Long, luscious, silky locks are every girl's dream. But let's be honest at least 80% of the ladies out there would find getting their hair to behave is a massive undertaking, often resorting to giving up. And the other 20%? Well, they just couldn't be bothered anymore.
Well fortunately for the busy modern women, unruly hair could be a thing of the past. Various hair treatments and chemical processes to strengthen, straighten and smoothen hair is available in salons everywhere in Singapore. Though given so many options and various marketing gimmicks, consumers are often left confused. But honestly, it all falls under one of the following three #KeratinSmootheningTreatment, #Rebonding and #NanoBotox. The only similarity is the same goal to fight frizz and tame unwanted curls.
So we at Style decided to give you a quick rundown on the differences. So when you next rush off for your hair appointment, you would already know the basics and can easily make a decision.
What is a Keratin Smoothening Treatment?
A keratin smoothening treatment strengthens, smoothens, and relaxes frizzy curly hair and seals split ends. It fills in the porous part of your hair and provides the missing protein due to chemical treatments or simply with age. 95% of our hair is made of keratin. Administering keratin treatment means providing more of these essential fibrous, helicoidal proteins to our hair. As with all hair treatments, it gradually washes off and generally lasts up to six months. There are many different brands and versions of the treatment available these days and there's no one brand that suits all hair texture (we at Style carries at least 5 different brands) So it's important that your hairstylist stocks a couple of different brands and understand your lifestyle so they can then better recommend a formula to suit your needs. Read an article which I wrote some time back about Keratin Smoothening Treatment.
What is Hair Rebonding?
It is a permanent straightening chemical process. Using a main ingredient of sodium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, or guanidine hydroxide to break the disulfide bonds in our hair. Following that hairstylists reshape your hair utilizing a hair iron and add more chemicals that reconstruct those disulfide bonds, holding your hair in a new shape. This procedure makes your hair straight, sleek, and shiny when done correctly but unfortunately, about 10 per cent of the disulfide bonds that break don't reform again. Over time, you’ll need to retouch your hair as your hair grows longer and the untreated portions become more noticeable but make sure only treat the untreated portions.
What is Nano Botox?
Nano botox for hair is a deep conditioning treatment which coats the surface of the hair, fills in split ends and fends off frizz. It is a protein-rich formula hair treatment which helps to fix hair imperfections in each strand of hair with active ingredients. This mixture of proteins, caviar oil, collagen, vitamins, antioxidants, natural acids, and healing agents reverts your hair to its healthiest by plugging up all the holes, repairing internal damage, fixing the tears, and hydrating withered hair thus moisturising, nourishing, and restoring hair from inside out. Hair becomes softer, frizz-free and further damage to the hair shaft is prevented. You can read more about Nano Botox here.
Keratin Treatment Pros and Con
Pros -
It is a smoothing treatment that can fill the porosity of your hair and provide the missing protein by repairing the outer layer of the hair fibre. Keratin helps to smooth, protect, soften, strengthen and soften our hair
As with all hair treatments, it washes out gradually thus you would never get the issue of having a demarcation.
Easily reduces styling time
Seals up the split end (yay making it resistant to humidity) and prevent further breakage caused by bleaching etc...
Keratin Smoothening Treatment offers versatility in terms of styling options. From voluminous waves to shiny sleek straight hair.
Cons -
Cost, it shouldn't come as a surprise that an effective hair treatment like Keratin Smoothening done by an experienced honest hairstylist which lasts 4 to 6 mths will cost a few hundred dollars. (Well if you average it out by the number of months and then compare it to how much time and effort it saves you, you would agree it's worth it.)
Sodium chloride (table salt) alongside sulphates is a big no-no for keratin-treated hair as it strips off the keratin and hair colour. Both are cheap ingredients that make a shampoo lather nicely so they are used in abundance in most haircare. At Style, we always advocate for clients to be vigilant about the product ingredients. So if uncertain fret not just hop on to Style's Shoppe to check out our specially curated range of haircare.
Hair Rebonding Pros and Cons
Pros -
Time-saving as hair rebonding produces permanently straight hair thus gone are the days of having to wake up earlier to tame crazy frizzy manes.
Hair rebonding will save you all the effort and stress of dealing with hair frizz every day.
Cons -
While its permanence is considered an advantage for some, it can also be quite a major drawback for others. Remember, your hair will be permanently altered so there is no going back. It also means you would be battling with the line of demarcation all the time without the option of just letting it grow out nicely.
We have established Hair Rebonding does damages the hair as not all the disulfide bonds that broke will reform again. Thus if something goes wrong or if your hair isn’t compatible with the treatment, you risk severely damaging your long locks.
Nano Botox Pros and Cons
Pros -
A deep conditioning treatment that helps to restore and reconstruct your hair, using key ingredients such as proteins, amino acids, vitamins, and lipids.
anti-ageing hair treatment acts like filler (hence the name), by filling in any gaps in the hair fibres, leaving it silky, shiny, and more youthful-looking.
Cons -
Botox treatment is primarily intended for hair repair and rejuvenation and not for straightening.
Botox usually lasts on average 2-3 months.
Similar to keratin treatment products containing sodium chloride (table salt) alongside sulphates are a big no-no.
Keratin Smoothening Treatment VS Hair Rebonding
Personally, we at Style are big fans of Keratin Smoothening Treatment as Keratin Smoothening Treatment We add more keratin into your hair while Hair Rebonding chemicals are used to modify and restructure the very shape of your hair losing about 10 per cent of keratin during the process. Keratin Smoothening treated hair also has the flexibility to be styled anyway but not the hair that has rebonded.
Hair Rebonding then Keratin Smoothening Treatment
This is one of the most disgusting ways of upselling more services by the black sheep in this industry. Yet we have so many ill-informed clients falling for it. In my opinion, there's no need for it unless the hair was damaged after rebonding. In that case, only then will; keratin works by sealing up the split and damaged bits. After hair rebonding your hair cuticles are tightly shut so there's no way the treatment would stay.
Keratin Straightening Treatment vs Keratin Smoothening Treatment
Do be wary of some salons who try to do a quick one by pulling off Hair Rebonding as Keratin Smoothening Treatment by calling it Keratin Straightening Treatment. Technically they are not wrong cause during the process of Hair Rebonding they would add in amino acids, collagen, etc to prevent damage to your hair.
Hope this article helps clarify some doubts and uncertainties. Feel free to call us at 68845335 if you have any more queries or simply schedule an appointment online with us at Style now!