It is more and more trendy, applied on teenagers’ hair as well as on their mothers’. The Brazilian straightening, said to be a natural and ideal care to answer problems of wainscot and unruly curls, proves to be attractive. Indeed, what is it exactly? How does it work? Which result can it give? CosmeticOBS-L’Observatoire des Cosmétiques wanted to know more, and has followed the procedure issued by the Kerat-In brand. Let us go through a straightening …
Invented (guess what?) in Brazil, it has been known in Europe for some years now. The Brazilian straightening is kind of trendy. More and more hairdressers have it in their programmes. More and more "do-it-yourself" kits are available on the Internet, as more and more "home specialists".
The technique is said to have many virtues: an alternative to standard or Japanese straightening products, which use chemicals harmful to the health and detrimental to the hair fiber, a natural product, a care recommended to damaged hair or hair with split ends …
Nevertheless, beware; not all the Brazilian straightening products are equal. They are not all that natural, and not all can be recommended.
The principle
Just a short reminder: a hair is 95% keratin, a fibrous protein whose cohesion is due to links between the chains of amino acids, called cystine knots.
The standard straightening techniques break the cystine knots and give them a new shape prior to reconstructing them. This process uses several chemicals (soda, thiols …).
The Brazilian straightening, on the other hand, lines up the cystine knots without destroying them, thanks to a direct supply of keratin that, due to heat (produced by a hair-dryer or a …
