me, when I got mine we used a big fan and opened the windows and doors and did not notice the fumes, you do have to keep your hair and scalp well moisturized a do a hot oil treatment before I shampoo. I like it and will get another will after I get I good hair cut I will wear it straightened to, I like wearing my hair straight and curly, stopped doing the relaxers because I hated the perm burns, Keratin gives me the best of two worlds, and it takes nothing to straighten it, used a low heat flat iron, even got rained on and it still did not revert back, it curls back up once I put my conditioner on
A former hairstylist saw me recently and she was touching and admiring my natural hair! She wanted to know if I'd be a hair model for her Keratin Treatment. I thought about it, my answer at this time is NO. It has taken me two years to get my hair moisturized, the cuticle sealed and shine. Check out: americanculturehair.com. Besides, Keratin is protein! So what happens with people whose hair is protein sensitive?
WOW! To me this is just another way of beating around the bush to wanting your hair to look relaxed. No, it isn't an actual relaxer, but lets be real it makes your hair look as if it is. I don't know, I guess its just me but I positively have no desire to straighten my hair and I've been natural for 4yrs. To me the point of going natural is to wear your hair in its natural state. I'm always scared of straightening my hair because I'm afraid it will ruin my curl pattern. When I desire a change & want to have the straight look, I'll wear a wig/weave. Not downing naturals whom do straighten, but to me what's the point in going natural if you wear it straight all the time b/c truth be told the heat in straighten can be just as damaging as relaxers.
LOL @ CurlyNikki! I totally agree girl.
To each, her own. It's not permanent, but is a chemical process. Those that say its not , are lying to themselves. You are putting a chemical coating on your hair that has to be "baked" on, so to speak. I have one and love it (Softliss brand). And I have no problem saying that I do. I also color my hair, which is a chemical process. I have tatoos which has altered my skin. It is obvious when it starts wearing off. And that is why I have it instead of a relaxer. My hair has grown with and without it because I take care of it.
Just my point of view. There are thousands of them (point of views) out there and each one if valid. Especially if its not hurting anyone else.
I'm only in my 3rd month of TRANSITIONING and I already say hell no to the keratin treatment
Actually, at this point, the majority of people getting this procedure are white women with "frizzy hair." It's funny to me the lengths they will go to not to use products marketed to black women. I've known and seen some women with curly, coarse hair who figured out that black stylists and products were actually better for them, but just like the Japanese straightening process (seriously, who would think that Asian would know something about making hair straight in a healthy manner when they are born with it?), it's another product that is actually promoted to non-black women as a miracle to control their frizz.
So many frizzy haired white women could get great results with black products and tools.
My salon in Boston used to do relaxers on Jewish women. Plenty of them have hair that is kinkier than anything on the heads of many black women.
It really is all about marketing in the end. Relaxers and peroxide are nothing compared to formaldehyde, which by the way isn't used in the cadavers used by medical students by the way precisely b/c it's a carcinogen. They aren't the same thing, and if you really want your hair straightened more or less permanently, stop looking for substitutes and go back to the relaxer. (and don't worry what anyone wants to say about it).
Umm just another product being shoved down black woman's throats in an attempt to get them to think yeah we NEED something to make our hair more manageable.
I wonder what the next product will be called. Its always some kind of chemical that is "milder" than a full blown relaxer to just take the kink out a little. Make black hair a little easier to deal with. Make it easier to comb through. NO Enough Already Geez.
I want to work with my hair EXACTLY how it is thank you very much! UGH! End Rant on BKT.
um, no. i don't want to be any where near a salon giving this treatment. i also can't understand why it is still on the market in the u.s.
I considered the BKT when I was transitioning. Here's where I got off the bus: I wasn't concerned about the formaldehyde giving me cancer. The stylists working with the chemicals are the people who are really at risk. And people have probably spent more time in a smoke filled bar. However my lungs are extremely sensitive to fumes so that would have been a no go. The other thing I couldn't get over is the sheer amount of heat used. I'm sure it's the heat that messes up the curl patterns as opposed to the actual keratin. It just seems like a lot of money to blow dry and flat iron so intensely.
no way jose! nothing about that sounds appealing in the least. you still have to blow dry and flatiron to get it straight, right? shoot, i could do that at home and keep my $250, my health, my length and my curls.
Lol I'm with the second Anon poster. Why is a looser curl pattern a pro?
Anyway, this "treatment" is most definitely not for me. But I do appreciate the reviewer's honesty 🙂 I'm sick of people denying the chemical nature of this chemical process.
LOVE NIKKI'S COMMENT!!! I will have to pass…the risk are just NOT worth it.
I tried it about 2 months ago in the last leg of my transition. I used a formaldehyde "free" version. I was primarily straightening my hair during those months. I don't think it is that bad, but that's just me.
Would I do it again? No. why? I experienced excessive shedding.
Yet another perm without the "perm" or "relaxer" label. Easier and a helluva lot cheaper just to buy a wig. ITA with CN's pic: When pigs fly!!!! Sooooo glad I'm a natural….
She paid $150 for a perm wannabe. fail
i see absolutely no benefit in getting a keratin treatment. it is a nothing more than a way to perm without saying it's a perm. i guess saying keratin treatment sounds more healthy and beneficial than saying perm or relaxer, smh.
It sounds to me like the keratin treatment is a cross between a texturizer and a full-blown relaxer. At the end of the day, it's still a chemical and it alters your hair texture. No thanks….
@Anon 6:47pm:
My sentiments EXACTLY!!
This was a very insightful story about the keratin treatment process, but the one question I have is…why would you wait until you're in the chair to realize or confirm that what you've asked for is actually a chemical treatment. Do your research, ladies. Don't go into ANYTHING blind and unaware when it comes to hair, especially when what you're asking for MIGHT be a chemical process.
So now people are so desperate to jump on the natural bandwagon…they will get these chemical treatments…this proves that relaxers had nothing to do with trying to be white! Now people are getting chemicals to try to be black…lol
Indigo
Dr. Oz demonstrated the health risks of all of these procedures in his show. The video is in this CurlyNikki Discussion thread: http://curlynikki.forumotion.com/general-f3/dr-oz-show-t8216.htm
I can't see that it's worth it. I'll invest in a good diffuser for shorter drying time; and keep my hair well moisturized for softer shinier hair. The henna does a fine job of loosening my curl pattern. And I will use the maxi-glide if I ever want to wear my hair straight. When I want to & not b/c I have to. Not even for 3 days.
I respect people's decisions to do what they want to do with their hair but it's not for me.
Oh and lastly, before protein treatments saved me, having the two textured hair made me want to big chop again. I can see the line of demarcation between the two and sometimes just cut off areas that are annoying.
I wonder if her looser curls will come at the expense of weaker hair and breakage months down the road?
From the National Cancer Institute:
Formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical that is used in building materials and to produce many household products. (Formaldehyde sources in the home include pressed-wood products, cigarette smoke, and fuel-burning appliances (see Question 2).
When exposed to formaldehyde, some individuals may experience various short-term effects (see Question 3).
Formaldehyde has been classified as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing substance) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (see Question
Research studies of workers exposed to formaldehyde have suggested an association between formaldehyde exposure and several cancers, including nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia (see Question 5).
Cocoa Fly:
But hey, as long as your is cute, that's what matters, right? SMH
I would love to wear my hair straight sometimes, but I don't think the Keratin treatment is the answer for my hair. Next.
I got one in Feb 2010 about 15 months after I big-chopped and my hair was past collarbone length when straightened (after trimming 1.5-2 inches). Initially it was very soft and shiny. However after 7 months, my new growth and blowout hair combined were only about 2 inches longer than my hair before the blowout. Meaning that my blowout hair was breaking off at a crazy rate.
Also, two days after the blowout I just got tired of having straight hair, I wanted my big fro back.
Once the blowout washes out a bit, your hair will revert back to curls, but it took me months to get back to that point. Right now my hair that has grown since the blowout is a 4 (like usual) and the remaining blowout hair is a 3. So I still have curls, but the 3 hair is more fragile. Protein treatments have helped immensely and helped cut down on breakage.
If anyone is still considering it, my verdict?: After flushing over a year's worth of healthy growth down the toilet…HELL NO NEVER AGAINNNNN.
I love the way Nikki diplomatically said hell to the nah with the picture….LOL!!!! Ummm…. I'll pass on this also, but if it makes you happy then do it 😉
why is looser curls pattern a pro?
meant to say THAT instead of they
Formaldehyde, which is contained in keratin treatments is used to preserve dead bodies.
I would never want they used on my hair while I am living- and maybe even after I die.
SMH