Brazilian Blowout Before and After

Here goes nothing!
The truth about my hair!
The truth is I have very wavy, almost curly, thick, and hard to manage hair. I have to spend way more time than is reasonable on my hair to only manage to make it look like I don't spend much time on my hair. It takes me a good  thirty minutes to blow dry my hair, using "silky serum," a round brush, and a paddle brush to make it almost, nearly lay down flat.
Leave it naturally curly you say?
I wish! Sadly it turns out more like a fluffyfrizzbobob, which is totally a real word.
Here's the proof-

Natural, air dried hair. 

Not so pretty.
But sometimes, maybe, after hours of scrunching, product, gently combing, and then more scrunching and product, I can get a few minutes of nice curls out of it.
What's worse, is what it looks like if I try to blow dry it without all the tools of the trade-

Have I mentioned I have more hair than a woolly mammoth? It's true, I do.

So when I started hearing about the virtues of a "brazilian blowout" or "brazilian keratin treatment" I became interested. My only regret? Not doing it a year ago when my cousin first told me about them!

A brazilian blowout is nothing like getting your hair straightened. It isn't some awful chemical treatment that straightens your hair. Instead, it is a massive protein infusion into your hair. It can be an extremely expensive procedure at a salon. Here in my fairly inexpensive small town it is about $250-$350 to have done.

I don't have that kind of money.

So I turned to the interwebz, YouTube, and then Amazon, to see if I could do this at home and save a lot of money. After a great deal of research, I found CoCo's Brazilian Hair Keratin Treatment Kit
 on both Amazon and YouTube. Before buying it I went to a local salon and asked if they thought it could be done at home. I found out that this is the brand they would have used and charged me roughly $350 to do (I get the most expensive price thanks to my extra long, thick, and copious amounts of hair). And they fully admitted it is easy to apply at home and even suggested I save the money and do it myself. The price online? (the product linked above and way below) $69!


So I did it. Well, really, my mother did it. 
The instructions implied it would take 2-3 hours to do. Maybe it was our novice, amateur status, or my ridiculous amount of hair, or just painstaking caution on my mother's part. But it took us closer to 4 hours to do. 
The process- 
1. Wash hair with special clarifying shampoo. (Does this stuff make a difference? Absolutely. My hair felt very different after using it. Not its usual texture at all.)
2. Dry hair to 80%. (Used blow dryer to do this, took a good 30 minutes in this humidity to dry.)
3. Apply keratin using little paint brush thingy. (Did not come with the kit. Purchased at Sally's for about $0.99.) This took us a full hour to do. 
Important note- many of the different "brazilian blowout" brands will have a horrific smell. Many will even say you need to ventilate well. One of the salons here in my town will even make sure no pregnant women will be in salon at same time, and will turn on fans it smells so bad. The Coco's brand smells like chocolate, and smelled good actually. I was quite hungry by the end. 
4. Blow dry hair out to about 90%. To save my life I couldn't get my hair actually dry with all that keratin in it! I tried blowing it out for a good 45 minutes before giving up and going to step 5.
5. With the hair dry but still laden down, use a 450 degree flat iron. (I checked my iron before we started and discovered mine only went up to 350, so I bought a $20 one (on sale from $69) at Sally's. I still saved money over paying a salon.) Flat iron hair, piece by tiny piece, about 10 times on each piece. Steam will come off hair the entire time. This step took us a good 2 hours. We were very tired by the end. 

My hair immediately after flat ironing it with the keratin in it. As you can see, it looked fine for going out in public.

6. Ta da! That's it! The end! 
7. Sort of. You actually now leave your hair just like that (in my case feeling a little bit like I had used way too much hair serum) for 48 hours before washing it. (Note to self- next time don't do this over the hottest 2 days of the summer.) Also,  no pinning hair up or using a rubber band during this time. It will leave a crease in your hair if you do!
8. From here on out use only sulfate free hair products (including shampoo and conditioner) to preserve the life of the blowout. 


So the big reveal! What does my hair look like now?
This is my hair after washing it (finally) today, and blow drying it without a hair brush. JUST my fingers! (full disclosure, I did run a brush over it once after drying it)

It took me about 5 minutes tops to dry it with the blow dryer. To make it look like this before would have taken me an hour of blowing it out with a round brush or paddle brush, plus another 30-45 mins with a flat iron. Seriously- 5 minutes. 
And it feels super silky and nice. I can't stop playing with my hair right now. I'm in love with it! It is bouncy, silky, flowy, and gorgeous (even if I do say so myself.). And it looks like this on a miserably hot and humid day. It is unbelievable!
Before and after pictures-
On the top, what my hair looks like hand blow dried before, on the left, my hair hand blow dried after. 

YOU CAN BUY IT ON AMAZON FOR $59 HERE. 
*updated May 17, 2017* I've now purchased this twice a year for 6 years. Still works. Still love it!*


Would I recommend this product to anyone? Absolutely!!

For those wondering how long this will last, the answer is still up in the air! In theory, according to the product, it will last 3-4 months! Considering my upcoming trips to Girls Camp and then Cambodia, I will just be happy if it lasts through the end of August. Anything beyond that will be icing on the cake. 
Tomorrow I will be going to the lake all day with the youth. I'm looking forward to seeing how well my hair holds up. Normally a beach or lake trip would mean having to put my hair in braids to keep it from becoming a tangled mess all day. (I do not come up out of the water looking like this!) I'll report back in and let you know what happens.

Truly all-natural me - just the way I prefer it! No makeup, no hair fuss, no nothing, just a bad tan line!