Post Keratin - Day 7 - Product

Lets talk about product!

What the salon gave me: MATRIX BIOLAGE KERATINDOSE 

I used this for the first hair wash on Tuesday night (72 hours after initial application). I did two shampoo rounds and one minute conditioning application. I applied the shampoo only to the roots and crown of my head, while avoiding the middle and end strands. This is typical of how I always shampoo my hair. I generally stick to removing the build up right at the scalp and avoid applying any shampoo to the rest of the hair, especially the ends which suffer the most heat damage. my hair felt so soft it boarded on slimy. I'm accustomed to the feel yet. Not only was it slightly slimy it was flat, and felt like I had a quarter of the amount of hair I normally have. to my surprise, I lost much less hair during the wash and rinse that I had before doing the treatment. And recently I was seeing a lot of hair loss after washing. I may like this product. But like any product, I like to switch between washes so the hair doesn't get used to it.

I didn't take pictures of the first wash because I hadn't started this documentation yet. Sorry! 

I will need to take a picture of the ingredients list and post later. Since this weekend I was at the boyfriends house, and I didn't take my keratindose combo with me, I used the stuff I would use normally for my curly hair: Curls Coconut Curlada conditioner (two co-wash cycles) followed by a dab of Kinki-Curly Knot Today leave-in. No Shampoo.

Here were pictures post shower:

Not bad- just feels a bit slimy still, and I still have no had any of the natural curls come back.Its very straight in my opinion. My boyfriend wasn't sure how he felt about the hair either, commenting that it looked a bit flat, with no volume compared to before. I told him that was the point of the treatment, to get rid of the frizz (and the volume). Let see how long it takes before the curls return! =)

FRIZZ, CURLS, WAVES, & MORE FRIZZ - To Keratin, or Not To Keratin?

I have awesome hair days and have I crappy hair days. I have weeks where all I do is wear a bun and weeks when I feel that I look fabulous! My hair feels like the 8th wonder of the world- mysterious and always awing - as in, "Weren't you cooperating 10 minutes ago?" because, eventually, it reverts to a lion's main. Big, wild and unruly. I have spent quite a few years learning to tame it. 

I need to constantly try new things and get down to the next level of hair expertise to make my hair look decent day after day. It's exhausting - and one of the reasons why I decided to try to Brazilian Keratin Blowout 4 years ago. I don't have before pictures, because it's been four years, and who takes pictures of bad hair days?

This is 2 weeks after my first BKB, letting it air dry and then applying the flat iron:

 October 2011

This was after 3 months, letting it air dry:

As you can see, the effects lasted quite a while, about 4 months of frizz free hair.  And as the months crept by my curls kept getting better shape. But I heard about all the formaldehyde in the BKB - the original purple bottle- and decided not to get it done until a safer version became available. About 18+ months (and some hair color) later I had it re done- this time it was a LASIO brand- which apparently only had 0.02% formaldehyde.

June 2012

Unfortunately it washed out rather quickly, and about 2 months later I was back to frizzy hair. I didn't think the $200 (plus tip) price tag was worth it. So I quit the keratin treatment and went naturally curly for a while. This no-poo, co-wash, naturally-curly thing was becoming a trend, and I decided to see what it was all about. A lot of products later, and a lot of time devoted to maintaining the hair and my curls looked great. Some days- like below:

And other days, not so great. Let me think, do I look like a broccoli or cauliflower head?

Or what about when the wind helps you out?

So my hair ends up in a bun:

I don't particularly take pictures of myself when I have bad hair days- so there aren't that many to add to this group, even though they are the majority of my days. If I had to quantify it, I'd say I have about 20% good hair days- and the rest is questionable. I'm tired of long hours taming the curls, or flat iron the frizz away- I want my evenings back, so I'm pulling the plug and getting the keratin treatment done again. I'm hoping to log/document how to care for it, and maintain it (longer), so I can learn from my trials and errors.