Brazilian Blowout Review : My Personal Experience

I’m somewhat of a daredevil and risk taker when it comes to new beauty treatments. I’ve mellowed a bit with age, but I’m still game for some of the newer hair treatments out there. A few years ago, when the Brazilian blowout, otherwise known as the Brazilian Keratin treatment, became a little more well known, I decided to make the leap and try it out.

My hair isn’t unruly or overly curly, but I had my fair share of bad hair days, and I tended to get a bit frizzy, especially in the humidity. We’re known for high humidity here in Northeastern Ohio where I live in the summer. So needless to say, the majority of my summer I spent trying to tame my frizz to no avail.

My only goal with the Brazilian Blowout was really to tame the frizz. I did not want board straight hair as I had gotten a few years previous with the Japanese thermal reconditioning treatment. I just wanted my hair to look calm, smooth, shiny and healthy.

I had tried Cold Smoothing before as well, and was totally unhappy with the results after a few weeks. My hair seemed to get dry and brittle, and broke off. Sure, I didn’t have as much frizz, but my hair looked dull and lifeless, so what was the point?

I had high hopes for the Brazilian blowout treatment reading some rave reviews. I noticed a few bad reviews too, but I shrugged them off and figured if I got the right stylist it would be fine. Then came the knowledge that these keratin treatments were mostly using high levels of formaldehyde.

That came out a while after I had gotten mine done, but I was not happy knowing that my head had been soaking in dangerous chemicals for a while. Now, on to my experience and my personal review of what the Brazilian blowout did - and did not - do for my hair.

I have long brown hair. It is wavy naturally. It cost about $400 for me to have this treatment done. I sat at the salon for a little over two and a half hours. First I was shampooed with a very drying shampoo that is designed to strip the hair of any leftover residue so that the hair can soak up the keratin treatment more easily.

This part worried me, as I could feel the moisture being sucked out of my hair as she lathered, then re-lathered the clarifying shampoo until my hair felt like a broom stick. She explained that it was necessary to strip the hair of any residue so that the keratin could better absorb into the hair shaft. I was game.

After the shampoo, my hair was blown out. It looked absolutely terrible. Lifeless, dull and the color seemed to have faded a bit (I color my hair darker). I was ok though, because I knew that the payoff could mean a summer of maintenance free hair.

Then the treatment was added to my hair. The treatment itself didn’t have to stay on my hair very long, I want to say it was under an hour although the exact time is escaping me since it has been years now.

It did smell pretty badly like chemicals (that should have been my cue that it wasn’t good for me). It also sort of irritated my scalp. The things we do for beauty – I just sat there and didn’t say anything and read my magazine.

After the treatment was done soaking in, my hair was washed, conditioned, and blown dry. The results were basically the same as if I had a regular blowout. I was fine with that. I figured that this treatment was one that should last several months so if my hair even looked close to this all summer, I’d be satisfied.

It did look nice – it looked straight. I can’t say it looked shiny though – not any more so than after a cut and blowout any other time. It also did seem to wash out a bit of color for sure once I saw the final results. My former rich brown now looked a bit mousy, which I’m sure took away from the shine factor.

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I went out into a complete storm. Thankfully I had an umbrella, because just like the Japanese straightening treatment, you are forbidden to wash your hair for a few days or get it wet at all. I did like they said and did not wash my hair for the next 48 hours. I couldn’t wait to wash it though because my hair had a slightly stiff feel to it.

I washed it and conditioned it finally after three days. It did come out straighter than usual after I blew it dry, so I was pleased with that. It had less frizz too. But it just seemed to look a little less bouncy and shiny than usual.

I figured as long as it would keep the frizz at bay for the summer, I’d be fine with it. It did keep the frizz at bay. But it just didn’t look as healthy as it had from the Japanese straightening treatment. It still had some body to it, which was what I wanted, but my hair just didn’t feel soft to the touch or look “alive”.

I’m sure that I may have had a different experience if I’d had perhaps a different stylist, or if they had perhaps used a different brand of the Brazilian blowout treatment on me. I noticed, months later, that my hair seemed to be coming out at a more rapid pace as well, and breaking off more easily.

My hair tends to fall out at breakneck speed sometimes, but this was definitely out of the norm. That’s when I decided I probably would not be back for another Brazilian keratin treatment at the salon. I had heard some mutterings of the products containing hazardous chemicals at that point as well, and figured I’d just live with the frizz or find great products that would combat it better.

That’s my experience and my personal review with the Brazilian keratin blowout. Hopefully this helps you decide if you’re thinking about doing one of these treatments! I would strongly encourage you to seek out a truly formaldehyde free formula though.

Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, or cancer causing agent, and some of the concentrations used in some of the formulas of these products are way more than what is considered “safe” by any standard.