Everywhere you look Brazilian Keratin treatments are being marketed by tens of thousands of salons, they are being sold on coupon sites nearly every day, and they are being talked about in magazines, newspapers and hundreds of forums. They either achieve amazing results, or they are the most horrible thing you could ever get done to your hair, it all depends on the person you are talking to.
So what are keratin treatments, where did they originally come from?
Keratin treatments themselves were mainly developed in South America especially in Brazil, where the main hair type of the client there is very thick course hair. This is where these keratin treatments changed the way the client looked at their hair, with these treatments providing a finished result of smoother, less frizzy hair and most importantly for most of the clients, more manageable and straighter hair.
So then why then through Europe and Australasia, if these products were so amazing why don't we have these keratin treatments in all the salons we visit? The reason why is these manufacturers of these products have a lot to answer for.
Even though these products are labelled keratin treatments, and all their marketing showed how well the ingredient keratin, bonded to the hair and helped create that smooth straight hair everyone so desired, the ingredient keratin wasn't the ingredient doing the job. The main chemical that was achieving these results that everyone was after was a chemical called formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
The question is why would these companies use such a known dangerous product? Well the main reason is that formaldehyde is cheap and the results it actually gives to the hair; this chemical has the ability when heat is applied to it to bind to the hair itself and fill in the defects in the hair shaft, by creating a web effect on the hair shaft.
This web effect around the hair shaft forces the hair straighten and the filling of the defects removes or decreases the frizziness in the hair shaft that we are wanting.
Formaldehyde as a chemical has and is still used in a lot of common products, from grocery bags, to bubble bath; so why has there been such an uproar in regards to the formaldehyde in these keratin treatments? Well in most of these common products the formaldehyde makes up a very miniscule amount of only around 0.2% or less of the product, unfortunately in some of the current keratin treatments they used a much stronger concentration to achieve the straight and frizz free hair that clients were wanting. In some cases the formaldehyde concentrations exceeded 10%, which is an extremely dangerous and hazardous level.
In South America, especially in Brazil where there were some very dramatic and severe reactions from people to the fumes being given off when the treatments were heated and the formaldehyde fumes were released, took severe action against these treatments and banned their use in their current form with the levels of formaldehyde in them, and normally this is where this would all end.
Unfortunately, in other countries where these treatments had only just found a market, there was no legislation in regards to formaldehyde in hair and beauty products, they boomed. Previously unknown companies popped up and grew at an amazing rate and became household names around the globe and started to bank millions of dollars, but were hiding how much of the chemical formaldehyde was actually within their products and the risks that came with them.
After a serious health complaint from a stylist who was exposed to the fumes from one of the bigger named keratin brands, government agencies worldwide started looking at these products and especially the formaldehyde percentage that the contained versus what they stated. Numerous brands from a number of companies were then banned in Europe, Australasia and Canada over a period of less than 12 months, but somehow in the US these treatments in their original high formaldehyde levels are still being sold.
Under current legislation in Europe, Canada and Australasia, a lot of these keratin treatment companies have through necessity over the last 12 months started releasing products that match up to these much stricter and safer regulations, with very little or no formaldehyde in them. These new treatments after a lot of trial and error are now starting to produce results that are starting to get to within an estimated 75% (depending on brand) the result of the original product. For most people who are looking at getting one of these treatments done is just how little the "keratin" itself actually played in these products, in a lot of the newer treatments that are being sold at the moment actually contain little or no keratin at all. But since they work in the same way to achieve the same result as a keratin treatment they have just been collectively placed in the same category as the original treatments.
There is 100's of different keratin treatments on the market that sit under this banner, with products that contain extremely high levels of formaldehyde to safer options which contain very little or no formaldehyde. Just know what you are asking for.
Dwayne Hawthorne is proud to offer articles in regards to the hair industry. For more information in regards to Keratin Treatments or other hair products and services please visit http://www.hairchoices.com.au/
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