Keratin treatment: is it worth the hype?

You might have heard a bit about keratin treatments recently, and their claims to “transform natural hair”. Celebrities are endorsing them, bloggers and magazine journos alike are loving them, and it seems everyone’s jumped on the trend all at once. What, then, is all the fuss about? What exactly is a keratin treatment? And is it really worth the hype?

Brazilian blowdrys: the low-down

To understand why keratin treatments are so hyped, we need to first be clear on what exactly it is they do. The keratin treatment has been designed as an alternative to the Brazilian blowdry, which, if you have curly hair, you will probably know all about. A Brazilian blowdry essentially works to semi-permanently straighten the hair, by applying a treatment to the hair, blowdrying it in, and sealing it with straighteners. This causes the hair fibres to relax and hang straight, making them more manageable to style.

The problem with Brazilian blowdrys is that they don’t tend to be the best for your hair. Some of them contain a fair few harmful, non-natural chemicals, such as formaldehyde, and if they’re done incorrectly, they can cause hair to completely lose all volume, and sometimes even fall out. For those of us who are looking for a treatment that can remove some of that difficult hair frizz without doing damage, the Brazilian blowdry is not the answer.

Enter: the keratin treatment

This is why, when a brand new treatment that claims to generate exactly the same results as a Brazilian blowdry, but using only natural ingredients, came around, its popularity immediately soared. There are a few keratin treatments out there, but the most popular is the one called Braliz, which is completely free of chemicals and formaldehyde. It contains only vegan botanical bioactives, such as nut oils, which, once bound to the hair fibres, naturally smooth and realign them.

The treatment works as a usual Brazilian blowdry would: you shampoo, then apply the treatment, blowdry, and seal with straighteners. The only difference is the formula itself – which apparently also doesn’t have that strong, lingering smell associated with blowdries, and the fact that hair can be washed immediately afterwards with no issue whatsoever (normally you have to leave it alone for three days).

What the bloggers say…

Natural treatments don’t tend to work with much success at all, as much as it would be nice if they did. The Braliz treatment, though, has received rave reviews all round so far on the internet, with those who have tried it giving it a big thumbs-up for its effectiveness. Gabrielle Dyer, a journalist for Cosmopolitan, claimed that the treatment gave her the “effortlessly beachy, Cali-girl curls I've enviously admired my entire life”, in a beauty review on the website, posting impressive before-and-after photos documenting the results.

Gabrielle noted that immediately after the treatment her hair felt shinier and a lot softer, and that in the long-run, her curls were left much looser than before, making her hair frizz-free and far easier to style.

What to know:

Although the price for the Braliz treatment does vary from salon to salon, it seems it’s averaging out at between £200 and £350 for one session. The total cost may depend on where you get the job done, and the length and thickness of your hair. Sessions take around three hours to complete, and you can expect the effects to last for up to three months. Be aware, though, that you need to avoid seawater or swimming pools, as these will strip the treatment from your hair.

Would we recommend?

Despite its rave reviews so far, the Braliz treatment is still fairly new on the market, which means two things: one, it’s still fairly elite, making it a costly procedure to carry out, and two, it’s not had enough time for the full list of positive and negatives to be drawn from it. If you regularly visit the salon for a Brazilian blowdry, and you happen to live near to a salon that offers the new Braliz treatment, there’s no reason why you can’t part with your money the one time and see how the treatment works for you. However, if you can wait it out until the treatment becomes a bit more common across all salons – and therefore, cheaper – it might be worth holding onto your cash and doing that.