A little backstory on this one. I discovered this next guest blogger and her site a couple of weeks ago. I started perusing her blog and was so impressed by the content of the site, the depth of the writing and, of course, the beautiful lady and her gorgeous hair! Well, when I came across a post entitled, “How I Got Overwhelmed with My Hair and Did Something About it,” I was intrigued.

You see, although I am not interested in keratin treatments, I know some naturals want to learn more about this, purportedly, non-permanent option to smooth frizz and curls. This guest post is to share one natural’s experience with a keratin treatment. I’ll end this with a caveat, take heed to the advice at the end ;). Enjoy!

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by GG of the Write Curl Diary

Last summer, after three years of being natural, I got fed up with my hair. It seemed thick and healthy from afar, but up close my ends were very shabby and I was dreading washing and styling it. I never questioned going natural, but I knew that I needed a change. Today, I’d like to share with you what I did and what I learned from it.

♦

Written August 30, 2011:

I’ve been bunning my hair pretty much all summer and was getting pretty tired of wearing it up. It’s been really humid though, so every time I did wear it down, I had to go through massive detangling sessions afterwards. Long hair is a lot of work (more to follow on this). During hair sessions, I was noticing that my ends were looking pretty shabby in some places. So, I decided that my hair needed to be stretched for awhile.

I blow-dried my hair, which was an exhausting, sweaty process, only to find even more damaged ends than I originally thought. Let me dispell a couple of myths right here and now. 1) Natural hair can have just as much damage as relaxed hair if you don’t stay on top of it. 2) Blowdrying is not necessarily a bad thing. I get less knots and tangles when my hair is blow dried so, for me, the pros outweigh the cons. Going forward, it’s very likely that I’ll be blow drying my hair after washing more often than not. This should only amount to about twice a month at the most.

At this point, I realized that I needed a professional trim and that my usual search and destroy session was not going to help my situation. If you’ve been reading for awhile, then you know my goal was for my hair to reach waist length (stretched) by the end of 2011. I didn’t want my ends to be thin, knotty and damaged; barely scraping my hair goal length. So, I got the trim. I’m telling you, if your hair is misbehaving, unmanageable, uncontrollable, you may very well need your hair trimmed. Don’t worry about losing the length. Remember, your hair is only as healthy as you keep your ends because, ultimately, the damage is going to travel up the hair shaft and detract from the strength of your hair.

Anyway, with my fresh trim, I felt like I had a clean slate and I wanted to wear my hair straight-ish for awhile to keep the knots away. I’d been considering this Organix Brazilian Keratin Smoothing Treatment for awhile because I have a friend who’s been using it on her natural hair and she loves it. After researching the product and getting comfortable with it, I decided to bite the bullet and try it. I loaded up the kids and we went on a field trip to Ulta (or “Mommy’s toy store,” as they like to call it).

What sold me on it is that:

1. It’s temporary – the effects last for about 30 days or less and wash out gradually;
2. It’s basically a conditioning treatment;
3. It’s gentle enough to be used even on relaxed hair;
4. It would cut down on my blowdrying time;
5. It would decrease frizz and tangles even in humid weather.

Numbers 3 and 5 are huge for me right now. Between my damaged ends and the humidity poofing up and tangling my hair, wearing my hair down was not working out for me before the trim and the smoothing treatment. After the treatment, I’m able to wear my hair down and my hair pretty much stays where I put it. It’s still thick and full, but it’s easier to manage. Mission accomplished.

♦

Here we are, basically a year later, and I have to say that when I get frustrated with my hair, I do two things. I get a trim and I reach for some type of protein treatment. I’ve only done one more Brazilian Keratin Treatment since August 2011 and I never experienced any negative side effects. I’ve also tried other protein treatments and I find that in combination with a good trim, they really revitalize my hair. My best advice to you when considering what products you will or won’t put in your hair is to:

1. Do your own research.
2. Don’t put anything in your hair without doing a patch test to see if you have a reaction.
3. If you’re a do-it-yourself kind of girl, be sure to follow the directions perfectly. Be aware of how your hair needs change as it gets longer, so you can adjust accordingly.

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Have you used a “temporary” keratin treatment? Which one? What was your experience with it? Would you use one again?