All About Hair Smoothening - Procedure, Duration, Side Effects, Cost

Hello Lovely Ladies...

I have been so lazy these days and resting my brain so much that I almost forgot I have a blog too..It was only today I remembered I have a blog too when I received a new comment on one of my reviews..(lol..is’nt this funny..Did you ever forget you had a blog)..Anyways, coming back to this post, You all must have already read about my blabbering and complaints about my dense, dry and unmanageable hair..So I had always wanted to get my hair straightened but reading about some posts that straightening makes dry hair even worse always stopped me from getting it..Just a few days back I read about Ankita’s comment on IMBB that she got her hair smoothened..I googled hair smoothening but hardly got any good information regarding the treatment. So I sent an email to Ankita (You can access Ankita's Blog here ) and  she wrote me a nice big email giving every possible information about the procedure, costs, the duration for which effect of treatment lasts, side effects..

So I thought of sharing the very same email she wrote to me..Here's the email:

“Smoothening is quite useful for unmanageable or frizzy hair. I had wavy and somewhat frizzy hair (you can see that in my older pic on my blog). Smoothening and Straightening are quite similar..straightening just has 1 extra step in the procedure. The basic difference in the end result is that straightening will give you poker straight hair..it is 100% straightening but smoothening is about 70-80% straightening and it gives a more natural look.

PROCEDURE:

The process they use for smoothening is-

1. Wash,condition and blow dry

2. Apply cream evenly on hair. leave on for 20-30 min. This cream is the one responsible for making the hair straight.

3. Wash off cream. Iron hair using ceramic hair straightener. I'm sure you would have seen a straightening iron. They'll straighten hair with this to sort of seal the effects of cream applied.

4. Apply another cream for 15-20 min to further seal effects of ironing.

5. Wash off , blow dry and you're done.

6. You're not supposed to tie/pin/tuck your hair in any way using clips/band anything at all for 3 days and not let them get wet because the chemicals are still acting on them for 3 days. After 3 days, the salon will give you the first hair wash after which you can wash your hair every 2-3 days by products specially meant for your hair type. They also advise not to use oil for at least the first 15 days.

In case of straightening, ironing using a ceramic straightening iron is also done between step 1 and 2 above to give absolutely straight hair. Rest everything is same in the procedure for the 2.

HOW LONG DOES IT LAST:

Straightened or smoothened hair retain their effect till they are cut off. So the new hair that'll grow out from your roots will have your natural hair wave/curl but the one once straightened will remain so. It takes 6-10 months for hair to grow out completely depending on person to person.

SIDE EFFECTS:

I used to be quite skeptical about chemical/heat treatments too but I figured it won't really harm my hair doing it once. I don't color my hair either so this is the first treatment for me. Repeated treatments over a long period of time does harm your hair but doing it once will not cause damage. The salon/stylist will recommend L'oreal or some other good salon range products which you should use while you have straightened hair. Its best to stick to that.

COST :

Depending on where you get it from and the length of your hair, it can cost you anything between 4000-8000. For my length of hair (3-4 inches below shoulder) I paid around 5000 (including taxes). Add to this Rs 1500-2500 for the products you will be required to purchase (shampoo + conditioner + cream + serum). Also straightening costs about Rs. 1000-1500 more than smoothening. Maintenance of hair is not difficult. You just need to wash every 3 days with shampoo, apply conditioner and cream and serum when they dry. I used to anyway use shampoo+conditioner+serum so the cream is just 1 more step in the routine which hardly takes any time.

Do choose a good reputed salon for yourself so that they don't mess up the procedure in any way or don't use any sub standard quality products.

I hope this helps. This is pretty much the extent of my knowledge on the subject. To know more abt how the chemicals actually work you can always google it up :) If I've missed out some point or you have more questions , just let me know. I think you should have it done at least once, the effect is really nice! "

Disclaimer:

The above information is first hand account of the smoothening treatment based on Ankita’s personal experience and is not a professional article.