Why I Made the Controversial Decision to do a DIY Brazilian Keratin Treatment

by Cassandre of cassandrebeccai.com

After flat ironing my hair for the curing period

 

“You mean this product can help keep my hair temporarily bone straight for longer than an hour? Sign me up, today!” This was the only thought that crossed my mind as I trolled the website of the Uncurly brand Brazilian Keratin Treatment looking for a solution for my frizz prone natural hair.

While others complain about missing their curls after 3.4 seconds of wearing a straightened style, I can easily go a week or maybe even two with no interest in seeing my curls again before washday.

My choice to heat-style was met with the reality that my hair doesn’t stay straight for long. The last time I took a flat iron to my hair was two years ago. What became of my hard work after 30 minutes of exposure was an awesome blown out fro. I wanted my straight look to stay for a while this time, but how? With a DIY Brazilian Keratin Treatment, of course!

The Brazilian Keratin Treatment is known for it’s ability to temporarily loosen tightly curly hair and provide humidity resistance for at least 3 months thus improving heat styling results by keeping it frizz-free. I can’t say I did years of research on the BKT, but I did enough to decide on the Uncurly brand Straightening Kit, which among ingredients of nano hydrolyzed proteins contains 4% formaldehyde in the formula.

Yep. FORMALDEHYDE.

Before you turn on your imitation Sweet Brown on me (ain’t nobody got time for that!), hear me out.

I believe one can do anything with their hair as long as they’re not ignorant of best practices and the possible long lasting effects.

I’ve heard about the formaldehyde in the BKT formula debate and decided to go with this product because:

I felt that my limited exposure to the formaldehyde in Uncurly probably has as much cancer causing effect as the GMO meat, fruit and veggies I generally don’t consume.

I know that the formaldehyde is the very reason why the professional treatments actually work so well and last as long as they do, and I wanted something that would do the job just as well (without as much formaldehyde) as the ones in any salon.

 
I could hardly wait to apply the product when I finally got it.  I clarified with the Uncurly shampoo then I applied the straightener on my air-dried hair. I was careful to use as little heat as possible on my strands so as to not fry my curls. My low heat process + being on mommy duty for much of the time allowed the task to take up to 2 days to complete. In the end, after washing out my hair after the curing process I was pleasantly surprised by my results. You can check out my video recording of the BKT application and results below:

Now, three months after my treatment, I can honestly say that it was the right decision for me.

Here are three positive things I noticed after I did my at home BKT treatment.

1. My hair retained moisture better.
What I noticed for weeks after this treatment is that my hair seemed to be able to retain moisture much better, so much so that I skipped deep conditioning my hair after washes for a few weeks (isn’t that a natural hair faux pas or something?)

Usually, I’d have to moisturize my hair at least twice a day in order for it to feel this good, but for the time I had the treatment, I really didn’t have to.  All of a sudden my dry hair seemed less dry!

This makes sense because the product makes your hair more humidity resistant. Humidity resistant hair is hair that is well moisturized and thus doesn’t need to be looking to the atmosphere for the hydration is craves.

2. My hair felt stronger.

I’m not talking about stronger as in “I just did a protein treatment. Can’t you tell by the stiff feeling and dusty look of my afro,” but more like, “Oooh girl, even my ends feel like they’ve just grown out of my scalp!”

My hair seriously had that brand spankin’ new feeling that I only remember as a newly natural. When that hair first pops out of your scalp, it’s unadulterated by the myriad of stuff we do to it and thus it’s generally stronger. That feeling lasted for weeks.

3. My hair snagged and tangled less.

Can I tell you how not a tangle could be seen or felt in my hair for nearly 2 months?! I mean, seriously, ya’ll. SERIOUSLY.  Snags and tangling are the arc enemies of growing natural hair and this product helped keep all that at bay and for that I am grateful!

I didn’t experience the loosened curl pattern that many experience after a Brazilian Keratin Treatment, because I deliberately did not use enough product for that to happen. For my length and thickness, using closer to 2/3 or even the whole 4oz  bottle of treatment would have probably given me the looser curl result.

My hair two days after the treatment.

 

Since applying the treatment I’ve only blow-dried my hair twice (my hair dried very quickly by the way; a direct result of the treatment) and I haven’t flat ironed my hair again.  At the end of the day, I felt the benefits were worth it to me and I would gladly do it again.

Editor’s Note: The effects of the Brazilian Keratin Treatment vary according to hair’s resilience and strenth. Some naturals have reported excessive shedding and breakage after doing a Brazilian keratin treatment.

What were your results from a DIY Brazilian Keratin Treatment? Would you try it again? Why or why not?