Hair Troubles: Rebonding versus Keratin Treatment

My hair is my greatest downfall and my biggest source of insecurity. I live in a country where women are known for their long, straight, gorgeous hair. It comes naturally to them like breathing. I walk around the mall and just stare at girls with envy.

My hair sucks. It really does. I was born with curly, unruly hair. It's absolutely schizophrenic. Even if I treat it with care, wash it with the best shampoo and conditioner, nourish it with oil and hair serums, it still is just plain ugly. So I end up just tying it all in a tight bun.

When rebonding was first introduced, I was ecstatic. I've been having my hair rebonded for more than 10 years now. My only blessing, hair-wise, is that my hair strands are fine so that it looks gorgeous and natural when rebonded. However, I've been noticing a lot of hair fall since my last session so that I panicked and stopped having my hair treated altogether. Again, I was stuck with no other option but the tight bun.

Since then, I've been trying to be kinder to my hair and give it time to recover. I changed my hair care routine, rubbing a mixture of coconut oil with castor oil in it to encourage hair regrowth and stop further hair fall. I changed by shampoo and conditioner to the Dove Hair Fall Rescue range. I was quite satisfied with the results, since I noted lesser hair fall when I washed my hair and more baby hair growing. Downside was, this routine made my hair more poofy, especially as the regrowth started to get longer.

Now that I had healthier hair, and due to the insistent demands of my boyfriend, I decided to find another way to straighten my hair. I mean, geez, it's been more than a decade, we must have something out there other than rebonding. I read about Steambonding using L'oreal Kerastase products but unfortunately, the only real difference it has from the old school rebonding is the steam iron. This means that they use almost the same chemicals, which I really want to stay away from. Another disadvantage is that it costs more than rebonding. Results wise, I'm not sure how it's any different from the original type of rebonding. I'm willing to wager that steambonding won't be such a big hit. But it's been out in the market for only a couple of months, so we'll just have to wait and see.

I must admit that I am no expert in hair care, or styling, aside from the rebonding which I've gone through a gazillion times. I decided to consult with someone who was, and that's when I learned about nuNaat keratin treatment. I asked if there was something in the market that wasn't as chemical based as rebonding, and she told me to try out this range of products.

I decided to do a bit of research and found their site very helpful.

Ultra Keratin Touch Kit

                                           from http://www.nunaat.com/productline/ultra-keratin-touch/

According to this site, the benefits of nuNAAT Ultra Keratin Touch are the following:

• Smoothens frizz, curls and waves
• Reduces volume
• Great for all hair types
• Exclusive Green Keratin formula seals in nutrients, and retains flexibility and shine
• Lasts up to 30 days
• Compatible with chemically-processed hair
• Formaldehyde and sodium chloride free

It seems like natural and organic products are slowly but surely making a strong footing in the market, whether it be in the food or cosmetics industry. After years and years of chemical rebonding, it's time to go natural for me :-) The only question is, will it be enough to straighten my stubbornly frizzy hair?

I went to Profiles Salon in Katipunan, where nuNAAT is available. Upon evaluating my hair, I was told that I needed something more than the keratin treatment to straighten it. My heart sank and I was really disappointed, but since I was already there, and my mind was so set on having my hair done, I asked what my options were. They were very helpful and emphatic and listened to my concerns, and told me that what they could do was apply a chemical (huhu) used for relaxing hair (Schwarzkopf, I think), just for a couple of minutes, and then they can use the nuNAAT keratin treatment. This works well since the the keratin also minimizes the damage caused by the chemicals used.

I was hesitant at first, but I just decided to bite the bullet and trust them. The stylist took extra care not to apply too closely to my scalp and then let the treatment sit for a couple of minutes. After rinsing the stuff off, they went on to do the keratin treatment, which was so much faster compared to rebonding. I used to sit 8 hours to have my hair straightened. This took less than 3 hours!

The treatment smelled pleasant compared to the rebonding chemicals, a bit like coconut oil. Another upside that I learned was that you can color your hair after the keratin treatment, which was not an option after rebonding since it already puts your hair under so much stress.

The results were surprisingly good, but keep in mind that they also used the chemical relaxer on my hair. In terms of straightness and smoothness, rebonding does a much better job. In terms of shine, my hair seems to be shinier now than after any rebonding session. One problem that I've always had with rebonding was that
my hair always fell flat and limp, so that later on I needed volume rebonding if I wanted shorter than shoulder length hair. Now my hair has retained some volume which gives keratin treatment major plus points.

Downside to keratin treatment? Fine print says it lasts 30 days. My stylist says to expect my hair to be okay for the next 3 months, provided I use these:

NuNAAT Deep Moisturizing Shampoo and Conditioner

Won't be able to try these out until 2 more days (just like rebonding), but they smell really nice and it's supposed to protect chemically treated hair so I'm a bit psyched about them.

I will make an update on how it all goes, and how my hair looks like after a couple of days. 

Thanks for reading this! :-)