Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Keratin Routine Reduction

I have curly hair.  More to the point, I have frizzy hair.  I've never particularly liked it curly or frizzy but that's what I got and that's what I've been stuck with.  Until, that is, the wonders of the keratin treatment were invented.

This is a multistage process in which the stylist first washes your hair and then applies a keratin complex slowly to all the fibers of your hair from the roots to the tips.  Then you sit for some time under the head helmet dryer thing and after that she dries your hair without washing the product out.  But you're not done at that point.  No no, you are only getting started.  When she dries it she dries it well, thoroughly, completely.  And then she flat irons it.

It's the flat ironing part that takes the longest.  Each run with the flat iron has only a small amount of hair and the flat iron is a special one, specific for burning that keratin directly onto and into your hair strands.  It's especially hot.  The flat ironing part is what takes so long.  And you have never seen hair so straight.

Once the ironing is complete, the stylist's job is done but yours is just starting.  No washing, wetting, sweating or going out in the rain for three days.  Do not put your hair in a pony tail or it will develop memory of the band location and you will have a wump in the back of your hair for months.  Do not put your hair behind your ear or it will remember that shape.  Do not put sunglasses on your head to hold your hair back.  Nothing but straightness and cool dryness for three days.  And if you get rained on or sweat?  Blow dry it immediately and get out your flat iron to straighten it back into board straight shape.

Three days later when you can finally wash it, you get to marvel as it dries because, boom the straightness returns.  And it stays.  It stays for months.  It is super duper exciting to have this happen when you've had nothing but frizz and curl all your life.  The routine I used to have pre-keratin included lots of moisturizing, adding frizz-reducing salves, leave-in conditioners, etc.  And it was still frizzy.

So now I have a non-curly, non-frizzy solution.  But like many things, once you start, it's hard to go back.  I'm not opposed to having curly hair again, or at least for a while, but the only part that's curly now (and particularly frizzy) is the part that's grown in since the last keratin treatment.  This means I have nice smooth hair for the most part, but a lovely frizzy ring framing my face.

So what do I do?  I'm not certain.  I am thinking about it.  Apparently it's on my mind a lot because the other night I had a dream that I was going to get my hair redone because I'd had enough.  Then, on the way to the salon, I decided I needed to go buy flags instead.  I'm no dream expert but I think this means I haven't made up my mind yet.

The Big Boy Update:  Bye bye alligator.  He has a stuffed version of Rex, the tyrannosaurus from Toy Story.   He insists it's an alligator.  This morning as he was coming down for breakfast he said, "Bye bye alligator."  Daddy told him it was a dinosaur.  He said it was an alligator.  Daddy explained his name was Rex and he was a dinosaur.  My son said, "No, alligator.  Bye bye alligator."  It's hard to refute his confidence in his knowledge of animal species.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The knob culprit.  I think I've determined my daughter is to blame.  In our house someone is going around partially unscrewing knobs.  I first suspected it was my husband, but then he said he would have selected higher up knobs to unscrew, and since that was only logical, I turned my suspicions on my son.  But he was too busy playing with trucks and cars.  Also, the locations of the loose knobs happen to coincide with the spots my daughter likes to spend time playing.  Now I just need to catch her in the act...

Fitness Update:  Four miles and time ran out this morning so I returned to prepare breakfasts and children for school.  It was nice to be running outside in the crisp, dark morning air again.

Someone Once Said:  There is no such thing as a humane war.

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