Yes, fellow Dopers, as promised, a thread about my first Brazilian Blowout. Tuesday, I took the plunge like I said I was going to.
A little back story on THFH before we begin: underneath the bottle blonde I’m currently sporting (on top of my head, wiseguys. we’ve already had THAT discussion…
) I have prematurely-gray, extremely-thick, extremely-curly/frizzy hair. Actress Melina Kanakaredes (CSI New York) has nothing on me, curl-wise. Back when the earth was still cooling, I used to have blue-black hair. Then about age 17, it began to change. By the time I was 25, it was about 75 percent gone. Today, it’s about 95. I switched to blonde about ten years ago for a stage role, and then never went back to dark hair.
My hair grows extremely fast as well, averaging as much as an inch in a month, especially in the spring. I keep it at just over shoulder-length so i can either pin it up or pull it back in a ponytail. Back when I still colored it dark, the gray line was showing up again just a few days after having it done. OTC dyes don’t work on gray hair. You have to have the commercial-grade stuff, and it was getting ridiculously expensive to maintain. With the blonde, I can go five weeks without a color job.
Over time, the increasing gray has only added to the unmanageability of my hair. I bought a professional straightening iron a few years ago, which went a long way toward taming THFH, but, the minute it got humid or I started sweating – poof! – THFH turned into Frizz Central. All the haircare products in the world couldn’t control it.
So when Bridget, Hairdresser Extraordinaire, suggested a Brazilian Blowout, I was immediately intrigued. After doing a little research, and weighing the pros and cons, I decided to go for it.
For the uninitiated, in a Brazilian Blowout, a solution is applied to dry or semi-dry hair like you apply color, then the hair is blow-dried and straightened without rinsing out the solution. The heat sets the chemical in the hair and relaxes the curl/frizz. Then it all has to be washed out, the special conditioner applied, and then the hair is re-dried and then straightened again.
Next time, I probably won’t also schedule a color session at the same time. All total, it was three hours in the hairdresser’s chair, as color takes about 40 minutes or so from application to wash-out. Three hours is a bit much for us both.
Yes, the solution contains formaldehyde. The brand that Bridget, Hairdresser Extraordinaire, uses did not cause me any problems: no irritation, breathing, eye, or headache issues. You couldn’t smell anything nasty, either, even while she was blow-drying the hair with the chemical still on it.
The change is astonishing. I really didn’t expect it to make such a difference. Bridget, Hairdresser Extraordinaire, said that the more you have it done, the less frizz/curl comes back even as the chemical slowly dissipates out of the hair.
Btw: the BB does not turn your hair stick-straight. It smoothes and calms down the frizz factor, makes the hair shiny and far, far more manageable. In fact, she blow-dried it and then let me have a look without doing anything else to it. It was amazingly straight and unfrizzy. Before, a blow dryer would have transformed me into… well… think Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. (‘Give my creation Liiiife!’)
Those are the pros.
Here are the cons:
- It ain’t cheap. I dropped a cool $200 USD for the package, which includes the shampoo, masque, and conditioner.
- You can’t use anything but sulfide-free shampoos and conditioners, which means once I run out of what I was given, I’ll have to hunt up the local beauty supply store to buy more.
- Avoid chlorine as in getting your head wet in a pool. Sulfides and chlorine break down the process in the hair.
- The BB lasts anywhere for 8 to 12 weeks, although the effects on the hair are cumulative over time. The more you have it done, the less frizz comes back.
- It’s time-consuming. A BB means a good two hours out of your day.
- And last but not least, it is a carcinogen you’re putting on your head. Despite that, it apparently hasn’t stopped many women from repeat sessions, based on my research.
All that aside, is it really any worse than dying your hair with all those chemicals over the years – especially the blonde preparations? I have no idea. Bridget, Hairdresser Extraordinaire, only used gloves like she normally does to color my hair. No mask, eyewear, or apron. There was no smell, so no extra ventilation was needed.
Will I do it again? Depends. Indiana summers are a friggin’ nightmare of heat and humidity. I figure this state’s as good a laboratory test as any. If the BB holds up in THFH in this weather and delivers what it promises for the next couple three months, then, that’d be a yep.
So there you have it. Thoughts? Questions?